tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82480874520168876872024-03-05T22:26:16.046-08:00Western Americana: History of the American WestHistory of the American West, which includes the fur trade, mining, missionary, ranching, cattle, Indian, transportation and farming frontiers.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-39156052976409083902019-09-11T16:41:00.001-07:002019-09-12T13:46:27.577-07:00The Music of Western Movies and our Vision of the American West. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Music of Western Movies and our Vision of the American West.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Music of the American West is really a combination of styles
and rhythms inherent to the place and culture of the people who occupied the
West, whether Native American, European American or African American. The music
represents the cultural heritage of the people who came to call the West home. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This music, however, is not the music that expresses the
grandeur of the western environment or the image in the American mind of a
place called The West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The music that
most of us western aficionados associate with Western America is the music
composed to accompany the numerous TV and movie westerns of the 1950s and
1960s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The popularity of TV westerns in the late 1950s and 1960s
convinced many in the film industry of the lucrative possibilities of the
western genre; film executives outdid each other in their race to produce
westerns of epic proportions. By so doing, they helped define the West as an
expansive landscape where western characters fought and died on the advancing
western frontier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though I have
seen more western movies than I care to admit, it is not always the movie that
leaves a lasting impression, it is the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>musical score that brings to mind a feeling and a longing for the many
wonderful attributes we have come to associate with the American West. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A musical composition can relate many things to its
listeners. A composer knows this and spends a lot of time incorporating the
right instrument, chord, or phrase to express what he wishes to convey through
his music. It really is not unlike an author who uses words to create his
images; the composer uses music notation and orchestration. In the end, they
both create a piece of art that tells us something about our world. Of the
composers who have written musical scores to accompany western movies and TV
shows, several stand out for their interpretation of the West-- Russian born
Dimitri Tiomkin (1894-1979),<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jerome
Morass (1913- 1983) Alfred Newman (1901-1970, and Elmer Bernstein (1922-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>). Of the four, Dimitri Tiomkin was
probably the most influential in creating the western theme. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dimitri Tiomkin was
born in Kremenchuk, Russia1894.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
studied piano and composition at St. Petersburg Conservatory of music. His
first experience with music theatre was in St. Petersburg, where he played the
piano accompaniment to Russian and French silent films. Tiomkin immigrated to
New York in 1925, where he worked with different theatrical and ballet
companies. His big break came in 1931 when Universal Studio hired him to score
the Russian themed movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Resurrection</i>,
his first non-musical film. Through his long tenure as a composer, he scored
over 100 movies, which included <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington</i>, 1939), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Westerner</i>, (1940), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It’s a Wonderful
Life</i>, (1947), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red River, </i>(1948), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big Sky</i>, (1952) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High
And The Mighty</i> (1955).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, he wrote
the scores for such classic westerns as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High
Noon, </i>(1952), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gunfight at the OK
Corral</i>, (1952) and the TV series, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rawhide</i>,
(1959-1966).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrVf6FJyZywACc6sgLpt-YGtw_NphmnYjYPTcs5u6ogDIejeHF7N3jEgj3jngN1Km8HL56B6ZdHxLcssmKjTYQvIN089PmEAyCzIFvUOKuR_3WU99aVMFN_BvUC8x_XnPedp129mwRKrU/s1600/2-high-noon-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="252" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrVf6FJyZywACc6sgLpt-YGtw_NphmnYjYPTcs5u6ogDIejeHF7N3jEgj3jngN1Km8HL56B6ZdHxLcssmKjTYQvIN089PmEAyCzIFvUOKuR_3WU99aVMFN_BvUC8x_XnPedp129mwRKrU/s200/2-high-noon-poster.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High Noon(1952) </i>is what
has been called a classic western in that the story has all the elements that
we have come to associate with the western genre—good v. evil, or the advance
of civilization and the conflict when civilization meets up with the savage
West. And, the hero who has to choose between the fair haired schoolmarm from
the East, or the dark haired woman who knows her man but is too indigenous to
the West to get her man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as
popular as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High Noon</i> was in the
1950s, so to was the theme song that introduced the movie, “Do Not Forsake Me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Do Not Forsake Me,”
was<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>one of the most popular movie
songs of the era and the winner of an Oscar in the category of the Best
Original Music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The producers of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High Noon</i> also saw the commercial
possibilities of recording the song for the growing pop music market--the
production company made a considerable amount of money from royalties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High
Noon </i>set the trend and other film producers soon followed. Between 1950 and
1954 only thirteen percent of American feature films used theme songs in their
openings. But by the 1960s, twenty-nine percent of movies opened with theme
songs—and most of those were westerns. “Do Not Forsake Me” was popular with the
listening public for two reasons—Dimitri Tiomkin’s musical score and Ned Washington’s
lyrics. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When listening to “Do Not Forsake Me,” one cannot mistake
the western flavor of the song. Tiomkin opened the composition with the
constant rhythm provided by a percussion instrument, the Tom Tom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a couple of measures of the lone Tom
Tom, the slow strum of guitar chords introduced the lyrics. Throughout the song
the Tom Tom continued the rhythm in the background while the guitar,
harpsichord, and harmonica played softly in accompaniment to the melody and the
lyrics.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ned Washington’s lyrics informed the listener of the
struggle in the story of the main characters, who were forced to vet their
difference in a street fight. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Added to
this winning combination of music and lyrics was the performance of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Do Not Forsake Me” by Tex Ritter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His western (Oklahoma) twang authenticated the “West”
feeling of the song and added to its overall appeal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/03highnoondonotforsakeme" width="500" height="30" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ned Washington wrote the lyrics to many of Dimitri Tiomkin’s
musical scores. In 1952, Tiomkin wrote another classic western song for the
theme to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gunfight at OK Corral</i>
starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Rhonda Fleming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJwLDRsw791zjqQtM6kCbS9-wRHLfqV6Lt7vsd6BmitvnaFrIl3TPNnX5IJGOy21QF077VEYxtD4qsbBQHMHDss1TjaHqzdzZLCRVEqhCn9odmxl0PT_T_TqMFsLyBFYDnKO1QJkayn34/s1600/gunfight-ok-corral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="248" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJwLDRsw791zjqQtM6kCbS9-wRHLfqV6Lt7vsd6BmitvnaFrIl3TPNnX5IJGOy21QF077VEYxtD4qsbBQHMHDss1TjaHqzdzZLCRVEqhCn9odmxl0PT_T_TqMFsLyBFYDnKO1QJkayn34/s200/gunfight-ok-corral.jpg" width="158" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, Washington’s lyrics summarize the story line of the
movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in the musical score Tiomkin
employs the same rhythmic techniques in the background as he did in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High Noon</i>. The beginning overture to the
movie, however, is more intense than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">High
Noon.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A full orchestra begins <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gunfight at OK Corral</i> with a strong
forte’ crescendo that creates tension and energy but quickly fades out to a
lone whistler beginning the melodic line. Accompanying the melody is the
constant background rhythm that mocks horse huffs on dry clay earth. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The listener cannot help but imagine men on horses riding
steadily toward town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Added to this is
what Tiomkin must have imagined to be a truly western attribute to the music,
short musical bridges between different sections imitating Native American
rhythms associated with warriors and the preparation for conflict. In the
movie, these bridges serve as a transition in time and place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frankie Lane recorded the song.
<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/210gunfightattheo.k.corral" width="500" height="30" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gunfight at OK corral--1952</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Probably the most popular song for Frankie Lane was the
theme to the TV series, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rawhide</i>,
another Dimitri Tiomkin musical successes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVtYLZiRXP0Ad2QyEI-zGBQ37M2VZwU98IVdNIaRXV75FfA53X7cBiZKozTO9ZCxMfzGBEBx9_cw-uFgi10dhyAUD_zUq-LVnqY89_VZ7INuUZPicKYsM6Oi2D8Hc5Xvr034Onc7QjePc/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="259" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVtYLZiRXP0Ad2QyEI-zGBQ37M2VZwU98IVdNIaRXV75FfA53X7cBiZKozTO9ZCxMfzGBEBx9_cw-uFgi10dhyAUD_zUq-LVnqY89_VZ7INuUZPicKYsM6Oi2D8Hc5Xvr034Onc7QjePc/s200/Untitled.jpg" width="157" /></a></div>
There is again a constant background
rhythm played against Ned Washington’s lyrics, which sum up the gist of the
program—the lonely cowboy tending to the herd. The listeners can almost see the
cowboy’s rawhide whip snapping in the air as he yells, “move’em out.”<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tiomkin’s constant rhythm in the background of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rawhide </i>however, is not instrumental but
performed by backup singers who add the same western flavor to the song as
Frankie Lane’s rendition of the lyrics.
<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/08rawhide1" width="500" height="30" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rawhide—1959-1966</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1958 Jerome Moross wrote the score to another successful
western, (and one of my favorites) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Big Country </i>staring Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moross was another accomplished musician who wrote musicals,
ballets and concert pieces. He was born in New York City in 1913. As a child,
he studied piano and graduated from the New York School of Music at age
eighteen. As a senior he held the Julliard conducting fellowship and was
awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947-48.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is probably most known for his song, “Frankie and Johnny.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>He started his career in Hollywood first
as an orchestrator for films in the 30s and 40s and by 1948, as a composer. Of
the western films he scored, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big Country</i>
is the best known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYcDU-ZybBMxNdX0XkcwCO6UL4weoDLs-syMSyJ5ESP_wf6M5-45GLiP8bYL3HvXEV97GQ39orj3_vEA_VcK9G05XS8bYsN17pqCB5nfL8GubdWKH_SkkF4CFQ1X2qoosz58GQSrIEQo/s1600/big-country.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="385" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYcDU-ZybBMxNdX0XkcwCO6UL4weoDLs-syMSyJ5ESP_wf6M5-45GLiP8bYL3HvXEV97GQ39orj3_vEA_VcK9G05XS8bYsN17pqCB5nfL8GubdWKH_SkkF4CFQ1X2qoosz58GQSrIEQo/s200/big-country.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Biographers wrote
that Moross’s western musical style was shaped from his experience in the Great
Plains in 1936 while traveling by bus from Chicago to California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moross explained,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“as we hit the Plains, I got so excited that
I stopped off in Albuquerque and the next day I got to the edge of town and
walked out onto the flat land with a marvelous feeling of being alone in the
vastness with the mountains cutting off the horizon. When it came to writing
the main title of the film, I wrote the string figure and the opening theme
almost automatically.” The main theme to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big
Country </i>reflected Moross’s wonder at the grandeur of the West. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The opening theme to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big
Country</i> starts with full orchestra, at double forte’, stings carrying the
background rhythm. The music goes from forte’ to a quieter melody line<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>played by strings, but in the background
bass instruments bring home the driving rhythm until the orchestra comes in
again at full force, the bigness of the country expressed in the music can not
be missed.
<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/12thebigcountry1" width="500" height="30" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elmer Bernstein was another successful composer who has many
movies to his credit; most recognizable is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Magnificent Seven</i>. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gyFukKu-OpIIaeSrgbXQRfEDDN8uJNZ2mFTWalz7yQgZJfyvjFtE9eZw4ENKeijYsXr7pflZGh0ZxiPLQiPxDiQPOf0MtLe7gZw4QEVME2UWhp9fiZhWq0GieA0LTkP56-IjfDaBVvo/s1600/magnificent-seven.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="405" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8gyFukKu-OpIIaeSrgbXQRfEDDN8uJNZ2mFTWalz7yQgZJfyvjFtE9eZw4ENKeijYsXr7pflZGh0ZxiPLQiPxDiQPOf0MtLe7gZw4QEVME2UWhp9fiZhWq0GieA0LTkP56-IjfDaBVvo/s200/magnificent-seven.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bernstein was born in New York City in 1922. As a young man, he performed as a dancer, actor and artist,
winning several prizes for his paintings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He also studied piano with a teacher from Julliard School of Music. In
his long career, he was nominated fourteen times for an Academy Award and in
1967 won for his score of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thoroughly
Modern Millie</i>. His other nominations were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Man with the Golden Arm</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Summer
and Smoke</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To Kill a Mockingbird</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Return of the Seven</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hawaii</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">True Grit</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Walk on the Wild
Side</i>, just to name a few. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like musical scores of other westerns, Bernstein opens the
score to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Magnificent Seven </i>with
full orchestra, which quickly moves into a strong rhythmic background lead by
percussion and brass. Bernstein introduces a variation to the western theme
with his use of Latin rhythms in the percussion and guitar, which incorporated
the Spanish flavor of the American Southwest. Throughout the theme, strings and
woodwinds play the melody against the constant and strong background beat
</div>
<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/26themagnificentseven " width="500" height="30" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The musical style used by Dimitri Tiomkin influenced others
who followed Tiomkin with their own musical compositions written to accompany
The Western. Most apparent in the different western movie themes was the constant
beat in the background that imitated Native American rhythms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, the use of percussion instruments to
give special effects like galloping horses, and incorporating such folk
instruments as the guitar, the harmonica, and the whistle into the score
produced a unique sound that became associated in the American mind with the
music of the American West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is one other song that is almost synonymous with
westward immigration and has been incorporated in many western
scores—“Shenandoah.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The song has been
around since early America, but there seems to be quite a bit of debate about
the origins of the song. One popularly accepted explanation, taken from a 1931
book on sea and river chanteys by David Bone, has the songs origins in
Virginia. Bone maintained that, “Oh Shenandoah” originated as a river shanty
song and became popular with crews on sea faring vessels in the 1800s,
basically a boatman’s song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another more
feasible explanation is that it originated with Scot-Irish settlers and the lyrics
referred to their term of confinement as indentured servants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The seven (long) years since I last saw you”
was the common term of indenture servitude in early America. Over the years,
the song has been known by different titles including, “Shennydore”, “The Wide
Missouri”, “Across The Wide Missouri”, “The Wild Missourye”, “The World of
Misery”, “Solid Fas”, “Rolling River” and “Oh Shenandoah.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At any rate, by the 1950s and 60s, “Shenandoah” was solidly
anchored in the American music culture. The Kingston Trio wrote their popular
version of the song and included it in their albums and concerts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, probably the person to reintroduce the
song into American music culture was Alfred Newman, who incorporated the song
into his score of the epic western, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How
the West Was Won</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvD3k2-xJ1bB5s7kFE_VrtvKubuL9Z1AoqalRO_PQdikeVdmeyPCKGGArcwB5HDDyvjxDRWKn0Q-WC0G-kviAeiiUCD_wGK-fhNudn5OAqxrbuoUyta89tQi59tAAG3CfDpHA6hWgOwrc/s1600/how-west-was-won.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="228" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvD3k2-xJ1bB5s7kFE_VrtvKubuL9Z1AoqalRO_PQdikeVdmeyPCKGGArcwB5HDDyvjxDRWKn0Q-WC0G-kviAeiiUCD_wGK-fhNudn5OAqxrbuoUyta89tQi59tAAG3CfDpHA6hWgOwrc/s200/how-west-was-won.png" width="125" /></a></div>
The listener
cannot help but feel the arduous journey westward with such lyrics as, “Away,
Bound Away, A Cross the Wide Missouri.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2006, Bruce
Springsteen released yet another version of Shenandoah on his album, “We Shall
Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.” Springsteen’s arrangement of the song, and the
instrumentation, gives the song the “feel” of western migration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The song opens with the slow and soft chords
of the guitar and fiddle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gradually the
music builds as the accordion and banjo take over. As the introduction
continues to build, the banjo player plucks slow distinct chords that give the
listener the feel for the rhythm of the river. The music begins to build as
Springsteen sings the familiar lyrics. The listener cannot help but feel the
energy of the song as Springsteen brings the song to climax and the music
begins its fade to the soft chords at the end. What ever the origins of the
song may be, Springsteen’s interpretation gives the listener the distinct
feeling of pioneer moving west.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/10shenandoah" width="500" height="30" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Music is timeless and how one interprets music is an
individual experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, whenever
I hear a theme from one of the many westerns of the 1950s and 1960s, I imagine
the large landscape and beautiful mountain vistas of Western America. But, the
music also relates the conflicts inherent in settling the land. Just as it was
all played out on the “big screen,” it was also played out in the musical score
that accompanied the action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "lucida grande"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Lucida Grande";
panose-1:2 11 6 0 4 5 2 2 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-520090897 1342218751 0 0 447 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
-->sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-31873104273332045312015-02-20T10:03:00.000-08:002015-02-20T10:06:22.872-08:00The Transcontinental Railroad's Most Famous and Forgotten Steam Engines by Robert L. Foster<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoHeader, li.MsoHeader, div.MsoHeader
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-link:"Header Char";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
tab-stops:center 3.0in right 6.0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.HeaderChar
{mso-style-name:"Header Char";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:Header;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
-->
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoHeader, li.MsoHeader, div.MsoHeader
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-link:"Header Char";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
tab-stops:center 3.0in right 6.0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.HeaderChar
{mso-style-name:"Header Char";
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:Header;
mso-ansi-font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-fareast-language:JA;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
-->
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD’S MOST FAMOUS AND FORGOTTEN <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>STEAM ENGINES</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">by</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Robert L. Foster</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
After the arduous
challenge of building a railroad west from Omaha across Wyoming’s vast expanse,
the Union Pacific (UP) reached Promontory, Utah Territory, in May 1869. There
they met the Chinese workers of the Central Pacific Railroad (CP) who had
constructed a rail bed up over the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi958LT0BP87LWfFT7Ar3zi9uNLeHcEK9i5hkYiG6L5Zywso49A3qP58N2QLaOoGPVZ36DAKbJayWXELTWeHipcwB6CA7Z2_-NjwIedjvNw6BhHUBIrV-35UvPRgo7WNeGhlzh0YVa7ZtM/s1600/F67F278F-155D-451F-671F59F3481BFC1C-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi958LT0BP87LWfFT7Ar3zi9uNLeHcEK9i5hkYiG6L5Zywso49A3qP58N2QLaOoGPVZ36DAKbJayWXELTWeHipcwB6CA7Z2_-NjwIedjvNw6BhHUBIrV-35UvPRgo7WNeGhlzh0YVa7ZtM/s1600/F67F278F-155D-451F-671F59F3481BFC1C-large.jpg" height="161" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Reenactment of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific meeting at Promontory Utah.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
It was finally time
for a huge gala celebration as the two rail lines met each other, completing America’s
transcontinental railroad, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. However,
that would require UP and CP’s two top officials to be in Promontory to drive
the golden spike at rails end as the entire nation anxiously awaited the good
news. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Both men, UP’s
Thomas C. Durant and CP’s Leland Stanford, were anxious to get to Promontory,
taking along with them key members of their construction teams. In Cheyenne
Durant hopped aboard the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Durant Special</i>
and it headed west, and all was well—until typical Wyoming weather swept in and
stopped the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Durant Special</i> in its
tracks at Devil’s Gate where a swollen river had washed away some of the
supports of the bridge spanning the river. Durant’s engineer refused to take
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Special’s</i> heavy engine across the
bridge—but he did consent to nudge the lighter passenger cars across the
bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bridge held, the cars made
it across, but Durant and his entourage were left in that desolate Wyoming spot
without an engine!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2VvcxPamDiv_dN8rtMJbeDV6aet6E8MKv0jzcBVDKG6FsSFYlJzncBToII6mRXELnNAQhd0Oa8vMs35pI1vFYCQWhU4AZRF331NndWnEoOeWyRzmbjODCTb-ex97Zs-SlJM2ayWWolc/s1600/web-119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2VvcxPamDiv_dN8rtMJbeDV6aet6E8MKv0jzcBVDKG6FsSFYlJzncBToII6mRXELnNAQhd0Oa8vMs35pI1vFYCQWhU4AZRF331NndWnEoOeWyRzmbjODCTb-ex97Zs-SlJM2ayWWolc/s1600/web-119.jpg" height="143" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Durant’s plight
was solved when UP Engine 119 was dispatched from Ogden to Devil’s Gate to
bring the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Durant Special</i> to
Promontory. That engine won fame in the national press and in the history
books!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The citizens of
Cheyenne turned out to see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Durant Special
</i>off<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,</i> realizing how very special
the railroad was to the growth and development of Wyoming—and remembering that
in July, 1868, the UP finally reached a desolate spot in eastern Wyoming. On
July 4, John A. Rawlins gave a well-received speech. The next day, a band on
Indians sprang on the grading crew and killed three men. Rawlins was astonished
to see the Indians attack when there were four companies of U.S. troops camped
in the area. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Grenville Dodge
heading up the UP had the dead men buried on the site where his new town would
be built—and Cheyenne had its first cemetery!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Cheyenne is where
the mountains meet the plains, on the southeastern edge of Wyoming, at an
elevation of 6062 feet. It is a natural crossing place. From Cheyenne today,
one train track leads west across the state and on to California, another north
to Montana and south to Denver; so too the interstate, with I-80 going
east-west and I-25 north-south.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
in Cheyenne the last steam engines purchased by the UP are housed. They were
made during World War ll and used well into the 1950’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The old train depot has been turned into a
railroad museum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grenville Dodge’s first
tent site, from which he decided to build a town, and name it after the
dominant tribe, Cheyenne, has a marker on it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
On May 6, 1869, 1150
miles west of Cheyenne, in Sacramento CP’s Leland Stanford and his entourage,
aboard the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stanford Special</i> headed
east from Sacramento toward Promontory. Stanford’s train was carrying the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">golden spike</i> which would be used as the
final spike on the transcontinental railroad, so it was imperative that the
train arrive on time. But fate or destiny again stepped in, as it had at
Devil’s Gate, Wyoming, and stopped the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stanford
Special</i> in its tracks at Sierra Tunnel #114! The CP section crew had no
idea that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Special</i> was coming and
they felled a tree right across the tracks! As the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Special</i> came around a bend the engineer had barely enough time to
apply the brakes. The engine struck the log and was damaged. While Stanford
waited impatiently, another engine was sent to pull the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Special</i> on to Promontory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeKroXunL5xxXgYqISBDF9q22dr48v2PbavnOVlNRbnTc6CNSxfcO127QSGyF55Dhnb5Ps6ZqnCMsRPs09OmGJ6XCi4VW3ffGgiOFNqpCdqwqK1g-Ssox9jyjMKB9R0N84MMy4r1BA5c/s1600/jupiter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeKroXunL5xxXgYqISBDF9q22dr48v2PbavnOVlNRbnTc6CNSxfcO127QSGyF55Dhnb5Ps6ZqnCMsRPs09OmGJ6XCi4VW3ffGgiOFNqpCdqwqK1g-Ssox9jyjMKB9R0N84MMy4r1BA5c/s1600/jupiter.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
-->
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The engine was
called Jupiter and it won national fame and a place in the history books, just
as did UP’s Number 119. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>UP’s steam engine, 119 and CP’s Jupiter, which
went nose to nose at Promontory, Utah, May 10, 1869, to celebrate the
completion of the transcontinental railroad, were very unique pieces of
machinery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDsBnYbD7as3bnFOGfxnpT48nXya8Io-oB7MopWPoQ65WjLiW-a5YqRLe-r_5uGG3bUefapaYVq271M8vS0Q1cn_Ge9x40uNvsstPaglNr7Nz8RQMUQlEAE_EsI06n_zWxqfAffZGpw14/s1600/web-GoldenSpike11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDsBnYbD7as3bnFOGfxnpT48nXya8Io-oB7MopWPoQ65WjLiW-a5YqRLe-r_5uGG3bUefapaYVq271M8vS0Q1cn_Ge9x40uNvsstPaglNr7Nz8RQMUQlEAE_EsI06n_zWxqfAffZGpw14/s1600/web-GoldenSpike11.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>UP’s
No. 119 was of the American or eight-wheel type, built by the Rogers Locomotive
Works at Paterson, New Jersey, and turned out on November 19, 1868. It headed
west, carried as dead freight on another train. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Arriving at Council Bluffs, the engine was
ferried across the river by mid-December, and was quickly set up at the Omaha
roundhouse, as it was fully assembled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The engine had small driving wheels of 54-inch diameter, 16x24-inch
cylinders, and weighed 68,400 pounds. It was considered a freight engine
(whereas the CP Jupiter was considered a passenger engine).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The engineer said “the 119 handles
superbly!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a wood and coal
burner, equipped with an extended smoke box in which there was an adjustable
cinder screen controlled by the fireman by means of a lever extending from the
cab. The smokestack was Hudson’s patent straight stack, with a large brass cap
on top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The No. 119 presented a distinct
contrast to the CP’s “Jupiter” which seemed larger due to its huge bonnet stack
and 60 inch driving wheels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
119 was selected by sheer happenstance for the historic journey to Promontory—it
just happened to be handy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The crew
spent considerable time cleaning and polishing the engine. The brass cap on the
smokestack and the brass steam dome casing gleamed in the sunlight in pictures
made on that great day at Promontory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CP’s locomotives bore names and numbers from
the beginning of construction until 1872. Their names covered the range from
towns and cities through which the CP was to run, to such things as animals,
birds, constellations and planets in the heavens, famous Americans, and even
Greek deities. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY2K2cHTLcrQPvPiegVe9oo_8SGtCx_LmOZRwQjGZzdvhVVdLSl_JvOcIrZ-Mq_HBUnO_wTwp3dDBe6h6J8FzJusFfCP2b94LexRnhB1TFt0Zc37ncFFaQLVKv2g63uvD1UC3-JVIUEVM/s1600/web-jupiter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY2K2cHTLcrQPvPiegVe9oo_8SGtCx_LmOZRwQjGZzdvhVVdLSl_JvOcIrZ-Mq_HBUnO_wTwp3dDBe6h6J8FzJusFfCP2b94LexRnhB1TFt0Zc37ncFFaQLVKv2g63uvD1UC3-JVIUEVM/s1600/web-jupiter.jpg" height="306" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The Jupiter, No. 60, was of the
American type, with four driving wheels and a four-wheeled pony truck
supporting the front end of the locomotive, built by the Schenectady Locomotive
Works in September 1868. It was a passenger engine, had driving wheels of
60-inch diameter, cylinders of 16-inch bore and 24-inch stroke, and weighed in
at 65,450 pounds, without tender. It burned wood, and the engine was equipped
with a huge bonnet smokestack equipped with screens to prevent sparks from
setting fire to the countryside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
was shipped from the makers in knocked-down form; such items as the boilers,
smokestacks, headlights, cabs, bells, cowcatchers, and other parts were crated
to facilitate stowing in the hold of the ship which carried it around the Horn
to California. The Jupiter left the factory with its three mates, “Storm No.
61;”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Whirlwind No. 62”; and “Leviathan
No. 63”—but in New York the Jupiter became separated from the others and was
loaded on a different ship. The engine arrived in San Francisco the last week
of February 1869 after a voyage of 140 days, was transferred at a special dock
in San Francisco to a Sacramento River schooner, “The Golden Gate” and arrived
in Sacramento on February 26, 1869. The crated locomotive parts were hauled on
wagons through the streets to the new 29-stall roundhouse of the CP, where the
Jupiter was assembled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On
Saturday, March 20, 1869, the Jupiter was put under steam and run up and down a
test track on Front Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It ran
perfectly, and the mechanics responsible for setting up the engine turned it
over to the operating department.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
seems a shame that Engines 119 and Jupiter were forgotten after their big day
at Promontory. It would have been wonderful if they could have been preserved
in a covered museum someplace so railroad buffs could see them up close, walk
around and marvel at their fascinating history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>However,
to the presidents of the UP and CP they were just ordinary pieces of machinery,
no more important than any other piece of machinery in their systems. After the
Promontory ceremony the two locomotives returned to their regular duties and
worked for many years before being retired. UP’s No. 119 was renumbered 343 in
July 1885 and was rebuilt with larger driving wheels and various other changes
and improvements. In April 1903 it was dropped from equipment rolls and
scrapped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that time President E.H.
Harriman was busy consolidating all his railroads into one system and obviously
gave no thought to No. 119’s fate; Union Pacific’s motive power officials
probably cared even less. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
CP’s Jupiter soon became just plain old Nr. 60, and the fact the owners had no
sentiment whatsoever about the locomotive is seen in its later history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was renumbered No. 1195 in 1891 and
received a new boiler at Sacramento in 1893, and was immediately sold to the Gila
Valley, Globe & Northern Railroad, then under construction north from
Bowie, Arizona, on the Southern Pacific, to Globe and Miami. As
G.V.G.&N<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No. 1, the old Jupiter
worked out its days and was scrapped unceremoniously at Globe in 1901. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Tired and worn
out, the two old engines UP’s No. 119 and CP’s Jupiter “died” within two years
of each other, in the scrap heap, and were forgotten.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
should be pointed out, in all fairness to the Southern Pacific, that they did
preserve an engine similar to the Jupiter, the “Governor Stanford” No. 1, by
presenting it to Leland Stanford, Jr., University in 1899, insuring its
preservation to this day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The CP’s third
locomotive, the “C.P. Huntington,” was sold to the Southern Pacific in 1871 and
became their No. 1 and remains on display at the Railroad Museum in Sacramento.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Locomotive engines
UP No. 119 and CP Jupiter, which first met each other 146 years ago when they
nosed their cowcatchers together at Promontory, enjoyed their brief moment of
fame. Only in recent years have historians brought the two forgotten engines
into the prominence they deserve. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-20943266367316284092011-08-07T12:22:00.000-07:002011-08-07T12:22:31.697-07:00The Natural Environment and Southwest Architecture: Mary Elizabeth Colter and the Grand CanyonWhen President Theodore Roosevelt stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon in 1903, he remarked, “ The ages have been at work upon it, and man can only mar it.” Roosevelt understood that nothing could add to the grandeur of God’s creation, certainly not man or his structures. But it was inevitable as more and more people made their way to the rim of the canyon that enterprising entrepreneurs would alter, or “mar” the pristine canyon environment. Fred Harvey of the Fred Harvey Company was one of the entrepreneurs. His El Tovar Hotel, finished in 1905 at the south rim of the Canyon, is a large European style Swiss Chalet; an architectural style that seems out of place with the background of the colorful canyon. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGevwZQYQs8IJ_Kwn8NiQOd64TmfjvY4JV_nbhg92mYW92-5JgRElS5o04jbBkmXa2YCoDhOnBzlG1_aDsP4o9koouoaTu7vjld5wBj5Uiy2HswgZwCgh4_2BZYgvRvgVPyhiSbKqrElc/s1600/1a.++El+Tovar+With+Canyon.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGevwZQYQs8IJ_Kwn8NiQOd64TmfjvY4JV_nbhg92mYW92-5JgRElS5o04jbBkmXa2YCoDhOnBzlG1_aDsP4o9koouoaTu7vjld5wBj5Uiy2HswgZwCgh4_2BZYgvRvgVPyhiSbKqrElc/s320/1a.++El+Tovar+With+Canyon.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>El Tovar Hotel<br />
<br />
Perhaps Harvey realized the European architecture did not represent the Southwestern arid environment that marks the Grand Canyon. When contemplating another structure to attract tourist dollars, he hired Mary Elizabeth Colter to design a gift shop along the rim of the canyon next to the El Tovar. Colter was just beginning her career as an architect; she eventually became known for the way in which she incorporated the historic and natural environment into her designs. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzLaIz-kGQ5kG59629q7uapLz6ooYrNWzVaPJUvlfs1TMwNofIO0to5lV0ibd1CxleSkjNmsytXjewmg1rAQWrh8i2wzIbj-2fVh2RaTX6b08Rk0hrNO8brj5W1IBDJBoOVvckHuPLPss/s1600/1b.+mary-colter+1890.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzLaIz-kGQ5kG59629q7uapLz6ooYrNWzVaPJUvlfs1TMwNofIO0to5lV0ibd1CxleSkjNmsytXjewmg1rAQWrh8i2wzIbj-2fVh2RaTX6b08Rk0hrNO8brj5W1IBDJBoOVvckHuPLPss/s320/1b.+mary-colter+1890.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>Mary Elizabeth Colter (1869-1958) <br />
<br />
Colter, who attended the California School of Design in San Francisco in 1886, was a student of the popular Arts and Crafts Movement, which started in England in the mid-nineteenth century and swept America around the turn of the twentieth century. Adherents of the Arts and Crafts Movement placed more emphasis on traditional craftsmanship than the blandness of industrial manufacturing. Use of materials from the natural environment in their craft was an important element of the movement; Architects followed suit with structures that had a wilderness or natural look and conformed to local and historical culture. Popular with architects was Spanish Mission style, and two of its variants—Mission-Spanish Revival and Pueblo-Spanish Revival. Colter used both these styles in the structures she designed at the rim of the Grand Canyon.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMu2nj9Zz9-Z0dWIUb7b-hL9bpQc-6N4SFrCwo8r9g7A9bykumGv61ibOW6VTZZu8XfJVpnvbrdECwN6h6-RfVq5JS2E4VKwA6y9Bf3OtJjj0LYl4SufCCEdf1Ek11Tcj2S1VsHo4D57Q/s1600/1c.+alvaradoHtl34.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMu2nj9Zz9-Z0dWIUb7b-hL9bpQc-6N4SFrCwo8r9g7A9bykumGv61ibOW6VTZZu8XfJVpnvbrdECwN6h6-RfVq5JS2E4VKwA6y9Bf3OtJjj0LYl4SufCCEdf1Ek11Tcj2S1VsHo4D57Q/s320/1c.+alvaradoHtl34.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>An example of Mission-Spanish Revival: The Alvarado Hotel. Colter designed the interiors. <br />
<br />
Fred Harvey was not the first entrepreneur to invest in local tourism. Curious adventurers started to travel to the Grand Canyon in 1880. From then on, a steady flow of individuals arrived at the rim of the canyon after a two-day lurching stagecoach ride from Flagstaff, Arizona. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8eS3e-lzG78r6hjawjejSfX74Ls-ZVhlSpNRSL2SXaRRdDkeHqQI5HFhj0IPbfHADfNdr7LgmUTZBeaqPcIi-OPS32ATDSThTRWFu2mMSzKzV1etAqhyphenhyphenbrTbyvRO1TsLZ-XMW7V8eFXc/s1600/1d.+stagecoach.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8eS3e-lzG78r6hjawjejSfX74Ls-ZVhlSpNRSL2SXaRRdDkeHqQI5HFhj0IPbfHADfNdr7LgmUTZBeaqPcIi-OPS32ATDSThTRWFu2mMSzKzV1etAqhyphenhyphenbrTbyvRO1TsLZ-XMW7V8eFXc/s320/1d.+stagecoach.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>Tourist on their way to the Grand Canyon<br />
<br />
Accommodations were primitive; an old prospector, John Hance, who abandoned mining for what appeared to be a more lucrative business, tourism, offered tent lodging, camp food, and an exciting mule ride down a crude 6000 foot trail he constructed to the bottom of the canyon.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjhXFsUlGD21x6qpJESVxjF924-TIl28CcIJ42-1KSjIbkXkNQ_-SotLj7LdZXRcR7-HLF7Kccvl7DxsHAxl0uLl_Fq0dD395smOdjrVDvSNCHsl5IpaFSLZkxCuC83MwjACyfiHqG2xI/s1600/Hance_Cabin_Hotel.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjhXFsUlGD21x6qpJESVxjF924-TIl28CcIJ42-1KSjIbkXkNQ_-SotLj7LdZXRcR7-HLF7Kccvl7DxsHAxl0uLl_Fq0dD395smOdjrVDvSNCHsl5IpaFSLZkxCuC83MwjACyfiHqG2xI/s320/Hance_Cabin_Hotel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Hance’s Tourist Camp. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWVp0jb2rg_vHyiWaiZU67k8ER2_56SR4L0fSANCt-kZOUdh1ux4TfraGdRdxb_EOwQbYmkZmlV6UbEzeVhNociJ9ic4rbSKTGsoqIqknwUnFwzME6z97EwqKmFc8IOsG0HB3kAyLCxcY/s1600/1e.+Hance+Trail+1898_thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWVp0jb2rg_vHyiWaiZU67k8ER2_56SR4L0fSANCt-kZOUdh1ux4TfraGdRdxb_EOwQbYmkZmlV6UbEzeVhNociJ9ic4rbSKTGsoqIqknwUnFwzME6z97EwqKmFc8IOsG0HB3kAyLCxcY/s320/1e.+Hance+Trail+1898_thumb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>John Hance’s Trail to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.(today known as the Red Canyon Trail)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOEWZ3O46Vnz2Ab29eEZ8xBX-kmK0Ki2Tr_S6rOxBc8bvBfnrG74aa91y2NX7GyJzeRAS1FirJ8yN1G8IKd-MH3eV-LT8dUp0JVLHWEeuklibTu6YagHa5zA-3d0zuIcXUfNutfRRxfQ/s1600/2a.+tourist.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOEWZ3O46Vnz2Ab29eEZ8xBX-kmK0Ki2Tr_S6rOxBc8bvBfnrG74aa91y2NX7GyJzeRAS1FirJ8yN1G8IKd-MH3eV-LT8dUp0JVLHWEeuklibTu6YagHa5zA-3d0zuIcXUfNutfRRxfQ/s320/2a.+tourist.jpg" width="295" /></a></div><br />
Tourist relaxing along the Colorado River, perhaps rejoicing, that they made it to the bottom of the Canyon on Hance’s crude trail. <br />
<br />
By 1901, the first tourists arrived on the Grand Canyon Railroad from Williams, Arizona. The railroad from Williams was a branch line of the Santa Fe. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlWs8sRoENVO0c5jgUC16hr86eLviznGWT5pU7f90IxFmDtU6PsDr68Oy_z5sTrH1Zxe76uSAGzd7bvlsnPGpthHqEnnwfQQeEcDMyvx-H2McMhdS0etjHvZYf-3VAwYQtR8dAcD1eGjE/s1600/3.+first-pass-train-GC.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlWs8sRoENVO0c5jgUC16hr86eLviznGWT5pU7f90IxFmDtU6PsDr68Oy_z5sTrH1Zxe76uSAGzd7bvlsnPGpthHqEnnwfQQeEcDMyvx-H2McMhdS0etjHvZYf-3VAwYQtR8dAcD1eGjE/s320/3.+first-pass-train-GC.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>The 1st passenger train to arrive at the Grand Canyon<br />
<br />
In 1901, the officials of the Santa Fe Railroad could see the possibilities of increased tourism and revenues if they built a line from Williams, Arizona to the rim of the Grand Canyon. And, along with increased tourism there was a need for increased services and who better to offer such service than Fred Harvey. Harvey had contracted with the Santa Fe to built “Harvey Houses” along Santa Fe line from Chicago to California. With the new line to the Grand Canyon, Harvey invested in what he did best; build railroad restaurants and hotels that offered upscale food and service to railroad passengers. <br />
<br />
When Harvey decided to build gift shops along the rim of the canyon, he hired Mary Colter to design them. The entrepreneur envisioned selling the culture of the Southwest, in particular hand made Native American crafts, and Colter was perfect for the job; he first hired her to design the interior of the Indian room in his newly finished Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque in 1901. With the contract to design structures along the canyon rim, Colter moved from interior designer to architect. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFmmC_UtkbdUCoJloD_fG4zeXP3y6UqoAKS4cVRWmMXge_ueleqzzIVbrIEaa1DqVrTvbDbGPs-oobRTO2eAFIm5TJZxoB_ULgoZnhHAD1JjNp5tY4NcxR3mlbhmacUvTdZDf5pk1ByM/s1600/4.alvarado+horel+interior.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFmmC_UtkbdUCoJloD_fG4zeXP3y6UqoAKS4cVRWmMXge_ueleqzzIVbrIEaa1DqVrTvbDbGPs-oobRTO2eAFIm5TJZxoB_ULgoZnhHAD1JjNp5tY4NcxR3mlbhmacUvTdZDf5pk1ByM/s320/4.alvarado+horel+interior.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Interior of the Indian Room of the El Alvarado Hotel<br />
<br />
The first building Colter designed for Fred Harvey at the Canyon rim was Hopi House; her design had the appearance of an historic housing structure patterned after the ancient native village she visited at Oraibi, Arizona. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFMk4HcCdg3R9vuQP52eQdjF-ffcn45xj19NCPeOcuop8Nn6kCqOJJydV5Iu9L9o5aNpOEqhssebo5pVeVvVj31aaochRIUlvXfXsUPJBsbivjCzeax2NexUul6tGNu38TwEf9uPhZoN4/s1600/6.+hopivillage.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFMk4HcCdg3R9vuQP52eQdjF-ffcn45xj19NCPeOcuop8Nn6kCqOJJydV5Iu9L9o5aNpOEqhssebo5pVeVvVj31aaochRIUlvXfXsUPJBsbivjCzeax2NexUul6tGNu38TwEf9uPhZoN4/s320/6.+hopivillage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><strike><strike></strike></strike>Hopi Village at Oraibi Arizona circa 1910 <br />
<br />
Hopi House was built of local stone and wood, and included terraces, ladders and upper doors as if the building housed the “ancient ones.” <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwG-P6xF3Qb6ecU9zHlHalBOnrwLWqXVEsIM_V3EE4-NbMXNkgm76yfz8sB6BzOd8lfdJNTjn3FW8NS2s87VEV6dg_AhwgjZievDkFZtH277AUXdWc4t5vQsk1LLe32TYvfASfOHZnlEA/s1600/7.+2-hopi+house.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwG-P6xF3Qb6ecU9zHlHalBOnrwLWqXVEsIM_V3EE4-NbMXNkgm76yfz8sB6BzOd8lfdJNTjn3FW8NS2s87VEV6dg_AhwgjZievDkFZtH277AUXdWc4t5vQsk1LLe32TYvfASfOHZnlEA/s320/7.+2-hopi+house.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Hopi House 2011 <br />
<br />
Colter also tried to be as authentic as possible in the interior of Hopi House. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0uckCr2VPr8do7J9jSUrCTtdE-4r1etDODz19CADkoSpJBurqvlu1fhj4-b5Raa3h8AZAfXw1l_UUgFRSyzrVms4jBPZ56G7XkMQ7tiMonvbRWnNcvX5dZdI9PVbSdIeu8BdU4_OCJ0/s1600/8.+authenticity.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0uckCr2VPr8do7J9jSUrCTtdE-4r1etDODz19CADkoSpJBurqvlu1fhj4-b5Raa3h8AZAfXw1l_UUgFRSyzrVms4jBPZ56G7XkMQ7tiMonvbRWnNcvX5dZdI9PVbSdIeu8BdU4_OCJ0/s320/8.+authenticity.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This picture shows the style and authenticity Colter sought in her designs. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3PWs8SFqqHTDQCdcsn-C3SSeXrPxG84iqpCT6CjNHVIEuT7yPBStQqdqRFkVv-8CsNNvp6LWVEs4NUqqAqd-F4jghkb_3yXUCSrBQjjVJAyVDg0uH1RsiHyt4VuaE26WXiA2Pu65B88/s1600/8a.+saleroom-hopi-house.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3PWs8SFqqHTDQCdcsn-C3SSeXrPxG84iqpCT6CjNHVIEuT7yPBStQqdqRFkVv-8CsNNvp6LWVEs4NUqqAqd-F4jghkb_3yXUCSrBQjjVJAyVDg0uH1RsiHyt4VuaE26WXiA2Pu65B88/s320/8a.+saleroom-hopi-house.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>Inside Hopi House when finished in design in 1905<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7jQVdmtMkCpu_ptLuSvn9khLJSmRcaBNJYCrc0ihItvTmuarpatd8cAwb0-XKGGnqVlT2bKQYIpLp-v4ntAvBcqtnEq9dwdzC5N-pTXNNiwirGLTEaKr8nSlhG20XLQZ1paxb8bVVDo/s1600/9.+inside+hopi+house.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7jQVdmtMkCpu_ptLuSvn9khLJSmRcaBNJYCrc0ihItvTmuarpatd8cAwb0-XKGGnqVlT2bKQYIpLp-v4ntAvBcqtnEq9dwdzC5N-pTXNNiwirGLTEaKr8nSlhG20XLQZ1paxb8bVVDo/s320/9.+inside+hopi+house.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Inside Hopi house 2011<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCMcJqMEev8bJhehxvInNQi-bXkKLQG0sC_5CGGZVrN_DemFyGZWu_A9eqfYfC3G8a16XnivTK5GghFlPP3YaGNWAwfM32DJluugOonKSZ1U1EukjE0yiplzK5PedKMWx7XHJv8-C0dE/s1600/10.inside+hopi+house.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCMcJqMEev8bJhehxvInNQi-bXkKLQG0sC_5CGGZVrN_DemFyGZWu_A9eqfYfC3G8a16XnivTK5GghFlPP3YaGNWAwfM32DJluugOonKSZ1U1EukjE0yiplzK5PedKMWx7XHJv8-C0dE/s320/10.inside+hopi+house.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Inside Hopi House in 2011. It is not clear if Colter would have included the Native American looking mannequin in her interior design of Hopi House. Today, it is part of the “seeing” of Native American culture. The hand woven rugs in this display are for sale in other areas of gift shop. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicvowIp6E7iNiZ7Ss8ec5tYGvVRa3-H-w16TG8J2H8JN_y9rD0ZZcj9LvQTGfqepAlSchlQU-iE3vNH5_EEnXtA4UUBs3YtJK1rfCssUUboh21osSt1CGr4h8tu1PoRUh3gJkE1I_oPTY/s1600/12.+hopi+interior.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicvowIp6E7iNiZ7Ss8ec5tYGvVRa3-H-w16TG8J2H8JN_y9rD0ZZcj9LvQTGfqepAlSchlQU-iE3vNH5_EEnXtA4UUBs3YtJK1rfCssUUboh21osSt1CGr4h8tu1PoRUh3gJkE1I_oPTY/s320/12.+hopi+interior.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Interior of Hopi House. Authentic adobe fireplace next to a showcase of Native American turquoise jewelry. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiF-CDk17DBvAPZxFUsFG5wuCjygzl_MGTS_xmXLb6PAEiHqIwQlbQ1SZTYF-zYA-V-_c_pPoxcGHePnQsu9WQfclytslAkvz4q0z9lqKDV_WpdnXKPUw8bcwzc5ITI0f0fN5S0lCP3HM/s1600/12a.+indian-dance.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiF-CDk17DBvAPZxFUsFG5wuCjygzl_MGTS_xmXLb6PAEiHqIwQlbQ1SZTYF-zYA-V-_c_pPoxcGHePnQsu9WQfclytslAkvz4q0z9lqKDV_WpdnXKPUw8bcwzc5ITI0f0fN5S0lCP3HM/s320/12a.+indian-dance.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
In keeping with selling the Native American culture to the canyon tourist, members of the Hopi-Pueblo people perform their version of native dances outside Hopi House. On this particular afternoon, a member of the troupe narrated to those watching the dances the significance of the ceremony in Native culture.<br />
<br />
In all, from 1904 to 1935, Mary Colter designed five structures on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, and Phantom Ranch, a rustic lodge along the Colorado River at the bottom of the Canyon. <br />
<br />
<b>Hermit’s Rest, in 1914:</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lF25-D-TGYPDxjN5OHC-ARdIfnBwZO_XTs0Jnru19LaLvxFyoBczVAhoLFvfqn4N0Xrf8BRDXGtf_wAAqtq1lNpY3kEkXTYDiPE8Br837myE89tXiZV5BEVPaVXcCkvQzuAgTqfdLMo/s1600/13.+hermits-rest.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lF25-D-TGYPDxjN5OHC-ARdIfnBwZO_XTs0Jnru19LaLvxFyoBczVAhoLFvfqn4N0Xrf8BRDXGtf_wAAqtq1lNpY3kEkXTYDiPE8Br837myE89tXiZV5BEVPaVXcCkvQzuAgTqfdLMo/s320/13.+hermits-rest.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br />
Colter built Hermit’s Rest at the end of a new road, which extended eight miles west of the El Tovar Hotel. Fred Harvey built the road between 1910 and 1912. When the extension was finished, Harvey wanted a viewing and rest station for those who hiked the trail along the rim. He asked Colter to design the building. In planning her design, Colter had to decide if she would continue the Swiss Chalet style to match the El Tovar or the Pueblo Indian style of her recently completed Hopi house. She decided on something more daring—a structure honoring Louis D. Boucher, a reclusive Canadian, who built a tourist camp in 1890 for those who traveled by horseback to the Grand Canyon. <br />
<br />
<b>Lookout Studio 1914:</b><br />
Also in 1914, Colter designed Lookout Studio, which included a gift shop and a vista for gazing out over the Canyon. Colter used the horizontal rock formation of the cliff on which the studio would be built, and the rock formation of the cliff behind the studio as her inspiration. The studio was constructed from rough-cut Kaibab limestone that matched the upper canyon wall. For viewing, visitors traveled down a series of criss-cross staircases and terraces that descended the perpendicular canyon wall. Colter’s design had a rough look; to make a larger statement, she brought stones or boulders and placed them in several locations around the outside walls, which further gave the appearance of the outside walls blending into the stone cliff. She also brought in native plants and planted them next to the boulders; the same look as visitors would see walking down one of the canyon trails. <br />
<br />
Any one walking the canyon rim trail in front of El Tovar would not at first notice the studio it blends in so well with the natural environment. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_61duUllpMwzHrq2-mD1lWooRSQr6Uimit8UFIxmgUQ2Bw87D0k43eTEnS1mihoHm_njUuVuRJk8kVA8UWnuia6qjG_RWUHcJvJtg_eOovR6MaGAyr1KvNVXADPQ-a-r2GRHLhBOW_gk/s1600/14.+lookoutstudio.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_61duUllpMwzHrq2-mD1lWooRSQr6Uimit8UFIxmgUQ2Bw87D0k43eTEnS1mihoHm_njUuVuRJk8kVA8UWnuia6qjG_RWUHcJvJtg_eOovR6MaGAyr1KvNVXADPQ-a-r2GRHLhBOW_gk/s320/14.+lookoutstudio.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Lookout studio as seen from in front of El Tovar on the rim trail.<br />
<br />
Stone walls also accent the inside of the studio, timber frames the ceiling, an arched stone fireplace decorates an alcove, and a Native American rug decorates the floor. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdJrReYt1Qx8LI08_L4w41aSEktQCdUAhNFwJ_cWpA8v5e_kwkam1BrB4sXwHyF7e6KbPDu0p73wv0ai1cMTsQmfph60jKXzQjQPe1LXYpMSIUkwrepFic9ROgvk1huI063dmUVTLY5E/s1600/15.+grandcanyonlookoutstudio.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdJrReYt1Qx8LI08_L4w41aSEktQCdUAhNFwJ_cWpA8v5e_kwkam1BrB4sXwHyF7e6KbPDu0p73wv0ai1cMTsQmfph60jKXzQjQPe1LXYpMSIUkwrepFic9ROgvk1huI063dmUVTLY5E/s320/15.+grandcanyonlookoutstudio.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
<b>Phantom Ranch 1922:</b><br />
<br />
In 1922, Harvey asked Colter to design a lodge at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which she called Phantom Ranch. Colter did not make a historical statement with her design of the “ranch.” The cabin type structure was more utilitarian; it served as a rest stop and overnight stay for those who traveled to the bottom of the canyon on one of several trails. The rest stop is on Bright Angel Creek. One-quarter mile from where the creek flows into the Colorado River. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAg3p46Yuzcdvmzu_a2eIUKLrqYKQRj9RpwuLWdq3qcjeK0YPuqyvXqJXaF-JLTgnxgeiggMhmF2n5LVx0a8JnU1RIoO6pNMTXmCc7FqMUW58BGQEWfu8SEKdVWS3TtoPMz7i5vV0OjAQ/s1600/16.+phanton-ranch-p118.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAg3p46Yuzcdvmzu_a2eIUKLrqYKQRj9RpwuLWdq3qcjeK0YPuqyvXqJXaF-JLTgnxgeiggMhmF2n5LVx0a8JnU1RIoO6pNMTXmCc7FqMUW58BGQEWfu8SEKdVWS3TtoPMz7i5vV0OjAQ/s320/16.+phanton-ranch-p118.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Phantom Ranch as Colter built it in 1922<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIjUEDEmzkZpOJJwx83YT-iJGQX-9oNcke4oA2L92eVnRuLcd_SZOJWiYC1lwvix_kxi_jxMY3olgtb8QVX6rPNToN7yYPPHCrfsHvuRfnXG1btu_3mCUVegD475uIBtFv-MDRa-sL48/s1600/17.++Phantom+Ranch+Canteen.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIjUEDEmzkZpOJJwx83YT-iJGQX-9oNcke4oA2L92eVnRuLcd_SZOJWiYC1lwvix_kxi_jxMY3olgtb8QVX6rPNToN7yYPPHCrfsHvuRfnXG1btu_3mCUVegD475uIBtFv-MDRa-sL48/s320/17.++Phantom+Ranch+Canteen.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>Phantom ranch today, several additions since 1922.<br />
<br />
<br />
Probably one of the most interesting structures that Colter designed is Desert View Watchtower, which she designed in 1932. Colter’s inspiration for the tower came from her visit to Mesa Verde, just northeast of the Grand Canyon in the Four Corners area where Colorado, Utah. Arizona and New Mexico meet. (see preceding blog on Mesa Verde.)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTCFxIh3ECBr-a4xWJD5hbwu97mEn6eTJrjJ_VkB-lt7M9XejAq8U19yWjoNTNJKMjXRAGrzONRdlUGYn54xVlsvgvepY6T5lAJK76x1VQoL2iTfE26PDqYkCGHFWhmx5A8d7frNrYMIA/s1600/18.+tower-3.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTCFxIh3ECBr-a4xWJD5hbwu97mEn6eTJrjJ_VkB-lt7M9XejAq8U19yWjoNTNJKMjXRAGrzONRdlUGYn54xVlsvgvepY6T5lAJK76x1VQoL2iTfE26PDqYkCGHFWhmx5A8d7frNrYMIA/s320/18.+tower-3.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br />
Desert View Watchtower 2011<br />
When Colter visited Mesa Verde in the 1930s, she found a relatively new discovery of cliff dwellings of Native people who vacated the area in around 1300 a.d. Today, many of the ruins have been restored and accessible to visitors. Cliff Palace is probably one of the most spectacular. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCRRPJP_Qi6fhFZLidU7IcvOBDDWle0Tkzumiuk101762XlJ11CAV3HqHhUI7Ngf6NJpZkS_h4Go_wt9Flzz9V4HGgT5dC1phL2lO9EX0Wr1lcAwyWIouelQrHCLVkVBDOmdT29E2viU/s1600/19.+2011-cliff-palace.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCRRPJP_Qi6fhFZLidU7IcvOBDDWle0Tkzumiuk101762XlJ11CAV3HqHhUI7Ngf6NJpZkS_h4Go_wt9Flzz9V4HGgT5dC1phL2lO9EX0Wr1lcAwyWIouelQrHCLVkVBDOmdT29E2viU/s320/19.+2011-cliff-palace.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Cliff Palace in 2011. In order to see the ruins up close, it is a strenuous hike down and in some area a climb of several 100 ft ladders. What Colter saw that interest her in design was the towers that the “ancient ones” built in Cliff Palace and another cliff dwelling community called Spruce House.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMk0ZQVpFZ9qIbEkBZr-zkek9gbq2orJbwmseWINoZZmqy0pory9jJ3RAe8jglsfwVZPVj56WiAC503Eh3p8ugR02cmHYLbCtuYukyr3sjV-qoH4Mt54ryop-WM2fpCYjpCoZsdVWk3rI/s1600/20.+cliff-palace-bw-1.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMk0ZQVpFZ9qIbEkBZr-zkek9gbq2orJbwmseWINoZZmqy0pory9jJ3RAe8jglsfwVZPVj56WiAC503Eh3p8ugR02cmHYLbCtuYukyr3sjV-qoH4Mt54ryop-WM2fpCYjpCoZsdVWk3rI/s320/20.+cliff-palace-bw-1.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>Cliff Palace Tower in the middle resembles Colter’s design of Desert View Watchtower. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbzmT14JOioz7kvLKzxcV8ah933Jq83Xh07Of2aPuSrh7gGJ-_NTLBQSVOTaDSdzRO6MhnB38hrE7CfaXfHNsWWMAPwBA3TNnjJZzqx0CF4AaLwxsjXhUw68SkugaDwg3h45_gPpewew/s1600/21.+tower-1.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbzmT14JOioz7kvLKzxcV8ah933Jq83Xh07Of2aPuSrh7gGJ-_NTLBQSVOTaDSdzRO6MhnB38hrE7CfaXfHNsWWMAPwBA3TNnjJZzqx0CF4AaLwxsjXhUw68SkugaDwg3h45_gPpewew/s320/21.+tower-1.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br />
Inside the tower visitors can climb stairs to four different levels, each with a view of the Canyon out the widows provided for just such viewing. <br />
<br />
<br />
Also, at the landing between each floor, Colter continues the Native American theme with furniture and artwork that gives the visitor the feel of the ancient cliff dwellings. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNkA0c5tyRrZZHeqyjz9tXYK03jK7U-YQPvlMXPL_-wuDrZc0OdH2BuEqBc3Z1fNcBKx3TnUX3zGNlDe6W9p4ILPcUIISdC175FQ-5wNp3DToeIyN6WuVBSFFia-Xvo5vKMvCaf03FAI/s1600/23.+tower-6.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNkA0c5tyRrZZHeqyjz9tXYK03jK7U-YQPvlMXPL_-wuDrZc0OdH2BuEqBc3Z1fNcBKx3TnUX3zGNlDe6W9p4ILPcUIISdC175FQ-5wNp3DToeIyN6WuVBSFFia-Xvo5vKMvCaf03FAI/s320/23.+tower-6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Inside Tower at one of the landing before ascending to the next tower level. <br />
<br />
Mary Colter left a legacy in her designs at the rim of the Grand Canyon. Her interest in blending her designs to incorporate the history and environment of a particular area became a standard for National Park structures starting in the New Deal area of the 1930s. A new type of architecture was born that today is called Parkitecture; a visitor to anyone of the National Parks will see buildings made of native stone, lumber and well blended into the environment. <br />
<br />
Mary Colter continued her career as an architect, but outside the Grand Canyon. She Worked for Fred Harvey designing interiors and hotels along the Santa Fe line. She continued her Southwestern look in all her designs; The El Navajo in Gallup New Mexico, The Franciscan Hotel in Albuquerque and she designed and decorated shops in Union Station in Chicago, continuing her theme of Native American culture. <br />
<br />
Mary Colter was one of the first women architects in American, she died in 1958.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-15742240408572925952011-07-13T18:13:00.000-07:002011-07-13T18:13:37.853-07:00Ancestral Puebloan People of MesaVerdeOn a cold wintry December day in 1888, Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law, Charlie Mason, cowboys from the Alamo ranch in Southwestern Colorado, spent most of their afternoon rounding up strays on the high mesas and steep canyons above their winter camp on the Mancos River. The going was tough and blowing snow made hard work of finding their cattle. As they rested their horses on the edge of a mesa, they saw at the far side of the canyon a complex of stone buildings built under a large outcropping of rock. Under this protective rock overhang was a village of houses, towers, and kivas, all strung together like a huge apartment complex. The cowboys named the location Cliff Palace. Years later, Charlie Mason described their discovery, “From the rim of the canon we had our first view of Cliff Palace…. To me this is the grandest view of all among the ancient ruins of the Southwest. We rode around the head of the canon and found a way down over the cliffs to the level of the building. We spent several hours going from room to room and picked up several articles of interest, among them a stone axe with the handle still on it.” <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Hwx_ARaHXV9RI5CfwsYEsXBXwp0Rfqo3yVab2-Pb1vHU8OCNvK4vbprO8zvP4z0K06bG6B8IRuyMoYoF5B0-jx17r47I0Uvqp_sAmooX95ssQFja880lPVtF3SXzFM4AOhvvbIKKO5c/s1600/1.+Cliff-palace-inside-redo-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="222" width="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Hwx_ARaHXV9RI5CfwsYEsXBXwp0Rfqo3yVab2-Pb1vHU8OCNvK4vbprO8zvP4z0K06bG6B8IRuyMoYoF5B0-jx17r47I0Uvqp_sAmooX95ssQFja880lPVtF3SXzFM4AOhvvbIKKO5c/s320/1.+Cliff-palace-inside-redo-copy.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Cliff Palace as seen by Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason in 1888.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWWnuScxv9aGu7LPKhEaBiPkRnVMQJsZM3pO4T9tFnhfRdCEY7ERbruJI-3QRnTRbV9YwyEGx82v3un2J4GteTqmesXqR-AtUblZosMrs_lIi5ynZetc6UwIcSFe3HxWDLTFUev9ecdY/s1600/+2.+Cliff-Palace-1891-bw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="157" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWWnuScxv9aGu7LPKhEaBiPkRnVMQJsZM3pO4T9tFnhfRdCEY7ERbruJI-3QRnTRbV9YwyEGx82v3un2J4GteTqmesXqR-AtUblZosMrs_lIi5ynZetc6UwIcSFe3HxWDLTFUev9ecdY/s320/+2.+Cliff-Palace-1891-bw.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYkJEATOHsB8FhJjA2D3yI-c-l9lOlRn-k9ON5M08O5r7XPXqFfVx-825srRpnK6kvRGN4zmjgvpY5IzNskZK9ld1CUvlqSh7Y6cVtVoWDCi_gt_YsyDrKATAMQXDwJryqbYOzM8qEOWU/s1600/2a.+cliff-palace-bw-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="320" width="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYkJEATOHsB8FhJjA2D3yI-c-l9lOlRn-k9ON5M08O5r7XPXqFfVx-825srRpnK6kvRGN4zmjgvpY5IzNskZK9ld1CUvlqSh7Y6cVtVoWDCi_gt_YsyDrKATAMQXDwJryqbYOzM8qEOWU/s320/2a.+cliff-palace-bw-1.jpg" /></a></div>Debris field around structures.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6Vu-wFMvKK_MAAvoX8uzTQ99GCRWgw7bz6jnJtQ4UoOLQkkjH1k1GckoxuQ1PLLhS5drwzzpc081fV1n0KSkT0D_7Izpmma71jqpJVd53YToT7lIR8gIwXXCEZ-uJe_4_Syi0Kx8p88/s1600/3.2011-cliff-house-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="216" width="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6Vu-wFMvKK_MAAvoX8uzTQ99GCRWgw7bz6jnJtQ4UoOLQkkjH1k1GckoxuQ1PLLhS5drwzzpc081fV1n0KSkT0D_7Izpmma71jqpJVd53YToT7lIR8gIwXXCEZ-uJe_4_Syi0Kx8p88/s320/3.2011-cliff-house-copy.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Cliff Palace 2011<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdrnzaJXyxlxrVt3XXEcDgG0E2f_Xyhxyrt0CDJdrXOV588cydYyvw66788YxBDQtJfd2grQjR5P19ay-M0PNEYj8tI9tQDnLjMhyrMMlNRNMdQw2eGD0laRu6nFC9YqfgHtbYf0hJOBc/s1600/4.+cliff-palace-dia-redo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="190" width="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdrnzaJXyxlxrVt3XXEcDgG0E2f_Xyhxyrt0CDJdrXOV588cydYyvw66788YxBDQtJfd2grQjR5P19ay-M0PNEYj8tI9tQDnLjMhyrMMlNRNMdQw2eGD0laRu6nFC9YqfgHtbYf0hJOBc/s320/4.+cliff-palace-dia-redo.jpg" /></a></div>Diagram of structures at Cliff Palace <br />
<br />
<br />
No one knows for sure who constructed, with such skill, a community of buildings high up on the side of a canyon wall; buildings that have survived the harsh elements of the mesa country for over a 1000 years. Anthropologists and historians refer to the people as hunters gathers, basket makers, cliff dwellers, Anasazi, (Navajo for “ancient ones) or more formally, or Ancestral Puebloan People. All that is known about them is found in the ruins of their cliff dwellings. (The Anasazi occupied a large area of mesa and canyon lands known today as the four corners, where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet.) <br />
<br />
After the Cowboys discovered Cliff Palace, they used their winter camp in the Mancos Valley as a base from which to explore the canyon close to their initial discovery (later to be called Cliff Canyon). <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGS8aCHjh0ShpBp4Mx7M8puyt7wsIYlUPiV0nk4DkjuuQ0RLNoTYnzcYqQ4bPKIYjDSPvXKYTRdoRifusbgQLfQwECrv1ZxuKxGfg289vTD8QgotH5aB-7TNSAVwd9zZ36honfnhTb-PQ/s1600/5.mesa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="198" width="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGS8aCHjh0ShpBp4Mx7M8puyt7wsIYlUPiV0nk4DkjuuQ0RLNoTYnzcYqQ4bPKIYjDSPvXKYTRdoRifusbgQLfQwECrv1ZxuKxGfg289vTD8QgotH5aB-7TNSAVwd9zZ36honfnhTb-PQ/s320/5.mesa.jpg" /></a></div>The mesa above Cliff Canyon. From this vantage point, the cowboys looked across to the ancient ruins.<br />
<br />
Over the next two months, Wetherill, Mason and cowboys from the Alamo ranch dug through the ruins collecting artifacts, some of which they sold to a museum in Denver for $3000.00. (The artifacts helped launch the newly established Denver Historical Society museum) Other artifacts were kept in a barn on the Alamo ranch. <br />
<br />
Below are some of the artifacts found by the cowboys from the Alamo Ranch. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2iDZRgee-0AwsBlIvOdYNqnGThtVTBZ9rdoOZlVUG6uaoRl7SNZPn-TdYOYrekanM-EucUrDckp91LiCQfbAkjORKimsdzW9bS5qUHDXtmCJIzdinWA7y0a7mIZCiO3Op9prH5s2lsdk/s1600/6.burial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="223" width="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2iDZRgee-0AwsBlIvOdYNqnGThtVTBZ9rdoOZlVUG6uaoRl7SNZPn-TdYOYrekanM-EucUrDckp91LiCQfbAkjORKimsdzW9bS5qUHDXtmCJIzdinWA7y0a7mIZCiO3Op9prH5s2lsdk/s320/6.burial.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKrDv1y_L0rma6zujwrJe4Mpi-RIPssZyYv_gMs-m7d61gmPR1g7fawKmWg3mpCfY88W0cHptx4Ijn79W3VIsMBGLZvipFR1SknOc1QlTSL6RaOKdaqmO7wOlbpQiVcUt-3SevSa8lD4/s1600/7.baskets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="127" width="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKrDv1y_L0rma6zujwrJe4Mpi-RIPssZyYv_gMs-m7d61gmPR1g7fawKmWg3mpCfY88W0cHptx4Ijn79W3VIsMBGLZvipFR1SknOc1QlTSL6RaOKdaqmO7wOlbpQiVcUt-3SevSa8lD4/s320/7.baskets.jpg" /></a></div>Baskets made from the fiber of the yucca plant. The Yucca plant served many purposes in the Ancestral Puebloan culture. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7IyN-urXxVp8Smc_IKTV0mEeOFpugrJhk-zOy7WnMUlRP5H-gTMceOceFXQjLqXykNYmPjyhtuBql7ACm7lrXVwyt8nWZz8XnlX6YLm5MRdgRg-XyGt_r5WfEDmP9xh3AY5IK1QwtLqk/s1600/8.bowls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="135" width="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7IyN-urXxVp8Smc_IKTV0mEeOFpugrJhk-zOy7WnMUlRP5H-gTMceOceFXQjLqXykNYmPjyhtuBql7ACm7lrXVwyt8nWZz8XnlX6YLm5MRdgRg-XyGt_r5WfEDmP9xh3AY5IK1QwtLqk/s320/8.bowls.jpg" /></a></div>Clay bowls with a distinctive design.<br />
<br />
Regardless of the monetary value of the artifacts in the ruins, the Wetherills, owners of the Alamo Ranch, understood the archaeological and historical value the ruins had to Colorado and to the nation. Richard Wetherill wrote to the directors of the Smithsonian and Harvard’s Peabody Museum requesting that these institutions sponsor him and his brothers or at least send their own specialists to work with them to excavate the cliff dwellings. Neither museum offered financial assistance or a team of professionals to help in excavating the ruins. Without outside help, the ruins would continue their march into obscurity; the Wetherills could not take the time away from ranching to explore further the ruins of Cliff Canyon. Not until Gustaf Nordenskiold from Sweden, an adventurer of sorts, heard about the cliff dwellings in the American Southwest, did Cliff Canyon and the Anasazi people get attention from the scientific community. In 1891, Nordenskiold made the long journey to America, crossed the continent on the newly established Santa Fe line to Durango, and forty miles by buggy to the Alamo ranch to meet with the Wetherill family. The family introduced Nordenskiold to the Cliff Dwellings, all of which were which named by the Wetherill family. The most impressive of the dwelling complex being Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, Square Tower House, Mug House and Sandal House. In all, the Wetherills counted 182 cliff dwellings. Today, the count is 600. After spending several years exploring the cliff dwellings and its artifacts, Nordenskiold wrote The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, where he detailed each dwelling and the artifacts found at the different locations. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtg13fPdQ-AeVN2huYwI-gHWPQaZItcV28r19_cfGa4YvP1BUn__mmw4gYzkHnA8OP20qiy-XoJJA0lAD7YHCy-_6P-DRei1NtNkPbHGIe3m9VSrDG8HIiISlc5PeBI74jxoI9NiFOyUU/s1600/9.spruce-tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="203" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtg13fPdQ-AeVN2huYwI-gHWPQaZItcV28r19_cfGa4YvP1BUn__mmw4gYzkHnA8OP20qiy-XoJJA0lAD7YHCy-_6P-DRei1NtNkPbHGIe3m9VSrDG8HIiISlc5PeBI74jxoI9NiFOyUU/s320/9.spruce-tree.jpg" /></a></div>Spruce Tree House<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrXQW3imL9JvEl87Ghp4idboSRTgy31iSQsRHO-KPqm1bcgyb2LISLCUTiKo3gVuxebKXPGGFa_M3pNeOSx1_fWK_6k12KgF2TBvbzBG3mVQSssMn2KkGVe-UUfVaMMvvkrbKSUfimgM/s1600/10.+inside-spruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="129" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrXQW3imL9JvEl87Ghp4idboSRTgy31iSQsRHO-KPqm1bcgyb2LISLCUTiKo3gVuxebKXPGGFa_M3pNeOSx1_fWK_6k12KgF2TBvbzBG3mVQSssMn2KkGVe-UUfVaMMvvkrbKSUfimgM/s320/10.+inside-spruce.jpg" /></a></div>Inside ruin of Spruce Tree House as discovered by the Witherills and Gustaf Nordenskiold<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ejvsHOc9TOFeB6xwAHhG4oaoJG2sigRZSBOogiDPyedZrRLKHZEER93D8g8MKs6Ctk-1DnMgEMb3Gl6EB6zVReuhoQB_WndHZSiiSoN4qGsoaXqUmcZc3iZcZTud35a7ZpvFBOD6VvI/s1600/11-2011-spruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="216" width="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ejvsHOc9TOFeB6xwAHhG4oaoJG2sigRZSBOogiDPyedZrRLKHZEER93D8g8MKs6Ctk-1DnMgEMb3Gl6EB6zVReuhoQB_WndHZSiiSoN4qGsoaXqUmcZc3iZcZTud35a7ZpvFBOD6VvI/s320/11-2011-spruce.jpg" /></a></div>Spruce tree house 2011<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBF2lSxBR2n0Lk45am9GnlijxEkykoQ9xtNqSEuaITbBYb8eFXvPmnFfFvIrD7Ff9ilEctv5wgLuQpiq3-hxl1wlaV2sbOs2-ZJXeOHYg2f8AiDJ4Fx9VfRyKuL7b8rEHsAYZDczMOtf8/s1600/12-spruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="198" width="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBF2lSxBR2n0Lk45am9GnlijxEkykoQ9xtNqSEuaITbBYb8eFXvPmnFfFvIrD7Ff9ilEctv5wgLuQpiq3-hxl1wlaV2sbOs2-ZJXeOHYg2f8AiDJ4Fx9VfRyKuL7b8rEHsAYZDczMOtf8/s320/12-spruce.jpg" /></a></div>Spruce Tree House 2011<br />
<br />
Typically, in each of the complexes, small rooms were built around a kiva; some rooms had access to the kiva by tunnels. They also constructed a small opening adjunct to the kiva called a sipapu, which symbolized the entrance to the underworld or mother earth. In most kivas there are stone benches, and an area that appears to be a fire pit. There are different theories on the use of the kiva. The most popular thought is that the round recessed circular room was used for religious purposes, and most likely as a place for social gatherings. At Cliff House complex, there are 23 kivas. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdEnaKO3PWFKdMNrdOfHigp7mTKpqwTdIzp4hbkbs_NvEIW3NUD0NNAD-enspCWySLWwx0EDWVV1_huTlzvk5rfjHf6jAZQ1x3fJgyM3l9TZp1AVqYJK7GH-Go10VrETfx-ujgADcwSP4/s1600/13-spruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="162" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdEnaKO3PWFKdMNrdOfHigp7mTKpqwTdIzp4hbkbs_NvEIW3NUD0NNAD-enspCWySLWwx0EDWVV1_huTlzvk5rfjHf6jAZQ1x3fJgyM3l9TZp1AVqYJK7GH-Go10VrETfx-ujgADcwSP4/s320/13-spruce.jpg" /></a></div>There are also areas in the dwelling complex, where grain was ground in order to make flour that they used for multiple food preparations. <br />
<br />
Also found on the mesa above Cliff Canyon were the ruins of villages, perhaps occupied by the ancestors of those who built the cliff dwellings. Archaeologists believe that the first people to occupy Mesa Verde did so around 2000 years ago. Anthropologists call these early people the basket weavers. These people lived in caves, but eventually by 750 A.D. moved into pithouses, a below ground system of housing around a kiva. The mesa environment was ideal for farming and there was enough moisture at the higher elevation of 8000 ft. to sustain agriculture. The Basket weavers mastered farming to where they had an expanded food supply and an increase in population. The people also began making crude pottery and developed the technique of crafting bows and arrows. By 1000 A.D. the basket weavers moved out of the below ground pithouses to above ground constructions made of pole and adobe. In this era, anthropologists refer to the above ground builders as the Anasazi, who improved building techniques by taking advantage of the natural environment that had an abundance of sandstone rock, which was easily cut into stone to build houses. The Anasazi became skilled masons, crafting each stone to an equal size to construct walls of their structures. They experimented with natural resources to develop mortar made out of sand, small gravel and ash. (This strong mortar can be seen in the ruins of Mesa Verde today.) <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMgxHI2yDN_1Mzs-wqLjppzGdzg4I0RQS-aBwOhxRLeD7F3399Le7_R7L4HqiBe2aszjCE6hDd5x9hT3rRg03E1qW40uCKjcqP95vaLq3gpcjI6p2pAOmGwIpSKS7wCrLqNZvT4fHA-i8/s1600/14-far-view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="162" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMgxHI2yDN_1Mzs-wqLjppzGdzg4I0RQS-aBwOhxRLeD7F3399Le7_R7L4HqiBe2aszjCE6hDd5x9hT3rRg03E1qW40uCKjcqP95vaLq3gpcjI6p2pAOmGwIpSKS7wCrLqNZvT4fHA-i8/s320/14-far-view.jpg" /></a></div>Far View Site, above ground village ruins at Far View site, Mesa Verde National Park<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFThvN5Yom6H3LppsVw3qxMHJ2I9sENTbSavf9RZjhha7N0kwkNE64MPTcqzFkX-RpApR7oGVv-y3aMQxvRRgqF0BM7XYS-WnBNvjCASoz84bDSMozM36dIYtMOwhLO13N4Q1EJQ_4vyw/s1600/15-far-view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="162" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFThvN5Yom6H3LppsVw3qxMHJ2I9sENTbSavf9RZjhha7N0kwkNE64MPTcqzFkX-RpApR7oGVv-y3aMQxvRRgqF0BM7XYS-WnBNvjCASoz84bDSMozM36dIYtMOwhLO13N4Q1EJQ_4vyw/s320/15-far-view.jpg" /></a></div>Far View Site.<br />
<br />
The Kiva was important in the construction of the below ground pithouse. When they move to above ground living, the kiva became the only below ground element of their culture that transferred to Ancestral Puebloan culture.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsw_GoPhAZ8MXKe0kPE0VBhbXNQGRIhQjs-C6bj0cPa11n_qO-SEkyeAcURXR2-VKKrJuN92yNOqwE07dPZxxF2Z4bdgywwy4BP3_FiDH_8NvSze5MfAAJSbXqrM0K4Q6vFs4T414SHqo/s1600/16-far-view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="162" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsw_GoPhAZ8MXKe0kPE0VBhbXNQGRIhQjs-C6bj0cPa11n_qO-SEkyeAcURXR2-VKKrJuN92yNOqwE07dPZxxF2Z4bdgywwy4BP3_FiDH_8NvSze5MfAAJSbXqrM0K4Q6vFs4T414SHqo/s320/16-far-view.jpg" /></a></div>Kiva<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Kg855-q4F0vJvHszuNE2LZp-fK0p2qsW1fF7VkaqR57I8qTbPwMGJLmv2OF3z0MfT0sfLsB4yCWJ-grcDfY5q2ajmorS1CKa8y1xHRISC2NdKaJOPOqXWtACYADqFf72znXvwPagj1c/s1600/17-far-view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="162" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Kg855-q4F0vJvHszuNE2LZp-fK0p2qsW1fF7VkaqR57I8qTbPwMGJLmv2OF3z0MfT0sfLsB4yCWJ-grcDfY5q2ajmorS1CKa8y1xHRISC2NdKaJOPOqXWtACYADqFf72znXvwPagj1c/s320/17-far-view.jpg" /></a></div>Drying racks line the walls of the kiva at the Far View Site, which indicates multiple uses of this kiva.<br />
<br />
Agriculture land was on the top of the mesas. Archeologists are still trying to determine the canal system that ran from the reservoir in the picture below to the farming fields. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKrwJ6-iZWTz18yNR5j0dMKVIjrbHq7VByLWxyrf51yaWW9pdn1RLTPOhYQMKonpUSlege8CtX7UdbsfqMFNkADRVLcAJXNWwvL1n2Ypn1mJxkIYI89IyjFg7I8DzXfNMEQskWesFk6k/s1600/5-far-view-water.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="162" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKrwJ6-iZWTz18yNR5j0dMKVIjrbHq7VByLWxyrf51yaWW9pdn1RLTPOhYQMKonpUSlege8CtX7UdbsfqMFNkADRVLcAJXNWwvL1n2Ypn1mJxkIYI89IyjFg7I8DzXfNMEQskWesFk6k/s320/5-far-view-water.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The National Park Service designation this reservoir, along with four others in Mesa Verde as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The water management system developed by the Anasazi people is one of the oldest engineered public works in the United States. <br />
<br />
The Anasazi people grew three staple crops--corn, beans and squash all in the same field. The tall corn became a pole or sorts for the beans and the shade from the tall corn stalks protected the squash. They over produced, storing grain for the years of drought when rain or snow was not plentiful enough to sustain a crop. <br />
<br />
The golden age of the Anasazi was between 1100-1300 AD. During this period they constructed houses with larger rooms, more complex attached buildings that could accommodate 1000 people. Their villages were spread out over many miles stretching across the mesas. During this era, the Anasazi demonstrated improved craftsmanship in masonry, pottery, weaving and jewelry. The evidence seems to indicate that all was well with the people who thrived on the mesa tops, but then they abandoned their above ground life to return to the caves and started engineering buildings along the cliffs. They used the same techniques that they mastered on the mesa tops; stone masonry buildings that fit under the rock umbrella perturbing out from the canyon walls. <br />
<br />
Archaeologists and historians do not know why the Anasazi people left their prosperous villages and sought shelter along the canyon walls. One plausible explanation is that the canyons offered a defensible and secure location. Climate may also have been a reason for the move. Winter could be harsh on the mesa tops; the cliff dwellings offered a warmer environment. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGZaW9tF11NWTehg2OEPNEwDfFmwXUCuN8iAbWnm5FASACnL9lFaabOkAyMUSmuJm5hz1c5AykfekwLv7BOZ6nYt_JNNDQojk6l8igN1TSgUrLGFtQGcIoMcC3OMn4Y-nvxr1AAWWACsk/s1600/19-spruce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="198" width="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGZaW9tF11NWTehg2OEPNEwDfFmwXUCuN8iAbWnm5FASACnL9lFaabOkAyMUSmuJm5hz1c5AykfekwLv7BOZ6nYt_JNNDQojk6l8igN1TSgUrLGFtQGcIoMcC3OMn4Y-nvxr1AAWWACsk/s320/19-spruce.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Note the black soot on the back wall of the canyon. They constructed most of the structures with at least 3 to 4 ft. clearance from the wall. Evidence shows that they built their fires behind these structures. With small openings at the back of their rooms, the heat from the fires would penetrate their living quarters giving them a warmer environment. <br />
<br />
The cliff dwellers still farmed on the mesas above and near some of their dwelling under the rock outcropping. At Spruce House complex, there is also a spring at the bottom of the canyon, which offered a water supply. <br />
<br />
The inhabitants of the cliff dwellings only stayed under the protective rock for a couple of generations. By 1300, they were gone from the mesa. It is not known where the people migrated to, but most recent scholarship indicates that they are the ancestors of the Pueblo people. The most logical reason for their migration south would be climate change. A drought settled over the mesa region from 1272 to 1299, a long time to go with out a reliable food source. Also, years of farming on the mesa would have depleted the soil of nutrients to successfully grow crops and deforesting the land would cause erosion; the people had to move on to new fresh land where there was ample moisture to sustain life and agriculture. It is most probable that the hunter gathers, the Basket weavers, the Cliff Dwellers and the Anasazi people are the ancestors of the Pueblo people, who today live in the American Southwest.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-41009201885631613612011-03-19T15:11:00.001-07:002021-01-05T17:09:08.403-08:00Detroit and the Mythical West.It is not by accident that a family such as mine, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, found a home in the America West. My dad grew up reading authors of the American West in the early twentieth century like Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour. When I was a child in the 1950s and 60s, family time was around the T.V. watching The <i>Lone Ranger</i>, <i>Sky King</i>, <i>Roy Rogers</i>, <i>Maverick</i>, <i>Have Gun Will Travel</i>, <i>Wagon Train</i>, <i>Gunsmoke</i>, <i>Bonanza</i>, etc. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmfqe9OcJaZHqQtDBmvFw0dYBVedCnlvR-K3oJ0xcAOeIEPP17INl7hb1gKJDjT7ODUhYbaLIvBpsMsB95PvRzj4E4MREYot2wCTcUKtb7kCtSaXR8gvKvhdkeRcmgXOvJUiuQ90snGpU/s1600/college.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="296" width="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmfqe9OcJaZHqQtDBmvFw0dYBVedCnlvR-K3oJ0xcAOeIEPP17INl7hb1gKJDjT7ODUhYbaLIvBpsMsB95PvRzj4E4MREYot2wCTcUKtb7kCtSaXR8gvKvhdkeRcmgXOvJUiuQ90snGpU/s320/college.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The American West, and the characters, whether fictional or non-fictional, who sought adventure and “tamed” the western wilderness, represented to my dad, my family and a great number of fans around the world a sense of adventure, and a belief that good guys win in the end; an important concept in the era of World War Two and the Cold War. <br />
<br />
Today the western genre is on life supports. In the troubled times of the 1960s, historians concerned with civil rights, Vietnam, and other social and political issues began to revise how historians of the previous generation interpreted American history, especially the role of Women, Native Americans, African Americans and Hispanics. The West I grew up on was now called the "Mythic West.” The new histories took our western heroes, as portrayed by numerous western writers, and such actors as John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, and did their best to tear down rugged individualism and the concept of good and evil. <br />
<br />
My dad did not care about historians’ revisionist histories. In the mind of the farm boy from Indiana, who found a job making diesel engines at General Motors at the beginning of World War Two, the fictional West was where he would escape. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ4Snzh3vdMLvTmb0pmDggTYpafXPQsN1QXfjpRtydj1qDw77bziP8CA94-sJ2KhVfESf9R_PKY2sN3cW1l2Osfrk6jQRPdxvgLzK-GEGfszd4D-S1JHduCYgcrXnx_8UtY9_OCP7CySo/s1600/dieseltanks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="186" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ4Snzh3vdMLvTmb0pmDggTYpafXPQsN1QXfjpRtydj1qDw77bziP8CA94-sJ2KhVfESf9R_PKY2sN3cW1l2Osfrk6jQRPdxvgLzK-GEGfszd4D-S1JHduCYgcrXnx_8UtY9_OCP7CySo/s320/dieseltanks.jpg" /></a></div><br />
What he read in his books about the American West allowed him to dream and plan for another life; a life far away from the drudgery of his work as supervisor on the line at G.M. Diesel, a place he worked for 33 years. <br />
<br />
The Call of the West was so strong in my dad that when possible our family vacations in the 1950s were road trips to Montana, where my dad spent several summers in the early 1930s working on a road crew in the Yellowstone. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7KjFRs20CNyLiTa_QjKCL1BZKCpZLrPb-c1QXXmcL-OcgVyHbNVHc6_3yeWtSNvS0CetyC1IsrmYLScdVKTs9peMyyAqThqPJnvIv5JPTkAJOL1Xhjr4BPNWOM5llKX7WOcnGTdxWLUI/s1600/dad-yellowstone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="320" width="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7KjFRs20CNyLiTa_QjKCL1BZKCpZLrPb-c1QXXmcL-OcgVyHbNVHc6_3yeWtSNvS0CetyC1IsrmYLScdVKTs9peMyyAqThqPJnvIv5JPTkAJOL1Xhjr4BPNWOM5llKX7WOcnGTdxWLUI/s320/dad-yellowstone.jpg" /></a></div>My dad fishing in the Yellowstone, 1933<br />
<br />
My brother caught the “west fever” and left for Montana when he was 18, he has lived there ever since. My parents retired to Montana in 1971. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMKP8zbWE2s7ddn_zvLPyYQHK7hqnqeyMbHitdS5eiUjmIRbrXSRBng152G2qsEOjL2fnaByKQI4tbdSlIlxAu94K_zr3HKTc2LhK2RdfWIJIQfcXyEkvxHj79BjybQfD67H6t8qB4Duc/s1600/bitterroot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="221" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMKP8zbWE2s7ddn_zvLPyYQHK7hqnqeyMbHitdS5eiUjmIRbrXSRBng152G2qsEOjL2fnaByKQI4tbdSlIlxAu94K_zr3HKTc2LhK2RdfWIJIQfcXyEkvxHj79BjybQfD67H6t8qB4Duc/s320/bitterroot.jpg" /></a></div><br />
On his eleven acres at the foot of the Bitterroot Mountains, my dad had his dream “ranch”, where he kept quarter horses and enjoyed western living; all before Montana drew new immigrants who wanted to live in Norman MacLean’s land of “A River Runs Through It.” <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6_rpjChkE-8ljrdN36XsOdyIo5_iEkViuM8fwVrieTSzFvgPeBFaU3f69Cue9lYIZyOP-9AWmwMrxxu_0KvuE1DcwgrfYu5c8M-GkDCsso54Jmx34KkziDJfPxhWrXycAbBmErIvh2Fo/s1600/dads-horses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="218" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6_rpjChkE-8ljrdN36XsOdyIo5_iEkViuM8fwVrieTSzFvgPeBFaU3f69Cue9lYIZyOP-9AWmwMrxxu_0KvuE1DcwgrfYu5c8M-GkDCsso54Jmx34KkziDJfPxhWrXycAbBmErIvh2Fo/s320/dads-horses.jpg" /></a></div>Two of Dad's horses, very proud of Cindy the new colt. <br />
<br />
I’m not writing this to beat the western historian over the head for trying to destroy, perhaps inadvertently, the western dream; I am a western historian and I understand the need to write inclusive histories. But, I also understand the importance the western genre had and still has in portraying a Place called the West that represented the values that have been part of America since the American Revolution. They are values of hard work, self-reliance, morality, sense of mission; values that have defined us as Americans. I have to wonder why these values are now thought to be inherent only to the Mythical West. <br />
<br />
And, as for Detroit. I’m sure if my dad was a live today he would be more disheartened than my brother and I, and my family and friends who once lived in Detroit, to see what has become of the City. Like all industrial cities, Detroit had its good and bad points. As a kid, I remember the good. I felt safe riding the Schoolcraft bus from the suburbs to downtown to shop with friends. In the winter, I enjoyed Ice Skating on the River Rough Parkway ice rink. I loved Greenfield Village, where Henry Ford had created an historical village that depicted early American life including Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpLMwjkBuGv0zB8Yi8_duy-ao13ox6YrOaf71Dj0ErJNrY8y9LNzKAviDfis_taR7B5vbWtZdTWAOjE5EXrQZMX3Kwaj9oLdbfqb0BSJD0XV65HFBYL_KMhdy3K64L5dTm0SJaJvtkHc/s1600/generalstore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="210" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpLMwjkBuGv0zB8Yi8_duy-ao13ox6YrOaf71Dj0ErJNrY8y9LNzKAviDfis_taR7B5vbWtZdTWAOjE5EXrQZMX3Kwaj9oLdbfqb0BSJD0XV65HFBYL_KMhdy3K64L5dTm0SJaJvtkHc/s320/generalstore.jpg" /></a></div>Pioneer General store, Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyQoBSataOn9xn8eZeBxR75mReFDxYK5s72kj5AufhY1rRh7VB1_jUk2D9l924M3ZVTVNqlBfdI2xsua5Ue3mWRAtCoiWWdGGZ4H4vjtrpyXGYqopMx6kZxuJwEq2y_rrm81ne_z1DQ0/s1600/Greenfield+Village%252C+Edison+lab+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="226" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyQoBSataOn9xn8eZeBxR75mReFDxYK5s72kj5AufhY1rRh7VB1_jUk2D9l924M3ZVTVNqlBfdI2xsua5Ue3mWRAtCoiWWdGGZ4H4vjtrpyXGYqopMx6kZxuJwEq2y_rrm81ne_z1DQ0/s320/Greenfield+Village%252C+Edison+lab+1.JPG" /></a></div>Edison's Menlo Park, N.J. Lab at Greenfield Village.<br />
<br />
I even found touring Ford’s River Rouge plant interesting, walking on the catwalks high above the furnaces where steel was melted down and poured into frames. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj8IyQo4APaPUcn8iOuH_3bhA3bY3dwMBsRuAB6nqY8T7lYNuKwRNtteusfSQaUTIQYbqBUlyjwTMkzCE1ooorv0uYcpwO3g_fxo_BgiAsioZ-ZYkd_kSOdVPqC0Xg0andKA1_kCZ0_Dc/s1600/steel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="201" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj8IyQo4APaPUcn8iOuH_3bhA3bY3dwMBsRuAB6nqY8T7lYNuKwRNtteusfSQaUTIQYbqBUlyjwTMkzCE1ooorv0uYcpwO3g_fxo_BgiAsioZ-ZYkd_kSOdVPqC0Xg0andKA1_kCZ0_Dc/s320/steel.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I assumed that all industrial cities had their own unique charm, as Detroit did. But, today, by most accounts, Detroit is a dying city. It remains to be seen if the City will survive. If it does, I suspect it will become a much different city than the industrial city of my youth. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitP1_SM4gAY8dGgZqqXTvddPAtFpOwvtJOwIN0Vsfr4IGcq68MzsDXxt2cYiy40XvhwztXtvT_IRYiSrg-KNh7a_2m95hG51bS2LmDic2gGo-NGpYwhVh1eQWWR3ac-Zm7MjJbs1C8DMI/s1600/Dentist-Cabinet-Broderick-013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="320" width="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitP1_SM4gAY8dGgZqqXTvddPAtFpOwvtJOwIN0Vsfr4IGcq68MzsDXxt2cYiy40XvhwztXtvT_IRYiSrg-KNh7a_2m95hG51bS2LmDic2gGo-NGpYwhVh1eQWWR3ac-Zm7MjJbs1C8DMI/s320/Dentist-Cabinet-Broderick-013.jpg" /></a></div>Abandoned Dentist office, Detroit.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnOyJ5MDJv9mEI1BTUSQ2uSmLEVLgo9-uj0ormv7T9QVAS2E09StYDrH32yEVBH1pS3d8JnT_4DRb7v5lOwj6gAImUmzC8UzIwBNjmp2MMTKdiYw222NW490OdRCLCsvbL1jk4OYT3mdA/s1600/East-Methodist-Church-011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="250" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnOyJ5MDJv9mEI1BTUSQ2uSmLEVLgo9-uj0ormv7T9QVAS2E09StYDrH32yEVBH1pS3d8JnT_4DRb7v5lOwj6gAImUmzC8UzIwBNjmp2MMTKdiYw222NW490OdRCLCsvbL1jk4OYT3mdA/s320/East-Methodist-Church-011.jpg" /></a></div>Abandoned East Side Detroit Methodist Church<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwslyH1MeHU59OqZXGXlVcdH04bGEwjUy9IgZysDOYCmWb-WoLRE_kKO3MR74zR7SXi8FtLonRHG4uxw-CGkYCdl44KWFZ3HF6usZTnLTdu-NlUuB6gWuejXA4ZA5uekFbSux9cK82Z4/s1600/St-Christopher-House-ex-P-010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="258" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwslyH1MeHU59OqZXGXlVcdH04bGEwjUy9IgZysDOYCmWb-WoLRE_kKO3MR74zR7SXi8FtLonRHG4uxw-CGkYCdl44KWFZ3HF6usZTnLTdu-NlUuB6gWuejXA4ZA5uekFbSux9cK82Z4/s320/St-Christopher-House-ex-P-010.jpg" /></a></div>St Christopher House. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpyp4kicmKAB4T6QAr4WLU5v_bVTKnAPoHGow3h98XpzB4Ovx1xMjm4lc7qOogYROykQFzOwJcavPiHOcv4djc6rUfCDpEiblKCRAmpEP93t6loX_criEmWJISkOpUHv5FyGUf_Pcv_jk/s1600/The-ballroom-of-the-15-fl-003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="254" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpyp4kicmKAB4T6QAr4WLU5v_bVTKnAPoHGow3h98XpzB4Ovx1xMjm4lc7qOogYROykQFzOwJcavPiHOcv4djc6rUfCDpEiblKCRAmpEP93t6loX_criEmWJISkOpUHv5FyGUf_Pcv_jk/s320/The-ballroom-of-the-15-fl-003.jpg" /></a></div>Abandoned building with ballroom.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09gmLQUcmVH9jM-PRGmpu-xESzI9nLOhB0DXEbzoh6FQ18zShUKNqWM6IfIDPERp6aZbaj1DMf-PTg2AS_1LMaii-Nqw1lAEpDLoTkPVE6cA95WmmgT7i3_4YTmErA22NLtKPTMETMtw/s1600/Michigan-Theatre-012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="254" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09gmLQUcmVH9jM-PRGmpu-xESzI9nLOhB0DXEbzoh6FQ18zShUKNqWM6IfIDPERp6aZbaj1DMf-PTg2AS_1LMaii-Nqw1lAEpDLoTkPVE6cA95WmmgT7i3_4YTmErA22NLtKPTMETMtw/s320/Michigan-Theatre-012.jpg" /></a></div>Abandoned Detroit Theater<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZRceDk0XSu9o2ymA5Lmj7F-yT-4GOq9DEvOqBdgjB4ks4-syB6n_pgnTXZd22QSdglbDPdSAoBoqgVYK6UNA32sCMoWVGm2jdHvUpQZZTAQIwPGMq_X8iB3843s03i6GFMajBN-WbH0/s1600/William-Livingstone-House-005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="247" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZRceDk0XSu9o2ymA5Lmj7F-yT-4GOq9DEvOqBdgjB4ks4-syB6n_pgnTXZd22QSdglbDPdSAoBoqgVYK6UNA32sCMoWVGm2jdHvUpQZZTAQIwPGMq_X8iB3843s03i6GFMajBN-WbH0/s320/William-Livingstone-House-005.jpg" /></a></div>Abandoned House, one of too many in bombed-out looking neighborhoods.<br />
<br />
I’m so glad that my dad bought into the “Mythic West.” If he had not, he probably would have never left Detroit. But he did, and he found a new home where the air was crisp and smelled of pine trees, where from every window in his house that he built he could see the snow capped mountains, and where life was full of the work he wanted to do-- cleaning his barn, tending his horses, and talking to neighbors who were born and raised in his beloved West. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNq6ZiVE_GeOfOZCONnOPoz7JMKd7Ja6Tt3wEhBgOmfQyIHBO7CeeMwPIq4e3FbIBOFAtocNP7-aw7Yd-oNp94Z_qKp3lL_eWJcAsL7SDr2XKyKZNspPLHhM5WLjrgMZkddnb7VkuiEzg/s1600/dad-yard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="218" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNq6ZiVE_GeOfOZCONnOPoz7JMKd7Ja6Tt3wEhBgOmfQyIHBO7CeeMwPIq4e3FbIBOFAtocNP7-aw7Yd-oNp94Z_qKp3lL_eWJcAsL7SDr2XKyKZNspPLHhM5WLjrgMZkddnb7VkuiEzg/s320/dad-yard.jpg" /></a></div>In in front yard of his Montana "ranch."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWJRqRXoNyA02velnVGjQ35knutUy6Fq1WGbRkDXtGupbA-_XOaznVpJhLfCOtb2VTQqm666eJcKErn4mQQOnBVOx1lfM2t4tw9tuqu9cB6Sg8B7zjz-ox8XPnIbU8_2H6s7HVEW9n2dQ/s1600/dad-kids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="224" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWJRqRXoNyA02velnVGjQ35knutUy6Fq1WGbRkDXtGupbA-_XOaznVpJhLfCOtb2VTQqm666eJcKErn4mQQOnBVOx1lfM2t4tw9tuqu9cB6Sg8B7zjz-ox8XPnIbU8_2H6s7HVEW9n2dQ/s320/dad-kids.jpg" /></a></div>Dad with Grandkids on one of his horses.<br />
<br />
Like Detroit, I believe the western genre will too survive, and the stories will continue to offer readers the same adventure and excitement about a place that so caught the imagination of my dad’s generation. Thanks to all of you who continue to write about the American west.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-91528481943903036192010-11-26T09:40:00.000-08:002010-11-27T12:46:37.020-08:00Glacier National Park, The Great Northern Railway and the Blackfeet Portraits of Winold Reiss.In this year of 2010, Glacier National Park is celebrating 100 years as a national treasure. The Park, which straddles the Montana Canadian border in Northwest Montana, is one of the most remote of all parks in the National Park system. If it was not for the effort of railroad giant, James Hill, who pushed legislation through the U.S. Congress establishing Glacier 1910, this scenic wonderland of the Northwest may not have been preserved for future generations.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXvFtX1FklWKBgofqlGf0nj1r8tAnkL78tmWLILh-3UsL2uoJ-Q3hLD3usi8TRMkXkmKuescb2MmDgXzMcb0ODdxXJXdlomJdRmeRUmIaLKIme03ACgdfty2C1iS6Th2OooAaxGwJppJw/s1600/glacier-np.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXvFtX1FklWKBgofqlGf0nj1r8tAnkL78tmWLILh-3UsL2uoJ-Q3hLD3usi8TRMkXkmKuescb2MmDgXzMcb0ODdxXJXdlomJdRmeRUmIaLKIme03ACgdfty2C1iS6Th2OooAaxGwJppJw/s320/glacier-np.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543914928963628178" border="0" /></a><br />Glacier National Park<br /><br />James Hill envisioned a “Playground of the Northwest” that would attract people and their money from all over the world, moneyed people who traditionally traveled and enjoyed the sights and attractions of Europe. To interest visitors to Glacier, Hill, with the help of his son, Louis, embarked on an ambitious building spree, where they built a chain of hotels, chalets, boats, roads, and trails in the mountains of Glacier and created the banner, “See America First,” in order to entice visitors to the Rocky Mountain Northwest.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis8v2d0vFBQDpP3xXNg_nyrYEORjN0YVucfc71VzfJKNhkPpbHuL_PlBNXdgyYHO6lONoi9O0hj8gYCpOPToSamePRC_8pikFLwOCwaGmXv5PMnHJT6Dyhff83yFYlLZQfH15oU9EKOYA/s1600/many+Glacier+hotel.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis8v2d0vFBQDpP3xXNg_nyrYEORjN0YVucfc71VzfJKNhkPpbHuL_PlBNXdgyYHO6lONoi9O0hj8gYCpOPToSamePRC_8pikFLwOCwaGmXv5PMnHJT6Dyhff83yFYlLZQfH15oU9EKOYA/s320/many+Glacier+hotel.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543915232231803106" border="0" /></a><br />Many Glacier Hotel<br /><br />The motive behind all this activity was to promote travel on Hill’s Great Northern Railway.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SCemkaa3hFLuvyXgaae1Cb_vZ-9M8vbeaq9MdXQQuy6FZqz25LfShglQ4d5DBFXh8MHKN8oqU4XWeDCLvGSMPYTFyjCkSgYfRVAe1f4Kjm4GwsIvMC9CJNKVjEa-TNZ5esgokmFbSCs/s1600/railroad.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 302px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SCemkaa3hFLuvyXgaae1Cb_vZ-9M8vbeaq9MdXQQuy6FZqz25LfShglQ4d5DBFXh8MHKN8oqU4XWeDCLvGSMPYTFyjCkSgYfRVAe1f4Kjm4GwsIvMC9CJNKVjEa-TNZ5esgokmFbSCs/s320/railroad.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543916276322827586" border="0" /></a><br /><br />James Hill was one of several “captains” of the railroad industry in the United States, who made a fortune from investment in the transportation of goods and people on railways that linked America from coast to coast after the Civil War. In 1893, Hill’s Great Northern Railway connected the Upper Mississippi River Valley to Puget Sound.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXdDO3f3OHqnyj89gxejcYMpoMl48CFISVs4_Aaeb7A_ndl9XHlz98IvHyTXk-ChvaaFVsKQFEgdqT5Js7sJ9bzMKmlKkNGYZTNMYDE6DBhD2CXpLrlskg7PvjwdZ0_WkqBKPt7Q2nQNE/s1600/GN_Route_Map.png"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 122px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXdDO3f3OHqnyj89gxejcYMpoMl48CFISVs4_Aaeb7A_ndl9XHlz98IvHyTXk-ChvaaFVsKQFEgdqT5Js7sJ9bzMKmlKkNGYZTNMYDE6DBhD2CXpLrlskg7PvjwdZ0_WkqBKPt7Q2nQNE/s320/GN_Route_Map.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543916509035084802" border="0" /></a><br />Great Northern Route<br /><br />All along the route from Minneapolis to the Pacific, Hill promoted the Northwest as a wonderland of natural beauty; a land that still possessed many of the desirable attributes inherent in the American frontier. Hill also cashed in on the growing popularity of what historians in the twentieth century describe as the mythic West; a perception of the West in the American mind, where the exploits of cowboys, frontier army and Indians denoted adventure and unbridled heroism. The Native Americans, in particular, were of interest because of their role in promoting the “Wild West” with their performances in Buffalo Bill Cody’s wild west shows, which toured the United States and Europe between 1883 and 1917. At every stop along the tour, Native Americans in the show helped to recreate the Indian wars of the plains, audiences loved the excitement of western America. In the early twentieth century, The Great Northern helped to keep this romantic image of Native Americans alive by promoting the Blackfeet Nation, whose reservation extended along the eastern boundaries of the park; a trip to Glacier brought visitors in close proximity to the Blackfeet and their culture.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzYCgj3aQ8qMbAE6dUq4gPKYKzqtjMZlOS2v7Dus0L_XM-YR7yOt44BGW_HJnMAQD014Fpdhw3oXZE5Qnv3yqeBSZjlWGnjkFuK5FGF0PuB12zhHdrOjiWpjUSxpIWZ8dE4Yomhr5N0Y/s1600/Blackfeet_Indian_Reservation_map.PNG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 221px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzYCgj3aQ8qMbAE6dUq4gPKYKzqtjMZlOS2v7Dus0L_XM-YR7yOt44BGW_HJnMAQD014Fpdhw3oXZE5Qnv3yqeBSZjlWGnjkFuK5FGF0PuB12zhHdrOjiWpjUSxpIWZ8dE4Yomhr5N0Y/s320/Blackfeet_Indian_Reservation_map.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543916712636661826" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Blackfeet Indian Reservation<br /><br />Traditionally the Blackfeet nation consists of three different tribes with the same language and customs; the Pecunnies (Piegans), the Bloods, and the Blackfeet. Before moving onto the Plains, and adapting a nomadic culture centered on the buffalo, the Blackfeet lived around the "forest near Lesser Slave Lake. Incessant war forced upon them by the powerful Chippewas pushed them steadily southward until they reached the wide plains bordering the Rocky mountains in what is now Montana."[Frank Bird Linderman] The Blackfeet eventually occupied a region that ran north to south from Saskatchewan to the Yellowstone. Early Plains settlers and frontier military viewed the Blackfeet as a warrior society, who resisted white settlement in their region. At the end of the Plains Indian wars in the 1870s, the federal government moved the Blackfeet to land reserved for them east of what became Glacier National Park.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GYwjLNAeq2OS9yZQyIW-U2ZlUdTyx0WsMBjUciDwKazzOYoNapdZerCPsyrsbcEI63dxgQdrWBRZif04EGTDwlGizqSlHngopV8tGqQ5yjWonfkIQWIPkkYaR56SXoAlXVXhYl1e7NE/s1600/blackfeet+1914.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GYwjLNAeq2OS9yZQyIW-U2ZlUdTyx0WsMBjUciDwKazzOYoNapdZerCPsyrsbcEI63dxgQdrWBRZif04EGTDwlGizqSlHngopV8tGqQ5yjWonfkIQWIPkkYaR56SXoAlXVXhYl1e7NE/s320/blackfeet+1914.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543916990755524930" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Blackfeet 1914<br /><br />Once on reservations, the Blackfeet, along with other Native America Tribes, occupied the interest of anthropologist, writers and artists; many flocked to the American West in order to record what they believed were the last vestiges of Native America life. James Hill understood the draw that the Blackfeet would have as a “tourists attraction,” the search was on for an artists, who had a close association with the Blackfeet, and who could capture in Blackfeet portraits the colorful character of the people. The Great Northern Railway found such an artist in Winold Reiss.<br /><br />The Blackfeet gave Winold Reiss the name Beaver Child when they inducted him into the tribe in the winter of 1919.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMuU55cw4vGITlnbsqU3IsXGvjg_t2QTDQLzDtwPJPaas950De6-lw7UbbNk1NqpO1tSVa5FMrCLgCumpypOCdp8OWRdS9u0qdyy3yqTpRPT3y8gK7SyfaZ74v8GQ344OesQyXG3jg34/s1600/Winold+Reiss.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 251px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMuU55cw4vGITlnbsqU3IsXGvjg_t2QTDQLzDtwPJPaas950De6-lw7UbbNk1NqpO1tSVa5FMrCLgCumpypOCdp8OWRdS9u0qdyy3yqTpRPT3y8gK7SyfaZ74v8GQ344OesQyXG3jg34/s320/Winold+Reiss.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543917177405149714" border="0" /></a><br />Winold Reiss<br /><br />Reiss was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, the Black Forest region. He gained appreciation for cultural differences among people from his father, a German artist who focused his art in peasant cultures of the Black Forest. Both father and son trained at the Royal Academy in Munich. Winold was fascinated with the Indians of North American, a fascination fueled by the novels of James Fenimore Cooper. In 1913, Winold Reiss traveled to American to study the North American Indians. Reiss believed that he could use his art to break down racial barriers by picturing the honor, beauty, and dignity of all peoples. His bold style, coupled with his attention to detail of racial characteristics and cultural customs, made his Blackfeet portraits unique. In the summer of 1943, Reiss once again stayed with the Blackfeet, finishing 75 portraits. Many of these portraits appeared on Great Northern Railway calendars<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvWndmY0hxkEfDYJtdJ0NF-WwThOX0ko3qi0sJ_chwO2PDebBUCn5W9PndxIZjo7We2BGu_YgpqkAdOsMxDxZPHgNIebPg9Lg3mtT6nk7ED65GvDhyTphCKj6-KdP-spiiPDv6IBeu30A/s1600/calander.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 146px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvWndmY0hxkEfDYJtdJ0NF-WwThOX0ko3qi0sJ_chwO2PDebBUCn5W9PndxIZjo7We2BGu_YgpqkAdOsMxDxZPHgNIebPg9Lg3mtT6nk7ED65GvDhyTphCKj6-KdP-spiiPDv6IBeu30A/s320/calander.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543917412445654866" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and were included in a portfolio sold by the Great Northern Railway to promote Glacier National Park and rail travel to Blackfeet country in the 1940s.<br /><br />Portraits of the Blackfeet people by Winold Reiss:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4u-VstSI7SXvDjDdSCW5X3SVXWXB6yTEq9evlm75taDMC9ZrIdJhMJYoXyT2kqYbMBiuO6TWrrjCrxO1JigRZ5aWkYtraLzC2ZpUFPoGa2ZU9LNYXFyvegbOmcL6TlIMKe0Av4uY1wso/s1600/+JimBlood.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4u-VstSI7SXvDjDdSCW5X3SVXWXB6yTEq9evlm75taDMC9ZrIdJhMJYoXyT2kqYbMBiuO6TWrrjCrxO1JigRZ5aWkYtraLzC2ZpUFPoGa2ZU9LNYXFyvegbOmcL6TlIMKe0Av4uY1wso/s320/+JimBlood.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543918886426550610" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jim Blood</span>, an old Pecunnie brave<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS1oorYbsoCJDnBfHP_aw-ai8qukUw4PkZzJb7uazhhLMxW0hJBRdxz8lBlYFabP0-KuECd4oxKwmBoenFEHnU2m2BG-2UhY_9y1fz-zxj3Ullb3gDmn00KrJzT2XBn2Z3lEOMJKjWBgA/s1600/Only+Child.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 242px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS1oorYbsoCJDnBfHP_aw-ai8qukUw4PkZzJb7uazhhLMxW0hJBRdxz8lBlYFabP0-KuECd4oxKwmBoenFEHnU2m2BG-2UhY_9y1fz-zxj3Ullb3gDmn00KrJzT2XBn2Z3lEOMJKjWBgA/s320/Only+Child.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543919254861723970" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Only Child</span>, Pecunnie girl sitting against a tepee back-rest made of thin willow sticks<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVGSvEHV0rkvRTYmu7z4Qj7ChKBphBjWIDrh8FOF-sfaNOryyGXcKoeI-hD2zbElINH0P8DVn41k42hCHeq1pIIo_rh3r2Zgm0xtixYREadaBNIzEMdS77Hmo71Xe0kfT8TzdN3xt9Xp4/s1600/Plume.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 245px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVGSvEHV0rkvRTYmu7z4Qj7ChKBphBjWIDrh8FOF-sfaNOryyGXcKoeI-hD2zbElINH0P8DVn41k42hCHeq1pIIo_rh3r2Zgm0xtixYREadaBNIzEMdS77Hmo71Xe0kfT8TzdN3xt9Xp4/s320/Plume.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543919605333560898" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Plume</span>, a modern representation of the Kainahs--proud owner of many lodges, horses and a large heard of cattle.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0B4vjuUfGsfSyYMhiigbhHemOI-YXVpliaoQfSDi9S1XhRqbcRca7bd0NkBW9s20F0N9rjnTZijSOHpkSDb8hYTNRomcHXkqorGuqooErSQdMcUkZoN1SOszWvV3EhZlSvR19Jh3WNRw/s1600/short-man.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0B4vjuUfGsfSyYMhiigbhHemOI-YXVpliaoQfSDi9S1XhRqbcRca7bd0NkBW9s20F0N9rjnTZijSOHpkSDb8hYTNRomcHXkqorGuqooErSQdMcUkZoN1SOszWvV3EhZlSvR19Jh3WNRw/s320/short-man.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543920804383336466" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Short Man</span>, A fine old warrior of the Pecunnies who lived until his eight-sixth year. He was an expert sign talker.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXEdfPZeyrsz596rNBFUWZGI_3JvBikPrgyFCINe9vVp1QyebsX5ZILD8niek1Jw0XB7LAinqwsk0-hAr9-j0aLyl_cdHmZWe5N_BVwImuFT2V0foldwQlcFgN1sL2TsNK352duYbV5pY/s1600/big+face+chief.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 244px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXEdfPZeyrsz596rNBFUWZGI_3JvBikPrgyFCINe9vVp1QyebsX5ZILD8niek1Jw0XB7LAinqwsk0-hAr9-j0aLyl_cdHmZWe5N_BVwImuFT2V0foldwQlcFgN1sL2TsNK352duYbV5pY/s320/big+face+chief.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543921276151108354" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Big Face Chief</span>, A stalwart member of the north Pecunnie band of Blackfeet. His necklace and eagle wing fan mark him as a Medicine Man.)sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-83693597638114584422010-11-17T14:51:00.000-08:002010-11-26T10:17:03.653-08:00The Alaska-Canadian Highway<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01rIHgu6a5a-FdQg88SN0Cys3a8B54iBuPzjKTwYxC-IDJXIomS5mJ3_-UZRVkFep0YUFUUVa2q8dLAe0mhh3hqMxJ9roF1AzVVKcCCKFXGniCcoh7wpK2MdKX1hax1RbfClXhE6voM4/s1600/mountains.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 184px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01rIHgu6a5a-FdQg88SN0Cys3a8B54iBuPzjKTwYxC-IDJXIomS5mJ3_-UZRVkFep0YUFUUVa2q8dLAe0mhh3hqMxJ9roF1AzVVKcCCKFXGniCcoh7wpK2MdKX1hax1RbfClXhE6voM4/s320/mountains.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540655915022184578" border="0"></a><br /><br /><br />In 1942, the Army Corp of Engineers built the Alaska-Canadian Highway(service men called it the AlCan Highway) from Dawson Creek in the Yukon to Delta Junction, southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. Initially, the rough gravel road was thought necessary for American national security during the Second World War.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8c-_7nI60NnnJSYfD6xHlUZJ1njLjiJcAYV84jwH0mqeD5Yrvz0gtLmCxFLqBqwlWmBZhX0cx6waWtId8gEkQJc8OI-7PJZkVjyF1RuuNOFiC9ySV3yYI0N3YPEGJUAj7bV_zs2oCpjk/s1600/alcan1.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8c-_7nI60NnnJSYfD6xHlUZJ1njLjiJcAYV84jwH0mqeD5Yrvz0gtLmCxFLqBqwlWmBZhX0cx6waWtId8gEkQJc8OI-7PJZkVjyF1RuuNOFiC9ySV3yYI0N3YPEGJUAj7bV_zs2oCpjk/s320/alcan1.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540655562418447938" border="0"></a><br /><br />Today, tourist travel the AlCan highway as a more adventurous route to Alaska than traveling by boat along the North American costal waterway.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvS6B5xMYhOclhC8KZGU8czt_5eIHjkA457THBQlu9yrPedwCDFfKopmvHSrdockB5Auv9M5OhiTg3EYkTJytwRhWkHbVZeJK_9mJpCqfhK8HZfPuPTUJsMmLjTEUxH6za4Wp0FV1CTRo/s1600/inland+passage.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 310px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvS6B5xMYhOclhC8KZGU8czt_5eIHjkA457THBQlu9yrPedwCDFfKopmvHSrdockB5Auv9M5OhiTg3EYkTJytwRhWkHbVZeJK_9mJpCqfhK8HZfPuPTUJsMmLjTEUxH6za4Wp0FV1CTRo/s320/inland+passage.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540656164896562546" border="0"></a><br />Inside Passage<br /><br />A highway to link the lower 48 states to Alaska Territory was first proposed in the 1920s by Donald MacDonald, a senior engineer with the Alaska Road Commission. MacDonald believed that a coastal route from Prince George in British Columbia to Alaska’s southeastern towns would benefit commerce and would be an easy route to forge over already familiar territory. The biggest problem in the 1920s for construction of the highway was convincing the Canadian government that a road through Canada was necessary; The Canadians were reluctant to provide funds reasoning that there were few Canadians living in the area proposed for the highway.<br /><br />The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the fear of Japanese invasion of the North American coast and the Aleutian Islands brought the proposed highway back to the front burner. The United States Army believed that “a secure overland supply line to the unfinished airfields of the Northwest Staging Route and our military bases in Alaska was urgently needed.” The Army approved the project in 1942 and authorization from the U.S. Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt followed within days. Roosevelt understood that for homeland security there needed to be a supply line to airfields and military bases in Alaska. Roosevelt’s proposal was not without objections from those who considered many of the President’s programs “boon-doggles.” Roosevelt’s administration justified the billion dollar projected thusly: “That the effective defense of Alaska is of paramount importance to the defense of the continent from the west since Alaska is most exposed to an attempt by the enemy to establish a foothold in North American….That sea communications with Alaska in the future may be subject to serious interruption by enemy sea or air action. That the air route to Alaska and the defense facilities in Alaska cannot be fully utilized without adequate means of supply, for the air route, this can be best provided by a highway along this route.”<br /><br />The need was apparent, the route was still contested. In all there were four routes considered; route A along the coast; route B following the Rocky Mountain Trench; route C inland; and route D, which followed the Mackenzie River System. Of all routes, the route C was the most difficult to cut and critics believed it would take the longest to forge through uncharted wilderness. But, the Army liked route C because it was a direct line to the newly constructed air bases.<br /><br />The United States brokered a deal with Canada that allowed a highway through Canadian wilderness.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPG83Z3hF3ba5P5Mkuno0G0E7zIK5WVyFE14xAGJLH3p2Qihqi1uFTB9EcCY0qi9ihmZck0bqLVzfBMhkUAgLj-Je8_tckRyR38voOT142UTgldzincwDeNfgmbN7GQdsYlVmh9riCamo/s1600/yukon-wilderness.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPG83Z3hF3ba5P5Mkuno0G0E7zIK5WVyFE14xAGJLH3p2Qihqi1uFTB9EcCY0qi9ihmZck0bqLVzfBMhkUAgLj-Je8_tckRyR38voOT142UTgldzincwDeNfgmbN7GQdsYlVmh9riCamo/s320/yukon-wilderness.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540900578673109410" border="0"></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQjdwCaVMvGVKG6C3ipXCM-Cc2GozJipuk_M6Cqi86KyDePMNJQ4s2P3cfEFuMPHIXYpqRLPreJ5dKEZE_PlVplROW2LWLh3p1VJyYZ0vQO3XE0rMcK6Zhm_hH7uQoWvmlZ6zu2MbHQo/s1600/stretch+in+1942.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 197px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQjdwCaVMvGVKG6C3ipXCM-Cc2GozJipuk_M6Cqi86KyDePMNJQ4s2P3cfEFuMPHIXYpqRLPreJ5dKEZE_PlVplROW2LWLh3p1VJyYZ0vQO3XE0rMcK6Zhm_hH7uQoWvmlZ6zu2MbHQo/s320/stretch+in+1942.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540878465030747122" border="0"></a><br />AlCan Highway 1942<br /><br /><br />Even though the Canadian Government had no objections to the route through Canada, they would not grant funds for the highway, and insisted that after the war the road would be turned over to Canada. The Army Corps of Engineers started work on the highway in late spring of 1942. It was not an easy engineering feat for the Army to construct a highway through 1522 miles of rugged unmapped wilderness.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOmytY_C1D1nwuSxYSY64ghZe1GG1Ty9GqINUP6HqWNaEZf5_s2MJ_5jlfhsKqd9fl9KFGciA1SNy7w9U_Zf8VZ1TXToF6vI85seBkGdHo3nLHmZbq3pJymTAlxwn_1CLpcwS2qzHlcY/s1600/AlaskaHighway1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOmytY_C1D1nwuSxYSY64ghZe1GG1Ty9GqINUP6HqWNaEZf5_s2MJ_5jlfhsKqd9fl9KFGciA1SNy7w9U_Zf8VZ1TXToF6vI85seBkGdHo3nLHmZbq3pJymTAlxwn_1CLpcwS2qzHlcY/s320/AlaskaHighway1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540879240163143746" border="0"></a><br /><br />Some compared the construction of the highway with the building of the Panama Canal and Hoover Dam. It was especially difficult to build the road considering that Army manpower for such projects was scarce. But, there was an untapped pool of men in the army’s black Corps of Engineers; The Army sent the 93rd, 95th , 97th and 388th units, trained in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, to help construct the highway. Of the 10,670 men, military and civilian who worked on the highway, 3, 695 of Army Troops were African-American.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUGSts1CMGz-Nfk0iPaZVp95l6dv9-lkTcjYhpvnhAQmic2Eu74DHJaQqQyL6LkftNdax-Sc8ZgtFf9kIiLBCWmfvbbHSzkW2eSmUuQbib_GV73_TQ4rF-RzzWbl2D30OoT6GaOWw-ZKo/s1600/alcan3.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 204px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUGSts1CMGz-Nfk0iPaZVp95l6dv9-lkTcjYhpvnhAQmic2Eu74DHJaQqQyL6LkftNdax-Sc8ZgtFf9kIiLBCWmfvbbHSzkW2eSmUuQbib_GV73_TQ4rF-RzzWbl2D30OoT6GaOWw-ZKo/s320/alcan3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540879484522757970" border="0"></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq40LvkS8jRwfIqAOc1lvDPQTi2G06rI7wQuEG5Snai1udkcsuWjUhwbeZe1yZEPR-cJTw1gwXPmVFHWiTkkHV0ytWkTvLD72ReHwcaK726s3Vna2IwD0HUwXxu2HTgQ-SR_Sod9nZvbo/s1600/black+troops1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq40LvkS8jRwfIqAOc1lvDPQTi2G06rI7wQuEG5Snai1udkcsuWjUhwbeZe1yZEPR-cJTw1gwXPmVFHWiTkkHV0ytWkTvLD72ReHwcaK726s3Vna2IwD0HUwXxu2HTgQ-SR_Sod9nZvbo/s320/black+troops1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540879665773786594" border="0"></a><br /><br />At the beginning of armed conflict in Europe and the Pacific, African Americans in the U.S. Military were not allowed to serve on active duty. But, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a lack of manpower in the army started to change the prevailing view of African American’s role in the United States armed forces. But, perhaps the attack by the Japanese at Midway Island, and the attack at Dutch Harbor in June 1942 in Alaska’s Aleutians Islands (the only battle in the Pacific War that was fought in North America ) brought home the necessity for all Americans to work along side one another for a common goal to defeat the enemy.<br /><br />It took 8 months to build the Alaska-Canadian Highway. Construction began in the late Spring of 1942. The work was difficult if for no other reason than the wilderness terrain and the adverse weather condition. Memories of African-Americans mentioned the harsh living conditions in the very cold winter. They had to fight against frostbite and hoped to survive wading chest deep in freezing cold lakes to build bridges.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjIyUdzWDUdb-rVsFN5G7c-PN9KVxsGrxlM6PRprsup8_RQMonkB-pVjN5IL6JCJ5PPgNrWnzCuTvP3ToY2I-DAwajSDfu-xXeo2mA0gxf6TAGUZwE3jFOld2YFH8zm73AOs3ySAP3OEU/s1600/+95th_engineers.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 305px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjIyUdzWDUdb-rVsFN5G7c-PN9KVxsGrxlM6PRprsup8_RQMonkB-pVjN5IL6JCJ5PPgNrWnzCuTvP3ToY2I-DAwajSDfu-xXeo2mA0gxf6TAGUZwE3jFOld2YFH8zm73AOs3ySAP3OEU/s320/+95th_engineers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540879885301330578" border="0"></a><br />95th<br /><br />During the winter months, the temperature dropped to -70 degrees. One veteran remembered. “ For months on end, I couldn’t get a real night’s sleep. I had nightmares I was freezing to death.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNVT96Zom9VSi0LJCdUcNDlGcNMPZ6StXOCiqWne530cvdU-nW61sgdax23s65CJfu7gvZe0hcArFR71y5UBEsjEg_b-qVziTmcr6JFOX750o_UGOpiQsebcEvuXnQtu5kgZ11V37n1Pw/s1600/alcan2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNVT96Zom9VSi0LJCdUcNDlGcNMPZ6StXOCiqWne530cvdU-nW61sgdax23s65CJfu7gvZe0hcArFR71y5UBEsjEg_b-qVziTmcr6JFOX750o_UGOpiQsebcEvuXnQtu5kgZ11V37n1Pw/s320/alcan2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540880073331595954" border="0"></a><br /><br /><br />"We wore three pairs of socks at times, with rubber galoshes instead of shoes, because the leather would freeze. We had adequate clothing-- lined parkas, pants, mittens and heavy underwear, but it was still might cold. But I was a young man who felt he had a job to do, and I did it."<br />-Alexander Powel, Crane Operator, 97th Engineers<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN7NYsF1HMctwP2BDPiCtN5hotMbP7ztrJjA-CE3vnecqYwWYQriESvAKVwrTjQm-r9lWPKRyPCBzpHlG3nxb_L1wY4RIS7A5e_kd5km_22aSeZ1tfH9grv5IJTGT89_wVjo3JwomyqPE/s1600/camp_along_the_alcan_highway__1942_.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 231px; height: 170px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN7NYsF1HMctwP2BDPiCtN5hotMbP7ztrJjA-CE3vnecqYwWYQriESvAKVwrTjQm-r9lWPKRyPCBzpHlG3nxb_L1wY4RIS7A5e_kd5km_22aSeZ1tfH9grv5IJTGT89_wVjo3JwomyqPE/s320/camp_along_the_alcan_highway__1942_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540880283161630610" border="0"></a><br /><br />The troops lived in temporary tent camps in an environment where temps could easily go to 40 below zero. Their mess facilities were out of doors and food was served up in mess kits that some suggested were “slightly improved from the Civil War.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2BwAU6nYtetrt7ifHBqvI6TN7Y74twUa7wzDr02KKkofWy35cq2yiJxUnpDP2u9DoXnsOjn2mjtynUbh0dVA2Kf9-5bJDV8MPo9i2r_gwujTAzVY5SrG0CSgXENwbkMTuaYTS3C7gjzk/s1600/cook_42alcan-vi.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 248px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2BwAU6nYtetrt7ifHBqvI6TN7Y74twUa7wzDr02KKkofWy35cq2yiJxUnpDP2u9DoXnsOjn2mjtynUbh0dVA2Kf9-5bJDV8MPo9i2r_gwujTAzVY5SrG0CSgXENwbkMTuaYTS3C7gjzk/s320/cook_42alcan-vi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540880505335367250" border="0"></a><br /><br /><br />Their tents were equipped with wood stoves, wood they cut by hand with cross cut saws and double-bitted axes. These same axes were used to clear the highway path while bulldozers pushed stumps out of the way. Timber that they cleared was also used to make bridges and culverts.<br /><br />The Alaska Canadian Highway took eight months to complete. Proponents of the highways believed it was the single most engineering feat of World War Two. The highway was immediately used as the intended supply line to air bases in Nome and Fairbanks. In all, 7000 planes were delivered to Alaska. All along the route, every 300 miles, the service men built gravel run ways for planes to refuel and continue their trek to Russia and the European Allies.<br /><br />Building of the AlCan highway was more than an engineering feat; it brought together black and white soldiers who worked outside segregation for a common goal of duty and the protection of the United States of America.<br /><br />The Army completed the AlCan Highway on November 20, 1942. Construction crews worked from both ends of the Highway and met at what is now called "Soldier's Summit" at Kluane Lake in Yukon Territory.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRLTqQVbKz31o777wec3idmzNcLBRX8A3Z04XwlD0nD9ll9Gkr0S14mmIuYFIeQwU84KnZ96drrOp1c0e0ttLnmOupG_Lba3mdQOd0nRK8eI4poTGqlaTcGZXXNBFoZhQLPQG6SkhEspo/s1600/kluane+lake.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 243px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRLTqQVbKz31o777wec3idmzNcLBRX8A3Z04XwlD0nD9ll9Gkr0S14mmIuYFIeQwU84KnZ96drrOp1c0e0ttLnmOupG_Lba3mdQOd0nRK8eI4poTGqlaTcGZXXNBFoZhQLPQG6SkhEspo/s320/kluane+lake.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540896955764125122" border="0"></a><br />Kluane Lake<br />Henry George Glyde<br />Canadian (1906-1998)<br /><strong>Kluane Lake on Alaska Highway</strong>, 1949<br />oil on canvas<br />Glenbow Museum Collection<br /><br />In 1948, the Alaska-Canadian Highway was opened to the public. The rough gravel road was paved in the 1990s<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LjDv7iHT7UZn5V7GFBxTxq41dViCNueWbp5IalxpK84pHEJVLk3JV5xOvW7bE_qOkUw2wXgrdnnfQFKz6kJkNndcmoekeqECXgVqd1Fm7FJe3PjhPmCAFG69uG0VvBhGaQ43FSwRwG0/s1600/todays-hyway.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LjDv7iHT7UZn5V7GFBxTxq41dViCNueWbp5IalxpK84pHEJVLk3JV5xOvW7bE_qOkUw2wXgrdnnfQFKz6kJkNndcmoekeqECXgVqd1Fm7FJe3PjhPmCAFG69uG0VvBhGaQ43FSwRwG0/s320/todays-hyway.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540880750768142738" border="0"></a><br />Today’s Highwaysue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-69730612333558048642010-10-23T10:08:00.000-07:002010-10-27T13:59:14.550-07:00Play That One Again, Eli<span style="font-style: italic;">Note: Bob Foster is a frequent guest author on Western Americana Blog. His last article , "Yuma Territorial Prison 1875-1909" appeared in June, 2010. Bob’s following article is an interesting side of Mormon history that provides insight into some cultural aspects of Mormon country in which Bob’s family lived since early settlement in 1852. I hope readers enjoy this piece as much as I did….SUE </span><br /><br />Wild, foot-stomping Barney music came to the remote silver mining town of Pioche, Nevada, around the turn of the century, in a rather round about fashion. Barney musical talent crossed the plains from Illinois in 1852, in the person of my maternal Great Grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Barney.<br /><br />Twenty years old, married, with two small children, he and his wife stopped their wagon alongside a muddy Iowa trail for a brief moment to bury one of their babies who died of fever, then pressed on another thousand miles to the safety of the towering Rocky Mountains of Utah.<br /><br />Benjamin could sing and play the push button accordion, the fiddle and guitar. At night, around the campfire, musicians in the wagon train would take out their fiddles, guitars, banjos, harmonicas and accordions and play some rousing tunes.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUnU2sxUj0zYzPLZn3q22nhmvw8CvKHCjxQb5erkTYC55u2rSMQrpVOoJ8cDcwwoIzcrrg1PTyVJB18XyCbxMbESQWPRUB6-7UdzAFsRT0FrftlBd9JVcAsVsrSWy0_HQPUhJdso4fQfk/s1600/Oregon-Trail.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUnU2sxUj0zYzPLZn3q22nhmvw8CvKHCjxQb5erkTYC55u2rSMQrpVOoJ8cDcwwoIzcrrg1PTyVJB18XyCbxMbESQWPRUB6-7UdzAFsRT0FrftlBd9JVcAsVsrSWy0_HQPUhJdso4fQfk/s320/Oregon-Trail.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532823836902328530" border="0" /></a><br /><br />People from all over camp quickly gathered about, the fatigue of the long, grueling day on the rough trail slowly fading away as the lively music enveloped them.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsLhlDvzAwvMK40nopnzJ2qgjaFsvhCSLiSgmt9PCfChmBh37A-7IfZ0kdO2Q1bbmhlGzUG6cdkNi_w6b9dE3rQMCRgNEQ-Uq7J0D0Sx9eUI_nPaJqbYva4NJRi6XU9WgDJzK7huso1Q0/s1600/oregontrail.jpeg.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 162px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsLhlDvzAwvMK40nopnzJ2qgjaFsvhCSLiSgmt9PCfChmBh37A-7IfZ0kdO2Q1bbmhlGzUG6cdkNi_w6b9dE3rQMCRgNEQ-Uq7J0D0Sx9eUI_nPaJqbYva4NJRi6XU9WgDJzK7huso1Q0/s320/oregontrail.jpeg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532824548219834322" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Hands clapped and feet thumped as Great Grandpa called out "Old Dan Tucker”-- talking, laughter, mingling together, many dancing. The music had wings to it. Bow to your partner and doe-se-doe and swing. The stars smiling, the night crowding in, the wild mountain music with the high beat of the heart in it, the feet moving of themselves on the prairie grass.<br /><br />"Play that one again, Benjamin," someone would holler. Benjamin lined up a Mormon Quadrille, in which the man leads out with two partners. The music starts, the dancers whirl. Then followed a square dance, the moves being called out in cadence by Great Grandpa.<br /><br />Music was a Mormon tradition and was pushed along by talented musicians, whether on the vast rolling plains of Iowa and Nebraska or in the beautiful Social Hall in Great Salt Lake City. Brass bands, choirs, solos and playing musical instruments were the major forms of musical art in early Utah. In the 1860's tastes in music were improved by immigrants from England.<br /><br />Benjamin settled in remote Elsinore, Utah,<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-lQ5sfcjrrmhIeonqIkeHXL2LOlRDeZ1q1LUXxFKmuNXzqmeYrK1xgVlKGJOPaxSEGr7iYe3E9fYUtDM_k5MPt3Rcp9UHvYx52GjLn9ccnm9QO07UsBBJ7wcaKyk6MbbR5UZWaFpgirY/s1600/Elsinore+.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-lQ5sfcjrrmhIeonqIkeHXL2LOlRDeZ1q1LUXxFKmuNXzqmeYrK1xgVlKGJOPaxSEGr7iYe3E9fYUtDM_k5MPt3Rcp9UHvYx52GjLn9ccnm9QO07UsBBJ7wcaKyk6MbbR5UZWaFpgirY/s320/Elsinore+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532824918582238962" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Elsinore is about one hundred fifty five miles south of Salt Lake City, and raised a very large family, passing on his musical talents to several of his sons, some of whom formed a western band. His son Elias, my Grandfather, never had a music lesson, but he learned to play the fiddle, the push button accordion, guitar, banjo, and harmonica.<br /><br />Whenever word spread that the Barney Brothers would be playing on Saturday night people came from miles around for a good old rip-snortin' night of music and dancing. But there wasn't much money to be generated from those poor country folk. By the time the four brothers divided up the take for the evening it was almost the same as playing for free.<br /><br />At one of those shin-digs Elias ran into some gold miners from Kimberly,<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisckLNzJ1ggm4Fx_fV8kcRpaSo_64aOE-pKjCp9RTh-7Fc8YuzrFXattZz7NTmvU0SxeYI1N0Ck67gJglkaFI7DEBDzyux0X2cxdkUjOmlSy2y2D6NRU_RNStTUO28nm4nLfHH95bFOwk/s1600/+kimberly.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisckLNzJ1ggm4Fx_fV8kcRpaSo_64aOE-pKjCp9RTh-7Fc8YuzrFXattZz7NTmvU0SxeYI1N0Ck67gJglkaFI7DEBDzyux0X2cxdkUjOmlSy2y2D6NRU_RNStTUO28nm4nLfHH95bFOwk/s320/+kimberly.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532825938821105106" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />a wild, rowdy gold camp high in the Tushar Mountains of Piute County, just twenty five miles south of Elsinore. "Hell, Elias," one miner told him, "you could make more off'n your music up in them Kimberly saloons in one night than playing at Church socials or dances down here in a year!""I'd never even thought of that!" Grandpa said. So he and his brothers sought the counsel of their religious father, Benjamin, asking what he thought about them playing in saloons. "No, absolutely not! You're not going into those dens of iniquity, full of sin, lashed by the tempests of lust and passion!" he growled.<br /><br />But the boys were free spirits, not given much to religion, nor advice from their father for that matter, so they loaded their instruments in a wagon, pointed the team south, and headed up the mountain to Kimberly, 9500 feet above sea level.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2G9Rw1guUwz5JaB2HDEWDgoHoAjjsE7S6acK0hRHOmvdsIT6X1kGcKaxe18uiFOOQ8PaTCz7ZhsKQufg8J5nlskuMUWi7iirHSehrU15VYA0XR64NsNQv2ZDCO79L1z091m37habAmds/s1600/+KimberlyUtah010.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2G9Rw1guUwz5JaB2HDEWDgoHoAjjsE7S6acK0hRHOmvdsIT6X1kGcKaxe18uiFOOQ8PaTCz7ZhsKQufg8J5nlskuMUWi7iirHSehrU15VYA0XR64NsNQv2ZDCO79L1z091m37habAmds/s320/+KimberlyUtah010.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532825631285469074" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Their band was an instant hit in the gold camp, sometimes playing all night in saloons, stores, and even in cabins with wooden floors. Folks in Kimberly were happy for any kind of music and especially loved some of the old tunes like Old Zip Coon, Bonnie Doon and Turkey in the Straw; and they absolutely loved fiddle music. One elderly woman told Elias, "you fellers sure can play them fiddles. Some fiddlers come up here last year and they sounded just like a bunch of bees in a beer bottle!"<br /><br />Grandpa grinned as he told it. "When them miners get liquored up, they were mighty free spenders, I can tell you! We'd often make over a hundred dollars on a Saturday night. But sometimes they'd get mean and want to fight. I'd accommodate them, always betting on the outcome--me of course! I never met a drunk man I couldn't whip with my fists, out wrestle or outdraw with a gun!" I believed him, too, because he was six feet tall, one hundred eighty five pounds of pure grit and muscle, with sandy red hair, big hands--and a gunsmith in his spare time!<br /><br />One cold, fall night Grandpa stopped at a saloon in Kimberly for three fingers of whiskey and ran into some miners from Pioche, Nevada, a much larger camp than Kimberly, who told him Barney music would fit right in with that rowdy Pioche crowd. After hearing how many saloons Pioche laid claim to and learning of the wide open opportunities for talented musical entrepreneurs Grandpa and his brothers again packed the wagon with their musical instruments, some grub and blankets, and headed 250 miles southwest to find out what the legendary Nevada silver camp had to offer.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg114-8ALC8TztNiYyY0cdgKbd-QCNFE6T71OJ8cCyyydcuPuqOvcIS_Uej872W3oIG70VNxU0nYDDPWSFO8B17I9Gn-9TgQkID-bMeSfmrOMmBdQWmAOkK64J2mNNNJXpDN093BiEZe-c/s1600/pioche2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 204px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg114-8ALC8TztNiYyY0cdgKbd-QCNFE6T71OJ8cCyyydcuPuqOvcIS_Uej872W3oIG70VNxU0nYDDPWSFO8B17I9Gn-9TgQkID-bMeSfmrOMmBdQWmAOkK64J2mNNNJXpDN093BiEZe-c/s320/pioche2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532826876187239538" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Grandpa Eli loved Pioche at first sight! Saloons glittered with their gaudy bars and fancy glasses, and many colored liquors, and thirsty men swilled the burning poison. He told me, "now that was my kind of town. If I wanted a hot whiskey toddy I could have it. If I wanted to sleep in til noon I could. I could come and go as I pleased, free from all fashions and social conventions of society." About half the community were thieves, scoundrels and murderers, while the other half were the best folks in the world. Among them, he said, our lives and property were as safe as they were back in Utah. But Grandpa found more excitement among the scoundrels and thieves! And they all loved Barney music!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiu5C3Is1Wky8why8oEjiuv4Z_0gn28nn3B4YSbDHWkeoQTOXm4M5CKd3exXYOYvc1HVzVdLc12EAQfSYFr4h6rZcd7pngs51t6w0e-l8U0W4DK5rNQb5uz8stGisLCjxhazqQffYcvoQ/s1600/saloon.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 265px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiu5C3Is1Wky8why8oEjiuv4Z_0gn28nn3B4YSbDHWkeoQTOXm4M5CKd3exXYOYvc1HVzVdLc12EAQfSYFr4h6rZcd7pngs51t6w0e-l8U0W4DK5rNQb5uz8stGisLCjxhazqQffYcvoQ/s320/saloon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532830387210068274" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Grandpa could walk into any saloon in town--tell them who he was, and he and his brothers had a job playing music if they wanted it. So they played their wild, western style of music in many of Pioche's smokey saloons. Where they'd made a hundred dollars on a good night in Kimberly they could make from $300 to $500 on a good Saturday night in Pioche, not so much for their fine music, but because of the miners' state of complete inebriation!<br /><br />At one of the larger dens of iniquity, I believe Grandpa called it the Edwards Saloon, around midnight when the miners and the Barney boys were well liquored up, they would really cut loose with that wild mountain music the miners could stomp their boots to. Drunk or sober, those four brothers could make their instruments talk! At the conclusion of a savage, stompin' dance hall tune the miners would shout, clap, and toss gold coins onto the stage shouting and hollering, "Play that one again, Eli!"<br /><br /><br />Those golden coins were most interesting. A $20 gold piece was about as large as today's silver dollar; the $10 gold piece about the size of today's 50 cent piece; and the $2.50 gold piece about the size of today's dime. There were also three different $1 gold coins in circulation. The Barneys had to keep a sharp eye out to see where some of those smaller coins rolled. Grandpa was often surprised at the number of $20 gold pieces they gathered up after a performance. There was also a $3 gold piece, about the size of today's nickel. If you happen to find one, get to a coin dealer fast; for they are very rare and extremely valuable!<br /><br />Once in a while the Barney Brothers would slow the tempo, playing a sad, nostalgic piece, sometimes harmonizing and singing the sad, lonesome words of love, life, hard times and death. Miners ceased talking as the music filled an empty void, and they each contemplated their difficult, laborious lives, working grueling ten-hour shifts, deep in dark, dangerous underground tunnels, trying to make enough money to support a wife and kids, vainly hoping to save enough of a grub stake to transfer to something better for them and their families, many knowing full well they were trapped in a situation they could never get out of.<br /><br />Grandpa said a Paiute Indian led a Mormon missionary, William Hamblin, to a large silver deposit in the vicinity of Pioche in 1864. But because of Indian troubles and technical difficulties in reducing the ore nothing much happened. By 1869 several men, including San Francisco entrepreneur Francois L.A. Pioche, who never visited Pioche, though the town was named after him, purchased property in the area and formed the Meadow Valley Mining Company. In 1870 they successfully separated the silver from the ore using chemical processing, thereby opening the area to a flurry mining activity; and Pioche was born.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzH0wq77XZsbkzoD2Gcc1XoGHrK3ZF1QgumttreMOmrSRd-7n-4_W4aIOrnlIh0eaX23k-WPba3wRyCMU8imM5JRTjhp4SwF-SgQj4YoQAsZCBcVkL244P2lGPL9QRWAIHvDx_GE6JerI/s1600/mineshaft.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzH0wq77XZsbkzoD2Gcc1XoGHrK3ZF1QgumttreMOmrSRd-7n-4_W4aIOrnlIh0eaX23k-WPba3wRyCMU8imM5JRTjhp4SwF-SgQj4YoQAsZCBcVkL244P2lGPL9QRWAIHvDx_GE6JerI/s320/mineshaft.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532830797178596514" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3q_2l1ne3dYND4QHN8lae7ywPgBE-qjlRiMbMueuLyJxyV_2GG6Il_C47dTBkkmrhlD1f_-igQC7EyX7jmv5AGC0JyYXr91-KYsTAIscOfawPMK3LJj5SM4LAe7DPMpoHF8mW00ZGVv0/s1600/mine.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 193px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3q_2l1ne3dYND4QHN8lae7ywPgBE-qjlRiMbMueuLyJxyV_2GG6Il_C47dTBkkmrhlD1f_-igQC7EyX7jmv5AGC0JyYXr91-KYsTAIscOfawPMK3LJj5SM4LAe7DPMpoHF8mW00ZGVv0/s320/mine.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532831120766125042" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Though leery of lawmen the Barneys knew it was in their best interests to obtain the blessing of local law enforcement officials before they played any music or gambled. In the West, in those days, especially in Nevada, lawmen got a cut of any revenue made by anyone in the saloon business. A saloon owner in Pioche told Grandpa the Sheriff's office in the 1870's was worth $40,000 a year in bribes alone. If a sheriff turned in an expense account of $15,000 for a 200-mile trip it was paid without question. The saloon owner also told him of a deputy sheriff who killed three desperados on three different street corners within seconds.<br /><br />Most of the violence in Pioche resulted from questions concerning the exact location of mining claims and the presence of ore-chutes that extended through a series of claims. There was great temptation to "jump" other miners' claims or dispute them in court. To protect their claims mine owners formed vigilance committees, then finally resorted to hiring guards, professional toughs and gunmen, at $20 a day. Sometimes twenty thugs were hired in one day, and they used brute force against claim jumpers.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNoEwFwCgupyuM52C6hfpLXT3z0TlGLBhrj_4lCRg672vugPWbsTriyqxUnbDV6clpFCipu_FQNp_-b2p1ASAdvEeW4pSRQYpuhlDbiNsfMoQj00mMMxi2F5fK35s2BcLZCP3OwtVwr8/s1600/piochejail.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNoEwFwCgupyuM52C6hfpLXT3z0TlGLBhrj_4lCRg672vugPWbsTriyqxUnbDV6clpFCipu_FQNp_-b2p1ASAdvEeW4pSRQYpuhlDbiNsfMoQj00mMMxi2F5fK35s2BcLZCP3OwtVwr8/s320/piochejail.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532831564101986978" border="0" /></a><br />Pioche Jail<br /><br />Elias Barney enjoyed living in the wild environment created by tough lawmen and outlaws. Being quite young he was independent, untidy and hard living. He seriously thought about settling down in Pioche but was unable to find a good woman to marry. I'm sure he could have if he'd played at Church socials instead of in saloons! But I never dared say it to his face!<br /><br />When the Barney Brothers arrived in Pioche at the turn of the century to introduce their particular brand of music, the town was partially civilized, slightly tamer than it was in the 1870's and 80's. From it's start its official start in 1870 the town grew rapidly until 1873, when its population peaked at 10,000. During that boom period, there were seventy two saloons, three hurdie-gurdies, two breweries, and two daily newspapers with wire service. Guns were the only law and Pioche made Bodie, Tombstone and other wild western towns pale in comparison. That became evident to Grandpa when he visited Pioche's famous "Boot Hill Cemetery" where many rows of gunshot and knifing victims lay buried under wooden markers.<br /><br />Like all young men, Grandpa enjoyed visiting with the old timers in Pioche who all claimed that seventy five men died violently before anyone died of natural causes! Most had witnessed gun fights in the streets, and saw lawmen and outlaws come and go, many exhibiting their expert skills as gunfighters.<br /><br />After spending some very interesting and memorable months in Pioche, Elias Barney returned to Elsinore, Utah, to become the farmer and rancher his father always wanted him to be. But it was tough to return to the sedate life of a rural Utah farmer, after sampling the excitement of Pioche's noisy, smokey saloons. There wasn't a good old smelly saloon within a five day's ride in any direction from that central Utah town. So he settled down, bought some land and married a lovely young lady, Jane Green, from Parowan, Utah, on January 31, 1901. They were married for sixty years, until Jane died in 1961. They had eleven children, all of whom lived to adulthood, married and gave Elias and Jane 37 grandchildren and 105 great grandchildren<br /><br />Grandpa Eli's musical talent was passed on to some of his children, with whom he formed a band. They played Barney music at dances, church socials, and other functions in the Elsinore area. Grandpa usually played his push button accordion or the fiddle. His son Larcell (Lars) played guitar and banjo, daughter Wanda played piano accordion, and daughter Betty played guitar.<br /><br />During the 1950's Elias' family band sometimes played on Saturday afternoons on radio station KSVC in Richfield, Utah, the County Seat of Sevier County. Grandpa Barney's brothers also passed on musical talents to some of their children, and those nieces and nephews often played with the Elias Barney group.<br /><br />In the 1960's, when Grandpa Elias was in his late eighties, living alone on the old homestead, I'd stop by from time to time to see how he was getting along.<br /><br />He'd always ask, "did I ever tell you about the time me and my brothers played over in the Pioche saloons, and them drunken miners would throw twenty-dollar gold pieces on the stage and holler, 'play that one again, Eli?'"<br /><br />Though I'd heard his Pioche tale many times, out of courtesy I'd always say, "no, Grandpa, why don't you tell me about it?"<br /><br />His face beamed and his eyes sparkled as he lit into a tale of the old west and his particular part in it. I sat quietly, looking up at the old double-barreled shotgun on pegs in the wall, a memento of those exciting days, Grandpa's "other life," as he called that long ago time.<br /><br />When he finished his tale he'd ask, "would you like me to play you a tune?" He was already opening the battered old accordion case. Out came the old push button accordion and I watched his knurled, aged fingers, now severely crippled by arthritis, try to find those tiny button keys. Grandpa closed his eyes, as if remembering pleasant memories from long ago, squeezed the old squeeze box, tapping his toe on the floor, keeping time with the music. He made a few mistakes, sometimes pushing two buttons at a time. Music filled the room.<br /><br /><br />Finishing his rendition of the Yellow Rose of Texas, and shaking his head sadly, he placed the instrument back in its case, and apologized. "I ain't near as good as when I was young."<br /><br />A nostalgic look crept into his gray eyes and he smiled at me. "Ah Bobbie Boy. What grand times those were! I sure wish you could have been there in Pioche to share them with me and my brothers.”<br /><br />Me too, Grandpa!<br /><br />The End<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> References<br /><br />Personal recollections of Robert L. Foster as told to him by his Grandfather, Elias Barney<br /><br />Pamphlets and other interesting Pioche literature, furnished by Peggy Draper, Head librarian, Lincoln County Public Library, Pioche, NV.<br /><br />Some Dreams Die, Frisco: by George A. Thompson, P. 128: Dream Garden Press, Salt Lake City, UT, 1982<br /><br />Utah's Heritage, by S. George Ellsworth, pp.166-236-237: Perigrine Books, Salt Lake City, UT<br /><br />Mormon Country, by Wallace Stegner, P. 13: University of Nebraska Press<br /><br /><br />An Enduring Legacy by Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Volume 12, 1989<br />Ghost Towns of Nevada by Donald C. Miller, pp.104-107: Pruett Publishing Co. Boulder, CO, 1979sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-4245409617277107792010-09-12T14:05:00.000-07:002010-09-13T12:42:34.675-07:00Painted Rocks: Pictogrpahs at Flathead Lake MontanaIf you have ever been to Flathead Lake Montana in the summer, you know the beauty of the thirty-two mile long lake, especially the eastern shore where the Mission Mountains provide a spectacular backdrop to the crystal blue water.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjrJGGV6zwpegIO753qLe5tPbcH0VraOEj6EBCcfc2GsIHslZQNeuVlzcDDYIruq_icSKsbQdrOmtcMu5XSs0v0TzgS9FO3ewhsGZLJBQdgKFd2k8l9M5Z4Q5EkwCubGhsWoFvRFeGa4/s1600/4.+FlatheadLake.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjrJGGV6zwpegIO753qLe5tPbcH0VraOEj6EBCcfc2GsIHslZQNeuVlzcDDYIruq_icSKsbQdrOmtcMu5XSs0v0TzgS9FO3ewhsGZLJBQdgKFd2k8l9M5Z4Q5EkwCubGhsWoFvRFeGa4/s320/4.+FlatheadLake.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516136559592687378" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Flathead Lake is fifteen miles wide, Thirty-two miles long, and at its deepest point, 368 ft. deep. It is the largest lake west of the Mississippi River.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBAi5GGNw2PDOv0NWDHtB5V2Qk0039QhD95j6ZtdTG0JLieEG3VdarjG9z94f0K9krtwLRpWjF2uXVZhHasuhfzkvf1OkO_HcbC_b7FJP1lxYGHiZB8HO0UHWPbKchZ5XmvyizSBGYheE/s1600/3.+FlatheadLake.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBAi5GGNw2PDOv0NWDHtB5V2Qk0039QhD95j6ZtdTG0JLieEG3VdarjG9z94f0K9krtwLRpWjF2uXVZhHasuhfzkvf1OkO_HcbC_b7FJP1lxYGHiZB8HO0UHWPbKchZ5XmvyizSBGYheE/s320/3.+FlatheadLake.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516142362591130642" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Fur trader David Thompson was the first European to see Flathead Lake. In 1812, while staying at the Hudson Bay Post trading post, Saleesh House, in what is now the Flathead Valley, he explored the region, first going to present day Missoula to look at the area described by Lewis and Clark, and then north through a long wide valley that ended at the southern end of the today’s Flathead Lake.<br /><br />The Salish people of the Columbia Plateau, traders, and Hudson Bay Company employees dominated the intermountain region until the Jesuits built Catholic missions in the 1840s in present day, Washington, Idaho and Montana. In Montana, the fathers built St. Ignatius Mission at the foot of the Mission Mountains to serve the Kootenai, Pend O’relles and Flathead. (Salish who once lived in the Columbia Plateau. Today known as the Confederated Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation located in Western Montana.) Flathead Lake was explored and well known to the Salish people.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6l8JXKtEb2fVFg-KvXR8awpVg0Iib9MLeJIe47M74aeTjI4wrE7jeJfT3gCH4F0GoNXfS1splENBTHQzh5slhcgxYtun95W4P2TEIYSsYCOLcjfRUK2yg20rYFEoRpo4clzFfCHMAGKg/s1600/Indian-Meadows.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6l8JXKtEb2fVFg-KvXR8awpVg0Iib9MLeJIe47M74aeTjI4wrE7jeJfT3gCH4F0GoNXfS1splENBTHQzh5slhcgxYtun95W4P2TEIYSsYCOLcjfRUK2yg20rYFEoRpo4clzFfCHMAGKg/s320/Indian-Meadows.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516140037244942962" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMfdA6XqNudwyaXC64uz9_GVbI4LeRl7xgM4G7wz3XYDFWe0nEKl2VWZ-CoWRO0tP-qG5sSsakNM4FeprhbkSk2AAQR1Y94JvO5UMS9O4znRH1lgy1pxtz1BilHk5h6EZST_LDgwMYpZc/s1600/StIgnatiusMission.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMfdA6XqNudwyaXC64uz9_GVbI4LeRl7xgM4G7wz3XYDFWe0nEKl2VWZ-CoWRO0tP-qG5sSsakNM4FeprhbkSk2AAQR1Y94JvO5UMS9O4znRH1lgy1pxtz1BilHk5h6EZST_LDgwMYpZc/s320/StIgnatiusMission.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516143071936283410" border="0" /></a><br />St. Ignatius Mission,<br /><br />Along the western shore of Flathead Lake rock cliffs ascend out of the water adding a rugged backdrop to this picturesque lake.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83RqKJ0ULbz1qgd-C3T30cHZUqs76MdHfmUVN0naRhanWAp3Ave2TEKhoZIyroV_7JXJNF1mt4ZXFH-O_41hvebgs7c0cr_DkkPlHKhMX3d8DVc2mw2yfa1t-1KfMf7ubX_O4_fAbA80/s1600/cliff1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83RqKJ0ULbz1qgd-C3T30cHZUqs76MdHfmUVN0naRhanWAp3Ave2TEKhoZIyroV_7JXJNF1mt4ZXFH-O_41hvebgs7c0cr_DkkPlHKhMX3d8DVc2mw2yfa1t-1KfMf7ubX_O4_fAbA80/s320/cliff1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516143696913564642" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />On seven of these rock outcroppings, there are ancient depictions of a native people who once inhabited the Flathead Lake region before the Salish. These pictographs painted on cliffs and petrographs carved into basalt that line the lakes and rivers of western Montana, and the Pacific Northwest, provide an artistic record of approximately three thousand of years of Native American culture.<br /><br />Ethnologists, who have studied rock carvings, believe that the native people drew pictures during puberty rituals, vision quests, and other religious activities. The Salish in western Montana were probably the first to notice the pictures painted on the cliffs along Flathead Lake, which today can only be viewed from the water. Oral history of the people indicate that they established the rock cliff pictographs as sacred places; it was common for the people to add their own art to the already existing pictures. In western Montana, the paintings seem to be mainly related to the vision quest; men and women, who were seeking super natural power would go to the rock cliffs and pray for a guardian spirit to give them these powers. The spirit would reveal itself through a vision, which could be in the form of an animal, celestial object or mythical being.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Dkm7FevOkZ2V1o3oqRj7_elL4qOLnZnurPaRSTaxAaDyXl6_t6hDHspzZe2a0H_HWft0VUALr5bmfJ1Fgx7ndl9LM3_66Gr449BTFDaCe1ky4yX2hjTzjfprgAKClOZlyxLL_81WUxg/s1600/rockart2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Dkm7FevOkZ2V1o3oqRj7_elL4qOLnZnurPaRSTaxAaDyXl6_t6hDHspzZe2a0H_HWft0VUALr5bmfJ1Fgx7ndl9LM3_66Gr449BTFDaCe1ky4yX2hjTzjfprgAKClOZlyxLL_81WUxg/s320/rockart2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516479707052026466" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLALLrabwJDnSX6YvWMMMstJEZRsifrW2LPT69qdSS8rwo24Pf-e7ukB_XeEMIpCVoQ2n7XUtj5c7RwHjtQsp5wwFQvkEdISik74GG_ZEh3R8HXsZyRCp2lKAB-wRLi6HOJNkeZ7wW_l0/s1600/rockart1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLALLrabwJDnSX6YvWMMMstJEZRsifrW2LPT69qdSS8rwo24Pf-e7ukB_XeEMIpCVoQ2n7XUtj5c7RwHjtQsp5wwFQvkEdISik74GG_ZEh3R8HXsZyRCp2lKAB-wRLi6HOJNkeZ7wW_l0/s320/rockart1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516480582482063058" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Today, the location of the pictographs on the western shore of Flathead Lake is known as the Painted Rocks. There are actually two sites at opposite ends of the high sheer cliff. The paintings show painted deer, bison, tally marks and geometric figures. The most common design elements in rock art in western Montana are tally marks. Ethnographers interpret tally marks as the count of days, people, animals or other objects. The marks can also represent the steps necessary to complete a ritual—the marking off of specific items.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9fXRg6mZ6GKzyAbvGZltNfkNapdMWxt2TtuC9HeKNFSZks7rytItzAzvT03N1LQAud5lPLoGwyFIqJGUZD2eqmvIZPXtNHk6QwtgFDi8tvfAoJVi68DwocSpNvsDFIJtB_HwKfl6WmS0/s1600/rockart3.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9fXRg6mZ6GKzyAbvGZltNfkNapdMWxt2TtuC9HeKNFSZks7rytItzAzvT03N1LQAud5lPLoGwyFIqJGUZD2eqmvIZPXtNHk6QwtgFDi8tvfAoJVi68DwocSpNvsDFIJtB_HwKfl6WmS0/s320/rockart3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516479242612157090" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />It is remarkable that the paintings have lasted for several thousand of years. Part of the reason is the durability of the paint, which was made from various minerals-- crushed iron oxide (hematite and limonite). From the minerals they created colors ranging from bright vermilion to dull reddish brown. The crushed mineral pigment was mixed with an organic binding agent such as blood, eggs, fat, plant juice or urine. The age of pictographs can also be determined from the earliest photographs taken of the rock art in the early 1900s and comparing those photographs with recent photographs. What is evident is that there is almost no fading of the color in the last one hundred years. Also, certain minerals that form on the rock help to imprint the sketches into the rock itself, thereby preserving the painting for perhaps a longer period of time than the surface painting. It is believed that the pictographs at Painted Rocks are two to three thousands years old and that the latest additions to the paintings were between 1700 and 1900.<br /><br /><br />Note: Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Arlene Hawk, for taking these picture. Every time we visit my family at their place on Flathead Lake it is always a thrill to cruise the lake and stop by Painted Rocks.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-8606283282656740802010-06-14T07:18:00.000-07:002010-06-14T08:35:20.616-07:00Yuma Territorial Prison 1875 - 1909 by Bob FosterOld time western dime novels as well as modern popular western novels and movies nearly always depict the plight of prisoners in the Arizona Territorial Prison at Yuma as being condemned to hell on earth, or worse. Modern audiences have come to believe many of the myths associated with the infamous prison--it was a prison only for men, the west's most hardened criminals--no one ever escaped--prison guards were actually fiends in disguise, hired to starve, harass, and brutally beat and torture prisoners--the prison was in a mercilessly hot, inescapable desert, with no water available for miles in any direction--prisoners gave up all hope of ever getting out, even when their sentences had been served--the list goes on and on.<br /><br /><br />The writer himself, a western history buff and avid western movie fan, believed all of the negative portrayals above, and even more, assuming Yuma must have been far worse than the notorious French prison on Devil's Island. This belief was strengthened as he read such things as Darkness engulfed "the hole" as the emaciated convict crawled about aimlessly seeking the cockroaches that shared his cell. Hungrily he sought these "cellmates" to supplement his diet. His face was thin and his body broken. Yet his eyes were filled with hate for the unmerciful men who were responsible for his present condition. Viciously he plotted in his weary mind against those who had imprisoned him in this hell on earth.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsW9Lg3tmkGnDnMKWy51WJVbudTvFdaqsI_DAhXWJ0UB4cnq-V2ky2P7FXI6BQSDumoBCJ2Btu-YhC6Wk0y_Hd17kwha8hL6aABPq-xWibWn4fEaHgx0Wd3udeOPfLxKu_A7ENYE-H8lA/s1600/4160562171_d73f034209.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 380px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsW9Lg3tmkGnDnMKWy51WJVbudTvFdaqsI_DAhXWJ0UB4cnq-V2ky2P7FXI6BQSDumoBCJ2Btu-YhC6Wk0y_Hd17kwha8hL6aABPq-xWibWn4fEaHgx0Wd3udeOPfLxKu_A7ENYE-H8lA/s320/4160562171_d73f034209.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482634312038877138" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Was the Yuma Territorial Prison really a God-forsaken outpost of inhumanity western writers and movie makers would have us believe? As we explore the true history of the infamous prison perhaps we can learn the truth.<br /><br />The Eighth Arizona Territorial Legislature of 1875 proposed a bill calling for the establishment of a penitentiary. It would be built next to the Colorado River, upon a hill donated to the Territory by the village of Yuma, where work on the prison was soon underway. On July 1, 1876, seven convicts were led up Prison Hill, and placed in their permanent quarters, which they'd helped build. Construction had not yet been completed, so work by the convicts continued. A kitchen, photo gallery, bakery, and bathing room were a few of the conveniences. Around 1885 a powerful generator provided the prison with electricity, as well as the town of Yuma. Enhancing the prison grounds were trees, shrubs, grass, and flowers. Hollowed out on the north side of the hill, facing the Colorado River, just a few feet below, a windowless library served inmates, guards and the public as well. The long narrow library, the first of its kind in the Territory, had numerous shelves literally filled with volumes of books.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqUwGw689oRRf7fnwrqotR5lxUs3BX9JUdZyUrOxNZQ1Tr6TnHjxUJVjDSVF1hHC-TAWLtji_YVDJtSl4SZfVDF1C5hvad_jQ4B5OynxedMp4bg-IKBL5bptKvToMzpN1QrULU43fKm_4/s1600/library.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqUwGw689oRRf7fnwrqotR5lxUs3BX9JUdZyUrOxNZQ1Tr6TnHjxUJVjDSVF1hHC-TAWLtji_YVDJtSl4SZfVDF1C5hvad_jQ4B5OynxedMp4bg-IKBL5bptKvToMzpN1QrULU43fKm_4/s320/library.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482636112016623186" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Smoothly plastered walls painted with whitewash enhanced the beauty of this center of learning. With the coming of electrical power large blowers were installed to help circulate the hot air that hung within the main cell block. Most residents of Yuma had no such convenience--but they did have their freedom. With these "luxuries," including the prison hospital, the Territorial Prison at Yuma was considered "state of the art," one of the finest prisons in America. However, with bedbugs, cockroaches, black widows and occasional scorpions, life inside the prison was difficult, as it would have been in any prison at that time.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwcL8ctn68Dc2h3Ozjz1VutGz6mQ9w5LoLi7-Y_i9JjflQp1018zD_F5ikd7AKZsUQsX7UJe7EfT8tP5EQ6M7_PACIn4ZMsaYizQJSgk_wRX0RKR86giZf_DgDDrBmOcwViVsG6O3cTH0/s1600/cellblock.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwcL8ctn68Dc2h3Ozjz1VutGz6mQ9w5LoLi7-Y_i9JjflQp1018zD_F5ikd7AKZsUQsX7UJe7EfT8tP5EQ6M7_PACIn4ZMsaYizQJSgk_wRX0RKR86giZf_DgDDrBmOcwViVsG6O3cTH0/s320/cellblock.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482636396739550450" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Arizona Sentinel of July 13, 1895, reported, Strangers visiting Yuma should not miss a visit to the Territorial Prison. There has been so much written and said about the injustice and cruelty of confining persons here that strangers should make a point of paying a visit to the institution in order to be convinced of the fact that for coolness, cleanliness, care and humane treatment, there is not a prison in the world that can compare with the Arizona Penitentiary. At this place, selected on a high commanding bluff overlooking the broad Colorado, there is always a cool breeze blowing off the River. The work rooms, dining rooms, kitchen, library and all other apartments are either surrounded by adobe walls or excavated from the almost solid rock hill, with cement floors, making them extremely cool in Summer and warm in the Winter. As to the work, the inmates are treated more leniently and are as a consequence the best behaved of similar bodies of convicts in the United States. They are required to manufacture shoes and clothing and cook for the institution. A large number are allowed to manufacture canes and fancy ornaments.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7JuiZIMfbjwYzqduKSUCliSUtWwPIabGpgLDYnsuB9BptE0ZZQrcO1Kxld1jDZuPWq8bhCzA38-qA6yZj5VPQOEiQh4Lbh5T80cHSd38QcLvWECIxdq9fZAEFoagq42Y-wIak9fa4O4k/s1600/yardjpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 260px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7JuiZIMfbjwYzqduKSUCliSUtWwPIabGpgLDYnsuB9BptE0ZZQrcO1Kxld1jDZuPWq8bhCzA38-qA6yZj5VPQOEiQh4Lbh5T80cHSd38QcLvWECIxdq9fZAEFoagq42Y-wIak9fa4O4k/s320/yardjpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482636751841945378" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Punishment of incorrigible convicts could, however, be most severe. Most prisoners shuddered at the mention of "the dark hole," a cave measuring 15 x 15 feet, dug into a rock hill, with a strap iron cage in the middle.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJivQRxCdNejE_R9Fx9_qun4gDlcBuCRIbYIrPBxer2npFosx5iAHTLNHpqqcdVK4grmgrM2p09a_MTssyX9BW1MAmFooDSpU9kr6H49jHsY48RcpIkZIamozZgMteSGxkK0QwFmk9PXs/s1600/dark+cell.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJivQRxCdNejE_R9Fx9_qun4gDlcBuCRIbYIrPBxer2npFosx5iAHTLNHpqqcdVK4grmgrM2p09a_MTssyX9BW1MAmFooDSpU9kr6H49jHsY48RcpIkZIamozZgMteSGxkK0QwFmk9PXs/s320/dark+cell.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482637058696884930" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The "hole" was where prisoners confined to solitary confinement ended up. Usually one stay would correct even the most incorrigible prisoner's attitude as he or she sat in the pitch black hole, and was fed bread and water a couple of times a day. <br />The main guard tower, which is still standing, overlooks the entire prison. Beneath the wooden tower is the rock-walled reservoir, filled by the Colorado River.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6_7PciOvbmjejlO8sX0UAjLTFYmumMV7OP76M-d9rs4V41N0wZ4b8Uw_7cDg-QxugqVq-baMQxSVQZkMGbfcXs16nWbgMuaY9gqNw_M48VPT1PvCADL-h_eSjRBdzfROxuFY_MbNHeUQ/s1600/guard-tower.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6_7PciOvbmjejlO8sX0UAjLTFYmumMV7OP76M-d9rs4V41N0wZ4b8Uw_7cDg-QxugqVq-baMQxSVQZkMGbfcXs16nWbgMuaY9gqNw_M48VPT1PvCADL-h_eSjRBdzfROxuFY_MbNHeUQ/s320/guard-tower.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482637970917717266" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The working convicts also dug tunnels beneath the prison to allow river water to flow beneath the prison to help keep it cool. Atop the southeast guard tower was the Lowell Battery Gun, a weapon of improved design over the old Gatling Gun. The Lowell Gun was manufactured by the Ames Mfg. Co., of Chicopee, Massachusetts, and could be fired 600 times a minute with perfect accuracy at 1000 feet. In an emergency it could be fired 1000 times a minute. It had a horizontal sweep of 90 feet and could be raised to any elevation. Prisoners thought twice about trying to escape its withering fire<br />At the Sallyport, or main gate, on the north side, facing the Colorado River, was the huge strap-iron grilled gate that swung beneath the thick archway of the entrance.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWglOY41IDilEa4TGvjMbxaUcBD3yNF4y66So-dLIRiQ17kHGLV0KuXhINTox0u32iZL5FOvPlSujfGOiKUmtoJpYfv5-hoS3HGjSszSWANqE_Huc_Vcm2Vxk0wCC51UocFBhJcR7UMMw/s1600/+gate.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWglOY41IDilEa4TGvjMbxaUcBD3yNF4y66So-dLIRiQ17kHGLV0KuXhINTox0u32iZL5FOvPlSujfGOiKUmtoJpYfv5-hoS3HGjSszSWANqE_Huc_Vcm2Vxk0wCC51UocFBhJcR7UMMw/s320/+gate.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482638388192314354" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />In front of it sat a mustachioed guard toting a 44-40 Winchester rifle. He checked the credentials of all who entered or left through the Sallyport. Surrounding the prison was an impressive wall totally confining the prison yard. Solid rock served as the foundation of the walls which were masterfully engineered. Atop the solid stone wall adobe bricks were used to construct the walls, approximately sixteen to eighteen feet high, and the base of the walls averaged eight feet thick at the bottom and five feet at the top.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRCe4E7ZVs8JS_cvUAqEOh1LKx-uLIQGozkZcF_JRUgaPDQZ8J2u2POdurjsgWnlxC3GSQscGCk9WaVW5tfWOjC9PLCpPjzLj4N8YFknHRXuj_tUpjP8ez1GQwZYTQKxH2mc0k-bWj6E/s1600/cell.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRCe4E7ZVs8JS_cvUAqEOh1LKx-uLIQGozkZcF_JRUgaPDQZ8J2u2POdurjsgWnlxC3GSQscGCk9WaVW5tfWOjC9PLCpPjzLj4N8YFknHRXuj_tUpjP8ez1GQwZYTQKxH2mc0k-bWj6E/s320/cell.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482640155947415394" border="0" /></a><br /><br />When prisoners first arrived they were questioned as to their nationality, education, occupation and religion. Their heads were shaved and their pictures taken. They bathed and were issued uniforms of alternate black-gray or black-yellow stripes that ran vertically or horizontally. When the prisoners entered the prison they were allowed to have a cap, two pair of underwear, two handkerchiefs, two towels, one extra pair of pants, two pairs of socks and one pair of shoes. Officials permitted prisoners to have a toothbrush, comb, photographs, a toothpick, books, tobacco and bedding.<br />During the prison's short life, thirty-four years, it confined men and women from twenty one foreign countries including China, Mexico, Russia, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Germany and England. Many of the most hardened criminals were American-born, including Anglos, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. In all, 3,069 prisoners served time in Yuma, some of whom were women. Men and women prisoners, of course, were separated. There were young and old, the youngest being Charles Smith, fifteen, sentenced to one year for grand larceny. But in all they represented a number of trades and occupations, including prostitutes, carpenters, cooks, farmers, gamblers, wheelwrights, sailors, laborers, and gunfighters. Their offenses included, but were not limited to, rape, polygamy, robbery and murder, stagecoach holdups, cattle rustling, drug trafficking, whiskey selling and horse stealing. 110 prisoners died of various causes while serving their sentences and are buried in the prison cemetery, to the east, outside the rock and adobe walls, on a barren plot of ground overlooking the meandering Colorado River.<br /><br /><br /><br />Twenty six convicts successfully escaped from Yuma and were never captured. Others tried, but were either captured or shot. The most exciting and daring escape try came on a bright fall day in September, 1887, when seven Hispanic prisoners decided they'd had enough of the Yuma Prison. Master minded and led by Prisoner Puebla, they devised what they considered a fool-proof escape plan.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HUgJioyW2K6oMz4jUzUU6w-vRmvz4LVjh3VHQw-vWLhP5tQQ5FCVc4EPmfCABuWVtZ4EVv2NqaHaNssF39riH-hMvu1melKsJgx9U2IVXPC24Lqu_vUZV9vVGlDEYX5Kc9kNWgOv_wQ/s1600/ytpmap.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 278px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HUgJioyW2K6oMz4jUzUU6w-vRmvz4LVjh3VHQw-vWLhP5tQQ5FCVc4EPmfCABuWVtZ4EVv2NqaHaNssF39riH-hMvu1melKsJgx9U2IVXPC24Lqu_vUZV9vVGlDEYX5Kc9kNWgOv_wQ/s320/ytpmap.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482640613546899618" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />As Superintendent Thomas Gates sauntered along the walkway toward the Sallyport to leave the prison on business, Prisoner Lopez sidled up to him and began a thoughtful conversation about learning the shoe trade. As they casually walked along Gates listened thoughtfully. Suddenly Prisoners Vasquez and Bustamente, coming up from behind, grabbed Gates and ordered him to get them through the Sallyport gate or they'd kill him where he stood_ Soon Prisoners Puebla, Villa, Baca and Padilla joined the group, Gates in the middle. Gates ordered the convict at the gate to open up; he did.<br />Once outside the stone walls Villa, Padilla, Baca and Lopez rushed to Gate's house to procure weapons. Enroute they met Yardmaster Fredley who tried to stop them. He was instantly struck with a heavy pick. Even though severely wounded Fredley grabbed Padilla, hurling himself and the prisoner over a steep embankment on the west edge of Prison Hill. Padilla was captured and was out of the fight. Prisoner Baca ran, but Guard E.O. Williams opened fire and dropped him with two shots. Wounded, Baca was out of the fight. Vasquez and Lopez made it to Gates' house, stole a pistol and five rounds of ammunition and returned to the captured Gates, who was struggling fiercely with his captors. Momentarily he broke free and signaled to Guard Benjamin Franklin Hartlee, high up in the main guard tower, to open fire on the whole lot. An expert rifleman, Hartlee fired and brought Villa down. Infuriated, Lopez jammed the stolen pistol against Gates' head, indicating to Hartlee that if he shot again he'd blow Gates' brains out. But Gates fought Lopez and shoved the pistol aside. It accidentally discharged, hitting Prisoner Puebla in the fleshy part of his arm. Prison employee Rule ran up, pistol drawn, to shoot either Puebla or Lopez, or both. But he found Lopez had the drop on him. They both fired at each other and both missed. Rule took off running and Lopez took off after him, his pistol aimed at the fleeing man's back. Sharpshooting Guard Hartlee, high up in the tower, now had a very clear shot at Lopez and opened fire twice, dropping him. Employee Rule turned around, ran back to Lopez and dispatched him with a pistol shot.<br /><br /><br />Bustamente took a swing at Gates with a sharp butcher knife. Guard Hartlee had another clear shot and blasted Bustamente. Vasquez became the next target and Guard Hartlee fired another sizzling round, dropping Vasquez where he stood. Though Puebla had been accidentally shot by Lopez, he was still on his feet as vicious as ever, the last Hispanic in the fight. Armed with a large butcher knife he decided to finish off Superintendent Gates. He drove the gleaming butcher knife into the back of Gates' neck and twisted viciously. Using Gates' body as a shield, Puebla was trying to avoid Guard Hartlee's deadly rifle fire.<br /><br /><br />Barney Riggs, a prisoner serving a life sentence, rushed in to help Gates. The Superintendent shouted for Riggs to get Lopez's pistol and kill Puebla. The enraged Hispanic pulled the knife from Gates' neck and repeatedly stabbed it into his body. Riggs jerked the pistol from Lopez's dead hand, pulled the hammer back and blasted a hole in Puebla's chest. As he staggered backwards a blast from Guard Hartlee's rifle smashed into Puebla's back, and Riggs fired one more shot into the dying man's chest. Riggs caught the staggering Superintendent and another inmate named Sprague rushed forward and helped staunch the terrible bleeding. Gates never fully recovered from his horribly painful wounds and was later forced to resign his position. The unending pain caused him to eventually commit suicide.<br /><br /><br />Four prisoners were killed, three were wounded, and Superintendent Gates survived the attack. The entire incident took less than five minutes. Thomas Gates, in his written report of the incident, stated: "Guard Hartlee does not know to this day, why it was that he did not kill convict Riggs as he had the latter covered by his rifle and knew him to be a life convict, but something seemed to tell him not to shoot; had he killed Riggs, Puebla would certainly have killed me."<br /><br /><br />Many well known criminals were confined to the Prison, serving sentences of varying lengths. The most renown woman convict was Pearl Heart, serving five years, oddly enough for stealing a stage driver's pistol.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCaDqJnls98ljae78JpOYgIc4UOAUgNK79sv1G9zVLvVbRUnJR1xfgE4BHpq9v_vrC32__bxEuYMI3E7Qx7G1K0u8sqa1R0M36sIGa54-pVs291IlCYQlffFGyqECCNVuRedXbIarytTE/s1600/pearl_hart300.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 196px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCaDqJnls98ljae78JpOYgIc4UOAUgNK79sv1G9zVLvVbRUnJR1xfgE4BHpq9v_vrC32__bxEuYMI3E7Qx7G1K0u8sqa1R0M36sIGa54-pVs291IlCYQlffFGyqECCNVuRedXbIarytTE/s320/pearl_hart300.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482641452387791842" border="0" /></a><br /><br />She and sidekick Joe Boot held up the Globe stage. They were quickly apprehended by the Pinal County Sheriff. Both were jailed for robbing the stage and were tried for that crime. Boot was convicted of robbing the stage and sentenced to thirty years in Yuma. Pearl's lovely female proportions, and her flirting, charmed the lustful male jurors and she was quickly acquitted. But the Judge wasn't so lenient--he ordered her to be tried on a second charge of stealing the stage driver's pistol. The jurors were forced to convict her after carefully reviewing the evidence, and Pearl was sentenced to five years.<br /><br /><br />The trial was a sensation--a woman stagecoach robber--a female Black Bart. Papers all over the country wrote glowing descriptions of the beautiful robber. By the time she arrived at the Prison she was very famous. She loved her new found fame and used it to her advantage, receiving the undivided attention of guards and convicts alike. Pearl played upon the sexual fantasies of these men to win many favors and perhaps her quick release. On December 15, 1902, Pearl was granted a pardon and allowed to walk through the great iron gates of the Sallyport. Before she left, the Prison doctor confirmed her pregnancy. She tried to capitalize on her fame and become an actress, but had no acting talent--she succeeded, however, in getting herself out of Yuma. Her partner in crime, Joe Boot, successfully escaped from the Prison on February 6, 1901, and it was believed he fled to Mexico, never to be heard from again.<br /><br /><br />Many other women, not nearly as famous as Pearl Heart, served time in Yuma. Most of the time women prisoners were released long before their full sentences were served. Some were quite vicious. Elena Estrada was sentenced to seven years for manslaughter, when she stabbed her unfaithful lover, then cut open his chest, pulled out his heart and threw the bloody mass into his face. She served very little time before being released. Bertha Trimble was convicted of rape. She and her husband Walter were convicted of raping Bertha's daughter. While Walter raped his step-daughter Bertha held her down as the deed was being committed. She was sentenced to life imprisonment, though she served very little time.<br /><br /><br />Scant background records on many of the male prisoners keep us from knowing who they really were or what they'd done with their lives before ending up in Yuma. One, however, and probably the most renowned of all, was Buckskin Frank Leslie, who often wore a buckskin jacket with fringes drooping from the sleeves and bottom of the garment, thus his unusual moniker. Buckskin was a gunman, fond of whiskey and fast women, a fast draw and crack shot. Once in a while he carried a Peacemanker .45 hooked to his belt with a quick-fire rig. The pistol was attached by a stud to a slotted plate on the wearer's belt, and could be fired by swiveling the gun from the hip before an opponent could blink his eyes.<br /><br /><br />Leslie hailed from Tombstone. During the early 1880's, when Wyatt Earp and his brothers worked in the Oriental Saloon, Leslie likewise worked there as a bartender and knew the Earps as well as Sheriff John H. Behan, who later became the Superintendent of the Yuma Territorial Prison from April 12, 1888 to April 7, 1890.<br />In the days when Buckskin Frank strode the streets of Tombstone, unafraid of anyone, he and charming Mary Galeen met in a local saloon, had a few drinks, and decided on a secret rendezvous together. But hunkered down on a balcony above the street Mary's enraged husband waited patiently, his gun cocked. He fired as Leslie and Mary exited the saloon--but he missed. Buckskin's response was automatic as he quickly cleared leather, drawing his six shooter, taking careful aim, fired and blew off the face of Mary's husband. <br /><br /><br />Leslie was cleared of any wrong doing, the act declared self defense, and he and Mary wed. However, the marriage didn't last because of Leslie's drinking, unfaithfulness, etc. Mary complained to her friends about Frank's odd quirks, stating that he'd once had her pose for him against a wall like an artist's model while he shot bullets around the outline of her body.<br /><br /><br />Though Leslie killed a number of men he was never convicted of murder until 1889. One evening when drunk, and furious with a prostitute friend, Molly Bradshaw, he killed her. Brought to trial, he was sentenced to life in Yuma, where he was soon greeted by former Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, where Tombstone was located, now Superintendent of the Prison. It is not recorded what they said to each other.<br />Finally sober, Buckskin Frank Leslie became a model prisoner and worked diligently in the infirmary tending to patients as the chief assistant to the prison physician. Leslie served Dr. P.G. Cotter during several epidemics when his own health was endangered. Unselfishly, Leslie deprived himself of rest for weeks at a time while serving the patients. He never once complained about anything. His good conduct was brought to the attention of Governor Benjamin J. Franklin, who recommended to the Arizona 19th Legislative Assembly that Leslie be pardoned. Another reason Governor Franklin favored a pardon was Leslie's gallant service as a scout in the United States Army during the Geronimo Campaigns. The Governor stated, Frank Leslie is a man of good character and education.<br /><br /><br />After serving seven years Leslie was pardoned and walked through the Sallyport of the Yuma Territorial Prison, a free man. He wandered south into Sonora where he lived and worked for a time before heading north to Alaska in search of gold. In 1925, in his eighties, Frank Leslie died.<br /><br /><br />The Prison's colorful history came to a close on September 15, 1909. Crowded conditions at the every-growing prison forced the removal of all prisoners to Florence. Like Yuma, the prison at Florence was built by the prisoners who inhabited the institution.<br /><br /><br />The Yuma Territorial Prison continued to be used for other functions. It was used as a school, as a hospital, and by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and was a filming location; such actors as John Wayne, Gene Autry and Ken Cooper made movies in or around the Prison.<br /><br /><br />During the 1930's and 40's many Yuma citizens worked diligently to convert the old institution into a museum. In 1961 the Arizona State Parks began operating the prison as a state historic park. Just off Interstate I-8, in north Yuma, the historic site is easily accessible. Open to the public, there is a museum containing many prison artifacts made by prisoners, several of the weapons used by the guards, and a theater providing information on the prison. Visitors can walk through the prison, in and out of the cells, and visit the infamous "dark hole." <br /><br />The End<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />References<br />The historical reference used on page 1 Darkness engulfed _the hole_ as the emaciated convict....comes from Prison Centennial 1876 - 1976, Page 3, Preface: Cliff Trafzer and Steve George, Rio Colorado Press, 1980. Some facts and statistics also gathered from this source.<br /><br />Other facts and data gathered at the Museum of the Yuma Territorial State Prison Historic Park, Yuma, Arizona, personal visit February, 2000.<br /><br />Page 2, Quote from the Arizona Sentinel, July 13, 1895 concerning the Territorial Prison..<br />Page 7, Quote from written report of Thomas Gates concerning the shooting of Inmate Puebla.<br /><br />Photos<br />Eleven photos are submitted and their sources quoted on each photo. The black and white photos are laser copies and are reproducible.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-16477715172340450242010-05-17T18:38:00.000-07:002010-05-19T11:38:52.810-07:00The Gunnison Massacre by Colonel Dick Kindsfater(Retired)<span style="font-weight: bold;">The conventional account.</span> During the early 1850's, numerous U.S. Government surveying expeditions were made into the Rocky Mountain West. In the Spring of 1853, Captain John W. Gunnison, U.S. Army Topographical Engineer, took command of a party on the Survey of Pacific Road (railroad) route through the central Rockies. His command was made up of Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith, second in command; at least eight civilian topographers, geologists, and for security, thirty soldiers of the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen (U.S. Army Dragoons), Captain R. M. Morris, Commanding.<br /><br />By the first of September, they had negotiated the Continental Divide, and by 17th of October were on the Sevier River, south of present day Manti, Utah. They hired Mormon guides<sup>1</sup> from the Manti settlement to lead them on to Lake Sevier.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6eOxAPKgP8qqQMCb7FAJOmaavbd260KTS-UpqNXmQEWGbnH_2tbg44s1eUZr4cgvMbafeVeq3pY9BbfWQxMp4RLKzdy6c5ZfjQrD9e9K9aYEigfSiPRvaCHHMQRpFkjd9SY-AXp31hFw/s1600/massacre+map.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 294px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6eOxAPKgP8qqQMCb7FAJOmaavbd260KTS-UpqNXmQEWGbnH_2tbg44s1eUZr4cgvMbafeVeq3pY9BbfWQxMp4RLKzdy6c5ZfjQrD9e9K9aYEigfSiPRvaCHHMQRpFkjd9SY-AXp31hFw/s320/massacre+map.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472584501179082706" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Days before, early in October, a wagon train of Missouri emigrants, en route to California, had passed through the Fillmore settlement and camped on Meadow Creek. A small band of Pahvant Ute Indians came into the camp; they wanting to trade buckskins for tobacco. The Missourians attempted to disarm the Utes of their bows and arrows. In the fracas, war chief Moshoquop's father was killed by revolver fire. Moshoquop then took his band and moved to a site about twelve miles north east of Lake Sevier.<br /><br />Evening of the 21st of October, Gunnison's expedition camped at Cedar Springs [site of present day Holden, location of artist Frank Thomas' studio]. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Captain Gunnison visited the Fillmore settlement (ten miles south of Cedar Springs) and was warned of possible Indian trouble.</span> Moving northwest across the Pahvant Valley, they reached the Sevier River (near present day Delta) in two days. Snow squalls in the mountains, frigid weather, and sand made travel difficult, so a rest was called.<br /><br />The singular tragic event of this ill-fated expedition then occurred. Captain John Gunnison had divided his command, sending the larger force to explore miles upriver, toward the Nephi settlement. Gunnison then proceeded down the river towards Lake Sevier, his small party consisting of four civilians and a corporal and six of the Mounted Riflemen. They camped for the night on the north side of a bend in the river, east of Lake Sevier. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Discounting the Indian warning received at the Fillmore settlement, their perimeter security was almost nonexistent.</span><br /><br />At dawn the next morning, the 26th of October 1853, while eating breakfast, they were surprised in an attack by vengeful Pahvant Ute Chief Moshoquop and forty of his warriors.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2IBAEXjukWZQFRTljyxOxdhaM9DxTQxAJePKuiio-KtmEsUXGM19VgOFv3KJZOepgKfAr5zPhkPbSv3Z0N-lC2vYzzLG-3n26LsCkgQ9Aab59LpvRqkMj_xbMoau8nzruS7b2T3IQBf4/s1600/gunnison.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 380px; height: 151px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2IBAEXjukWZQFRTljyxOxdhaM9DxTQxAJePKuiio-KtmEsUXGM19VgOFv3KJZOepgKfAr5zPhkPbSv3Z0N-lC2vYzzLG-3n26LsCkgQ9Aab59LpvRqkMj_xbMoau8nzruS7b2T3IQBf4/s320/gunnison.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472750063506161442" border="0" /></a><br /><br />He was seething for vengeance against white men, any white men, an acceptable practice in his culture. Within minutes, Captain John W. Gunnison, his four civilians, and three soldiers died of gunshot and arrow wounds. Only Corporal Barton and three of his horse soldiers escaped to tell of the massacre.<sup>2</sup><br /><br />(note:<sup>1</sup> I’ve highlighted some passages in bold font, which will be important later. For the speed reader, I have put the important passages in bold font and the really important passages in red font.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Now, for the rest of the story</span><sup>2</sup>. John W. Gunnison of Goshen, New Hampshire, graduated from West Point as an engineer in 1837. In this capacity, in 1849, as a surveyor with the Stansbury Expedition, which was ordered to chart the waters of the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake, Gunnison become intimately acquainted with the Mormons, who had settled in Salt Lake Valley in 1847 when that area was still part of the Mexican Territory.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBoQSmopLnQvPn8yCfrg1CNvlCRNhmS9QhkVPVAABTjoantvEs36ppvWRi8ZN-KtJpksiQDNLYCE8QQkM-ziei0TZilg5fM2FCvChpHjgxCzlvKLR7EvoMTIvmT9CHnO9VfpppeYzYxA/s1600/John+Gunnison.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 237px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBoQSmopLnQvPn8yCfrg1CNvlCRNhmS9QhkVPVAABTjoantvEs36ppvWRi8ZN-KtJpksiQDNLYCE8QQkM-ziei0TZilg5fM2FCvChpHjgxCzlvKLR7EvoMTIvmT9CHnO9VfpppeYzYxA/s320/John+Gunnison.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472790442009001474" border="0" /></a> John Gunnison<br /><br />While writing the report of the Expedition, Gunnison also wrote and published a small book, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Mormons or Latter-Day Saints,</span> which described this religious movement. Gunnison wrote that the Mormons were excessively zealous for their own sense of divine mission, which they said was to restore the “true” form and content of Christianity and to reform the world in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He believed that their vigorous actions to fulfill this mission were the chief cause of the persecutions they had suffered in Missouri and Illinois. To escape further conflict and secure greater freedom in the practice of their religion, they had left the United States and set up their own “Zion of the Latter Days.” Gunnison believed that persecution had strengthened the Mormon unity and obscured the internal weakness of the movement. They would not provoke further persecution if left alone in their isolated location. Soon their own excesses would produce internal divisions and more temperate beliefs and practices. Given time and freedom, these internal forces would modify their religion toward the mainstream of American values.<br /><br />In 1851, while Gunnison was writing his book, a controversy arose between Governor Brigham Young and the other Federal officers appointed by President Fillmore to govern Utah Territory.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYWRO7NvedM-QSp7gYmI1Az50kpL_-ziM4kTLxL3hekwppdKOwmAP315LQfwwbI_Yli8H7TASqDpqaE0fkGFzHTH8zarhOWcXeXZAnE266NvZfkWDOzizcc2-tjfNktI7GunU9DlX9teA/s1600/brigham_young.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 233px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYWRO7NvedM-QSp7gYmI1Az50kpL_-ziM4kTLxL3hekwppdKOwmAP315LQfwwbI_Yli8H7TASqDpqaE0fkGFzHTH8zarhOWcXeXZAnE266NvZfkWDOzizcc2-tjfNktI7GunU9DlX9teA/s320/brigham_young.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472791269914182482" border="0" /></a> Brignam Young<br /><br />Alleged in fear for their lives and claiming Mormon disloyalty and disrespect for the government, these “runaway” officials left the Territory. Gunnison was in Washington at this time. He discounted the significance of the controversy and advised the President and other government officials to allow the Mormons to govern themselves with persons of their own choosing. He compared their demand for self-government to that of the American colonies who rebelled against taxation without representation. He believed that the best policy was to “let them severely alone,” the same policy the Mormons had adopted toward the appointed federal officers they had rejected.<br /><br />In 1853, Captain Gunnison was appointed to lead a survey expedition exploring a route for a railroad to the Pacific Ocean. <span style="font-weight: bold;">While in St. Louis, he became aware of Mormon hostility toward his self-assumed role as a “chronicler” of their movement</span>. Recognizing the need for a Mormon associate in the earlier survey, he asked Albert Carrington to begin survey operations between Salt Lake City and Fort Bridger and to provide guides and supplies for him upon his arrival in Utah Territory. <span style="font-weight: bold;">He expressed surprise and concern that the Mormons were “down upon him” as an author.</span><br /><br />At this same time, Mormon expansions of their settlements provoked conflict with the Utah Indians. The Mormons made preparations to defend themselves from this danger by cutting off all aid and trade with the Indians and by fortifying and “walling in” all of their towns and villages. This action, they believed, would also provide safety from thieves, from hostile emigrants and from military invasion, which they were taught to expect from the American nation and from other nations of the world who would oppose the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Mormon conflict with the Indians became most violent just as the Gunnison Expedition entered Utah Territory. Gunnison became aware of possible Indian danger to his own Expedition as he came to the village of Manti, on October 19, 1853. Despite the lack of communication from Governor Young or from Albert Carrington, Gunnison hired Mormon guides to help complete the survey. On the advice of these guides, he changed his earlier plan to follow the course of the Sevier lake. Instead, he followed the California Trail to Fillmore, intending to approach Sevier lake across Pahvant Valley.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">While at Fillmore, Gunnison was told by village President Anson Call that local Indian conditions were also dangerous.</span> One of several nearby bands of Pahvantes, led by Chief Kanosh, had recently had a tragic encounter with a party of emigrants bound for California. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A band Chief had been killed. Sons of the slain leader demanded vengeance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">It is not certain Gunnison was told that the Indians asked for Mormon help or that when their own efforts at vengeance failed, the band threatened to attack Fillmore.</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> When Brigham Young was informed of this danger, he sent his special Indian agent, Dimick Huntington, to Fillmore to appease the Indians. Captain Gunnison talked to Huntington, whom he knew from his earlier experience in Utah. He was assured that the problem had been solved. Peace had been guaranteed for the future in talks Huntington had held with Chief Kanosh and members of this band. This knowledge gave Gunnison “an unusual felling of security,” about this particular band of Indians.</span><br /><br />Gunnison was anxious to complete his work near Sevier Lake so he could make a further survey up the Weber River to Fort Bridger and back by way of Timpanogos River. This was the task he had asked Carrington to perform prior to his arrival, but it had not been done. Cold weather had set in. Soon the mountain passes would be filled with snow, making further work toward Fort Bridger impossible until spring. Gunnison had to file his report before February. He wanted his superiors in Washington to know that he had found excellent passages through the Rocky Mountains where a railroad could be built. <span style="font-weight: bold;">This sense of urgency, together with his belief that the local Indians were friendly, led him to divide his survey party.</span><br /><br />Upon reaching Gunnison Bend of the Sevier River near present Delta, The Captain led his party toward the lake. These men were Richard Kern, his artist and topographer, Frederick Creutzfeldt, his botanist, William Potter, his Mormon guide, John Bellows, an employee, and a corporal' s guard of seven men of the Mounted Rifles. The balance of the party, under Lieutenant Edward G. Beckwith and Captain Robert M. Morris, turned east to explore the passage of the river through the mountains near present Leamington.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gunnison's men were observed by the band of thirty Pahvant Indians who had threatened to “kill all Fillmore.”</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">They had not been contacted by Dimick Huntington and were still seeking vengeance for death of their leader. </span> The small group of Americans was a ready target for revenge as well as for guns, ammunition, horses, gold and other booty. Accordingly, under cover of darkness and dense vegetation, they surrounded the camp. Just at dawn, they attacked the survey crew and soldiers with rifle fire and arrows. <span style="font-weight: bold;">They killed Gunnison and seven others within a few minutes, then plundered and butchered their victims.</span><br /><br />Four soldiers escaped. One made his way to Beckwith's camp and reported the Massacre. Captain Morris, with the remaining soldiers and the expedition's surgeon, set out to rescue possible survivors, meeting three other escaping soldiers en route. They arrived near the scene, 28 miles distant, just at nightfall, where they discovered three dead and mutilated privates. Rather than risk ambush, the soldiers “stood to horse” through the night, while listening to the wolves devour their comrades.<br /><br />At daybreak the soldiers advanced and found the mutilated bodies of the other victims. They were unable to bury the dead, since they had brought no tools with them. In a vain effort, they broke their sabers in the frozen ground. They had to leave the bodies and return to protect the remainder of the survey party.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lt. Beckwith and Capt. Morris wrote messages to their superiors reporting the Massacre. These, and messages to Brigham Young, were delivered to Salt Lake City by Mormon couriers. </span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> Governor Young immediately sent Dimick Huntington to recover the government property and to retrieve and bury the remains of the dead, through these services were not requested by Beckwith and Morris Huntington reported the names of all persons involved in the Massacre and all other details. This information was never made public.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">In his official report of the Massacre, Governor Young said Gunnison had been warned of Indian dangers and that he had used bad judgment by dividing his party and by his choice of an indefensible campsite. He said that the officers had quarreled among themselves and for this reason Gunnison's body was deliberately left unburied. He believed the Indians should not be “unduly censured” for their conduct and took no action to punish the guilty parties. In this and subsequent reports, Governor Young suppressed the fact of the threat to Fillmore, of Huntington's mission to resolve the conflict, and of Huntington's bad advice to Gunnison.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Since no action had been taken by Territorial authority to punish the offending Indians or to seek justice through the courts, the War Department ordered the Expedition of Col. Edward J. Steptoe, enroute to California in the summer of 1854, to stop over in Salt Lake City and take this necessary action. Colonel Steptoe acted on the advice of Governor Young to have the Indians deliver up the guilty parties, rather than to capture and punish the entire band, which the Colonel had intended to do.<br /><br />In the spring of 1855, Chief Kanosh promised to deliver eight Indians of the band which had killed the Gunnison party. This number, the Chief said, would “equalize the balance of killing.” Only three of those surrendered were warriors. These were indicted by a grand jury, then tried and found guilty. The jury rendered a verdict of manslaughter, despite specific instruction that this was proved to be a case of premeditated murder. Nevertheless, the verdict was accepted and the prisoners were sentenced to 3 years in jail.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Colonel Steptoe, the Judge, and the prosecuting attorneys were incensed by what they believed was a miscarriage of justice. They wrote angry letters to the several Federal agencies they represented, charging the Mormons with defiance of law and failure to discharge their obligations as citizens. It was claimed they did this in obedience to orders covertly given by Brigham Young. A report of the trial, prefaced with acrimonious charges against the Mormons, was sent to the New York Times. Another copy was sent to the San Francisco Daily Herald, adding the fact that the prisoners had been allowed to escape.</span><br /><br />This angry encounter was made worse by complicating circumstances. While in Utah, Colonel Steptoe was appointed by President Franklin Pierce to succeed Brigham Young as Territorial Governor. The appointment required that Steptoe resign his military commission. Steptoe was willing to accept the appointment provided he could resume his military rank upon completion of his duties as governor. This matter was not resolved before he left the Territory in the spring of 1855.<br /><br />Another complication was created by the involvement of soldiers and Mormon women through the winter. When the soldiers left for California in the spring, nearly 100 Mormon women, anxious to escape polygamy, left with them. To inform the public of the Mormon side of this confrontation, Brigham Young had many affidavits created, charging the soldiers and non-Mormon public officials with drunkenness, gambling, sexual abuses and other irregularities. These were sent to the War Department in Washington as evidence of renewed persecution of the Mormons. These charges and counter charges greatly antagonized public opinion against the Mormons, producing results contrary to what Captain Gunnison had hoped for.<br /><br />A further conflict arising from the Gunnison Massacre occurred following the appointment of William W. Drummond, of Illinois, as a Federal Judge for Utah Territory. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Upon assuming his duties in 1855, Judge Drummond declared the Mormon Probate Courts to be illegal, creating great antagonism against himself.</span> His personal character and his cohabitation with a known harlot, passed off as his wife, also offended the Mormons, particularly because of their polygamous marriage practices. <span style="font-weight: bold;">At Fillmore, in 1855, Judge Drummond tried several cases related to the Gunnison Massacre. </span> He became convinced that the Mormons were the perpetrators of, and perhaps participants in the Massacre. His antagonism against the Mormons was heightened by ostracism, as the policy of leaving him “severely alone,” was applied through the winter of 1855-1856.<br /><br />During Judge Drummond's tenure, Brigham Young launched extensive programs to occupy territory open to his control and to gain influence in the American nation. He organized and began to create the Desert Express and Carry Company to establish freight and mail relay stations from Missouri to San Francisco. He devised the inexpensive handcart method of bringing thousands of converts from Europe to Western America, intending to establish villages along the emigration route and to populate additional territories in the American Union. He also undertook a comprehensive religious reformation to purify his people so they could exercise the power of God to aid in the completion of their divine mission. These efforts created internal dissent, particularly when the handcart expedition proved disastrous. The heightened religious zeal produced violence against dissenting Mormons and those Federal officers not of the Mormon faith. In the spring of 1857, which favored slave-holding interests, further undermined the moderate Democratic platform upon which Buchanan had been elected. His party was pressed to prove they could control anarchy in the developing territories. President Buchanan assigned General W. S. Harney to command a military force to aid the Territorial government in Kansas. He replaced Brigham Young as Governor and ordered an army under Col. Albert S. Johnson, to accompany the new governor to aid in the enforcement of the law, if necessary, in Utah Territory.<br /><br />Buchanan's intended actions toward Utah Territory were confirmed to be necessary by further excitement created at the moment by Judge Drummond. The Judge had been absent from his post in Utah for almost a year by the time President Buchanan decided to take action. <span style="font-weight: bold;">During this time, Drummond was in California where he wrote newspaper articles, denouncing Mormon behavior, using the pen names Amicus Curiae and Verastus. In April, 1857, he traveled east by way of Panama New Orleans, where he wrote a letter of resignation to the Justice Department. As his reason for resigning, Drummond cited the ungovernable nature of the Mormons under the leadership of Brigham Young. He cited many cases of unlawful conduct, including murderous assaults against dissenters and involvement of Mormons in the Massacre of Captain Gunnison. The accusations were read by Gunnison's widow, who wrote to the Judge that she also believed the Mormons were involved in the death of her husband. </span> These charges received great publicity during April and May, 1857. The Mormons responded by attacking the moral character of Judge Drummond.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Brigham Young learned of his replacement and of the troops ordered to Utah from newspaper accounts. At first he was willing to step aside, but he changed his mind. He decided to treat the American army as a mob and took actions to prevent their entry into the Territory. He declared martial law, activated the Militia and enlisted the support of Indian bands throughout the Territory, intending to wage war if necessary. The impending conflict was foretold in the brutal assassination of Mormon Apostle Parley Pratt, in Arkansas, by the husband of one of Pratt's plural wives. In the intensity of these circumstances, during the month of September, 1857, a party of emigrants from Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois, were attacked at Mountain Meadow and brutally massacred by Indians and Mormons.</span><br /><br />Mormon resistance against the army evoked public sympathy for their defense of religious freedom. But the deceit and vengeance exhibited in the Massacre at Mountain Meadow, when revealed, destroyed all favorable impressions. These negative views henceforth dominated American opinion about the Mormons. An era ended as Johnston's army occupied Utah and Brigham Young was replaced as governor.<br /><br />Captain Gunnison's book, the Massacre, and its sequels, had much to do with the course and outcome of the Mormon movement during these early years. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The charges of Mormon involvement in the Massacre, brought by Mrs. Gunnison and Judge Drummond, among others, were neglected due to the more compelling need to deal with Brigham Young' s resistance to the army and then with the horrible Massacre at Mountain Meadow.</span> Soon the Civil War intervened. For thirty years afterward, the Mormon were under the pressure of Federal law to abandon polygamy and the political aspects of theocracy in order to attain self-government as a state in the Union. <span style="font-weight: bold;">These more demanding issues left the Gunnison Massacre as unfinished business. Consequently, there was never an investigation by competent legal procedures during the lifetime of persons with first-hand knowledge. These issues have not since been investigated by competent historical inquiries.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Footnotes</span>:<br /><sup>2</sup> http://www.wildgoosecreekstudio.com/gunnison-massacre.html<br /><sup>3</sup>A Brief Summary of the Gunnison Massacre: Utah Territory, October 26, 1853 by Dr. Robert Kant Fielding<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Publications of Interest</span>. Two books dealing with the Gunnison Massacre are scheduled for February, 1993 publication:<br /><br />- <span style="font-style: italic;">The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints</span>, by John W. Gunnison. This is a reprint of the 1860 edition. It includes the correspondence of Mrs. Martha Gunnison and Judge W. W. Drummond. Out of print for more than a century, this classic has been reprinted with an editor's preface written by Dr. Robert Kent Fielding, describing Gunnison's relations with the Mormons, the Massacre, and the major events which followed, through the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the Utah Expedition. 176 pages; Hardcover; $19.95.<br /><br />- <span style="font-style: italic;">The Unsolicited Chronicler: an Accounts of the Gunnison Massacre, its Causes and Consequences, </span>by Dr. Robert Kent Fielding. More than ten years in research and preparation, this work utilizes all known source materials held by major research libraries, providing dramatic and controversial information abut Gunnison, his relations with the Mormons, the tragedy of the Massacre (including Mormon involvement), and the sequels which followed, changing the course of Mormon history. The book is most impressive; much of it reads like an exciting novel. Historians will take notice of the revisionist view of Brigham Young characterized as a “Yankee Mohamed.” The author was a professor of History at Brigham Young and at Wesleyan University. 450 pages; maps; photographs; Hardcover; $49.95. See http://www.millardcounty.com/massacre.html.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-41687187697944312982010-04-11T16:41:00.000-07:002010-04-18T09:30:47.022-07:00Did a Japanese Midget Submarine Sink the USS Oklahoma on December 7, 1941? by Vernon Maddux<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWIZTCjDfrOz3HMURY5NJ-_wg9QUQ3ghwIeV7HADLQ1It4d26RfrHMUL4yaWZsF_MUx4hxkXIGMaBBEQQ7-TcadHvTGLbglzbxldPJ0rSG-v8hTJ3SM8hNudti3xGOtkY0OzoepwmHxE/s1600/bsok.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWIZTCjDfrOz3HMURY5NJ-_wg9QUQ3ghwIeV7HADLQ1It4d26RfrHMUL4yaWZsF_MUx4hxkXIGMaBBEQQ7-TcadHvTGLbglzbxldPJ0rSG-v8hTJ3SM8hNudti3xGOtkY0OzoepwmHxE/s320/bsok.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5459233023912535746" border="0" /></a><br />Painting of attack on USS Oklahoma. On display Oklahoma State Capital, OKC.<br /><br />In the early pre-dawn hours of December 7, 1941, five Japanese Type-A midget submarines launched from their mother submarines less than 13 miles outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor. They were called the Advance Force, which planned to penetrate inside the harbor and wait to attack American ships docked in Battleship Row. When the first wave of Japanese aircraft attacks were over, the midget submarines were to torpedo capital ships and, if possible, sink one to block the narrow harbor entrance.<br /><br />Fifty years earlier the United States military created a channel entrance from the Pacific Ocean into Pearl Harbor by blasting through volcanic rock to the depth of 65 ft.in the center. During the years after WWI, two anti-torpedo nets were strung across the entrance, one backing the other at the throat. Each stretched across the relatively narrow channel anchored on one shore; the anti-torpedo nets hung down 35 ft. primarily to defend against a torpedo being fired up into the harbor from outside. Workers suspended the nets on floats, which were then moved by small boats attached to the end. When ordered, sailors would power the boats across the channel. Later, a secondary intent was to prevent small submarines from entering the harbor underwater. Outside Pearl Harbor navy destroyers patrolled routinely back and forth for at least a five-mile arc centered on the channel entrance. The torpedo nets were normally open during the day but closed from nightfall to sunrise. In the early hours of Dec. 7, due to naval activities, the nets were opened at 0200 and reported closed at 0846, long after the air attack began. This provided free passage to the two Japanese midget submarines to make their way inside the harbor.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPFINTnchXUC_WbZ4dd7z6zxM4ktfEXf-0xJw4par1rO4UKVhMyAKWM9fLGlOIyzg_tsQy1rQ3rUMENA7wZxJ1uCEGM6O_Sx6U3zNbRYTSfCPjaRSpprVypdURQRjWLun2D2wdybjsnA/s1600/Pearl_Harbor_looking_sw.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuPFINTnchXUC_WbZ4dd7z6zxM4ktfEXf-0xJw4par1rO4UKVhMyAKWM9fLGlOIyzg_tsQy1rQ3rUMENA7wZxJ1uCEGM6O_Sx6U3zNbRYTSfCPjaRSpprVypdURQRjWLun2D2wdybjsnA/s320/Pearl_Harbor_looking_sw.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5459033180937459042" border="0" /></a><br />Pearl Harbor Looking southwest toward narrow harbor entrance<br /><br /><br />For years historians theorized from the little evidence available that two midget subs made it into the Harbor and fired their two 800-pound torpedoes, and that several hit the battleships <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">USS West Virginia</span>, capsizing the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span>. In December 2009, the discovery of a Japanese midget sub at the bottom of Pearl Harbor added fuel to the debate over whether the missile from a Japanese midget submarine was responsible for sending the battleship <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> to a watery grave at the bottom of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.<br /><br /><br /><br />For Dan Martinez, the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Arizona</span> Park Ranger Historian, the new discovery of a midget submarine (both torpedoes missing) on the sea bottom off the channel entrance to Pearl Harbor, provides concrete evidence that a Japanese midget submarine sunk the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span>. Martinez believes the midget submarine found was dredged from the bottom of East Loch inside Pearl Harbor and dumped out at sea from wrecked ships. To Martinez, the missing torpedoes provides positive evidence that this wreck, lying in three pieces tied together by cables, was the midget submarine that appears in a famous photograph of Battleship Row; the midget sub is believed to be seen firing at the battleship <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span>.<br /><br />As convincing as their arguments are, careful scrutiny of pictures and Japanese records provides a more accurate account of the damage the midget-subs inflicted on December 7, 1941. Such evidence suggests that the midget submarines that penetrated Pearl Harbor on that fateful day in December did not sink the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> or any other ship in Battleship Row.<br /><br />Between 1934 and 1941, the Japanese produced at least 52 Type A midgets at the submarine base at Eta Jima, Honshu. These two-man boats displaced 46 tons, were 78 feet long and carried two 45cm (17.7") diameter, 800 lb warhead, 1000 lb torpedoes mounted in over/under tubes that made up the bow. Powered by a 600 hp electric motor, the design was capable of very high underwater speeds (about 20 knots). Its greatest drawback was its very limited range of only 50-60 miles or 5-6 hours endurance at 9-10 knots. Each boat was given alpha-numeric names in the "Ha" series (Ha-1 through Ha-52). The only known HA number of the five subs that attacked Pearl Harbor is HA-19. The Americans captured the sub intact, along with one of its crewman. The other four midgets that attacked Pearl Harbor are known generally by “M” (midget) and the number of the mother submarine.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrs_Fmuq43kifxekxP8pyOVCJlYzEhIqWToBBlqgywucXMeSxCP5q5jTVeFfBPljMdnUZUd1KAGBJj_ZknBbnQOFuSti9VpWHW4i5xMuI6zCOuM2lWTpzxab158Upa8GktHwGRRyfpHb0/s1600/subsdrydock.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrs_Fmuq43kifxekxP8pyOVCJlYzEhIqWToBBlqgywucXMeSxCP5q5jTVeFfBPljMdnUZUd1KAGBJj_ZknBbnQOFuSti9VpWHW4i5xMuI6zCOuM2lWTpzxab158Upa8GktHwGRRyfpHb0/s320/subsdrydock.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5459036916169983138" border="0" /></a><br />Japanese Midget Submarines in dry dock 1946<br /><br /><br />On 19 October 1941, at headquarters, the Japanese Sixth Fleet (Submarines) staff ordered the immediate conversion of five midget submarines and five Type C-1 mother submarines for the Hawaii Operation. To upgrade the harbor-penetrating capabilities of the midget submarines, mechanics installed a more-precise pneumatically-operated steering system. Shipwrights moved 25 batteries from the forward battery room and replaced them with four air bottles to power the steering system. Test trials indicated the range at low speed was marginally increased, but maximum speed dropped from 20 to 16 knots. Each midget had a scuttling charge installed in the aft battery room, which required lighting a fuse. Each sub acquired net guards/cutters, jumping wires and propeller guards. Workers also painted over peacetime running lights and technicians fitted telephone hook-ups to connect midget and mother for communications between the two at sea. Working frantically, the engineers finished work by 10 November.<br /><br />On 14 November 1941, at headquarters, Kure Naval District, Vice Admiral Shimizu Mitsumi, C-in-C, Sixth Fleet (Submarines) and his chief of staff, Captain Mito Hisashi conducted the final staff briefing for the submarine portion of the Pearl Harbor attack. They assigned submarines I-16, I-18, I-20, I-24 and I-22 to Captain Sasaki Hankyu's Special Attack Unit. Captain Arima Takayasu, the Combined Fleet's senior torpedo staff officer, briefed Sasaki and the five midget submarine officers of the Special Attack Unit on intimate details of the Hawaii Operation. The battle plan required the midget submarines to be employed only in case a major part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was actually anchored in Pearl Harbor. They gave orders for midget submarines to penetrate the harbor as quickly as possible, then lay low until there was a lull between the first and second air strikes. After they located their targets and launched their torpedoes, they were to make their way out of Pearl Harbor and arrive at a rendezvous point 7 nautical miles ESE of Lanai Island. At this rendezvous point, Japanese ordered the mother submarines to wait only one day for the Midget sub to reconnect. Orders were to delay their departure no later than one day to midnight 8 December (9 December, Japan time). Given the massive chaos that would ensue from the Kido Butai air attack plus the dangerously shallow water of the channel, the extreme limited endurance of the midget submarines made this impossible and, therefore, a one-way mission.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaBBL3nBxa24gR1YR-RdbqJw01cAkUt-ARiAVu1EiJiZj_ShDb1vKG1IqMWiZCs5nPS8s9hG1rSV5-VI83HQeFBnlCV5J4c20DeNdH7gYEiMTH3hfsaklEIzWOCaREtN3T_6_6raCseTw/s1600/mother+subs.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaBBL3nBxa24gR1YR-RdbqJw01cAkUt-ARiAVu1EiJiZj_ShDb1vKG1IqMWiZCs5nPS8s9hG1rSV5-VI83HQeFBnlCV5J4c20DeNdH7gYEiMTH3hfsaklEIzWOCaREtN3T_6_6raCseTw/s320/mother+subs.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5459034832664785810" border="0" /></a><br />Mother Subs I-24, I-16, I-20, I-18, and midget from I-24 beached.<br /><br /><br />Very early in the morning on 18 November 1941, the Special Attack Unit’s five big mother submarines cast off and departed Kure Naval Base for the Kamegakubi Naval Proving Ground. At Kamegakubi each mother submarine loaded aboard one of the top-secret two-man Type A midget submarines. That evening, Cdr Ariizumi held one last conference with the five officers aboard the flagship.<br /><br />On 19 November 1941 at 0215, the five Special Attack Unit's mother submarines departed for the Hawaiian Islands with the midgets mounted on their backs. Lt Matsuo rode aboard I-22 as XO of the Special Attack Unit. When at sea the midgets’ officers briefed their enlisted men on the Hawaii Operation. The mother submarines followed generally a direct route, except to swing out 600 nautical miles around Wake and Midway islands to avoid detection by patrolling aircraft.<br /><br />On 2 December 1941, the mother submarines picked up the coded signal. "Niitakayama nobore (Climb Mt. Niitaka) 1208." This broadcast came from the Combined Fleet headquarters on the Nagato. They scheduled hostilities to commence at 0800, 8 December (Japan Time).<br /><br />By midnight on 7 December 1941(Hawaii Time), Japanese submarines I-68 and I-69 arrived at their patrol points a dozen miles from the entrance to Pearl Harbor. They were to attack American capital ships as they came out and rescue midget submarine crews. Closer in the five mother submarines reached their launch points about the same time.<br /><br /><br />From 0042 to 0333, the mother submarines launched their midget subs; each midget-sub carried two live Type-97 torpedoes, with an approximately 800-lb. explosive warhead, twice the amount in the Type-91 aerial torpedo. These Japanese torpedoes were fueled by oxygen, and left very little wake. Many considered the Japanese torpedoes more advanced than any of the allied forces’ torpedoes, far better than any in the US Navy.<br /><br />While the Japanese Mother subs launched the midget sub in the predawn hours of December 7th, one of the duty destroyers <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Monaghan</span> was tied up to the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Farragut</span> near the north side of the harbor. Patrolling outside were <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Ward</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Helm</span>. Patrol PBY float planes from VP-14 were also routinely airborne over Oahu.<br /><br />At 0408, LT William W. Outerbridge's 22 year-old four-stack destroyer <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Ward </span>(DD-139) was on duty off Pearl Harbor. Hard work and tedious, this sort of peace-time work was usually reserved for new captains and naval reservists. The <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward’s</span> crew was a group of St Paul, Minnesota reserves doing their call-up. The ship searched for a suspected submarine reported in the harbor mouth area by minesweeper Condor (AMC-14). <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward </span>roamed through the area for two hours but saw nothing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq89a3WGdpwT7dPLmaX8H3eB4ekl1mFRLdR6PfeiiwlFf6uEGb6m7u4_Xcgh76PDsNyCBCCSEUEYTn1DycvYm5xS_viU326rRNrVs24SkuTFAXLmGtseSqT5P1YiY_MrczBrC4DNrcyVE/s1600/USS_Ward_(DD-139).jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 189px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq89a3WGdpwT7dPLmaX8H3eB4ekl1mFRLdR6PfeiiwlFf6uEGb6m7u4_Xcgh76PDsNyCBCCSEUEYTn1DycvYm5xS_viU326rRNrVs24SkuTFAXLmGtseSqT5P1YiY_MrczBrC4DNrcyVE/s320/USS_Ward_(DD-139).jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461483856073610066" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">USS Ward </span><br />At 0630, less than two hours before the attack,<span style="font-style: italic;"> Ward</span> headed back out to sea and met Training Squadron 8's flagship <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Antares</span> (AKS-3) as it approached Pearl's outer gate nets. <span style="font-style: italic;">Antares</span> had a gunnery target raft in tow. One of <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward’s</span> lookouts noticed something behind the raft. He made it out to be a small conning tower following in <span style="font-style: italic;">Antares</span>’ wake just behind the target raft. He radioed the captain. The captain, brand new, sounded general-quarters submarine attack. As the general quarters alarm echoed throughout the ship, Captain Outerbridge called for full speed and ordered the helmsman to turn the ship directly toward the submarine’s periscope. Overhead, a patrolling PBY "Catalina" flying-boat 14-P-1, flown by Ensign William P. Tanner of Patrol Squadron VP-14, responded to the radioed contact report and dropped smoke markers to mark the conning tower.<br /><br />Fifteen minutes after the lookout spotted the conning tower, at 0645, <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward’s</span> scrambling gunners were finally able to unlimber, load, point and open fire at the sub. By then the destroyer was cranking 20 knots and range was down to a point-blank 100 yards. The first 4” round - the first shot fired in anger during WWII by American Forces – was thought for decades to have missed.<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfF_xcxhZ7peEiVgtFFmkosrHMvJ2O07SCqCWaCaTl_9pEQDl3VV0AJVr4vQhX_xXnxUGU7ylgHHNKvkduBw0moL1uvC9DVeJABmqaO3ZYt3Uus6koTEgjIKHb8ncIok2Cmc0-kMAQHFU/s1600/sub-sunk-ussward.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 217px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfF_xcxhZ7peEiVgtFFmkosrHMvJ2O07SCqCWaCaTl_9pEQDl3VV0AJVr4vQhX_xXnxUGU7ylgHHNKvkduBw0moL1uvC9DVeJABmqaO3ZYt3Uus6koTEgjIKHb8ncIok2Cmc0-kMAQHFU/s320/sub-sunk-ussward.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461486098334025010" border="0" /></a><br /></span>In 2009, the midget was found on the bottom with two small holes punched through the conning tower.<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Ward</span> now steaming at more than 22 knots, closed to 50 yards and the gunners fired a second 4-inch shell almost straight down at the sub’s conning tower. The shell struck the base of the midget submarine's conning tower and punched a 4” hole through its left side. This explosive shell instantly killed both crewmembers. <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward</span> continued over the submarine’s bow, which bounced around and wallowed drunkenly for a few seconds then sank out of sight. Capt. Outerbridge swung his ship hard around and ordered four depth charges to be dropped on the spot where the sub was last seen. Six minutes after opening fire on the sub, at 0651, he signaled 14th Naval District Headquarters.<br /><br />WE HAVE ATTACKED FIRED UPON AND DROPPED DEPTH CHARGES<br />UPON SUBMARINE OPERATING IN DEFENSIVE SEA AREA.<br /><br />A few miles away, Japanese Ensign Sakamaki’s midget Ha-19 had all sorts of problems as he groped in darkness toward the harbor entrance. His compass had failed and even though there were plenty of lights on the shore, he could not make out the harbor markers.<br /><br />By 0700, three and a half hours after leaving the mother sub, Ha-19 reached a point probably a mile from the harbor entrance. Peering through his periscope, Sakamaki tried to maneuver into the channel entrance but was still outside when the air strikes began around 0757. When the first torpedoes and bombs began to fall, all American patrolling aircraft and warships went to full alert. Sakamaki was forced to creep away to avoid detection. By 0800, Sakamaki was raising his periscope often to navigate because Ha-19's gyro compass had failed. He continued to grope his way along the coast toward the harbor entrance using only the periscope to find his way.<br /><br />At 0817, Ha-19’s periscope was spotted by <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Helm</span> (DD-388) who opened fire on the midget submarine. The shells missed, but Sakamaki increased speed too much and too steeply dived away striking an underlying reef very hard. The sub bounced off the bottom and damaged the lower torpedo tube, net cutter and jammed the lower vertical rudder. The sub stuck to the reef.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6SuDTcuVUkpUQQmO1qeQOKnJuKEkorSnSzLUopKxj80esZLi4cADTOEPYgygDD3XnofvZr32XJAI0XTcFUwgF6H1tzyNSbE1aspRUdCVi2cgF_6RE7rCsUbOxT4CBTDWxfGbSiSx-pU4/s1600/++HA19+beach.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6SuDTcuVUkpUQQmO1qeQOKnJuKEkorSnSzLUopKxj80esZLi4cADTOEPYgygDD3XnofvZr32XJAI0XTcFUwgF6H1tzyNSbE1aspRUdCVi2cgF_6RE7rCsUbOxT4CBTDWxfGbSiSx-pU4/s320/++HA19+beach.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460872700956580962" border="0" /></a><br />Beached HA-19<br /><br />Over the next several moments, Sakamaki and Inagaki shifted lead ballast bars from the bow back aft of the batteries. Sakamaki ran the engine full power astern and finally the sub slipped backwards off the reef. Sakamaki leveled the boat and slowly and with difficulty, turned out to sea, heading away from the harbor entrance and the relentless destroyers and patrol planes guarding the entrance.<br /><br />At 6 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941, from 230 miles north of Oahu, 185 of the first wave of a two-wave attack took off from six Japanese fleet aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku. It was actually a remarkable testament to the ability of the Japanese mechanics. One aircraft had to turn back, the other crashed into the sea and was rescued by the duty destroyer.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihl71l71UikKAI1IO0sAgTCpkoZy84yG2Ev28JzamQL2tK6ivnO9DGguCJpk7IXaxrskRUAgPP_dvRehJgw4tIRRFlOlcoz6-w7j0c7FCvht36IazxDHGbBO_zTSxa3134lSMG1pzbEMw/s1600/Japanese+attach+planes.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 127px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihl71l71UikKAI1IO0sAgTCpkoZy84yG2Ev28JzamQL2tK6ivnO9DGguCJpk7IXaxrskRUAgPP_dvRehJgw4tIRRFlOlcoz6-w7j0c7FCvht36IazxDHGbBO_zTSxa3134lSMG1pzbEMw/s320/Japanese+attach+planes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461488719041861250" border="0" /></a><br />Japanese attach planes<br /><br />The strike force consisted of 40 Kate torpedo bombers, 51 Val dive bombers, 50 high-altitude bombers and 43 Zero fighters. Inside the lead aircraft, a Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 Model 3 “Kate” torpedo bomber, the drone of the Mitsubishi Sakae 14-cylinder radial engine was music to the ears of the strike commander, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida as the 183 warplanes strung out in tight formations behind him.<br /><br />At 0740, Fuchida saw Pearl Harbor lying placidly before him. Sliding back his canopy, the strike leader fired a single green flare into the air signaling the start of the attack. Fuchida then ordered Petty Officer 1c Norinobu Mizuki to radio the signal, “Tora, Tora, Tora,” to the fleet commander, meaning the attack had begun.<br /><br />Directly in front of the first torpedo planes were the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> (BB-37), moored in Battleship Row at mooring #7 outboard (BB-46) <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Maryland</span>. It was bad luck that <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> sat directly across from a small loch that led away to the southeast. This open water gave the “Kate” torpedo planes the most perfect run-in to what might otherwise have been a difficult target. Between 0753 and 0800, the "kates" flying low and slow down the narrow loch launched 22 torpedoes. The Janpanese modified each torpedo with wooden fins so when the metal “fish” fell a hundred feet into the water, it hit at a specific angle that tore off the wooden fins, slowing and shallowing the missile. Each “fish” ran at forty knots across the harbor to strike the broad hull of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">West Virginia</span> just behind. Some were launched at the <span style="font-style: italic;">California</span> across the bay to the left. Each torpedo exploded with 454 lbs of high explosive.<br /><br />The U.S. Navy commissioned the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey to build the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> on 26 October 1911. The Battleship was launched on 23 March 1914. On hand for the occasion was Miss Lorena J. Cruce, daughter of Governor of Oklahoma, Lee Cruce. The navy moved the battleship to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 2 May 1916 assigning Captain Roger Welles to command.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii17zYM9CyTH4s7HAyuQk6MPOGuoFmVfCsy2wtjb39vBogBssHv1hC9bUxRFyLhHbAJ_L0PDXE5Txt3fy8w9I4OAs5rsGxkIuNXL28fEC3gmBn9YnCBzmKMpxi2OXgGuJazWHgfOCtP88/s1600/Uss_oklahoma_bb.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii17zYM9CyTH4s7HAyuQk6MPOGuoFmVfCsy2wtjb39vBogBssHv1hC9bUxRFyLhHbAJ_L0PDXE5Txt3fy8w9I4OAs5rsGxkIuNXL28fEC3gmBn9YnCBzmKMpxi2OXgGuJazWHgfOCtP88/s320/Uss_oklahoma_bb.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461149105074842226" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span><br /><br />The ship was 583 feet long, 95 feet wide and needed 29 feet of draft. Its top speed was a relative slow 20.5 knots but it was extremely long-ranged, carrying 2,000 tons of fuel oil for a range of over 8,000 miles. It was the last US Navy capital ship not to have steam turbines for its main propulsion. Initially the ship’s complement was 864 officers and men, but after 1929 it had quarters for 1,398 officers and men. On the morning of December 7th, 1941, the navy docked the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> in battleship row at mooring #7, which sat directly across from a small loch that led away to the southeast.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDTwHXDlwPvGeLlqxaXiI2DU-Bpmydt461vBBXzHaknbFBf89Qtw0bj1Q8AV0kmRnEzcYb_-dUono4gbj-lo8LAu6rirxCwhBBuEFlD7Rj5InCO6LDh_RV_5VtYzH8OycsqQqi4gSFT1Y/s1600/oklahomaraidpainting.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDTwHXDlwPvGeLlqxaXiI2DU-Bpmydt461vBBXzHaknbFBf89Qtw0bj1Q8AV0kmRnEzcYb_-dUono4gbj-lo8LAu6rirxCwhBBuEFlD7Rj5InCO6LDh_RV_5VtYzH8OycsqQqi4gSFT1Y/s320/oklahomaraidpainting.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461159810267798754" border="0" /></a><br />USS Oklahoma on Fire<br /><br />The open water left the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> vulnerable. In a horrible irony of bad luck, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> had no watertight integrity, as all portholes and watertight doors had been ordered opened for inspection scheduled for Monday morning.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitspjdGcqTbY0sP1PsBLN0CuoSUE6F4UUeZSNnB1MTDJ3NPGfYAn2yj2bo8Cx4r8WBOlgvj_Iw3TgoISWaKStqJp26w-xMDGKZkCQFtpAueecFViwWmfa1VTn3nEoTRTJsllweJwpfjps/s1600/pearlharbormap+copy.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitspjdGcqTbY0sP1PsBLN0CuoSUE6F4UUeZSNnB1MTDJ3NPGfYAn2yj2bo8Cx4r8WBOlgvj_Iw3TgoISWaKStqJp26w-xMDGKZkCQFtpAueecFViwWmfa1VTn3nEoTRTJsllweJwpfjps/s320/pearlharbormap+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461110973133356530" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Japanese bombs exploded on Ford Island at 0757,waking sailors on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFXIB4B4OP_zMdz8qvQD9q2V4UbTJoTqtX64mgxYtMbek_m7pt9s1GcP1dVcPGNCf19gYZUK7FW4D6v53LOPkaMFKB12hpDlv5-5ynH36jaOcu3prdCdU1tbW5aFPwTwyR50CyX63jlA/s1600/PearlHarbor08.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFXIB4B4OP_zMdz8qvQD9q2V4UbTJoTqtX64mgxYtMbek_m7pt9s1GcP1dVcPGNCf19gYZUK7FW4D6v53LOPkaMFKB12hpDlv5-5ynH36jaOcu3prdCdU1tbW5aFPwTwyR50CyX63jlA/s320/PearlHarbor08.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461155261470523106" border="0" /></a><br /><br />One minute later, at 0758, a blast struck the side of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span>. The blisters attached to the hull of the ship held for a few seconds but were blown away by a second and third torpedo that hit in the same place eliminating the protective blister. Inside “C” deck, a wall of dirty water burst though the open deck and began flooding down the double ladders of the still sleepy ship. More torpedoes struck, one after another, many slamming into the same area, blasting a 70 foot hole through the five inch steel armor. The ship lurched to port but paused. It was now 0800. A moment later, the roaring engines of another wave of Kates flashed over the ship and one of the first to pull up to the right took a photo back at Battleship Row. Shown below there are several wakes of torpedoes heading for Oklahoma, West Virginia and California as plane after plane dropped their “fish” and pulled up to the side to miss the battleships’ high superstructure. Stunned by heavy explosions blasting holes though the heavy side armor, men responded to the alarm bells which belatedly clanged and gonged throughout the ship. One boson seeing the meatballs on the planes, keyed the PA mike and yelled “This is an air attack, NO SHIT!” Men below hurried from their bunks and ran to their battle stations. Those who did not have a fighting station during an air attack ran below to “C” deck where they had heavy armor over their heads, as they had been trained. Sailors and Marines tried to smash open ammunition lockers but all the guns had been dismantled for the upcoming inspection. The ship lurched again and men found themselves fighting for footing on the smooth decks as the list increased markedly. As the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma </span>began to list, more torpedoes, at least two more, struck home. By 0802, the big ship had rolled left to a dangerous 20 degrees.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMAJHYinAyqHzRgAILxjC4h4eZYVRZ1zrplXeTINaHLaM8MJFJLTQ9xN3Ym6WScJ-65XUOqUk12th5iG7kKbU4h9244yj6PsYpd7PpNXryoiCDr5TE5xAyhHhmn70VCKVsvkMSm5_LGMg/s1600/USS_Oklahoma_on_fire.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMAJHYinAyqHzRgAILxjC4h4eZYVRZ1zrplXeTINaHLaM8MJFJLTQ9xN3Ym6WScJ-65XUOqUk12th5iG7kKbU4h9244yj6PsYpd7PpNXryoiCDr5TE5xAyhHhmn70VCKVsvkMSm5_LGMg/s320/USS_Oklahoma_on_fire.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461150777139891746" border="0" /></a><br />In the US Navy photo above, the hull of the capsized <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> lies directly in front of <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Maryland</span>. The burning ship just to the right is the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS West Virginia</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">West Virginia</span> took five 18-inch aircraft torpedoes in her port side and two 15-inch armor-piercing shells fitted with fins. The first bomb penetrated the main deck, wrecking the port casemates and causing that deck to collapse to the level of the galley deck below. Four casemates and the galley caught fire immediately, with the subsequent detonation of the ready-service projectiles stowed in the casemates. The second bomb hit further aft, wrecking one Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplane<br /><br />For a few minutes, ropes held the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> the ship to the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Maryland</span>, the captain of the latter ordered the ropes cut and at 0809, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> fell suddenly on its side, and continued turning, crushing the high top tripod mast into the muddy bottom. Observers around the harbor hardly noticed. Most were overwhelmed by the explosions raining down on and around the seven battleships. After only 12 minutes from the first bomb explosion, where the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma </span>had been moored, only a part of the hull protruded, the starboard third of the hull above water with its starboard brass propeller raised in the air. The 25 year-old ship’s career ended that instant, having served in two world wars but, amazingly, never firing a single round from any of its hundreds of guns in anger. <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma’s</span> topside and ready crew were able to leap overboard as the ship rolled to port. Many dove in the water and clambered aboard <span style="font-style: italic;">Maryland </span>where they joined that ship’s crew in manning the anti-aircraft batteries. The battleship <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> was the only ship of the United States Navy to ever be named for the 46th state, and was the second of two ships in her class; she was the sister ship of <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Nevada</span>.<br /><br />The crew compliment on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> the morning of December 7, consisted of 83 officers, 1215 enlisted navy, 3 U.S. Marine officers, and 64 enlisted Marines, for a total of 1,365 men. During its 12 minutes of combat, 20 officers and 395 enlisted men were killed or were never recovered. Only 32 men were wounded. Two men were given Medals of Honor for sacrificing their lives to save their fellows. Several sailors and marines died doing the same thing but were given lesser honors. The navy moved ahead, it had a difficult war to fight.<br /><br />One of the dead was the fleet’s Catholic priest, Lieutenant Junior Grade Father Aloysius Schmitt, the first American chaplain of any faith to die in World War II. He and several men were trapped in an overturned compartment with only a small porthole as the means of escape. Schmitt declined to leave but helped a number of men through this porthole. Twelve men escaped before the air ran out. Father Schmitt was posthumously awarded the Navy-Marine Medal and in 1943 a destroyer escort (DE-676) USS Schmitt was named for him.<br /><br />On the morning of December 7, 1941, just four days before his 21st birthday John Charles England volunteered to work in the ship's radio room for a friend so that he might have more time with his family when they arrived. Ensign England survived the initial attack and escaped topside as the ship was capsizing. He remembered the men still in the radio room. He returned three times to the radio room, each time guiding a man to safety. He left to go back below decks for the fourth time and was never seen again. He was one of twenty officers and 395 enlisted men died on board <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> that morning. Ensign England's gallant effort saved three men, but his fourth trip back inside cost him his life. The navy did not award England a medal, but it did name two ships for him. In 1943, <span style="font-style: italic;">USS England</span> (DE-635) was commissioned and in 1963, USS England (DLG-22) was named in his honor. In a twist of fate, the first <span style="font-style: italic;">USS England</span> on May 9, 1944, destroyed the I-16, the mother submarine of the first mini-sub launched on the morning of December 7, thus revenging its namesake.<br /><br />After the battle ended, the Navy sent divers and rescue teams to scour the hull of the ship and found many trapped within the capsized hull. Julio DeCastro, a civilian yard worker, organized a team that cut holes in the hull and eventually saved 32 <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> sailors over the next three days.<br /><br />The next morning, the navy base command immediately began efforts to remove the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> from the harbor mud, primarily because it blocked the sea channel. Divers penetrated inside and at least 35 bodies were found and removed over the next three weeks and each individually identified. These men were buried in the Nuuanu (Oahu) Cemetery. In 1943 the remains of all crewmen found were buried in Halawa Cemetery because Nuuanu Cemetery had no more room. All 35 men were dug up 1949 and re-interned in the "Punchbowl” National Cemetery. For some reason, presumably the incompetence of low paid laborers, the names of these men were lost in the move and their bones were collectively dumped in a common grave in the National Punch Bowl Cemetery.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Question</span><br />Did a missile from a Japanese Midget Submarine capsize the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span>?<br /><br />In 2009, Marine historians and history buffs claimed that at least one of the torpedoes that hit the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma </span>was from a Japanese midget-submarine. IT is clear from the evidence that two of the midget-subs did managed to penetrate inside the harbor before the attack began<br />The single most pertinent evidence offered by Marine historians that supports their view that it was a Japanese midget Submarine that capsized the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> is the picture below taken by a Japanese crewman in the second wave of Kate bombers that attacked the ship in Battleship row.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbRzxCxmK3Fh3fiLDT3blJz34in0cRhakiMJuzyqpu6bJsByqcMIOL5diHrVInSsaa1xzLaALTyxfsHqR9X3KE0Tl1mhWz1MM0MgKVaL7ejq3ceRMniBMcow0gVbYoZsmGZCsh-MSJNaY/s1600/PH_looking_SW+copy.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbRzxCxmK3Fh3fiLDT3blJz34in0cRhakiMJuzyqpu6bJsByqcMIOL5diHrVInSsaa1xzLaALTyxfsHqR9X3KE0Tl1mhWz1MM0MgKVaL7ejq3ceRMniBMcow0gVbYoZsmGZCsh-MSJNaY/s320/PH_looking_SW+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461107558969296322" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />In the photo above, a small puff of smoke can be seen rising from the Light Cruiser <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Helena</span> and the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Ogalala</span> (center). The big smoke rising in the background are burning aircraft at Hickam Field. This photo indicates several torpedoes are in the water by 0800. <span style="font-style: italic;">USS California</span>, upper right, has been hit by a torpedo and is gushing oil, the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span> had been torpedoed (at least twice). <span style="font-style: italic;">USS West Virginia</span> just behind <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> had been struck by at least one torpedo and is listing to port.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitspjdGcqTbY0sP1PsBLN0CuoSUE6F4UUeZSNnB1MTDJ3NPGfYAn2yj2bo8Cx4r8WBOlgvj_Iw3TgoISWaKStqJp26w-xMDGKZkCQFtpAueecFViwWmfa1VTn3nEoTRTJsllweJwpfjps/s1600/pearlharbormap+copy.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitspjdGcqTbY0sP1PsBLN0CuoSUE6F4UUeZSNnB1MTDJ3NPGfYAn2yj2bo8Cx4r8WBOlgvj_Iw3TgoISWaKStqJp26w-xMDGKZkCQFtpAueecFViwWmfa1VTn3nEoTRTJsllweJwpfjps/s320/pearlharbormap+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461110973133356530" border="0" /></a><br />Location of U.S. ships in Pearl Harbor Dec. 7th, 1941<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">USS Arizona</span> Historian Dan Martinez comments on the photo:<br /><br />Six torpedo tracks are seen in the water headed for <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">West Virginia</span>. Four appear partially erased by the traveling surface concussion waves. Two tracks appear to be thinner and show less alteration by the wave concussion. Four of the torpedo tracks can be seen in alignment with respective water splashes associated with aerial torpedo drops. The two thinner tracks that were less affected by the wave concussions converged at a point coinciding with the linear object but without water splashes. One of the thinner tracks terminated with a small water plume characterized by the beginning of an underwater explosive detonation against the side of the <span style="font-style: italic;">West Virginia’s</span> hull. The surface concussion rings propagated radially from the <span style="font-style: italic;">West Virginia’s</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> were the result of the torpedo detonation, its gas bubble in expansion and contraction, a phenomenon of underwater explosion. The magnitude and propagation velocity of the concussion waves can be measured. Thus total elapsed time intervals were computed to be 174 seconds (approximately three minutes) after the <span style="font-style: italic;">Helena</span> was hit. This substantiated that the combat photo was taken at approximately 0801. (Rudimentary shadow analysis agrees that the time was 0801-0803).<br /><br />The <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Monaghan </span>(DD 354) was one of the “ready duty” destroyers in Pearl Harbor that morning. At 07:51 the ship was ordered to leave the harbor and join <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward</span>, who had just reported sinking an unidentified submarine off the entrance to Pearl Harbor. A few minutes later, before <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span> could cast off and get underway, the Japanese air attack began. <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span> went to battle stations and soon opened fire. It still took until 08:27 before steam came up on all boilers and the ship cast off and headed out to join <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward</span>. It was at this point when the captain became aware of an unknown type midget submarine inside the harbor. The following are excerpts from the Monaghan’s log.<br /><br />1. 0835. Signalmen reported to <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan’s</span> captain that <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Curtiss</span> was flying a flag hoist indicating the presence of an enemy submarine. Shortly thereafter the Captain and other personnel on the bridge observed the conning tower of a submarine located approximately 200-300 yards on the starboard quarter of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Curtiss</span> (moored at berth X-22) and that the sub was under vigorous fire by machine guns from <span style="font-style: italic;">Tangier</span> (moored at Northwest end of Ford Island) and from machine guns and the 5" turret from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Curtiss.</span><br /><br />2.0837. Captain (of <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span>) ordered "all engines ahead flank speed" and word was passed that it was intended to ram the submarine – then distant about one thousand yards. At about the same time Williamson, D.C., (CQM) who had the helm, was directed to head for the submarine when he gave assurance that he saw it.<br /><br />3. The first shot from <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span> struck over and ricocheted into a derrick moored near the west bank. When it was evident that we were attempting to ram the sub the guns were ordered to cease firing. Within 75 yards the submarine turned sharply toward our bow and released a torpedo. The torpedo porpoised twice and then passed parallel to the ship's starboard side a distance of about 20-30 yards. The torpedo was seen to go up against the north bank throwing up a geyser of water about 200 feet high. The midget submarine was struck a glancing blow causing it to slide aft along the starboard side. The bow lifted out of the water as if the boat was blowing ballast (this was the natural result of firing one of the torpedoes). As the sub passed astern the first depth charge was released. The explosion brought the bow and superstructure of the sub into full view.<br /><br />4. At about 0843 word was passed to stand by for a shock forward as the submarine had disappeared from the view of those on the bridge and ramming was considered imminent. Shortly thereafter a slight shock was felt and about 0844 the two depth charges released exploded violently about 50-100 yards astern of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span>.<br /><br />5. At about the same time of the depth charge explosions the order was given "all engines back emergency full speed", which, although carried out promptly, was insufficient to check the headway of the ship which consequently struck a derrick moored near Beckoning Point a slight blow.<br /><br />6.Upon attempting to back clear of the derrick it was discovered that we were entangled with one of her mooring lines but by going ahead slowly we were able to free the <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span> and at about 0847 we swung into the channel astern of the Dale and proceeded out of the harbor passing the Entrance buoys at 0908 from where we proceeded to our assigned station on the Offshore Patrol.<br /><br />About two hours after <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span> left Pearl Harbor, the damaged and barely functional Ha-19 passed Honolulu beach and rounded Diamond Head. The shock of the earlier collision with the reef had cracked the batteries, which emitted chlorine gas. The gas became so thick inside the hull that it rendered the crew unconscious. When Sakamaki finally regained consciousness, he found that the sub had surfaced and was rolling in the surf on the surface near the shore. He opened the hatch to breathe fresh air. Looking west over the crest of Diamond Head, he could see dense smoke rising from ships burning in the harbor. Sick and confused, Sakamaki tried to drive the craft up on the beach but struck hard on a reef several yards offshore. Sakamaki and Inagaki shifted ballast and freed the midget submarine, but now the rudder was so damaged that the boat would not answer the helm. Drifting helplessly, Ha-19 was spotted and depth charged by a patrolling PBY. Sakamaki again tried to beach the boat, but stuck on an outer reef again. Finally, the officer gave up and lit the fuse of the midget submarine's self-destruct charge. He and Inagaki then crawled out of the hatch and leapt into the surf. Sakamaki was knocked unconscious by big waves crashing over the reef. Battered, his unconscious body washed ashore on Waimanalo Beach near Bellow's Field. PO2C Inagaki Kiyoshi’s body was never found.<br /><br />Ha-19’sscuttling charge failed to explode. When the authorities found the derelict Ha-19 the next day after the attack, they found both torpedoes intact and inside there was a map indicating that none of the midget submarines were supposed to attack the capital ships until at least 10 AM, a full two hours after the attack was supposed to begin. This was to avoid interference with the aerial torpedo and bombing attack.<br /><br />Injured and confused, Sakamaki was captured the next morning, December 8 (Hawaii time). He was Japanese POW number one. Under interrogation, he refused to answer any questions and repeatedly demanded he be allowed to die by his own hand or preferably, to be shot by a firing squad.<br /><br />At 10:40 pm December 7 (Hawaii time) submarine I-16 picked up a garbled radio transmission the captain interpreted to be the midget-submarine’s code words for "Success, success, success". It is not certain if the message came from M-16 but it was from one of the midgets. Another transmission "unable to navigate" was received at 12:51 am the following morning 8 December (Hawaii Time). This was believed to have been sent by M-16’s officer.<br /><br />Three of the subs have been found outside the harbor and two midget-subs are known to have penetrated the harbor. One was certainly destroyed by <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span> in the main channel inside the harbor around 0844. It fired both of its torpedoes. The other midget that penetrated inside the harbor may have hidden to be scuttled the next day. What happened to its two-man crew is uncertain, but they did not escape or survive the war.<br /><br />Sakamaki’s capture was quickly discovered by the IJN. During the war, the Japanese Navy proclaimed the lost mini-submariners to be great heroes and erected a shrine to them at Etajima. The high command officially ignored Sakamaki. PO2C Inagaki is inscribed as the only crewman in HA-19. None returned to the mother submarines.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conclusions</span><br /><br />1. M-16. About five miles from the harbor entrance, <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Ward’s</span> Lookouts spotted a periscope heading toward the entrance to the naval harbor. At 6:53, about an hour before the aerial attack on Pearl Harbor began, the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Ward</span> sent a radio message that it fired on and dropped depth charges on a submarine. The vessel did not come up after being depth-charged. This was no doubt M-16...... At 12.20 p.m. on August 28, 2002, the Pisces IV and Pisces V, two deep diving submersibles operated by the Hawai‘i Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL), which are carried aboard the research vessel Ka'imikai-o-Kanaloa came upon the 78-foot, two-man submarine three to four miles off Pearl Harbor in about 1,200 feet of water. It had a 4 inch hole at the base of the conning tower exactly as <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward</span> had claimed.<br /><br />2. M-20. At c 0730 a patrolling PBY "Catalina" flying-boat 14-P-1, piloted by Ensign William P. Tanner of Patrol Squadron VP-14, spotted another periscope (he had helped <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Ward</span> find and attack M-16) in the waters off the entrance to Pearl Harbor. This was possibly M-20. Tanner attacked this mini-sub with depth charges. The fate of this sub is not known and may have made it inside the main harbor where it fired its torpedoes and then was abandoned.<br /><br />3. M-18. This sub was spotted inside the Keehi Lagoon next to Pearl Harbor by a destroyer and depth charged and sunk. On 13 June 1960, the submarine discovered lying on the bottom of the lagoon in 75 feet of water. On 6 July 1960, this boat was raised by the submarine rescue ship <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Current </span>(ARS-22).<br /><br />4. M-22. One midget, probably Lt Iwasa's M-22, penetrated inside Pearl Harbor and is known to have fired both torpedoes. It is confirmed that a mini-sub attacked the seaplane tender AV-4 <span style="font-style: italic;">Curtiss</span> and DD <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span> (DD 354). At 0836, <span style="font-style: italic;">Curtiss</span>, underway and moving in the harbor, sighted a periscope and opened fire. A torpedo from the submarine missed <span style="font-style: italic;">Curtiss</span>, but blew up a dock at Pearl City. Four minutes later this Japanese midget submarine surfaced and was further damaged by gunfire before diving again, after which <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Monaghan </span>attacked it directly and dropped depth charges. Recently, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Los Angeles Times</span> reported that Iwasa may have attacked and hit the battleship <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span>. According to Admiral Nimitz’s official testimony to Congress, one intact Japanese 800 lb (warhead-1000 lb total weight) submarine-type torpedo was later reportedly recovered from the bottom of the harbor which may or may not have been from M-22.<br />5. M-24 (Ha-19). Sakamaki’s boat was discovered damaged but intact, washed up on Waimanalo Beach below Bellows Field on the day following the attack. The sub was perfectly operational except for some external damage. It was repaired and shipped to the United States.<br /><br />The Fifth and Last Midget Submarine<br /><br />Three pieces of the sub (with cables intermingled, showing how the pieces were salvaged) were found during routine test dives between 1994 and 2001 by Terry Kerby, chief pilot of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory's submersibles Pisces IV and Pisces V. But Kerby and others assumed they were a part of a war trophy that had been captured by allied forces at Guadalcanal or elsewhere, towed back to Hawaii and scuttled. Stephenson got involved in 2007 because he was looking for the fifth Japanese mini-sub. In 1941, a crewman on the I-16 had received a radio call from the I-16-tou at 10:41 p.m. on Dec. 8 reporting the success of its mission. That indicated to Stephenson that the mini-sub had found a calm place in the harbor and hidden until the next night before surfacing and sending the call. The crew members would have then scuttled the craft because they could not get it out of the harbor. The West Loch would have been a good location to hide, but researchers could find no trace of the boat there. A diver who had been looking for the mini-sub suggested that Stephenson talk to Kerby, who sent him pictures of his find.<br /><br />"As soon as I saw the bow section with the distinctive net cutter, I knew that we had found the fifth midget sub," Stephenson said. No torpedoes were found on the wreck, and evidence suggests that they were not present when the boat was sunk. In looking at the photo of torpedoes in the water striking battleship row, Stephenson believed was from a mini-sub firing a torpedo into Battleship Row. A report to Congress in 1942 by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz describes an unexploded 800-pound torpedo recovered after the battle. That's twice the size carried by the torpedo bombers. That torpedo was apparently a dud that missed the <span style="font-style: italic;">West Virginia</span>. But an examination of the remains of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> shows that it apparently had underwater damage much larger than that associated with aerial torpedoes. An underwater blast would have caused it to capsize, Stephenson said. "Otherwise it would have settled to the bottom upright," like the other sunken ships. (Author’s note: Stephenson either ignores the fact that <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> was wide open, or was not aware that the ship was being prepared for an intensive Captain’s inspection. It was also struck repeatedly, perhaps as many as a dozen aerial torpedoes).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkGn2Pd6f2kcKMzpUnPJ22dBgY7gOrEQ8Z2Xoi9gS4cHosZCH_s5zEtYotllmc2YCl2K3PQql6NikOLyBlW5psulto0DyvZ9g61WIQJfZoGfNPL9P0jPxhFhyphenhyphen3oEvvOvO45FQ839bBMC0/s1600/sub+attached+by+ward.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 217px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkGn2Pd6f2kcKMzpUnPJ22dBgY7gOrEQ8Z2Xoi9gS4cHosZCH_s5zEtYotllmc2YCl2K3PQql6NikOLyBlW5psulto0DyvZ9g61WIQJfZoGfNPL9P0jPxhFhyphenhyphen3oEvvOvO45FQ839bBMC0/s320/sub+attached+by+ward.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461513294423502674" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Recovered sub sunk by the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Ward</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP27WK6TNgoDQgi7l4NsP62igMvpQHIItp_SfZBI5UfGt-6L-srE0UwxhU7iMK9ZVYyUIFjkBLCNXNX4eW7Du3DZuOIItETiukoZXI_Xxr-gxjr_qXhDqIfdDkiD5Q26eio75On-llMWc/s1600/sub+sunk+by+managhan.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 195px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP27WK6TNgoDQgi7l4NsP62igMvpQHIItp_SfZBI5UfGt-6L-srE0UwxhU7iMK9ZVYyUIFjkBLCNXNX4eW7Du3DZuOIItETiukoZXI_Xxr-gxjr_qXhDqIfdDkiD5Q26eio75On-llMWc/s320/sub+sunk+by+managhan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461514219979510114" border="0" /></a><br />Sub sunk by USS Monaghan<br /><br />Out of the five midgets, <span style="font-style: italic;">Ward</span> sunk the one above outside the harbor entrance (see photo-1); the second, HA-19 beached off Bellows Field (see photo-2); a third was sunk and later recovered from inside the Keehi Lagoon (see photo-3); a fourth midget made it inside the channel to Pearl Harbor and launched both torpedoes at the cruiser <span style="font-style: italic;">USS St Louis</span> near the harbor entrance and was sunk by <span style="font-style: italic;">Monaghan</span> (see photo-4). The fifth midget has been found among the debris off the entrance to the harbor but its activities remain a mystery (photo-5). This last midget submarine may have laid low inside the harbor during the confusion of the air raid after firing its torpedoes then scuttled itself when it could not exit the harbor. In the evening hours of December 8, the mother sub I-16 received a message that one of the midgets was experiencing "navigational problems."<br /><br />IT is clear that from the evidence that two Japanese midget submarines entered Pearl Harbor. One fired both torpedoes, which were spotted by <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Curtis</span> and then destroyed by the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Monaghan</span>. Ultimately salvage crews dredged this midget sub from the harbor with its stern crushed by depth charges. The other midget, which entered Pearl Harbor apparently also fired both its torpedoes, at something--perhaps the ships on the west side of Ford Island. It was then probably scuttled by its commander, killing both crewmembers. Salvage crews scooped-up debris from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Forager </span>disaster from southwest loch, including the second midget sub, and hauled the debris out to sea; it was re-discovered with its dredging cables still attached to the three pieces of the hull in 2009. Neither of these two midget subs could have fired at the <span style="font-style: italic;">USS Oklahoma</span>. There is no doubt that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma’s</span> sinking was the result of multiple aerial torpedo hits (at least seven and perhaps ten or more) and the fact that the ship was in a fragile, non-water tight configuration. No bombs hit <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma</span> because by the time the level and attack bombers got around to hitting Battleship Row, the ship had already capsized.<br /><br />The air attack was a stunning success, although one can argue that it helped the US Navy by knocking out the battleships ending forever the argument over which were more important: aircraft carriers or battleships. The third wave, which Nagumo cancelled, was planned to hit the repair facilities and fuel farms. These were far more important to the US Navy than the battleships--but not nearly as attractive to the Japanese mind-set. The midget submarine attack in any case was a dismal and completely unnecessary failure for the Japanese Navy. The old men in command consistently believed that young, dead heroes and their “honorable” deaths were far more desirable than live, successful, pilots. This attitude was repeated throughout the war. Competent, tough and well equipped at first, when given the opportunity, the Japanese pilot and marine would always take their own lives, rather than to risk being captured. This made it easier to win the war.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-79012043960168652972010-01-25T12:48:00.000-08:002010-01-28T14:41:28.805-08:00Alfred Jacob Miller and the 1837 Fur Trade Rendezvous<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjox4raIKTLKXjQUBnlinNVDjh1VLTSvcjz8GF4_xZoSljBhDJ_t1H3vPD8fViP43OlX86JSCImvmdaW5p1zxxD-qYAvym_-mIfaG0_jcaVApsxJ81eLZJqEyOWXhZciempz_jy8JfC3y0/s1600-h/Alfred_Jacob_Miller.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 224px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjox4raIKTLKXjQUBnlinNVDjh1VLTSvcjz8GF4_xZoSljBhDJ_t1H3vPD8fViP43OlX86JSCImvmdaW5p1zxxD-qYAvym_-mIfaG0_jcaVApsxJ81eLZJqEyOWXhZciempz_jy8JfC3y0/s320/Alfred_Jacob_Miller.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430782591495888578" /></a>Alfred Jacob Miller was one of the first artists to document in his work the adventures of mountain men and Native Americans in the American West in the early nineteenth century. Miller was an American artist who attended the fashionable European school Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1834. He returned to Baltimore, Maryland in 1836 and soon after he relocated his art studio to New Orleans. It was in New Orleans where Scottish nobleman, Capt. William Drummond Stewart, recently retired from the British Army, visited with Miller. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMhz0ejyDyYkez_QtmsxqQt6PPtYWjETtYty3ELoNXfp7AfBA0S04EpJw3E27B-9I3e9s1SBVhHZb-oV5Ll38Ryz-qiUwvYMMc2oFMozXkbMyf7ztol6zo1y6x120TAj-tmRKYStax6KU/s1600-h/WilliamStewarta.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 297px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMhz0ejyDyYkez_QtmsxqQt6PPtYWjETtYty3ELoNXfp7AfBA0S04EpJw3E27B-9I3e9s1SBVhHZb-oV5Ll38Ryz-qiUwvYMMc2oFMozXkbMyf7ztol6zo1y6x120TAj-tmRKYStax6KU/s320/WilliamStewarta.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430782955956172898" /></a> <br />Alfred Miller's painting of William Stewart<br /><br />Steward, who sought his own adventure in the American West, asked Miller to accompany him on an expedition in 1837. Steward wanted the artist to document one of the American frontier’s most exciting gatherings of white and native people; the annual Fur Trade Rendezvous, which in 1837 was located on the Green River in present day western Wyoming. Subsequently, Miller became famous for his depictions of western inhabitants in the early nineteenth century. Like Karl Bodmer, and George Catlin before him, Miller captured in his paintings a realistic yet romantic vision of Mountain men and Native Americans interacting at the Rendezvous on the Green River. There are very few journals or diaries of participants who attended the 1837 Rendezvous; Miller’s sketches and paintings are a valuable contribution that document one of the last Fur Trade gatherings in the American history. <br /><br />In the spring of 1837, the Scottish nobleman, and his new artist friend, along with an entourage of assorted people traveled West in a fur trade supply caravan led by Thomas Fitzpatrick, a part owner in the American Fur Company, and a trapper/trader who had been attending the Fur Trade Rendezvous since it’s inception in 1825 by William Ashley. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7L0l-fcW5tpRteosaLgWFEYLNmMtRKGlKGGyN98SYVJMFGO35dMiGJdNMN89eFGbscJU43kSf4DF-Cq1eTmUNZUUnOgYdUPU57cDrEjrjWTb9Qo06oUhsRkzCbe7NDi6YFZcvxC3u-U/s1600-h/1825+Burnt+Fork+Rendezvous.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7L0l-fcW5tpRteosaLgWFEYLNmMtRKGlKGGyN98SYVJMFGO35dMiGJdNMN89eFGbscJU43kSf4DF-Cq1eTmUNZUUnOgYdUPU57cDrEjrjWTb9Qo06oUhsRkzCbe7NDi6YFZcvxC3u-U/s320/1825+Burnt+Fork+Rendezvous.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430783852656388402" /></a><br />Recent photograph of the First Rendezvous site on the Green River<br /><br /><br />Ashley initiated the Rendezvous as a once a year gathering place to supply his fur trappers with goods in return for the trapper’s furs. It was financially expedient to haul supplies to their traders in the West, thereby making it possible for the trappers to avoid the long trip to St. Louis to dispose of their furs. <br />At the first Rendezvous on the Green River, Ashley sold supplies to 120 men. Some were independent trappers and others belonged to the Hudson Bay Company, who in 1825 dominated the fur industry in the Pacific Northwest.<br /><br />The Fitzpatrick supply train arrived on the Green River in July 1837, where the found a large gathering of Fur traders and Native Americans looking to trade their furs for Ashley’s supplies. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKRXzLo9DrRRjk84lXWMjxiUiUw36RtwA6vKwFrbeLlndoD0yy-Rp6IOURKnv8hXbpHzC8DwTGyeZppIo4-cn0M0YJnz06CMmILLPEfD0EG-aXE2TtFt1hUOz8cGB-Aiq2TjkTh45qTvA/s1600-h/1833+Horse+Creek+Rendezvous.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKRXzLo9DrRRjk84lXWMjxiUiUw36RtwA6vKwFrbeLlndoD0yy-Rp6IOURKnv8hXbpHzC8DwTGyeZppIo4-cn0M0YJnz06CMmILLPEfD0EG-aXE2TtFt1hUOz8cGB-Aiq2TjkTh45qTvA/s320/1833+Horse+Creek+Rendezvous.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430786154967636018" /></a><br />Recent Photograph of 1837 Rendezvous site on Horse Creek, a branch of the Green River<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVh1BQbULaXB53XEPjydshJM1VCBTa65PpHkkZZ7bcXfJx_5Xl6giZ5l9eHl2EVuJnAvbVuyhmUYm7Gggmd3fIHkQvMEj3QdBaJGXKT62vJc1cF1nEMLRrxUs0Zvyh62X2DH9OEVut8FE/s1600-h/amfurcaravan.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 235px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVh1BQbULaXB53XEPjydshJM1VCBTa65PpHkkZZ7bcXfJx_5Xl6giZ5l9eHl2EVuJnAvbVuyhmUYm7Gggmd3fIHkQvMEj3QdBaJGXKT62vJc1cF1nEMLRrxUs0Zvyh62X2DH9OEVut8FE/s320/amfurcaravan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430808658142833314" /></a><br /><br />The gathering was large and the partying by both white and Indian went on for days. Although Fitzpatrick did not include whiskey among these supplies, the drink was in abundance; the gathering on the Green was perhaps one of the wildest of any previous rendezvous. One trapper recorded that when he arrived at the Rendezvous,<br><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Here we found the hunting parties all assembled waiting for the arrival of supplies from the States. Here presented what might be termed a mixed multitude. The whites were chiefly Americans and Canadian French with some Dutch, Scotch, Irish, English, halfbreed, and full blood Indians, of nearly every tribe in the Rocky Mountains. Some were gambling at cards some playing the Indian game of hand and other horse racing while here and there could be seen small groups collected under shady trees relating the events of the past year all in good spirits and health for sickness is a stranger seldom met with in these regions.<br /></span><br />The atmosphere provided artist Jacob Miller with wonderful sketches that he later made into paintings, his medium was usually watercolor. <br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQMmelqNICySkNKus9aMrJm63jMseotJH6PgI5DSzHA5odeGM-xeJWJcE1HsQa4UZ15QBK8_DQoFZsan7Fn1glepYuD28CcybIWgcaSvg3LTW3ImvbVKAeZw_HFyDurX298RxiuGKIHk/s1600-h/rendezvoussite.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 191px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQMmelqNICySkNKus9aMrJm63jMseotJH6PgI5DSzHA5odeGM-xeJWJcE1HsQa4UZ15QBK8_DQoFZsan7Fn1glepYuD28CcybIWgcaSvg3LTW3ImvbVKAeZw_HFyDurX298RxiuGKIHk/s320/rendezvoussite.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430786713894161650" /></a> <br />Miller's watercolor of the 1837 Rendezvous<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUonNVrsIxgOUKWcJJ7ASD14wqFG9tR0k2dyBAGCfqC-ztbx2wegWWKzMwa_CgQbycc3LDRYRyTTXXEuzSbUFmTIRawwFUK0uwSUzjAr2pfoXYavKf81m5IiIL3WmCK-xo_AKMqGFV0oM/s1600-h/departure+of+camp+at+surrive.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 178px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUonNVrsIxgOUKWcJJ7ASD14wqFG9tR0k2dyBAGCfqC-ztbx2wegWWKzMwa_CgQbycc3LDRYRyTTXXEuzSbUFmTIRawwFUK0uwSUzjAr2pfoXYavKf81m5IiIL3WmCK-xo_AKMqGFV0oM/s320/departure+of+camp+at+surrive.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430812594539153906" /></a><br />Breaking up camp at Sunrise. <br /><br />Miller's painting is a reflection of his thought. While traveling with the Fitzpatrick caravan He wrote,<br /><br><br /> <span style="font-style:italic;"> At four o'clock in the morning, it is the duty of the last men on guard to loosen the horses from their pickets, in order to range and feed. At daylight, everybody is up--our provisors are busy with preparations for breakfast;--tents and lodges are collapsed, suddenly thrown down, wrapped up, and bundled into the wagons.<br /> <br> If the sun is 20 minutes above the horizon when our breakfast is finished, we conceive that he has a reproachful look. By this time the horses are driven in, and each man hurries after his own, saddles or harnesses him, and the train puts itself enroute.<br /> <br> At this period, one of the strongest contrasts presents itself, and illustrates in a striking manner the difference between the white and red man.<br /> <br> While all is activity and bustle with the Anglo-Saxon as if he feared that the Rocky Mountains would not wait for him, the Indian lingers to the last moment around the camp fire,--he neither enters into or sympathizes with our diligence, and seems to regret that stern necessity forces him to accept our company for his convoy.<br /> </span><br /><br />While Miller's experience with Native Americans are depicted in most of his sketches and painting, his impression of the war like nature of the Indian is most stunning. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWi0oS5bkkuBfZl_0ugBh0K6xRGWSRe7m8gXnSb4T0PZIc-07ruT3NXvV2igHeu3o7odpTNC4WE7vlp73AlYgEngrqNxAzlkVCayRf3QbY2XTF5mzXiJtF5-VWD_FkDKP3cP4jXu50gKM/s1600-h/on+the+war+path.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 221px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWi0oS5bkkuBfZl_0ugBh0K6xRGWSRe7m8gXnSb4T0PZIc-07ruT3NXvV2igHeu3o7odpTNC4WE7vlp73AlYgEngrqNxAzlkVCayRf3QbY2XTF5mzXiJtF5-VWD_FkDKP3cP4jXu50gKM/s320/on+the+war+path.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431875489164868066" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;"> <br><br />On this eventful morning our caravan, pursuing as usual the even tenor of its way, we descried one of our hunters returning to the camp at full gallop. His speech was to the purpose, "Injins all about--that will be some raising of h'ar as sure as shootin." On his heels followed other confirming this. At this juncture, it would have been a good study(if the mater had not been so serious) to watch the countenances of the different men. The staid indifference of the old trappers ready for any emergency, the greenhorns(braggarts of the camp fire) pale about the gills and quite chopfallen. No boasting now!. Monsieur Proveau, subleader, with a corpus round as a porpoise, revolving in his mind what was to be done A Problem. <br /><br> All of us were more or less uncomfortable decidedly, and as sensitive about our scalps as a Chinese concerning his pig-tail que. We were not kept long in suspense. A cloud of dust soon divulging a piratical horde of wretches, painted without regard to harmony of color, coming down on us at top speed,--armed to the teeth, and when they reached us, they commenced riding around in a menacing manner. </span><br /><br />One of the most recognized of Miller's painting is "The Trappers Bride."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0tAvO63Jue6xhqAzsMqLEENVeyS9p_nSIAc_juCot1lreTfPwsFM63zzxM3z4aTDLRhIZ-5Wc30FWNSipIueZO-bc4ltz4lHhelE40HROrGgE800B-USJo4J47HXH83P6h0mMHbCLb4U/s1600-h/trapper+bride2.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0tAvO63Jue6xhqAzsMqLEENVeyS9p_nSIAc_juCot1lreTfPwsFM63zzxM3z4aTDLRhIZ-5Wc30FWNSipIueZO-bc4ltz4lHhelE40HROrGgE800B-USJo4J47HXH83P6h0mMHbCLb4U/s320/trapper+bride2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431901221228325682" /></a><br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidKsKm8Clt74dmAzDiMO4-2mNuG4rWgkKU2a7jkEG9IFSwlASGDA_FDeAbXJLZ-qr3hCaGfM3amOXAWdJQXQUVRUOjJl-_miSocva4CpcUA3mWM1UDwHMkF5UWKvkvzx1d0RUcnV8hmHg/s1600-h/trappers+bride.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 255px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidKsKm8Clt74dmAzDiMO4-2mNuG4rWgkKU2a7jkEG9IFSwlASGDA_FDeAbXJLZ-qr3hCaGfM3amOXAWdJQXQUVRUOjJl-_miSocva4CpcUA3mWM1UDwHMkF5UWKvkvzx1d0RUcnV8hmHg/s320/trappers+bride.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431901645548602546" /></a><br /> <br />Miller annotated "The Trapper's Bride" <br><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The prices varying in accordance with the circumstances. He (the trapper) is seated with his frined, to the left of the sketch, his hand extended to his promised wife, supported by her father and accompanied by a chief, who holds the calumet, an article indispensable in all grand ceremonies. The price of acquisition, in this case, was $600.00 paid for in the legal tender of this region: Guns, $100.00, Blankets $40.00 each, Red Flannel $20.00 pr. year, Alcohol $64.00 Gal. Tobacco, Beads, etc. at corresponding rates. <br><br />A free Trapper(white or half-breed), being ton or upper circle, is a most desirable match, but it is conceded that he is a ruined man after such an investment, the lady running into unheard of extravagances. She wants a dress, horse, gorgeous saddle, trappings, and the deuce know what beside. For this the poor devil trapper sells himself, body and soul, to the Fur Company for a number of years. He traps beaver, hunts the Buffalo and bear, Elk etc. The furs and robes of which the Company credit to his account.</span>sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-36569447646370043152010-01-03T15:35:00.000-08:002010-01-03T15:36:30.904-08:00The 1930s Dust Bowl and Katrina: Environmental Refugees“Environmental Refugees” as defined by <span style="font-style:italic;">Wall Street Journal</span> columnist, Cynthia Crossen, are thousands, perhaps millions of people forced from their homes and communities because of a natural disaster. This is certainly true of American citizens who have been fleeing for their lives since the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. But it is not the first time in American history that an environmental disaster forced Americans from their homes. Over seventy years ago, the draught that devastated the farming culture in the Great Plains of the American West, augmented by an Economic Depression, forced thousands of Environmental Refugees from their homes; all poor, desperate, hungry and looking for work. <br /> <br />Since the first settler put down roots in the semi-arid regions of the Southern Plains in the late nineteenth century, farming was a risky business dependent on the whims of nature. Encouraged by good years and sufficient moisture, farmers prospered. But, without adequate rain and very little irrigation, the dry years were difficult and brought too many foreclosures. When the devastating drought of the late 1920s continued year after year, the farmlands of Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas became cracked and barren. And, dust storms added insult to injury by picking up the precious topsoil and depositing it as far away as the decks of ships off the Atlantic Coast. <br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/gifs/dust1.gif"/> <br /><br />Hundreds of thousands of residents of the Dust Bowl region packed up their meager belongings, piled them in their old trucks and headed to what must have seemed like the promised land--California. On their way, these Environmental Refugees met others on the road heading to the same salvation. They believed the rumors that in California there were jobs, places to live and schools for their children. What the refugees found in California was not the numerous jobs as advertised by fruit growers, but a lot of hostility.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/gifs/dust2.gif"/><br /><br />There are a lot of differences between those displaced by the environmental disaster caused by drought and dust storms, and those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. For one, once the mechanisms of government started to offer aid to hurricane victims the suffering began to subside. Those who are benefiting from government aid and relief in 2005 can thank the environmental disaster of the early 1930s. Americans learned from the anguish of Dust Bowl refugees that we all have responsibility, whether through tax dollars, giving to charitable and humanitarian organization, or as volunteers, to aid fellow Americans. This was not the case in 1930. <br /><br />Californians were very concerned about the “Thousands of indigents from the Middle West” flooding into their state and causing “increasing relief burdens.” Los Angeles officials noted that in one twelve-month period 2,946,614 people entered California by automobile. The relief cost in Los Angeles county had increased three-fold in a few short years. Conferences were called where state and city officials came together to discuss the impact of the “indigents” on the state. Besides the obvious strain on meager relief funds, epidemics and the general “character” of the new immigrants were also of concern. <br /><br />It was not in the American mind in the early 1930s to “hand out” financial relief to those who were unemployed. The thought being that the recipient of the funds would become lazy and lose their will to take care of themselves and their families. It took the Economic Depression of the early 1930s and an environment catastrophe, as witnessed in the Southern Plains, for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration to experiment with various ways in which the Federal government could offer aid to the millions of Americans in need. The results of those programs were born out of necessity. <br /><br />There is much talk today in the aftermath of Katrina to whether it is wise to rebuild New Orleans so that those who evacuated can return to their homes. It is assumed that those who were finding it difficult to survive before the hurricane will want to return and continue the struggle. Many of the Okies and Arkies who fled the Dust Bowl in the 1930s never returned to their homes and farms. Instead they settled in the rich farming land of the San Joaquin Valley of central California, where they had more prosperous opportunities. Perhaps many of those who fled Katrina will also find better opportunities in the various states where they are now making an adjustment and forging a new life.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-56868957824729061252010-01-03T15:34:00.000-08:002010-01-03T15:35:37.373-08:00From Radio to Television: Gunsmoke and the Real West.Almost everyone today has seen or at least heard of the popular 1950s western, Gunsmoke. The show had the distinction of being one of the longest running western series (1955-1975) in television history. To the western aficionado, Gunsmoke had all the important characteristics of the western genre—a bigger than life hero, who, along with his sidekick, fought for the good of the townsfolk against the forces of evil. <br /><br />Good versus Evil was a popular theme in the 1950s, largely due to the Cold War and American’s fight to contain communism. And like many shows debuting on the new medium of television, there was a certain emphasis on clean wholesome non-violent programming that upheld the 1950s image of a prosperous consensus society. So, imagine my amazement when I finally had the opportunity to listen to the radio version of Gunsmoke, to find a different West than the one portrayed in the sanitized TV western.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.northern.edu/wild/th100/radio.jpg "/> <br /> Radio Cast of Gunsmoke<br /> <br /><br />When I first listened to a Gunsmoke radio play, it immediately became apparent that this was not the Dodge City, Kansas, of TV lore. Instead, I found the infamous western town a hard, sometimes cruel, place. There were few if any heroes, only men and women who were lucky enough to survive the inhospitable environment. And, instead of happy endings, pessimism about life and one’s fellow man permeated each show—a realism that the writers worked hard to create. This tone is set from the very opening when the announcer introduces the program with, “The story of violence that moved west and the man that moved with it.” <br /><br /><a href="http://www.geocities.com/schrems/Gunsmoke.mp3"><br /> <img src="http://comp.uark.edu/~tsnyder/gunsmoke/images/picture4.GIF"><br /> </a> Click on Matt for Shows Opening<br /><br /> John Meston created Gunsmoke and wrote 183 of the radio plays that aired between 1952-1961. His style and penchant for detail set the tone for the show; his chief trademark was authenticity. The writer believed that the West was a tragic violent place where people had a hard life, didn’t live long because of a lack of medication, sanitation, and nutritional food. According to Meston, “it [the West] was just heat and sand.” <br /><br />One of the most authentic aspects of the radio play was in the characterizations of the town Marshall, Matt Dillion his deputy Chester, Doc Adams, and of course, Miss Kitty. TV’s Matt Dillion, played by James Arness, portrayed a strong determined man with a quite demeanor who swore an oath to protect the townspeople. William Conrad’s radio Matt Dillion was a pessimistic loner; he saw very little about life and man that he liked. <br /><br />The town doctor, Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), of the TV series was a kind old soul who mourned each death as if the deceased was a family member, the radio Doc(Howard McNear) was greedy and looked forward to the next body that he could cut apart in one of his “autopsies”. Doc waited anxiously for the next killing or street shoot-out so that he had another “customer,” of whom he was paid to ascertain the cause of death and prepare for burial. Doc’s character is so greedy that listeners cannot help but wonder if the good doctor was selling body parts on the side.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.horsecreekpublications.com/images/doc.mp3<br />"><br /> <img src="http://comp.uark.edu/~tsnyder/gunsmoke/images/picture4.GIF"><br /> </a> Click on Matt for a snippet of Doc<br /><br />And then there is Miss Kitty. Television viewers never really knew for sure what Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) and Marshall Dillion did behind closed doors. Well, in the Radio version, listeners have little doubt that Miss Kitty Russell (Georgia Ellis), owner of the Long Branch Saloon, was a prostitute and of her relationship with Matt Dillion. In many episodes she is virtually begging Matt to come by and spend the night. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.horsecreekpublications.com/images/kitty.mp3"><br /> <img src="http://comp.uark.edu/~tsnyder/gunsmoke/images/picture4.GIF"><br /> </a> Click on Matt for Kitty's approach to Matt.<br /><br />Meston not only tried to portray the American West in an authentic manner, but he also brought to radio a more colorful landscape by introducing more realism through sound effects. There were two soundmen working on the set and they shared Meston’s quest for authenticity. For example, instead of using the typical gunshot sound found in most plays, which had sort of a pop/dud sound, the sound men went to the California desert and fired different guns that were typical of the 1870s and recorded their effect. So, in a gunfight on the streets of Dodge the radio listeners would hear the report of several different guns, which sounded more authentic than the pop sound of a blank in the studio. The soundmen also were methodical in providing background sounds that imitated life. For Example, when Marshall Dillion moved, each step was accented. The soundmen knew exactly how many steps from Matt’s chair to the coffee pot to the door leading outside. Once on the boardwalk, Matt’s steps were augmented by the sound of spurs hitting the wood, which distinguished him from anyone walking with him. Other sounds effect included the creaking of leather as Marshall Dillion lifted his hefty frame into the saddle, the different sounds between Indian horses (unshod) and those of the townspeople (shod), and the difference in sound between day and night. <br /> <a href="http://www.horsecreekpublications.com/blog/sound.mp3"target="sound"><br /> <img src="http://comp.uark.edu/~tsnyder/gunsmoke/images/picture4.GIF"><br /> </a> Click on Matt for sound effects. The scene evolves around a massacre at a homestead. Matt and Chester have just found the wife and daughter, notice the night sounds and foot steps.<br /><br />Gunsmoke was the first really adult western on radio and television. The authenticity and realism of the American West, as portrayed by the John Meston and staff of his writers, appealed to mature audiences, and moved the western away from the adolescent male audience who made The Long Ranger and Hopilong Cassidy popular. But, somewhere in the transition from radio to TV, some of the gritty character of the western was lost to a blander romantic West. <br /><br /><br /> <a href="<br />http://www.horsecreekpublications.com/images/JaliscoPete_02.mp3"><br /> <img src="http://comp.uark.edu/~tsnyder/gunsmoke/images/picture4.GIF"><br /> </a> Click on Matt for full episode, 27 min.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-24592914988503092702010-01-03T15:32:00.000-08:002010-01-03T15:34:32.505-08:00Have Gun, Will TravelProbably one of the most intriguing westerns to air on television and radio in the 1950s was <span style="font-style:italic;">Have Gun, Will Travel</span>. The series was one of the top three western television shows, exceeded only by <span style="font-style:italic;">Gunsmoke</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Wagon Train</span> in popularity. But, unlike the latter two, <span style="font-style:italic;">Have Gun, Will Travel</span> was the only western to air first on television and then move to radio.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Have Gun Will Travel</span> first aired on CBS television in 1957. Richard Boone played the dapper, black-clad Paladin, a high priced gun for hire. <br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/richard-boone-c.jpg"/><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Richard Boone</span><br /><br />Paladin was one of the first TV private detectives, certainly the first private eye type character on a TV western. Paladin, a name conceived from the white knight in chess game, and emboldened on his calling card with the inscription “Have Gun, Will Travel…Wire San Francisco,” fought for good against evil by hiring out as a ”gunslinger.” It was a chivalrous position, a knight with the qualities of courage, honor, courtesy and justice. And, the knight was always a gentleman. Paladin was a man of culture. He was educated at West Point and served as a Union officer in the Civil War. In 1875 San Francisco, Paladin resided at the swank Hotel Carlton, where he enjoyed the “escort” of lovely ladies and was taken care of by the Chinese bellboy, Hay (Hey) Boy. When Paladin was working he ditched his fancy duds and dressed completely in black, with his six-gun strapped low on his thigh. And, although a gun for hire, Paladin would turn against his employer if he found himself in a situation where he was fighting for evil.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://members.aol.com/lloldham/paladin.jpg"/><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Richard Boone as Paladin</span><br /><br />The series was such a hit on television, Herb Meadows and Sam Rolfe started the CBS radio version of <span style="font-style:italic;">Have Gun, Will Travel</span> in 1958. The radio program ran for two years. The Radio Paladin starred John Dehner and Ben Wright as Hay Boy. Dehner was a veteran actor and started his career as an animator for Walt Disney Studios, then worked as a disc jockey and a professional pianist. He made his Film debut in 1945. His western roles included outlaw leaders, crooked bankers and saloon owners. He was often cast as one of the bad guys in the radio version of Gunsmoke. He became a favorite for reading radio scripts because of his deep baritone voice. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.otrcat.com/zotr/john_dehner_2.jpg"/><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">John Dehner</span><br /><br />His first Radio series was <span style="font-style:italic;">Frontier Gentleman</span>, a short run western where Dehner portrayed a London Times journalist, J. B. Kendall, who traveled the old west. The show’s prologue stated that Kendall was “ A Man with a Gun.” When <span style="font-style:italic;">Have Gun, Will Travel</span> moved to Radio, Dehner was a natural to play the suave sophisticated Paladin.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.yourradioshows.com/havegundehner.jpg"/><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">John Dehner as Paladin</span><br /><br /> <br />Dehner’s radio Paladin was even more of the dandy than Richard Boone’s television character. The Radio Paladin was a ladies man who lavishly entertained his women with the most expensive and exotic foods known to West coast diners of the 1870s. <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.horsecreekpublications.com/images/HayboysReveng.mp3"><br /> <img src="http://www.thrillingdetective.com/images2/hgwt_card.gif"><br /> </a> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Click on Card for short clip </span> <br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Have Gun, Will Travel</span> was certainly a series that deviated from the western genre on many fronts, but on one front the show was consistent with other media at the end of the 1950s when programs began to portray some of societal ills apparent both in the eighteen hundreds and relevant to the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s. “Hay Boys Revenge” was one such program presented on Have Gun, Will Travel that demonstrated the prejudice and labor conditions of Chinese workers in California during the era of capital growth and Railroad empire in post Civil War America. <br /><br /> <br /><a href="http://www.horsecreekpublications.com/images/HayboysReveng.mp3"target="Opening"><br /> <img src="http://www.thrillingdetective.com/images2/hgwt_card.gif"><br /> </a> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Click on Card for 23 min. episode entitled Hay Boys Revenge </span> <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Thanks for listening!</span>sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-2975614880933922772010-01-03T15:31:00.000-08:002010-01-03T15:32:45.096-08:00Tackling a New Frontier in FilmOne of the most anticipated Westerns in well over a decade is coming to a movie screen near you. Winner of the coveted Golden Lion Award for best picture at this year’s Venice Film Festival, <span style="font-style:italic;"> Brokeback Mountain </span>, is due out in mid-December.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/focus_features/brokeback_mountain/_group_photos/heath_ledger1.jpg"/><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Brokeback Mountain </span> is garnering critical praise and expected to be a strong contender come Oscar time. This isn’t surprising, really. The film’s budget, at $13 million, is modest by Hollywood standards, but it boasts an impressive pedigree. Based on a short story by Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Annie Proulx that first appeared in <span style="font-style:italic;"> The New Yorker </span>, <span style="font-style:italic;"> Brokeback Mountain </span> is co-scripted by another Pulitzer prize-winner, Larry McMurtry, directed by Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (<span style="font-style:italic;"> Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon </span>), and produced by Focus Features, the studio responsible for such award winning films as <span style="font-style:italic;"> The Pianist, Lost in Translation </span>, and <span style="font-style:italic;"> Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.</span><br /><br />A modern-day Western, <span style="font-style:italic;"> Brokeback Mountain </span> chronicles a 20-year ill-fated romance set against the magnificence of the arid ladscape of the American West. The premise isn’t new—cowboy heroes are rarely destined for the stability of hearth and home. But there is a notable difference: the lovers in this Western are two men.<br /><br /><img src="http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/focus_features/brokeback_mountain/_group_photos/heath_ledger2.jpg "/> <br />Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhael<br /><br />At first glance, we might think liberal Hollywood has run amok again, giving us yet another example of deviant popular culture bastardizing a cherished genre. But <span style="font-style:italic;"> Brokeback Mountain </span> is actually in keeping with a strong tradition. Westerns, we forget, particularly in their heyday from the 1950s through the early 1970s, often explored controversial social issues. In fact, many of the films that questioned the validity of longstanding beliefs throughout that period <span style="font-style:italic;"> were </span> Westerns. After all, who would ever suspect that such a simple and fundamentally American genre could entertain oppositional views? <br /><br />In 1950, Hollywood icon Jimmy Stewart starred in <span style="font-style:italic;"> Broken Arrow </span>, one of the first major motion pictures not only to tell a story from the Indian point of view, but to challenge the taboo against inter-racial marriage, which was still illegal in some states until struck down by the Supreme Court in 1967. <span style="font-style:italic;"> High Noon </span> (1952), featuring Gary Cooper as a marshal who must face four killers on his own, was scripted by Carl Foreman who was blacklisted by the time the film was released. He wrote <span style="font-style:italic;"> High Noon </span> knowing he would be called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and used the Western as a metaphor for his own experience of persecution and increasing isolation under McCarthy-era paranoia. The final moment, when Gary Cooper throws his badge in the dirt at his feet, prompted John Wayne to call <span style="font-style:italic;"> High Noon </span> the most un-American thing he had ever seen. <br /><br />This trend accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s as a disillusioned America produced antiheroes battling an increasingly corrupt society where the line between good and evil was ambiguous and blurred. As Burt Lancaster says in <span style="font-style:italic;"> The Professionals </span> (1966), “It’s the good guys against the bad guys. Question is, who are the good guys?” <span style="font-style:italic;"> The Wild Bunch </span> (1969), with its climactic bloodbath, gave us a world where the only men with a code of honor were bank robbers, killers and mercenaries. <span style="font-style:italic;"> Little Big Man </span> (1970) and particularly <span style="font-style:italic;"> Soldier Blue </span> (1970) offered clear metaphors for the Vietnam War, showing that massacres like the one that happened at My Lai in 1968 were not new to U.S. history.<br /> <br /><span style="font-style:italic;"> Brokeback Mountain </span>, the “gay Western,” as it is being called, is very much within this tradition. Gay rights is at the center of socio-cultural debate today. There is more acceptance of gays and lesbians than ever before but also vituperative reaction against that acceptance. Not surprisingly, we’re seeing this played out in our popular culture. Gay characters and personalities have been common on television since Ellen DeGeneres came out in 1997. We see recurring gay characters on such diverse shows as NBCs <span style="font-style:italic;"> Will and Grace </span>, HBOs <span style="font-style:italic;"> Six Feet Under </span>, and the irrepressible Fab 5 of <span style="font-style:italic;"> Queer Eye for the Straight Guy </span>. <br /><br />But no major motion picture, much less a Western, has shown gay relationships as full and complete interactions between two people—until now. Yes, Tom Hanks won an Oscar for his portrayal of a gay man dying from AIDS in 1993, but we saw very little in Philadelphia about his life pre-HIV and the choices he faced. In <span style="font-style:italic;"> Brokeback Mountain </span>, characters express their passion and struggle against the love they have for one another because they live in fear of the consequences of living openly. Over the 20 year span of the film, we see how this kind of fear can affect both the individuals as well as those around them. Of his character, actor Heath Ledger says “Ennis punishes himself over an uncontrollable need—love. Fear was installed in him at an early age, and so the way he loved disgusted him. He’s a walking contradiction.”<br /><br /><img src="http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/focus_features/brokeback_mountain/_group_photos/heath_ledger5.jpg "/><br /><br />But why a Western? According to co-scriptwriter Diana Ossana, who a lso co-wrote the screenplay for TV’s adaptation of <span style="font-style:italic;">Lonesome Dove </span> with McMurtry, the Western continues to have something to say to modern audiences. We connect to Westerns, she says, “the good ones are compelling, true-to-life stories, with raw, flawed human characters mostly operating in a harsh, unforgiving landscape. It’s always about survival for [the characters in <span style="font-style:italic;"> Brokeback Mountain]</span>” she adds, “not just financially, but physically, with the snow and the wind and the rain and the harsh landscape.”<br /><br />The big question is, how will this film play across America? Producer James Schamus believes the country is ready. “Even though we think of this as a very polarized country on [the subject of homosexuality],” he says, “we’re less polarized than the media would lead us to believe.” Furthermore, the reality, he insists, is that gay people are represented across all walks of life, including cowboys. “This is a Western, rooted in the experiences of those who really lived in the West. We don’t have gay folks just on the coasts. One of the great things about the story is how true it really rings.”<br /><br />Gay issue aside, the filmmakers hope audiences will be drawn to the power of the story, the loss, self-denial, and the personal price paid by two people who cannot hope to live and build a life together. Director Ang Lee contends that “to make a great romantic story, you need great obstacles. Ennis and Jack are in the American West, which has macho and traditional values. So everything they feel they have to keep private. It’s precious and something special they cannot articulate.”<br /><br />As the film’s opening approaches, the controversy is beginning. Wyoming playwright Sandy Dixon doesn’t believe there are gay cowboys in her home state. “Those that want to make a queer story out of it, will,” she insists, “and those that know real cowboys will say it’s all hogwash.” <br /><br />It will be interesting to see.<br /><br />Yardena Rand is a member of the Western Writers of America and author of <span style="font-style:italic;">Wild Open Spaces: Why We Love Westerns</span>. Please go to <a href="http://www.ilovewesterns.com">www.ilovewesterns.com</a><br /><br />to learn more. Copyright Yardena Rand. <br /><br /><br /><hr /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">BOOK REVIEW</span><br /><br />Gloss Laminate Soft Cover<br />6 X 9 288 Pages<br />$14.95<br /><br />Author: Don Butler<br />Editor: Nicole Leah Vecchiotti<br />Cover Design: Stephen Bright<br /><br />ISBN: 0-9767003-4-4<br />Published: March 2005<br />Printed in the U. S. A. by Morgan Printing<br /> <br /> <br /><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0976700344.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg"/><br /><br /><br /> The North Fork spans the turbulent decades on the southwestern frontier following the Civil War, telling the overlapping stories of people from three different cultures, struggling to survive while too often pitted against each other by circumstances beyond their control.<br /><br />After the war, control of the land known as Comancheria--all of the South Plains, including half of both Texas and Indian Territory--is wrested from the Comanches and Kiowas, opening the way for cattle drives and giant Texas cattle companies. Eventually, the settlers come, hungry for land and seeking a new life.<br /><br />In addition to such historical figures as Quanah Parker, George Armstrong Custer and Lone Wolf, readers will find a host of colorful fictional characters, including:<br /><br />Red Eagle, a Kiowa chief, who leads a raid into Texas and returns with an unexpected treasure,<br /><br />Tom Carter, a trail hand with a quick temper and a faster trigger finger, who finds trouble--and more--on both sides of the North Fork, and<br /><br />Molly Harding, a Texas farm girl, caught in the conflict between her head and her heart--and in the middle of a thirty-year-old mystery.<br /><br />Indian raids and uprisings, the destruction of the buffalo herds, creation of the reservations, the Buffalo War, cattle drives, the Red River boundary dispute, the creation of Oklahoma Territory, arrival of the homesteaders, and other historic events shape the destinies of the people along the North Fork--a place where their cultures will clash while their personal lives become entangled in ways they could have never imagined.<br /><br />A tribute to Southwest Oklahoma history has been crafted by Don Butler....---Altus Times<br /><br />The mixing of such well-known people as Quanah Parker and Lone Wolf with fictional characters brings a realistic and exciting light to local history.---Vernon Daily Record<br /><br />Author<br /><br />The North Fork is set in the place of the author's youth. After retiring from the practice of public utility and municipal law, Don Butler turned to historical writing and research. He and his wife live in Austin, where he once served as City Attorney.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-26580664112238092192010-01-03T15:29:00.000-08:002010-01-03T15:31:30.461-08:00Jimmy Stewart’s West: The Six Shooter , radio western drama<img src="http://www.geocities.com/schrems/17253.jpg"/> <br /><br />For over seventy years, Jimmy Stewart has entertained audiences with his gentle and soft-spoken manner. Even in the rough and often violent world of the Movie western, Stewart maintained a non-hurried polite demeanor. In almost all of his seventeen western films, Stewart portrayed a hero who sometimes appeared less confident, slow to react, and a bit fumbling(<span style="font-style:italic;">The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance</span> comes to mind). <br /><img src="http://www.jimmy.org/films/stills/tmwslv.jpg "/><br />The Man who Shot Liberty Valance<br /><br />But through it all, he managed to ride into the scene with an assurance of character that promised the viewer that this man will win the fight, whether in the character of a green horn as in <span style="font-style:italic;">Liberty Valance</span>, or the pacifist father in <span style="font-style:italic;">Shenandoah</span>. <br /><img src="http://www.jimmy.org/films/stills/s.jpg "/><br />Shenandoah <br /><br />And, like any western hero, Stewart’s characters fought for the good of society and made it their quest to rid the frontier of “uncivilized” influences. And, even though Stewart has joined the ranks of others, like John Wayne, as a “Man of the West” and has become one of Hollywood’s best-known actors of the western genre, it was in the medium of Radio where Stewart developed a truly unique western character. <br /><br />Unknown to many, including me, Jimmy Stewart loved radio drama and appeared in almost as many radio broadcasts as he did movies and stage plays. His radio career spanned over seven decades, starting with <span style="font-style:italic;">Yellow Jack</span> in 1934 and ending with his last performance in a Thanksgiving special, which aired on November 22, 1990. He was best known for his appearances in the Lux Radio Theatre, which first broadcast in 1937. Lux Radio Theatre, a CBS showcase, played to a weekly audience of over 36 million people. Hosted by Cecil B. DeMille, programs consisted of feature length films compressed into one-hour radio plays. Stewart starred in such classics as <span style="font-style:italic;">Destry Rides Again</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">It’s a Wonderful Life</span>, <span syle="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Winchester ’73</span></span> and the <span style="font-style:italic;">Philadelphia Story</span>, to name a few.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.jimmy.org/films/stills/w7.jpg "/><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Winchester '73 </span><br /><br />The popularity of the western in the early 1950s and the misguided need of NBC to compete with the new medium of Television, NBC Radio developed a new western called <span style="font-style:italic;">The Six Shooter</span> and stared Jimmy Stewart. Universal Films and their radio subsidiary, Revue Productions, employed Stewart at the time. The series began September 20, 1953 and ran until June 24, 1954. Stewart played Britt Ponset, an easy-going, soft–spoken and slow-to-draw cowboy who would drift into a western town, fix what needed fixing and then drift on to another town. The opening narrative describes Britt Ponset as, “the man in the saddle is angular and long-legged; his skin is sun-dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother–of- pearl. People call them both, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Six Shooter</span>.” <br /><br />Jimmy Stewart’s West, as portrayed in <span style="font-style:italic;">The Six Shooter</span>, is the West on the “verge” of civilization; cowboys marry and settle down to grow crops and tend to their families, mining towns, whose mines are played out search for other revenue, the railroad crosses the West taking the place of old wagon trails, and there are fewer and fewer Indian “problems.” <span style="font-style:italic;">The Six Shooter</span> is well written and Stewart’s narrative gives a vivid picture of people and place. <br /><br />So, if you have the time, sit back, close your eyes and listen to Jimmy Stewart’s West.<br /><br /><a href="http://members.cox.net/sschrems/SixShooter.mp3"><br /><img src="http://www.geocities.com/schrems/stewart.jpg"><br /> </a> Click on Jimmy for 30 min episode of The Six Shooter. Episode entitled, Red Lawson's Revenge.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-3484232768469472672010-01-03T15:27:00.000-08:002010-01-03T15:29:01.005-08:00Who painted, “Lassoing a Longhorn?”For years those in the know in the art world, especially those who appreciated the art of Western America, acknowledged that Charles M. Russell, well-known artist of the American West, painted “Lassoing a Longhorn.”<br /><br /><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AE333_PAINTE_20060315190740.jpg"/> <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Lassoing a longhorn</span><br /><br />This is certainly what art collector, Steve Morton, believed. He owns the painting and points to the bottom left hand corner where Charlie Russell signed the painting in 1913, over his trademark sketch of a steer’s skull. Morton bought the painting in 1972 for $38,000 from the prestigious Kennedy Gallery, where Russell expert, Rudy Wunderlich, declared the painting to be a high quality Russell. In 2001 Morton arranged to sell the painting at the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction. The expected sale would be around $800,000. But, Stuart Johnson, a partner in the auction house, questioned whether “Lassoing a Longhorn” was actually a Russell. According to Johnson when examining the painting, “this doesn’t look like a Russell; it looks like a Seltzer.” If Olaf C. Seltzer painted “Lassoing a Longhorn” the sale price would be considerably lower than $800,000. <br /><br />Charles M. Russell (1864-1926), a native of St. Louis, started his career as the “cowboy” artist after arriving in Montana when he was little over sixteen years old. <br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.nrhc.org/img/postcards/russell3.jpg"/> <br /><br />Along with working as a cowhand, he occupied his time sketching the scenes of late nineteenth century Montana. By the time of his death in 1926, Russell’s work included 4000 sketches, oils, watercolors and sculptures.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.artunframed.com/images/russell98/277.jpg"/> <br /> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Smoke of a .45</span> by Russell<br /> <br />Russell was a generous man. He befriended other artists, sharing his knowledge and style with them. Olaf C. Seltzer (1877-1957) a native of Denmark, who had moved to Montana to work on the Great Northern Railroad, was lucky to paint with Charlie. Russell’s influence can be seen in Seltzer’s work.<br /> <br /><img src="http://www.discoverseaz.com/Graphics/History/robbery.jpg"/> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Robbery</span> by Olaf C. Seltzer<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.discoverseaz.com/Graphics/History/FaroGame.jpg"/> <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Faro Game</span>, Olaf C. Seltzer<br /><br />To authenticate “Lassoing a Longhorn,” Stuart Johnson contacted Ginger K. Renner, a leading authority of Russell paintings. Mrs. Renner declared the painting a fake. Mrs. Renner’s expertise of Russell’s work was inherited from her husband, Fred, who grew up near Charlie in Great Falls, Montana. And, Ginger Renner owns 100 Russell paintings. Fred Renner also published a catalog of Russell’s works housed at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. This is significant to the story since Renner included in the catalog as belonging to Russell, “Lassoing a Longhorn.”<br /><br />Regardless of the inclusion of the painting in Fred Renner’s catalog, Ginger Renner held her opinion that “It’s a helluva painting, but it’s not Charlie Russell…it’s an O.C. Seltzer.” Even Steve Seltzer, grandson of the painter, testified that having seen a photo of “Lassoing a Longhorn” in Horizon Magazine in 1979, believed that it was his grandfathers. On such testimony, it was determined that Steve Morton’s painting of “Lassoing a Longhorn” was indeed the work of Seltzer. Consequently, the Coeur d’Alene auction house refused to auction the painting. Steve Morton’s lawyers wrote threatening letters to the auction house demanding that they auction the Russell painting or face a lawsuit. After the auction house did not reply, Mr. Morton sued the grandson Steve Seltzer and Mrs. Renner in Federal Court for wrongly declaring “Lassoing a Longhorn” a Seltzer painting, thereby, reducing the value of the painting to under $50,000. The suit accused Renner and Seltzer of fraud, malice and bad faith. <br /><br />After Mr. Seltzer provided nine experts who confirmed that the painting was not a Russell, Mr. Morton withdrew his suit. But, Mr. Morton’s financial woes were not over. Mr. Seltzer turned around and sued Mr. Morton for emotional distress and damage to his reputation from “malicious prosecution,” and “abuse of process.” The jury ruled in favor of Mr. Seltzer awarding him $21.4 million in damages. This is one of the biggest judgments in 2004.<br /><br />Of Course there are appeals and more appeals, but will anyone really be sure who painted “Lassoing a Longhorn?” Charlie Russell is surely shaking his head and wondering what America has come to. <br /><br /> <img src="http://www.lowcostprints.com/pictures/ab/ab50014.jpg"/> <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Lewis and Clark and the Lower Columbia</span> by Russellsue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-67131911493949111472010-01-03T15:25:00.002-08:002010-01-03T15:27:20.452-08:00Comanche Captive: Cynthia Ann Parker by Vernon MadduxIt the morning of May 19, 1836, less than three weeks after Sam Houston destroyed Santa Anna's army at the battle of San Jacinto over on the Brazos River. While the rest of Texas celebrated its freedom, the inhabitants of Parker fort worked outside the stockade. The men looked up when a mixed band of Indians rode causally near the fort and dismounted. Several warriors walked unarmed toward several men and women busy working their gardens outside the gate. With shocking ease, the warriors killed the adult Parker men starting with the elders who walked forward holding out their empty hands in a sign of friendship. The warriors captured all the children and women they could catch. One of the captives herded north after the raid was a nine year old girl named Cynthia Ann, daughter of Silas Mercer Parker and Lucinda Ann. In her presence, the warriors killed Silas and her uncles John and Benjamin Parker. Her grandfather John Parker had been one of those who walked foreword with his hands outstretched. Surprisingly, the raiding party included only a few Comanches, perhaps only one or two Penetekas. The raiders were primarily Wichitas, the warrior band of the generally sedentary Caddoes, most of whom lived in beehive-shaped grass huts. Ohter tribes were represented as well, perhaps Wacoes and Keechis. Cynthia Ann’s three-year-old brother, Silas Mercer Parker, Jr. was captured as were her mother, Lucy Duty Parker, her baby sister Orlena Parker. The baby was four months old. Cynthia Ann’s 46 year-old aunt Phoebe Hassell and Phoebe’s year-old baby daughter Sally were forced along as the warriors headed back north. Little Sally would not stop crying and the warriors killed the baby by smashing its head against a tree.<br /><br />Over the next six years, the Parker family managed to ransom all of the surviving women and children except Cynthia Ann. One of the elders of the family, Cynthia’s uncle Isaac Parker, crusaded continually among the Texas authorities for the girl’s return, never letting her capture fade from public consciousness. Speaking often to members of the congress of the Texas Republic, Isaac asked for Ranger companies to be formed and sent out into the frontier and for monetary rewards to be raised for her safe rescue. Ultimately the government created a handsome reward for her recovery. Isaac traveled up and down the Texas frontier, advertising his niece’s plight, speaking to church, lodge, and school meetings. Cynthia Ann became a frontier <span style="font-style:italic;">cause celebe.</span><br /><br />Meanwhile, Cynthia Ann had been sold to a Comanche family who lived in the Texas Panhandle. The band to which she belonged lived far out into the unknown vastness of the Llano Estacado. Although she was beaten at first and treated like a slave for a while, the couple that purchased her fell in love with the child calling her Nadauh. A few weeks after becoming part of the family, Cynthia Ann was a permanent member of the Tenewa Plains Comanches.<br /><br />In 1840, a New Mexican Comanchero trader camped with the Tenewa Comanches somewhere out in the Texas Panhandle. While he traded for buffalo skins and hides, he noticed a young white girl among the Comanches. Cynthia Ann would have been 13 at the time. She was properly dressed as a band female and acted completely at home. Alert to the reward that the Texan Isaac Parker had advertised, the man attempted to discover if she was in fact the girl, Cynthia Ann Parker. The trader broke out his best items and offered them to the headman for a trade. The chief scorned the offer. Eventually, for a portion of the trade items, the chief agreed to permit him to approach her. The young woman turned away when he spoke to her and refused to talk. She refused all gifts. When the trader returned to his town at Loma Parda, he spread the story of the white girl living among the Comanches, which soon reached the ears of the authorities.<br /><br />An article appeared in a Texas newspaper on April 29, 1846, which described a visit by Col. Leonard G. Williams' trading party with a band of Tenewa Comanches. These Comanches were camped on the Canadian River. Williams saw a young woman, she would have been 19, and married. He thought she could be Cynthia Ann. The tribal elders refused all Williams offers and the woman refused to speak English.<br /><br />A year later, federal officials P. M. Butler and M. G. Lewis ventured into Western Indian Territory and met with the Yamparika Comanches who were camped on the Washita River. Here again, the men encountered a young woman, she was age 20 by then, they thought might be the famous Cynthia Ann. Again she turned away and the elders would not accept gifts in exchange for her.<br /><br />In 1848, the Indian Agent for Northern Texas, Robert S. Neighbors was told that Cynthia Ann had married a warrior from the Tenawa band. Comanches living on the Upper Reservation at Camp Cooper told him that she had a family and would never leave her husband. Her husband was Peta Nocona, a rising young warrior who gained fame for his raids on white settlements.<br /><br />About 1841 when she was 16 years old, Cynthia Ann gave birth to her first child. She named him privately Quanah, meaning “Fragrant” (or Stinky, Smelly). Quanah was destined to rise to the top of the Comanche world. He is remembered as one of the last great fighting warriors of the Quahada Comanches and later, head chief of all reservation Comanches in Indian Territory.<br /><br />Along the frontier of Texas for 24 years, the name “Cynthia Ann Parker” rang like a saber striking steel. Her uncle Isaac Parker never rested, nor would he let the legislators in Austin forget that his niece, one of the original daughters of Texas (she was born in Illinois) remained a prisoner of the Indians. A stalwart born-again primitive Baptist, Isaac Parker's persistent and dramatic pleas for the safe return of his niece disturbed the sleep of the authorities along the frontier until the very eve of the Civil War.<br /><br />In 1860, a double murder on the frontier attributed to Comanches stirred the Texas government to authorize a Ranger Company for the second time in three years. The previous coming after the murders of two families, probably by whites dressed as Indians. (see the Dear Chum Letter and battle of Antelope Hills).<br /><br />Toward the end of November, Comanche or Kiowa warriors attacked and killed a rancher, stole his horse herd then tortured and killed and a neighboring rancher’s wife. This time there was no doubt that Native Americans were the perpetrators. The crimes occurred in northern Palo Pinto County, only a few miles west of Parker County. Ironically, the latter is named for Isaac Parker, Cynthia Ann’s persistent uncle. It had been over 24 years since Cynthia Ann was dragged screaming away from her father’s home in Limestone County.<br /><br />It was cold when Palo Pinto Sheriff John Nathan Hittson and the other settlers in the frontier county first heard the reports.<br /><br />At ten o’clock in the morning, 46 year-old John Brown, his nearest neighbor was the famous cattlemen Oliver Loving to the west and Charles Goodnight to the east, was riding across his pasture near Keechi Creek to gather his cattle. Suddenly up from the banks where they were hiding, a war party of Kiowas and Comanches raced out of the underbrush and surrounded the man. After a brief scuffle, a warrior knocked Brown off his horse and leaped on him, cutting Brown's scalp while he was still alive and stabbing him in the back and sides. Brown’s hair was left the area attached to the warrior’s saddle. Brown's body was left in the deep grass while the half-dozen members of the raiding party drove Brown's horse together with 20 other horses they collected earlier across the creek. They headed north toward their camp. Ahead were other ranches. Moving stealthily along the Keechi Creek branches, the warriors took Thompson's horses directly north of Brown's range. About noon the raiding party approached the Sherman farm in the extreme north of Palo Pinto County. Attracted by smoke coming from the ranch house chimney, the warriors dismounted and one man guarded the horses while the rest surrounded the house. The leader simply opened the door and walked inside.<br /><br />The Sherman family, father, mother and two children, were seated at the noon meal before a food-covered table. They froze in their seats. One warrior grabbed the father by his hair and jerked him out of his seat flinging him to the floor. In seconds other warriors pulled the family members from their seats and took their places at the table. The hungry Indians ignored the family as they ate the food. Mr. Sherman, his wife and children crept to the door and slipped outside. The Comanches guarding the horses outside eyed them but did nothing as the family walked down the road.<br /><br />As soon as the warriors finished the meal, they began ransacking and destroying the house. One warrior discovered a large family Bible and held it up in triumph. To the Comanches, books were highly prized because they could be used as stuffing material for the inside of their war-shields.<br /><br />When the leader of the war party came outside he looked for the family and sent the horse holders after the Sherman family. Catching up with the family on the road, a warrior grabbed Mrs. Sherman by her hair and dragged her up over his horse. The father tried to save his children and herded them into deep underbrush. The screams of Mrs. Sherman could be heard for a long while. Mr. Sherman ran frantically toward his nearest neighbor, miles away. It took several hours for Sherman to reach a house. Leaving the children he borrowed a horse and raced to town. Hearing Sherman’s report, sheriff Hittson and deputy James Hamilton Baker recruited a group of armed townsmen and rode north toward the Sherman family farm.<br /><br />At the Sherman farmhouse, Hittson's posse found the building torn apart, ransacked and all contents destroyed. After a cursory look around the yard, the posse headed north, trailing the war party. They estimated about seven warriors. The large horse herd they had gathered made the trail easy to follow. A mile along the trail, Hittson and the men found Mrs. Sherman’s body lying in a field. She had been sexually abused, scalped and nearly killed, but was breathing. Her body was severely bruised; her clothing torn off, her body covered with blood from several knife wounds. Two arrows protruded from her breast. Around her body lay dozens of pages torn from the family Bible. Hittson detailed two men to remove the arrows, bandage her wounds and cover her with a blanket. They carried her back to town while the posse continued to track the warriors. The next day, when the men’s horses gave out, Hittson led the posse back to town.<br /><br />Mrs. Sherman lived four days before she died. Neither Hittson nor James H. Baker, who kept a detailed diary of the event, ever mentioned the incident in writing again. Like the Cambren-Harris murders three years earlier, the horrible fate of Mrs. Sherman aroused the entire frontier of Northwest Texas. From the sheriff’s office in Palo Pinto, Hittson sent messengers to spread the word about the attacks to Fort Worth and Dallas to Austin.<br /><br />Within a few days, all across the frontier, musket-toting men made their way to Palo Pinto. Preachers railed against the perpetrators, calling the crime against Brown and especially Mrs. Sherman, a “double sacrilege.” Strong men pledged to the congregations to avenge the Holy Book and recover “white women’s honor.”<br />Within the cultural framework of the Texas frontier, Indians were usually defamed as “horse-thieving” and “murderous.” Now they were seen as violators of both the most sacred Christian book and white womanhood itself. In the village of Palo Pinto, Weatherford and other towns, militia representatives gathered cursing the existence of "God-less heathens" beyond the frontier. Hittson and Baker wrote an appeal to the Governor at Austin pleading for armed assistance and protection. They demanded a Ranger company be formed and permanently stationed in Palo Pinto County. The local militia captain, Jack Cureton, called out his followers and formed what he called “The Palo Pinto Cavalry.” Within a few days, nearly 100 able-bodied men camped in and around the county seat awaiting word from the state governor. Hittson and his brother joined the force along with almost every man and older boy in the county who could carry a musket. Meanwhile Hittson and most settlers moved their families from their outlying farms to town. Hittson’s wife Selena was pregnant with Martha Jane, their third child. His other two children, grandfather Jesse Hittson and grandmother Mary Ann were lodged in the hotel.<br /><br />Sheriff Hittson and his deputy became common soldiers, subordinating themselves to the militia leadership. Cureton was an established leader, having frontline experience under Colonel Archibald Yell in the Mexican War. The stores in town relinquished their best horses, rifles, pistols and other equipment that was available. Merchants in Fort Worth and Dallas sent wagonloads of weapons and supplies to the men. After a week, word arrived that Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross had been commissioned by the governor to recruit and outfit a Ranger Company, but not in Palo Pinto, in Fort Worth, Tarrant County. Ross was specifically ordered to pursue the Comanches.<br /><br />Ross soon appeared in Palo Pinto and asked the militia there to join him. They agreed. He then ordered scouts Benjamin Dragoo and three other men to ride north beyond the Trinity River to scout the land south of Indian Territory. They were to search the frontier until they found the Indians' trail. Despite the rush, it was nearly three weeks before the force was ready. By the time the Ranger Company was formed and joined the militia at Palo Pinto, it was the second week of December. A bitterly cold north wind blew through Texas from Canada.<br /><br />On December 14, 1860, three columns of armed men left Palo Pinto and headed north for a crossing of the Brazos River. Sul Ross' Texas Rangers consisted of 27 men and a detachment of 18 soldiers from the United States 2nd Dragoons. Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee had ordered them to leave Camp Cooper for the expedition. First Sergeant John W. Spangler was in charge of the Dragoons. In the rear rode the rag-tag Cureton militia, which numbered perhaps a hundred men. The force, with difficulty, forded the Brazos and in two days reached the West Branch of the Trinity River where they halted. On trees on the banks of river, Dragoo and his scouts had left markings showing they progress and the way they had gone.<br /><br />In the bitter cold winds, several older militiamen and even some of the robust young Rangers fell behind. Ross never faltered and with most of his men and the Dragoons he continued pressing on in forced marches. By the time Dragoo’s men reported Indians sign, many of the militia had been forced to walk their horses that had become exhausted and were broken down. By December 17, the Rangers and Dragoons were camping each night about three miles north of the struggling militia.<br /><br />At dawn, December 18, fresh and frigid North winds whipped across the prairie as Ross led the Rangers and First Sergeant Spangler's men out of the scrub trees onto a broad, flat field of dead grass that stretched for miles, broken only by a scattering of small hills. Baker wrote in his diary that when they reached the open plain, he estimated they were about 70 miles north and west of Palo Pinto. While the Rangers broke camp that morning, Cureton’s militia stayed in camp. One of the men, James Chick, had lost his horse in the night and headed out on foot trying to catch the elusive animal. Rather than to summarily abandon their neighbor to the mercies of the enemy, Cureton called for a vote. The company largely voted to wait for Chick to return.<br /><br />By eight or nine o’clock, Ross’s force was a dozen miles north of the militiamen and had completely lost contact with them. Ross and his lieutenants approached a series of cedar-covered mountains at the headwaters of Pease River. Riding to the crest of a hill, Ross halted the column and motioned for his men to join him in scanning the river below. The Rangers immediately spotted several small groups of individuals moving near the river a mile or so away. Ross claimed he recognized them instantly as a Comanche war party. All the other men agreed the scattered groups were indeed Indians. The Rangers noted some were mounting horses with travois dragging behind. Others were loading equipment and taking down tepees. Several fully loaded horses moved slowly across the prairie. Ross decided the Comanche village was in the process of moving. He instantly called for the Rangers to come forward on line.<br /><br />The Rangers with Dragoons following behind, pulled out their pistols and at Ross’s command, charged on a dead run down the hill. Individual Rangers began shooting at the winter-clad Indians at a fairly long range. These turned out to be mostly women and children. Several women tried to escape by cutting loose their travois poles, dumping their packs on the ground, which helped them race away. Frantic children on ponies dashed away in several directions. The Ranger line fragmented, men chasing individual Indians this way and that. Finally, it became individual Rangers following single mounted Indians. In only a minute, every Ranger lost sight of every other Ranger. Spangler held up the Dragoons near the abandoned camp and sent his men to capture the Comanche’s horse herd.<br /><br /> After twenty minutes, a majority of Ross' Rangers returned to the site of the initial attack. Most came back empty handed. A few Rangers joined the dragoons in controlling the horse herd, about 350 horses, which was not large by Comanche standards. Ranger Private Charles Goodnight, Private George Lemely, Private Christopher Columbus “Lum” Slaughter and Private Christpher “Kit” L. Carter gathered near the herd. They looked around, talking and joking. Where, one asked, were the officers?<br /><br />At that moment, Captain Ross, Lieutenant Tom Killiher, and Lieutenant Somerville were in heated chases after two well-mounted Comanche warriors. Ross shot at his well-dressed warrior-chief who fell from his horse. As Ross was finishing the warrior, Killiher ran by chasing another warrior. Ross got on his horse and followed. After a long run Ross got close enough to fire his pistol at the bulky-looking Comanche. To his surprise, a body fell off the pony but left another rider. Ross realized he had shot a woman riding behind a warrior. Ross rejoined the chase and fired several more shots. One or two struck the Comanche's horse, which slowed and began staggering. The warrior leaped clear as the pony fell and he rolled across the prairie to avoid being shot. The Indian came up firing arrows at Ross. Dancing his horse from side to side to avoid the missiles, Ross nearly fell off when an arrow struck his horse in the side. Stung, the animal began bucking and pitching, making it impossible for Ross to do anything but hold on. Running forward at Ross’ horse, the Indian grabbed the reins and attempted to stab the Ranger captain with an arrow pulled from his sheath. Desperately firing his pistol over his horse's head, Ross luckily hit the warrior in the chest. Blood flowing, the warrior dropped the arrow, turned deliberately away and walked to his fallen horse where he knelt down singing his death song.<br /><br />Martinez, Ross' interpreter, rode up to his captain at this juncture. While Ross tended to his injured horse, he motioned toward the Comanche and asked Martinez to ask him to surrender. The Comanche spit and then continued singing. Ross reloaded his pistol. Walking toward the Indian, he killed him with one shot. Ross took a shield, quiver, lance and head-dress from the Indian's body. Ross later claimed the Comanche’s name was Mohee.<br /><br />Ross and Martinez rode together back toward the initial attack. As they approached the captured horse herd, Ross saw that the Rangers had several captives, including "a small Comanche boy who had been picked up … by Lieutenant Sublet." Ross, "fearing that he (the boy) might be killed by some of the more reckless men, I took him up behind me and carried him back." Ross rode to where Goodnight and the other Rangers had gathered. Killiher returned about the same time with a captive Indian woman who had a baby strapped on her back. Killiher was, "bitterly cursing his luck for having run his favorite horse so far and so hard just to catch an old squaw." Ross thought little of the captives at the time. He called the captive boy "Pease" and arranged with the Rangers to have him taken to his ranch in Waco.<br /><br />Meanwhile Cureton's volunteers suffered the rewards of an undisciplined army in the presence of combat. Everything went wrong. Chick found his horse but as soon as the men headed north toward the sounds of battle, Cureton discovered his pack drivers had abandoned their packs. These were vital supplies. The pack drivers were afraid they would be left behind as easy prey to the fearful Comanches. Cureton ordered the column to wait while the packers went back and recovered the supplies. Lieutenant Saunders made sure the muleskinners recovered all the packs. Not until late in the afternoon did the militia reach the Pease River near where the attack had been joined. As the men rode and walked along the riverbank, they met the Rangers, Ross leading, riding triumphal back south on the opposite side. Hittson's deputy, James Baker, noted the event in his diary. "We were soon together and he (Ross) told us that they had overtaken a band of 15 Indians, had killed 12 of them and taken prisoners."<br /><br />Relief swept over the men as the rangers described what sounded like a terrific victory. "There was great yelling and whooping and shaking hands and congratulating Capt. and his men, upon his good luck for he has not even had one wounded." While the Rangers and Dragoons prepared their camp, most of the militia pushed on, eager to see the battlefield. "Our boys could not be restrained but rode eagerly to the scene of action.”<br /><br />When they reached the scene Baker noted a much less heroic picture than had been described by Ross and the Rangers.<br />We found only four dead Indians, all squaws. There were many packs strewn on the prairie for a distance of 2 or 3 miles, with a large amount of dried beef and buffalo meat, buffalo skins, camp accouterments, ... The prisoners are a woman, a little girl and a boy about 10 years old.<br /><br />According to Baker, the identity of the captured woman was of no importance. All the men assumed her to be a Comanche. Later that evening after camp had been made and fires built, Baker and some of the other men looked her over carefully as they ate their evening meal. Baker wrote in his diary.<br /><br />The woman is of white parentage ... looks just like an Indian, except that she has blue eyes ... the bucks pushed them (she and her baby) off and rode away ... she cried `Dont shoot, me Mericana.' The man closest to her saw that her eyes were blue and spared her. Tonight as we sat about the camp fire, a discussion arose as to her identity, and in the course of the talk, some one remarked that years ago a family by the name of Parker had been killed where Parker Co. is now [sic], and a child Cynthia Ann Parker had been carried off. At once the woman spoke up and said, `Me Cynthia Ann.' So we have decided that the long lost Cynthia Ann Parker has been recaptured.<br /><br />The next day dawned cold as usual. Ross led the Rangers toward Camp Cooper with the prisoners and the captured horses. The militia trailed along, disgruntled and angry. Not only had the rangers exaggerated the nature of the fight, but they also claimed the entire captured pony herd for themselves. They refused even to loan the dismounted militiamen a pony to ride home. From that time on, the Palo Pinto militiamen viewed all Rangers with suspicion. They spread tales of them being, at worst liars and at best, greedy opportunists. The Dragoons fared no better in the eyes of the settlers. Baker wrote.<br /><br />Sergeant Spangler ... reported that his men killed a party of 7 Indians who ran in a different direction from where Ross and his men were engaged. We found only one killed at the place he designated, but we found the trail of 6 leaving this place, hence we concluded that Spangler lied and let his Indians get away. 7 all todl [sic], 4 squaws, and 3 bucks are all of the dead Indians we have found.<br /><br />At Camp Cooper, rancher George Evans’ wife was asked to care for the woman and her infant. A message was sent to Fort Worth to notify Isaac Parker. After 24 years of searching, the Rangers proudly declared Cynthia Ann had been recovered. In time, she was sent to Isaac, her uncles’ farm to live. Of course, no one ever asked Cynthia Ann what she wanted. Isaac had to watch her carefully as he discovered the woman would do practically anything to return to her Comanche family. Her desires in the matter were never seriously considered, however, her happiness a casualty of the fierce contest between the two opposing cultures. The recovery of Cynthia Ann Parker restored the honor of Texas and boosted the morale of the settlers in the frontier counties.<br /><br />The Comanches responded to the loss of Cynthia Ann by increasing their raids. Within days of the Pease River fight, a series of warrior assaults struck at towns, one notably putting the village of Palo Pinto under an all-night siege. Hittson organize the townspeople to provide round-the-clock protection for the town day and night. Everyone boarded up his house, groups men took turns standing guard. It is thought that Cynthia Ann's husband, Peta Nokona, led raids into Palo Pinto County and on the surrounding settlements of Jacksborough and Fort Belknap for the next several months. That winter proved one of the most deadly and intense of the long history of the Comanche-Texan conflict.<br /><br />Peta Nokona, or Petsa-no-ko-ni as the Kiowas knew him, never rose to the status of a great chief but remained a warrior-leader. Even before Cureton's militiamen were able to return to their homes, Nocona's raids struck. Angry over the killing of their wives and relatives, the revenge-minded Comanches attacked and killed Palo Pinto settler Gholston Flahegin on New Years Eve night.<br /><br />During the first week of 1861, Indians severely wounded a young boy named Smith on Leon Creek north of Weatherford in Parker County. During the same attack Indian arrows severely wounded Mrs. Coin and Mr. Brannon of Young County. Through the spring and summer the raids continued without letup. The Indian raids caused the town of Palo Pinto to organize an "internal" Ranger company. Though some grumbled, Hittson and others voted to elect 19 year-old Ranger Private C.C. “Lum” Slaughter as captain of the local rangers. Peta Nokona concentrated on raiding Palo Pinto for two years. In 1863, he was severely wounded in a raid and died somewhere in North Texas. After that, the Comanches do not mention his name again.<br /><br />One direct result of the Comanche and Kiowa raids during this period, which included the first years of American Civil War, was that the population of all the outlying frontier counties fell dramatically. In at least five of the counties around Palo Pinto, the local county governments ceased to exist, dissolved for lack of citizens. Ten years after the Pease River fight; the population of the counties around Palo Pinto was thousands less than it had been in the summer of 1860. It would take more than twenty years before the frontier population recovered to what it was when Cynthia Ann was recaptured.<br /><br />Photographer A. F. Corning from Fort Worth often visited Palo Pinto, taking photos of the local residents as his life work. In January 1861, he heard that the famous Cynthia Ann Parker was being held at Camp Cooper. Packing his equipment onto pack animals he made the long, 150 mile trip west to the army post. His picture of Cynthia Ann and her baby girl "Topsannah" (Prairie Flower) is the only one known to exist. Fifteen years later, Corning sent a copy of the photograph to Quanah, who by then was living on the reservation in Indian Territory near Fort Sill. Quanah instantly identified the woman in the photograph as his mother (see Hacker, Cynthia Ann 30, 38)<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.dallashistory.org/images/Ann_Parker.jpg" /><br />Cynthia Ann Parker and daughter Topsannah by photographer A. F. Corning 1862<br /><br />The Texas legislature debated the future of the woman. Concerned that she, a Texas legend, seemed unhappy and destitute, the congress granted her a pension on April 8, 1861. She got $100 a year for five years and was presented a league of land. A league was over 4,000 acres but to obtain title required expensive legal and surveying work. Isaac Parker took Cynthia Ann and her baby to his home west of Fort Worth where she moved into a room in his cabin. Years passed and she never learned to speak English nor did she respond pleas to rejoin the Parker family. Lonely, unable to adapt, she never stopped mourning her separation from her husband and her two sons.<br /><br />The Civil War years were especially disease prone along the frontier of Texas. On December 15, 1863 Cynthia Ann’s daughter Topsannah died at age 5 from complications from influenza and pneumonia. Cynthia Ann subsequently died while living with her sister Orlena and her sister's husband, James Rufus O'Quinn, near Poyner, Henderson County, Texas.<br /><br />After finally surrendering in 1875 and settling on a reservation in southern Indian Territory, Quanah adopted agricultural methods, promoted education for his children and fellow Comanches. He prospered as both a farmer and the managing agent for business deals between white ranchers to lease the “Big Pasture,” a Comanche hunting area bordering the Red River. At one point he was considered the wealthiest Native American in North America. In 1886 he was appointed judge of the Court of Indian Affairs; by 1890 he was principal chief of all Comanche bands. He became a major figure in the peyote religion. In 1905, he rode beside Geronimo in the inaugural parade for President Theodore Roosevelt. He had at least seven wives.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Bibliographical Essay<br />See Margaret Schmidt Hacker, Cynthia Ann Parker (El Paso, 1990). On Nov. 28, 1860. Wednesday. "Indians kill 21, ... one man in Parker Co. and scalped one woman ... Mrs. Sherman ... (scalped) shot (with) an arrow ..., left her alive naked on the prairie." [Diary of J. H. Baker]. Smythe incorrectly recorded the date as December, 1859 (Smythe, Sketch of Parker County. 131-33). Benjamin Crawford Dragoo (1835 Washington Co. Ill-1929 London, Tx) moved to Texas at age three. He grew up on the Navasota River next to Fort Parker and played with the Parker children who survived the raid on the fort (Hunter, Trail Drivers of Texas, 797). Peter Robertson (b. July 25, 1840 Hall Co., Ga) from McLennan County and Robert W. Gray (b. Vera, Knox Co., Tx) accompanied Dragoo. Dragoo's narrative is in Hugh D. Corwin, Comanche & Kiowa Captives, 52-54, 67 (Guthrie, 1959). Sul Ross' Rangers included Capt. J. M. Smith. Lieutenants: Tom Killiher; Somerville; Sublet. Privates: Charles Goodnight (see abundant literature); C. C. Slaughter; Kit Carter; George Lemley; Antonio Martinez; Francis Marion Peveler; Frank Cassidy; Benjamin Franklin Gholson. See Dallas Herald (June 19, 1875); Walter Prescott Webb, Handbook of Texas (Austin, 1951, 2, 685). Sgt. Spangler's Dragoons were a detachment from Co. H, 2nd U. S. Dragoons. They were stationed at Camp Cooper on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, in Shackleford County. The camp commander was Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. For more on the sergeant, see M. L. Crimmins, "First Sergeant John W. Spangler..." West Texas Historical Association Year Book 26 (October, 1950, 68-75). Cureton's volunteer rangers numbered about a hundred men. Besides the Hittson brothers, 2nd Lt. James Hamilton Baker, Hittson's deputy sheriff, James H. Chick (27 years-old, Indiana) was a cowboy for Joel McKee, his lost horse delayed the militia Rangers. J. H. Coffee, John Dalton (age 16, son of Mark Dalton), George Washington Dodson (age 22, Hittson's cousin), James Dulin (Hittson's hired hand, 23 years-old), Jack Flint (age 29, Oliver Loving's son-in-law), Calvin T. Hazlewood (35 years-old) B. B. Medders (age 27, sheriff of Palo Pinto County after Hittson), Vollintine Simons (age 22, Hittson's hired hand), Lt. Thomas Linaeus Stockton (age 27, Hittson's best friend), Peter Eldridge Slaughter (eldest son of G. W.)., Lt. James Buckner Berry and F. A. Ball (Hittson's lawyer). See list in Loftin, Trails Through Archer, 55; Cox, Historical & Biographical . 306, 653; Dallas Herald (Dec. 19, 1860); McConnell, West Texas Frontier 167, 174.<br />For Ross’ remembering the recovery of Cynthia Ann Parker, see Dallas Herald June 19, 1875. The Diary of J. H. Baker, December 19, 1860 mentions the discovery of Cynthia Ann as they sat around the campfires.<br />Mrs. George Evans helped her husband handle the remounts for the Butterfield Stage depot near Camp Cooper. One of her sons was apparently Jesse Evans, the outlaw in Lincoln County, New Mexico, with Billy the Kid.<br />Peta Nocona, Petsa-no-ko-ni, was a revered headman, but not the chief of the Nocona Comanches. The Nocona meant "Wanderers." In revenge, Peta Nocona correctly concentrated his attacks on Palo Pinto, Young, and Jack counties. See Mayhall, The Kiowas; Hacker, Cynthia, 24.<br />Saturday, Palo Pinto. James Baker wrote the following after a meeting with the militia. He tried "to influence the election of a commander of the ranger co. that has been organized here. C. C. Slaughter [age 24] was elected Lieut. and consequently in command. I opposed his election as I do not consider him suitable for that office." Diary of J. H. Baker, January 19, 1861,<br />Many frontiersmen were Unionists. In February 1861 at the Texas Ordinance of Secession the vote was 14,697 against and 46,129 to leave the Union. Lamar, Fannin, Grayson, Collin, Cooke, Denton, Montague, Wise, Jack and Young counties, containing just over a tenth of the population, cast more than a fourth of the total votes against secession. However, Parker, Palo Pinto, Johnson, Erath, Comanche, Hamilton, Brown, Lampasas and San Saba voted 88% in favor of secession. The northwestern counties counted only slightly more than ten percent of their population in slaves as compared to a state average of almost 50 per cent. In Palo Pinto County, there were 107 votes for secession, none against. Floyd F. Ewing, Jr., "Origins of Unionist Sentiment on the West Texas Frontier," West Texas Historical Association Year Book, 32 (October, 1956: pp. 21-29).<br />On March 17, 1861, the John Robert Baylor regiment organized in Weatherford, Texas. Hamner was elected captain and George Baylor initially became Hamner's First Lieutenant. Company H, 2nd Texas Cavalry (later called the Texas Mounted Riflemen) marched out of the frontier with Baylor at its head. In May in San Antonio, the two Baylor brothers were officially commissioned to the regular Confederate Army for three years. John Robert Baylor had his ups and downs but ended the war as a newly commissioned Brigadier General heading to Texas to recruit his brigade. His brother George ended the war under arrest for murder. See Kenneth A. Goldblatt, "The Defeat of Major I. Lynde, U.S.A." Password 15:1 (Spring, 1970), 16, 22. On February 21, 1861 U. S. Army Captain T. S. Carpenter surrendered Camp Cooper to Texas Colonel W. C. Dalrymple. Metz, Selman 27.<br />Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" or "Sully" was a second son, the fourth child of Shapley Prince Ross and Catherine Fulkerson. Ross was born in Iowa but was raised on the frontier of Texas. He participated in three expeditions against the Indians in Texas and Indian Territory, once taking an arrow through his lung. He attended Baylor University at Independence, Tx, in 1856. The following year he attended Wesleyan University at Florence, Alabama (Mississippi?). In 1858, at age 20, Ross returned home and led 125 Indians in support of Major Earl Van Dorn, who took part of 2nd Dragoons against a Comanche village. Severely wounded in the battle (an arrow penetrated his lung), Ross returned and graduated from Wesleyan in 1859. One of the events for which he is most famous occurred in December, 1860. "[A]t the head of Pease river, as Captain of a company of sixty rangers, employed to guard the Western frontier, administered a blow that forever crushed the warlike Comanches [his force killed six women, two or three men and captured one woman and two children]. Immediately after the battle he claimed to have killed Peta Nocona, the last great Comanche chieftains (he changed his mind later) ... and restored to civilization Cynthia Ann Parker, who had been captured by the Comanches at Parker's Fort in 1836."sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-71959666073157506022010-01-03T15:25:00.001-08:002010-01-03T15:25:23.372-08:00Mountain Man and Western Entrepreneur: The Bozeman Trail and the Little Known John M. JacobsMost avid readers and serious students of western history have heard of the Bozeman Trail, the infamous Bloody Bozeman that took emigrants north from the Oregon Trail to the gold fields of Montana in 1863. The Bozeman Trail was one of the last emigrants trails opened in the American West. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiPIPun9H0v-oGRe9yHLbHW-Ta9Rh_JnD6_dkGYrMAnd3s5Yoy0SUp3y_6z2jntNhBCHMdveSRp7LBAVxCZp9q9qObai4VoQDY177VJ53O1UddJP7H9nkq_cTTxLefbJbQ5Pu7P3xQPuI/s1600-h/04mapbt.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiPIPun9H0v-oGRe9yHLbHW-Ta9Rh_JnD6_dkGYrMAnd3s5Yoy0SUp3y_6z2jntNhBCHMdveSRp7LBAVxCZp9q9qObai4VoQDY177VJ53O1UddJP7H9nkq_cTTxLefbJbQ5Pu7P3xQPuI/s320/04mapbt.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422657726748309842" /></a> <br /><br />The establishment of the Bozeman Trail by John Bozeman and John M. Jacobs was a business venture in which Bozeman and Jacobs expected to gain financially from guiding emigrants to Montana. Jacobs, described in contemporary accounts as an “old mountain man”, could see the financial possibilities of establishing a trail and guiding anxious gold seeking emigrants north to Montana. His foresight was not all that unusual. Indeed, some of most industrious western entrepreneurs were mountain men, trappers and traders, who spent a majority of their adult lives in the Inter-Mountain West. These men, characterized in American folklore as rough rowdy raucous men of low calling, had the ingenuity and expertise to engage in an assortment of financial ventures, which ultimately helped them to make a living for themselves and their families. The establishment of a new emigrant trail offered Jacobs a timely financial venture. <br /><br />In 1862 John Jacobs, along with others in the fur trade business, had retired because of the depletion of beaver and a dwindling demand for hides. As luck would have it, just as the beaver was saying his last adieu, emigrants were heading west in record numbers to stake out their fortunes in a new land. What Jacobs saw was not just a steady flow of wagons heading west, but the possibility of a new business venture. The emigrant trails were long and offered few services. There were forts, like Fort Laramie in eastern Wyoming, where emigrant trains could buy supplies, but it was a long stretch after Fort Laramie to other supply depots, like Fort Hall in present day Idaho. This was especially a problem when an emigrant family needed fresh livestock to pull their wagons. Often when oxen or cows could not keep up, they were left behind along the trail. Jacobs made a business out of buying cheap worn out oxen or gathering up strays, and moving them North into the Beaverhead, Bitterroot or the Deer Lodge valley’s of western Montana There the livestock fattened up on lush grasses. The next summer Jacobs took the hardy animals back to the Oregon Trail and traded them to new western emigrants, who were in the same situation as the travelers of the previous summer. Jacobs offered one fattened well-fed animal for two or three used up oxen. Jacobs and his companions also traded clothing, like deer skin shirts and pants, beaded moccasins, and other such articles most likely made by the trappers’ Indian wives. <br /><br /> Another one of Jacobs’ business enterprises was that of trail guide to emigrant trains that traveled various overland routes. When the summer business slowed down, usually with the threat of first snow, Jacobs retired to the inter-mountain valleys of Montana, where families made up of white fur traders, native women and mixed blood children, lived through relatively mild winters in their Elk Skin Lodges. It was one of these winters in the early 1860s that John Jacobs met John Bozeman. It is reported that John Bozeman had arrived in Deer Lodge Valley in 1862 to mine for gold. Bozeman was a young ambitious energetic man from Georgia, who sought western adventure and Montana gold, but the work was arduous and there was little return for all the labor. When word spread of a rich discovery of gold at Grasshopper Creek in the Beaverhead Valley in what became Bannack, Montana, Bozeman wasted little time getting to the new diggings. Again, actually mining for gold did not suit Bozeman and he looked around for other lucrative possibilities. <br /><br />Bozeman and Jacobs met in Bannack of 1862. Jacobs had just finished guiding a train of forty wagons to Walla Walla. The new discovery of gold in Montana provided Jacobs with further opportunities to etch out a living, but not by panning for gold. Jacobs and Bozeman thought of the possibility of making money by helping emigrants reach the Montana gold fields by a shorter time saving route, an idea not originating with Bozeman or Jacobs. In fact, the Englishman, Edward Shelley and his companion, William Orcutt, first traversed the route that eventually became the Bozeman Trail. Against all odds, traveling through Blackfeet country, Shelley’s small party made it to Fort Benton, Montana in the winter of 1863, William Orcutt spent the winter in Bannack, as did Jacobs and Bozeman. Orcutt broadcast the news of a shorter route from the Oregon Trail to gold fields. <br /><br />Jacobs seemed to understand the significance of the shorter route, especially the financial possibilities. He had the experience and knowledge of the western trails, it is not clear what Bozeman had, perhaps he just claimed the idea. At any rate, the two decided to forge a new route from Bannack to the Oregon Trail and then offered to lead emigrant trains back over their new route to Montana. In the spring of 1863, Bozeman, Jacobs and Jacobs’s seven-year-old daughter, traveled from Bannack to Three Forks of the Missouri, across the Gallatin Valley enroute to the East, all the time marking what would become the Bozeman Trail. In the early history of the Trail, it was not referred to as the Bozeman Trail but the Jacobs’ Trail or Jacobs’ cut-off or the Jacob/ Bozeman Trail. <br /><br />Before the United States government closed the Trail to civilian traffic in 1866, 3500 people traveled north from one of three cutoffs between Douglas and Casper Wyoming. Once over the dry sage plains of Wyoming, <br /><br /><img src="http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/bozeman3.jpg "/><br /><br /> <br />The trail wound east of the Big Horn Mountains then west across Clarks Fork River, Rose Bud Creek, and through the Powder River Basin (the home of the Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapahoe) to the upper Yellowstone River Valley (the home of the Crows, Blackfeet, Piegan and Bloods) to the final destination of Bannock and Virginia City. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.virginiacity.com/pa08.jpg"/><br /> <br />In all, the trail encompassed 500 miles, shaving 400 miles from the more established route that continued west along the California/ Oregon Trail to South Pass and then north along the Idaho Border. <br /><br />The Bozeman Trail provided the route to the future; soon after emigrants arrived the resemblance of a government was formed and those who would become Montana’s first prominent citizens, traveled the Bozeman Trail and made their fortune and reputation as leaders in the new state capital of Bannack (since moved to Helena.) <br /><br /><br />There is however, a tragic, but perhaps inevitable aspect in the establishment of the Bozeman Trail-- the Trail, which traversed Indian country, brought white and Indian hostilities into full fledge warfare. <br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-ObfW2OWnrGBngPtEj6PUCBZ2JaLbdHbYi8O1nB0XDARzqdqCw0kQbF-YqCL5KNkXWCupBX1z5pyfOL9raqaGAKuKaldee9fl0b4Favuhw1OjXiu4y02SQSzm0Iw-RBRuoC-B0oxlPc3/s1600-h/parleyboztrail.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 223px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-ObfW2OWnrGBngPtEj6PUCBZ2JaLbdHbYi8O1nB0XDARzqdqCw0kQbF-YqCL5KNkXWCupBX1z5pyfOL9raqaGAKuKaldee9fl0b4Favuhw1OjXiu4y02SQSzm0Iw-RBRuoC-B0oxlPc3/s320/parleyboztrail.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422658148583203266" /></a><br /> <br /><br />The conflict marked a clear distinction between white Americans, who proudly walked into the West under the raw new banner of democratic capitalism, and the people of a nomadic Plains Tribal horse society, whose members sought to protect their hunting areas for survival of their people. After thirty years of watching their hunting grounds and land being taken up by farmers and ranchers, Native Americans fought back with a vengeance, especially after the massacre at Sand Creek in Southern Colorado. In the spring of 1864, Colonel Chivington and the Colorado Volunteers attacked Black Kettles band of Southern Cheyenne camped at Sand Creek, killing women and children. The Southern Cheyenne and Southern Arapaho moved north and formed an alliance with the Northern Cheyenne and Upper Platte Sioux. The Indian War spread through out the Plains and Mountains settlements, making emigrant travel unsafe. The army established western forts to protect travel and western habitants, but the fighting along the Bozeman Trail was so dangerous, that in 1866, the government closed the Trail to civilian traffic. <br /><br /><br /> It is great fun to uncover the history of the different emigrant trails and to try to understand the motivations of the people who risk so much to migrate to the West. I’m enjoying learning about an aspect of western history of which I knew so little. But perhaps most importantly, my reading has made me realize how the writing of western history has changed in the last thirty years, a whole new generation of interpretation. This new interpretation is beneficial in many ways--new historiography has presented an all inclusive history of the West; we now have a better understanding of the actions and motivations of all western inhabitants in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. But, the problem that I see in current scholarship is that if a person really wants to know about the lives of those who migrated to the West after Lewis and Clark made the trek in 1803, they will have to start looking through sources written before 1970. The historical account written before the “new” scholarship is basically opinion free, it is strait forward history, many accounts from people who knew first hand. The history of the Bozeman Trail and the events surrounding the opening of the trail, is a wonderful history full of intrigue, but what is even more amazing, to me at least, is the number of men and women who not only forged a trail, but brought entrepreneurship and capitalism to the western America. Yes, they did it at a cost to the Native People who inhabited the region, but never-the -less, their story is remarkable and could only be accomplished in a land that offered them the freedom with which to advance their fortunes.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-39987747061197767622010-01-03T14:48:00.000-08:002010-01-03T14:55:49.408-08:00Christmas in Frontier Oklahoma<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3oOuGQb7_PRaML5bWNjCqNFqBx7JN6fkMY_JyVL2yBS83QOLoRR2k5OjLiyZnq3q6PmBH5tbTi8n23N2JsekcVz_EAz_Q1K1uF4pXTGBSs9e2HL9F8Mf8ZKURKiQGPqh11e3cHBwBgoA/s1600-h/+afrontierchristmaspreview.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 288px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3oOuGQb7_PRaML5bWNjCqNFqBx7JN6fkMY_JyVL2yBS83QOLoRR2k5OjLiyZnq3q6PmBH5tbTi8n23N2JsekcVz_EAz_Q1K1uF4pXTGBSs9e2HL9F8Mf8ZKURKiQGPqh11e3cHBwBgoA/s320/+afrontierchristmaspreview.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422648286385006034" /></a><br /> <br />Nothing can be lonelier than being away from family and friends during the Christmas season. This was especially true of those who left the sanctuary of their eastern homes to settle in the remote territory of Oklahoma in the nineteenth century. Like many of the people who immigrated to the American West, pioneers who settled in Oklahoma and Indian Territory (Twin Territories) brought with them cultural traditions long practiced in the communities they left behind. But, the frontier environment often altered many of the ways in which pioneers observed the holidays. In their new communities, families came together to celebrate their first Christmases by sharing traditions and inventing new practices, which created many of the Christmas customs we enjoy in Oklahoma today. <br /><br />Some of the first Christmas celebrations recorded in Oklahoma were among members of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory. Before the federal government forcibly removed the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles from their eastern homelands in the 1830s, missionaries worked among the tribes to convert them to Christianity. After settlement in Indian Territory of present-day eastern Oklahoma, missionary continued working to build missions and schools to serve the Native people. Henry Wilson, was one of many missionaries sent to Indian Territory by the Presbyterian Missionary Board. <br /><img src="http://archives.uca.edu/dorris_colleciton/dwight-mission2.jpg "/> <br /><br />Wilson arrived at Dwight Mission on a cold December evening of 1832. After the long journey, he was delighted when he heard the mission bells ringing as he approached. His traveling companions told him that the bells were calling the converted Cherokees to service and that they were preparing for the Christmas celebration. During Wilson’s long journey to Indian Territory, he had wondered what Christmas would be like in the West. He understood that when he left his family in Connecticut he was also leaving many of his familiar traditions. <br /><br />After a long horseback ride, the young missionary was tired and hungry and anxious about his new responsibilities. He later wrote of his experience, “When I entered [mission church] they were singing a hymn in the Cherokee language. Never before did music appear half so sweet to me; the language is music itself.” Wilson soon learned that the Christmas service would be held at Colonel Walter Webber’s home along the Arkansas River, sixty miles from the mission. Webber was one of the head-men, or chiefs of the Cherokee and not yet converted to Christianity. No matter, the celebration was for converted and non-converted alike. After a two-day trip, where Wilson slept out on the open ground for the first time in his life, they arrived at the celebration among 100 Cherokee families who had gathered. Thirty years later, the missionary remembered, “This was the happiest Christmas I ever spent, though far from home and friends and destitute of the luxuries and comforts to which I have become accustomed.” <br /><br />In order to facilitate Indian Settlement in the nineteenth century, the United States government constructed forts and stationed troops in Indian Territory. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI2JxmwK0-yUBssA62_fq76hc7W_ZOGCkdRuvwzXIGqnN9uVQWyEfaAaKmAPM1TECr7PQTew_BGuSLlVwPukUkSw868431QMqF5b1zXlZ7kc_4HCjT9HfKK0GqdpZzMhedYQMAtT7jpzU/s1600-h/Ft_Arbuckle.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 197px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI2JxmwK0-yUBssA62_fq76hc7W_ZOGCkdRuvwzXIGqnN9uVQWyEfaAaKmAPM1TECr7PQTew_BGuSLlVwPukUkSw868431QMqF5b1zXlZ7kc_4HCjT9HfKK0GqdpZzMhedYQMAtT7jpzU/s320/Ft_Arbuckle.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422649881331953810" /></a><br /><br /> The Army built Fort Arbuckle among the Chickasaws in 1855, and soon after, Camp Arbuckle on the south side of the Canadian River not far from the present location of Purcell, Oklahoma. The military established Camp Arbuckle at the request of those guiding immigrant trains to California. Like many who moved to the Territories, the men stationed at these post also experienced the loneliness of Christmas away from family and loved ones “back in the states.” The first Christmas spent at Camp Arbuckle was lacking in many of the trappings of a traditional Christmas but the soldiers would never forget Christmas dinner. Because of the abundance of game in the area, dinner consisted of “bear meat, buffalo tongue, venison, prairie hen, wild turkey, goose, duck, quail and pigeon.” <br /><br />Government agents and mission workers who lived among the different Plains Tribes in western Oklahoma also introduced Christmas and holiday customs of nineteenth-century America to the Native people. Along with teaching the religious significance of Christmas, missionaries introduced the practice of gift giving and special holiday feast to the Native people. Also in Oklahoma Territory, the Federal government established Indian Agencies, where they employed Field Matrons to teach Indian women sewing and cooking and to assist with nutrition and health issues. At Rainy Mountain Mission on the Kiowa Reservation near Fort Sill in Southwestern Oklahoma, Lauretta Ballew, field matron, was responsible for planning the Christmas celebration among the Kiowa. <br /> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-T54nxVzd4G1z1lCtuT1pw_gE0BgYeeuwni1WuOFagK2Em3gMmYXSXkBpgB4aeie_fHCuGDkKTuczc7oo39HXi_FlIa4nMIzAfLVPI8t2bHsko-_47mMDJ30JBU9csD222Y3du_3nhUI/s1600-h/kiowagirls.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 216px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-T54nxVzd4G1z1lCtuT1pw_gE0BgYeeuwni1WuOFagK2Em3gMmYXSXkBpgB4aeie_fHCuGDkKTuczc7oo39HXi_FlIa4nMIzAfLVPI8t2bHsko-_47mMDJ30JBU9csD222Y3du_3nhUI/s320/kiowagirls.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422650088677477282" /></a><br />Kiowa girls<br /><br />In 1896, she worked for days decorating the Christmas tree, which had a prominent position in Immanuel Chapel at the Mission. From the charitable donations of eastern associations, Ballew was able to gather 380 presents for parents and children, which she placed under the tree. On Christmas Eve, Kiowa families filled the chapel to capacity, and one by one each received a gift. There was also two large barrels near the tree, both filled to the top with bags of candy, a bag for every person at the service. <br /><br />By the turn of the twentieth century, more and more Native children were attending Indian schools, where part of the curriculum included preparing for Christmas programs. The curriculum at the Chilocco Indian School in northern Oklahoma Territory offered boys and girls courses that gave them the skills to function in society. Preparing for Christmas was one of the ways in which the students could use skills learned in class. In 1905, the children prepared for their Christmas program entitled, “ A Christmas Crusade, or Santa Claus in the Klondike Gold Regions.” The boys built the set for the program in carpentry class, and some of the girls made the costumes for the pageant in their sewing classes, while others prepared refreshments for the holiday in their cooking classes. The Christmas celebration started with a performance by the student orchestra. On Christmas Eve, various homes on the grounds of the school decorated Christmas trees and Santa visited each home. On Christmas day the celebration started with Sunday school. At noon all sat down to a large Christmas dinner, and in the afternoon all enjoyed a public band concert. The celebration concluded the next day with a dress parade in the morning and football game in the afternoon. <br /><br />When the federal government opened Oklahoma Territory to settlement with the land run on April 22, 1889, the rush of new residents created instant communities. But, those first years in a new country were lonely ones, especially during the Christmas holidays when families missed their loved ones. Ino Lee Robinson remembered, “It was in April, 1891, that my mother with three small children left her native home in Leavenworth County Kansas and came to Oklahoma to join father. He had come two months before and bought a claim twelve miles southwest of Guthrie. It is needless to say that mother rather reluctantly left her relatives and friends to enter a new life in a strange and new land. Fourth of July and Christmas were the happy times of the year. We always attended a Fourth of July celebration at some picnic grove. At Christmas time we had a Christmas tree at the schoolhouse. <br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUX29zVZ8ukYCwwXxoni8eJSzTCHFS20BiteJO12uwU7cbRCCatyFyUz6NQbKanwU4rYlcQM5FPENz8J9ziWXHc9Ql2gkkBcvBMTWtYB480VT5vvTXDHIVgameKo9yexOEjObC4dyF1NU/s1600-h/4_11_a_one_room_school.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 288px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUX29zVZ8ukYCwwXxoni8eJSzTCHFS20BiteJO12uwU7cbRCCatyFyUz6NQbKanwU4rYlcQM5FPENz8J9ziWXHc9Ql2gkkBcvBMTWtYB480VT5vvTXDHIVgameKo9yexOEjObC4dyF1NU/s320/4_11_a_one_room_school.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422650615967302994" /></a><br /><br /> Coming together as a community to celebrate Christmas was a new tradition where friends and neighbors took the place of family. The celebrations usually took place in the local school or church. The planning began weeks in advance with the organization of committees to locate and chop down the tree, to decorate the tree, to prepare the Christmas program, to find someone to play Santa Claus and distribute gifts, and to coordinate the community Christmas dinner. In this way, community celebrations, especially Christmas, helped new settlers to adjust to their homes away from home. <br /><br />Finding a tree, especially in the more arid regions of the Territory, was a challenge. The Eastern custom, made popular in Victorian America in the late nineteenth century, emphasized the traditional pine Christmas tree. In Oklahoma Territory, they had to substitute the pine tree for a native oak or blackjack tree. Young people of the communities gathered to decorate the tree. The challenge was to turn the scrub blackjack into a pine laden with snow. To accomplish this, children wrapped the tree limbs and twigs with cotton. One industrious father had saved the tin foil separating the layers of his tobacco so that his children could fashion ice cycles for the tree. After the tree had it’s traditional “wintry look”, they proceeded to decorate with popcorn string garland. <br /> <br /><img src="http://www.langansloft.com/chmemoriespic.jpg"/> <br /><br />Having a tree was an important part of family celebration as well. One pioneer remembered it this way, “There were no evergreens to be used for Christmas trees. The bare branches of other trees were covered with cotton and decorated with strings of cranberries, popcorn and chinaberries. Candles were the lights. If there was no tree, the table would be set for breakfast, and Santa Claus would place the presents in the plates. Sugar was saved for weeks to be sure that there would be cookies and candies on Christmas day.“<br /><br />Food is an important part of Christmas memories and traditions. Few can forget the wonderful aromas of oranges, cinnamon, and cloves coming from a warm kitchen as mom prepared all the treats, pies, cakes and cookies associated with the holidays. Lillian Russell remembered as a child growing up in Oklahoma in the 1920s the aroma of oranges; she associated oranges with the beginning of the Christmas preparation. She explained that it was the only time they had oranges and her mother would take the oranges and display them in a blue bowl placed in the middle of the dinning room table. (Oranges were generally only available at Christmas time.) And there were other indications as well, “There were signs of Christmas all around. Mother would start baking days in advance and carefully place the pies and cakes in the well-house to keep cool. She never baked less than six to eight pies.” <br /><br />Food was such an important part of Christmas celebrations that the preparation started with the harvest of summer fruits and vegetables, which were canned, preserved and pickled. Also prepared were fruitcakes and a huge supply of mincemeat pie filling, enough to make it through Thanksgiving and Christmas. A special treat for children was to watch their mother prepare Ambrosia for Santa. As one author explained, “Little Marguerite Mitchener watched as her mother peeled and sectioned the fragrant, juicy oranges. Next her father, Dr. Mitchener, would split open the big brown coconut so Mama could drain off the milk and grate the sweet white meat. After she mixed the orange segments and the coconut, she usually added canned pineapple and sometimes a spoonful or two of sugar. On Christmas Eve, they filled a beautiful cut glass bowl with the Ambrosia and set it out for Santa Claus.” For most children, the customary Santa snack was a dish of cookies and a glass of milk. But Marguerite’s family could afford the extra treat of Ambrosia; they lived in a big two-story house in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. <br /><br />The culture of Oklahoma has also been enriched with the customs of the Eastern Europeans who immigrate to Oklahoma before statehood in 1907. The Czechoslovakians, in particular, left their mark in cities like Prague, Yukon, Wheatland and Perry and parts of Oklahoma City. They brought the Christmas traditions from old Bohemia, where the holiday dinner consisted of roast goose, which was filled with sauerkraut and bread dumplings<br /><br /><br />Oklahoma is a mosaic of culturally diverse people, who for one reason or another, immigrated to one of the last frontiers in the American West. From Native Americans who were forced to move to Indian Territory, to homesteaders looking from economic enhancement from a new piece of land, to the town merchants and bankers who helped build the infrastructure of new communities, to the Eastern Europeans who found work in various trades and professions, Oklahoma promised opportunity. All who came brought with them rich traditions and added to the culture of Oklahoma.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-16343526596843102712010-01-03T14:32:00.000-08:002010-01-03T14:42:22.148-08:00Buying into the American WestIn today’s busy world, cultural consumers seldom have time to read through tedious articles on any given topic. But add a few pictures, and the story unfolds in a much quicker fashion, which mirrors the reader’s fast pace life style. <span style="font-style: italic;">Cowboy and Indians Magazine </span>is no exception.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.magazines.com/magcom/covers/0/06/328/0063280_l.gif" /> <br /><br />The color graphics and images are absolutely out-standing; you never have to read a word to understand the message. The first visuals when opening the magazine are full-page color ads of spectacular log homes situated snuggly in breath taking mountain valleys in Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming. These “back to nature” homes are at least 10,000 sq. feet of rustic elegance. The interiors display exceptional craftsmanship. Leather and fabric adorn couches and chairs; Native American designs are found in the rugs and accents. And Native American pottery, Apache and Pima Baskets, and elk horn chandeliers accent the rooms. From the Remington and Russell look a-like sculptures on tables and sideboards, to panoramic views out large picture windows at snow-capped mountains, the American West could not look more inviting.<br /><br />The image created by the editors of <span style="font-style: italic;">Cowboys and Indians Magazine</span> is intentional and meant to appeal to those who have the wherewithal to buy into the image. There is irony in this, which perhaps only western historians can appreciate.<br /><br /><br />Historians of western history who grace our halls of higher education have spent an inordinate amount of time debunking an image of the American West, which is portrayed in <span style="font-style: italic;">Cowboys and Indians Magazine</span> and numerous other sources of western literature.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.magazineline.com/images/covers/JWNMedium.jpg" /><br /><br /><br />The title alone must be offensive to some who viewed the struggle between cowboys and Indians in the American West in a much different light than most western films and literature of the late twentieth century. Historians insist that the history of the West is one of conflict and contest, where white Anglo Saxon dominance prevailed at the cost of Native people, Hispanics, and Black Americans. The thought is also that men with capitalist inclinations marched across the American West reaping profits while destroying the environment and exploiting the labor, who extracted the precious minerals. All of this may be true, but naysayers are having little effect on Americans and their view of Western America. The old images and stereotypes of a more homogeneous West prevail; those with the money will own the West and all they think it represents. <span style="font-style: italic;">Cowboys and Indians Magazine</span> reinforces the old stereotypes and continues to sell the American West to a very few well-heeled individuals; it is certainly a glimpse at what the future holds for living in the American West in the twentieth-first century.<br /><br />A really good example of the “new” western living can be seen at a new gated community just outside Hamilton, Montana at the foot of the Bitterroot Mountains. The community is called the Stock Farm, a name given to the land in 1886 by Marcus Daly, the Copper King of Montana, when he bought the Anthony Chaffin homestead.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.discovermt.com/images/stock-farm.jpg" /> <br /><br /><br /><br />The purchase consisted of 2600 acres of prime real estate. Eventually Daly built a mansion to rival Tara in Gone With The Wind, and a unique set of barns where he housed his beautiful thoroughbred horses.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.bitterrootstar.com/backissues/7_7_05/Daly-Mansion.jpg" /><br /><br /><br /><br />His ranch was known as the Stock Farm—the developers who bought much of the Daly farm carry on the name. The mansion is separate, now belonging to the Daly Mansion Trust, and Tara has been going through renovations for many years.<br /><br />The Stock Farm is a gated community that only those with millions of dollar can afford to enter. At the heart of the community is one of the best-designed golf courses in the world,<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbN5I1LeaOe0lFzFtcQ0jXf4I-wQcq0PdkihmB8epfbaeaMFDLPxbo2mXpAehuU7pnG316jMJiugnIMdCKOImfYHVCAcKtCOfOEwfye6h1FjxSea0Xx_ZkRaE2NJz1g1GzXxziHTiaa84/s1600-h/StockFarm1a.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 274px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbN5I1LeaOe0lFzFtcQ0jXf4I-wQcq0PdkihmB8epfbaeaMFDLPxbo2mXpAehuU7pnG316jMJiugnIMdCKOImfYHVCAcKtCOfOEwfye6h1FjxSea0Xx_ZkRaE2NJz1g1GzXxziHTiaa84/s320/StockFarm1a.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422646317212324562" /></a><br /><br /><br />which sports a clubhouse of grand proportions. Membership is $125,000 a year, building sites are 1.2 million and the cheapest residence, one that is already to move into, is only $800,000. There are stables and horses for members of the community to enjoy, and such amenities as an Elk Viewing Gazebo.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtrbWk_k39A2y6cDwe8joxVB2fmddJTB16WX792BzKJvWeFU43vq3dQbVHWAkv5LJKEUbpLSh6b_kIEPNSu-vv1xLfKv-R31C8X3CFU3moWCN5eFq9-QeIFUxxhmjZLTHeDo3DkoOd8bk/s1600-h/StockFarm4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 249px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtrbWk_k39A2y6cDwe8joxVB2fmddJTB16WX792BzKJvWeFU43vq3dQbVHWAkv5LJKEUbpLSh6b_kIEPNSu-vv1xLfKv-R31C8X3CFU3moWCN5eFq9-QeIFUxxhmjZLTHeDo3DkoOd8bk/s320/StockFarm4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422647002605386866" /></a><br /><br />There are quite a few communities similar to the Stock Farm; <span style="font-style: italic;">Cowboys and Indians Magazine </span>has many advertisers who promote these grand communities. As developers buy more and more traditional ranches and gate them in, more and more of the West will be for the exclusive use of those who can afford the entrance. The old West, the one that ranchers and settlers wrestled from the Native people, is now being wrestled from ranchers and settlers. I guess there is enough irony to go around.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-89073211613705144252010-01-03T14:29:00.000-08:002010-01-03T14:32:22.835-08:00Nature’s Furry: The Woodward, Oklahoma Tornado, April 9, 1947by Vernon Maddux, author of <span style="font-style:italic;">In Dull Knife's Wake</span><br /><br /><br /><br /> Native Americans, who occupied the land long before white settlement, were the first to try and understand violent weather patterns that were capable of causing destruction of their villages and the death of their people. According to Wilbur Sturtevant Nye, Indians believed that the cataclysmic whirlwind had a demoniac origin. An old Kiowa once told him of a day when a great black cloud rushed toward him. In it’s midst, a hundred feet or more above the earth, was a group of struggling black objects. Suddenly the whirlwind veered and roared past him. In the cloud the Indian saw that the tumbling objects were buffalo.<br /><br />The Arapahoe and the Cheyenne told the first settlers of Woodward, Oklahoma in 1893 that tornadoes would not track along the river. A false sense of security prevailed among settlers--for the following 54 years, they often repeated the story boasting that the safety of the river is why their town cuddled up to the North Canadian. They were wrong.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ok/county/woodward/graphics/nwogs2.gif" /><br /><br /><br /><br />Storms are a usual thing in Northwest Oklahoma around Woodward, especially in the spring. Families who have lived there for a generation or two all have tornado stories. In my own family, great Aunt Harriett, who lived in the Haskew community, about 20 miles northeast of Woodward, twice lost her house to tornadoes. I listened to these family tales understanding no one felt safe. For a young boy growing up, it was a delicious fear. Each evening the wonderland of thunder and lightning brought drama and excitement to the countryside.<br /><br />The year before Harriet and her first husband, Marion Hawkins, arrived in Haskew from Branson, Missouri, a Waynoka newspaperman only a few miles from her future homestead spotted at tornado near the Cimarron and snapped it’s picture. This became the first photograph of a tornado ever to be published in a newspaper. The photo appeared in the Alva Pioneer on May 17, 1898. Old settlers who saw the photo remember that twisters were not kind to the first settlers, the Oklahoma “Boomers” –those who violated Federal law and tried to homestead what was still Indian land.<br /><br />On March 31, 1892 a group of settlers, some openly calling themselves Boomers camped together outside Kiowa, Barber County, Kansas. They had moved to the state line to participate in a land run into the northern part of the former Indian Territory. The date of the run was still months away. Many were disciples of David L. Payne, the original “Boomer “who died of a heart attack only eight years earlier. Perhaps they thought they could sneak into the Territory when the army was not looking. At 8:30 p.m. that evening a powerful storm struck the southeast edge of town destroying the railroad depot and tearing apart five homes. Even worse was the effect on the would-be Boomers. Striking what was in effect a large 19th century trailer park, the tornado’s powerful gusts picked up and tossed the covered wagons across the prairie. Dozens rolled end over end. Many families lost all their possessions making their life, which was already difficult, even more miserable.<br /><br />By 1908, settlers understood violent spring storms, but there was little they could do about them—you either lived with them, or you chose to leave what would be come known as tornado alley. The first tornado to strike Aunt Harriett’s house was on May 10, 1908. The twister swept across Woodward County and struck homes near Boiling Springs and continued up into the Haskew area where my Aunt lived. The next was May 22, 1923 when a very powerful tornado touched down five miles near Salt Springs on Buffalo Creek, sideswiping Aunt Harriett’s homestead before the tornado moved up across the Cimarron River. Witnesses claimed it looked like a “gigantic barrel hanging in the air.” It destroyed the new employee housing at the Cimarron River Bend Salt Mine near Edith, Woods County and four farmhouses further along its route. A baby in one of the farmhouses was killed and later a stranger’s body was found on Coldwater Road, thought to have died in the storm. The destructive storms, the resulting loss and depression, and the loss of her husband in 1928 , proved too much for Harriett. In 1933, she quit Oklahoma, moved to the state of Washington and never returned.<br /><br />The worst storm in Northwest Oklahoma history was April 9, 1947. This powerful storm, which became known as the “Woodward Tornado,” originated from warm air rising over the wide, almost flat western counties of the Texas Panhandle, an area known as Llano Estacado. The Spanish explorer Coronado named this vast area three centuries earlier. The Texans translate the name as “Staked Plain” although the meaning of “Staked” is in doubt. In the late winter and early spring, weather systems develop off the mountains of southern New Mexico and sweep out on the wide flat plains south of Amarillo. Quite often suitable conditions enlarge the system into a gigantic anvil-headed storm. In and around the Great Plains, the people of “tornado alley’ have grown used to watching for the twisters to appear.<br /><br /> <br /><img src="http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ok/county/woodward/graphics/path.jpg" /><br /> <br /><br />The Woodward Tornado rose swiftly in Texas and grew into a roaring, up-sucking, great heat engine, whose many tendrils pulled large gulps of warm air off the ground and pumped them vertically into dense clouds above. Updrafts quickly grew so powerful that they created whirling funnels of tightly spinning air, which snaked around visible tendrils touching the ground. Parts of this monster would remain in contact with the ground for almost five hours. It would move very fast, at nearly 43 miles an hour and destroy structures in three states.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.geocities.com/schrems/town.jpg" /><br />Town of Woodward<br /><br />Recently, weather scientists believe there may have been as many as five different tornados involved in the Monster storm and is recognized as being one of the greatest F5 tornado storms of all time. The monster’s family of funnels destroyed property and life almost continuously from its birth point across half of the Texas Panhandle through northwest Oklahoma and into Kansas. One struck in southwest part of Roger Mills County, 50 miles south of Woodward. A twister injured a couple and took the roof off a rural school and store near Grimes then injured another farm couple and destroyed their house and barn near Carpenter. A tornado hit 17 miles east of Woodward, hitting Quinlan around midnight that night.<br /><br />Tornados continued throughout the spring of 1947, striking without notice and leaving a path of destruction. A month and a half later after the Woodward Tornado, a powerful storm struck Leedey, another town in Roger Mills County, killing seven people and injuring 15. This one was powerful and very slow moving. It completely wiped clean the entire north half of the town. When comparing their tornado to the Woodward Monster, the Leedey residents claimed at least the Woodward tornado left some wreckage in its wake. No structure survived the Leedey Tornado that left only bare, clean foundations, bare and even the pavement in town was wind-pitted.<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.geocities.com/schrems/businessdistrict.jpg" /><br /><br /> <br />My own very first childhood memory is of a powerful, if unseen tornado. It struck our farm at Curtis about a month after the Woodward twister destroyed the county seat. This was a much smaller funnel than the Monster and it hit our farm Saturday night while we were in Mooreland at the movie theater. Our farm was only about 50 yards from the Santa Fe railroad main line, 14 miles east of Woodward. I was three years old and can still vividly remember coming out of the movie theater and looking up, marveling at the incredibly vicious sky. Wafts of white-brushed clouds swirled and tumbled, and some spun tightly within a maelstrom of a hundred brilliant lighting and stunning thunderbolts. I was not scared, but these storm clouds were so close I thought that my parents could reach up and touch them. Home was four miles away and when we pulled in our drive, we saw an infernal scene. Broken tree branches lay across the driveway; torn trees were silhouetted against the continually lightning sky. Bright flashes of light illuminated large bits of wreckage scattered around and across the yard in front of the house. Fortunately, the tornado that hit our place was very tightly wrapped. It spared our house even though it missed it by only fifty feet. Unfortunately, it entirely destroyed our barn, its pieces the broken chunks that littered the area. Even today, its broken concrete foundation still marks its location. The twister’s path was unmistakable. Two trees bracketing the driveway into the barn stood about a hundred feet apart. They were still there, but their inner branches were cleanly sheared away, leaving two half-trees. As I followed my mother into our house, I heard screaming coming from the porch. It was our new puppy dog, little Pat, named for Pat Brawner. He was so afraid, crying in stark terror. Only a few weeks old, we had left him in the screened-in porch. He quieted down when we held him. The little dog later became my childhood friend and protector.<br /><br />The next morning, Sunday, April 13, 1947 my father R. D. “Bub” Maddux, my brother and I got in our pickup and drove a half-mile north following the track of the twister. We discovered that the same twister had utterly destroyed the house of our neighbor, Vern and Corinne Hensley. Their family of five boys barely escaped, flying out the back door into their storm cellar just ahead of the horrific, swirling wind that lifted up the house off its foundation and tore it to pieces. The roof flew off and the walls fell out. All that was left was the smooth concrete floor and foundation. Fortunately, all of the Hensleys survived without a scratch. As I recall, both my father and brother worked the rest of the day trying to help them recover their property. My father also spent a week in Woodward, recovering bodies while my mother and sister worked for the Red Cross. My youngest sister’s future husband, Aubery Ridenour, was a senior that year at Tangier high school. He also spent that week pulling bodies from the wreckage. My middle sister Madelene and her husband Floyd Redd were living in Woodward when the Monster struck. They survived by the happy accident of living on the east side of town. Floyd was the manager of the Safeway store, which was severely damaged. Their apartment sat only yards from the main funnel’s path. There seemed to be tornadoes everywhere that month. For those who lived through it, even more than the Great Depression or Pearl Harbor or even President Kennedy’s assassination, the tornado that crushed Woodward on Wednesday, April 9, 1947 was the most memorable event of their lives.sue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8248087452016887687.post-38829381803949831992010-01-03T14:26:00.000-08:002010-01-03T14:28:54.757-08:00Hoboes<img src="http://img.factmonster.com/images/home/hobo.gif" /><br /><br />As the story goes, Box-Car Bertha was a young woman transient of the 1930s who made her way through life as a prostitute, a thief and a murderer. In 1972, Martin Scorsese captured the life of this character in his film, <span style="font-style:italic;">Box-Car Bertha</span>, staring Barbara Hershey and David Carradine.<br /><img src="http://adorocinema.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes/sexy-e-marginal/sexy-e-marginal01.jpg" /><br /><br />The film is an adaptation of Dr. Ben L. Reitman’s autobiography of Box-Car Bertha, “Sister of the Road.” Reitman’s story, however, was actually a composite of women he knew in the 1930s, women who “road the rails” and lived by any means in order to survive. These women, and their male counterparts, had compelling reasons for leaving their homes, they were hopeful of finding a better life elsewhere. They shared an identity with others who they met on the road. No matter where they landed or who they met while traveling, they shared a common culture, they proudly called themselves Hoboes.<br /><br />Today, the term hobo often conjures up romantic images of men and women from another era who traveled the country in empty boxcars, unimpeded by worldly goods and pressures, enjoying a life of freedom and independence. I remember as a kid in the 1950s that dressing up as a hobo was one the most popular Halloween costumes; torn and patched old pants and jacket, floppy hat, charcoal or black smudges on the cheeks, and a stick over the shoulder with a handkerchief sack tied on the end. Little did I know of the men and women who actually were Hoboes, traveling by train and living in “jungle” camps. This historical image is seldom seen in today’s healthy economy, but back in the Economic Depression of the 1930s, riding the rails in search of a better life was common.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.old-picture.com/american-history-1900-1930s/thumbnails/Hobos-th.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Eelkridge/Depression_files/22%20hitch%20ride%20boxcar%20%282%29.JPG" /><br />At the height of the Depression, historians estimate that 250,000 teenagers were transients, who hitched rides on trains, lived in “jungles” or hobo camps--all looking to go anywhere that was different from the impoverished homes they left behind.<br /><br /><img src="http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Eelkridge/Depression_files/23%20girl%20%20hobo%203.jpg" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.thecafeallegro.com/hobos.jpg" /><br />Most of the kids were not bums. Any good hobo worth his salt will tell you that bums did not work, they lived on handouts. But Hoboes, sometimes called tramps, traveled to find work, usually looking for agricultural work.<br /><br />It is believed that the term Hobo is derived from “Hoe-boy,” which described migrant farm workers around the turn of the twentieth century. Hoe-Boys often carried their own tools when they traveled, ready to be employed in any field needing attention. The Hobo culture goes back farther than the turn of the twentieth century and has it’s origins in post Civil War American South. After the Civil War, many who were homeless jumped on the trains for a free ride west to find work. These transients worked on farms, on construction jobs, on gas lines, or on the railroads, where they helped to open the American West.<br /><br />The stories of the children who left home in the 1930s reveal a complicated set of circumstance that forced them to seek shelter, support, and companionship from others who traveled the rails. Many of the young men and women who left home at an early age did so because of abusive parents and economic troubles, which added to their already uncertain futures. When “the big trouble came,” meaning the start of the depression, many who were on the bottom rung of the economic ladder suffered the most. The children living in the hobo jungles talked about their mothers having married five or six times, each husband treating the kids differently. They talked about drunken parents who took out their frustrations on their children, physically abusing them. And others talked about making the decision to leave home so it would be easier on the younger children, one less mouth to feed. On the road these kids met up with others in the same circumstances and with older men and women traveling the country looking for work. Together, they formed a family where they took care of one another. Some traveled together until a job or different goals separated them. But universally, they shared a common bond, and a support system. In their culture, they developed a unique set of symbols, a language that helped them to find work, to stay away from certain people, to find a place to stay or eat—information from one stranger to another that would help them to survive.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.geocities.com/schrems/sing2.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://www.geocities.com/schrems/sings1.jpg" /><br /><br />Many of us today have relatives who knew the “freedom of the road. “ My father and uncle were young men when the Depression started. The Depression gave them an opportunity to try and find work in the West, a place the boys dreamed about while growing up on a farm in Indiana. They found work paving roads in Yellowstone National Park. When winter came, they hopped the train and went back to the farm. When the snows melted, they went west again, looking for work in the Parks or on ranches. They never recorded their experiences. Others, however, talked of their adventures as hoboes. Among those were Supreme Court Justice, Willliam O. Douglas (1889-1980) and folk singer and actor, Burl Ives.<br /><br />The era of the Hobo is over. It is estimated that today there are perhaps 200 such individuals. But, in honor of the culture, each year in Britt, Iowa there is a hobo convention attended by those who “hoboed earlier” in their lives, and by those who just appreciate the freedom symbolized by the Hobo lifestyle. The convention started in 1900 and this year it is estimated that it will draw thousands of visitors.<br /><br /><img src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/SLV/NR0135%7EFleeing-Hobo-Posters.jpg" /><br />There is a cultural legacy left by those who were down and out in the 1930s-- folk songs that captured the experience and culture of those who lived on the road. A “Hobo Lullaby” sung by Emme Lou Harris pretty much sums up the life and era of the Hobo.<br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9nadfpWv63k"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9nadfpWv63k" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object><br />Click on arrowsue schrems, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13566709343922351447noreply@blogger.com0