~ wander.essence ~

baltimore: cross street market, federal hill, the inner harbor & fells point

wanderessence1025 December 1, 2020

Following the advice of a girl in the gift shop at the American Visionary Art Museum, I walked 10 minutes to Cross Street Market in Federal Hill. I ended up perched on a high stool at the Taco Love Grill counter, eating three shrimp tacos with a bottle of Lime Jarritos. It was a delicious feast in a lively atmosphere. When I stepped off my stool, I didn’t notice that it was on a ledge and I nearly took another fall. Yikes!

Cross Street Market

Lime Jarritos at Taco Love Grill

three shrimp tacos at Taco Love Grill

I walked up Light Street through Federal Hill, a historic community of south Baltimore, past a cool mural of an African-American boy on a swing and past an old fire station: the 1920 Baltimore Fire Department. I strolled past some gentrified row houses, an elegant neighborhood.

mural in Federal Hill

Baltimore Fire Department

Row houses in Federal Hill

Federal Hill

I walked all along the Inner Harbor past the cruise boats, Spirit of Baltimore and Constellation (the big sailing ship), the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, H&M and many other shops along the waterfront, many of them the big corporate shops and restaurants like Phillips Seafood, Hard Rock Cafe, and Barnes & Noble, which is impressively housed in an old power station. I was happy to see it packed on a Saturday afternoon. People still seemed to be reading despite all evidence to the contrary.

Baltimore Inner Harbor

Spirit of Baltimore

Constellation

paddle boats in Baltimore Inner Harbor

Barnes & Noble in Baltimore Inner Harbor

I made my way over the pedestrian bridges to anthropologie, where there was nothing new, past the National Katyń Memorial. This memorializes the victims of the 1940 Katyń massacre of Polish nationals carried out by Soviet forces. Baltimore’s Polish-American community was instrumental in having the monument built. It was unveiled in 2000 and is the tallest statue in Baltimore.

pedestrian bridges over canal in Baltimore

National Katyń Memorial

I kept walking to Fells Point where years ago I went to a Privateer Festival with a photography group.

Fells Point

walk from Fells Point

I was exhausted by then so I decided to make my way back. I stopped at Bambao to get take-out but decided to save it for breakfast. I ordered Crispy Mushroom Bao served on a steamed bun: silken tofu, miso, scallion, and black garlic teriyaki. I also got the Classic Milk Tea with tapioca; I didn’t care much for it and tossed it into a trash can halfway back.

I stopped into Barnes & Noble to look for Anne Tyler’s newest book, Redhead by the Side of the Road, but it wouldn’t be published until April 7. I didn’t buy anything.

I stopped at CVS Pharmacy for an ice pack, Tylenol, Motrin, Minute Maid Orange Juice, and an Odwalla Strawberry banana-flavored smoothie.

Walking past Pratt Street, I saw a young man, maybe my youngest son’s age, with a sign saying “Homeless. Any amount will help.” I caught his eye and wanted to sit down and ask him how he had gotten himself into this situation (much like my son has in the past), but I didn’t stop or give him anything. I don’t know why.

I relaxed at the hotel for a bit and then went to dinner just down the block to Pratt Street Ale House. By this time I could barely walk on my hurt and swollen ankle. There, I had a Bud Light Lime and a Crab Bruschetta: fresh dough, brushed with house-made garlic butter, topped with mozzarella, lump crab, and bruschetta (tomatoes and basil).

I was ignored for the longest time (they wanted me to sit at the bar but I asked for a table). I get so annoyed by servers who don’t want to bother with solo diners.

Pratt Street Ale House

Crab Bruschetta

In the evening, I put ice on my now-swollen ankle and read Clock Dance by Anne Tyler and finally finished American Nomads by Richard Grant (in the middle of the night).

At 2:00 a.m. I was woken by a continual loud banging on a door down the hall from mine. Looking out the peephole, I saw a girl with a towel wrapped around her. I called security because this went on for some time. Later, another girl wearing only a towel was knocking on the same door. Who knew what was going on down there.

Not relaxing at all!

*Steps: 15,772; 6.68 miles*

*Saturday, February 22, 2020*

the sackler & the freer: the asian arts in d.c.

wanderessence1025 November 30, 2020

One Sunday in February, before the Coronavirus lockdown, we went downtown to visit the The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, now apparently known as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Together, the Freer and Sackler have exceptional collections of Asian art, with more than 40,000 objects dating from the Neolithic period to today and originating from the ancient Near East to China, Japan, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, and the Islamic world.

The Freer Gallery of Art also holds a significant group of American works of art largely dating to the late 19th century. It houses the world’s largest collection of diverse works by James McNeill Whistler, including the famed Peacock Room.

Juxtaposing American and Asian art was a legacy of the founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer. He believed in a universal language of beauty that resonated across time, space, and cultural diversity. Freer disdained the avant garde abstraction that transformed American art after World War I. He forbade additions to his American collection after his death in 1919, and it remains a time capsule of Gilded Age aestheticism.

At the time we visited the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the special exhibits included: Age Old Cities: A Virtual Tour from Palmyra to Mosul.

The Middle East has experienced major upheavals in the recent past. Hundreds of thousands of people have died or been displaced. Continuous turmoil has also destroyed culturally and religiously significant sites, erasing substantial portions of the region’s rich historical past in the process. After the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent fall of Saddam Hussein, a series of popular uprisings across the Arab world further unsettled the region. Civil War broke out in Syria and the Islamic State (ISIS) brought Mosul under its control.

Methodically targeting religious and ethnic minorities, ISIS vowed to eradicate cultures that had flourished in the region for centuries and erase its rich multi-ethnic, multi-religious history.

Age Old Cities: A Virtual Tour from Palmyra to Mosul.

The three Middle Eastern cities in this virtual exhibition (organized by the Arab World Institute, Paris, and created in collaboration with UNESCO) include Palmyra and Aleppo in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. The exhibit seeks to virtually restore the rich architectural landscapes of these cities. It reconstructs in 3D the once-spectacular monuments on what is left of them today.

According to the exhibition: “These cities, among the oldest uninterrupted human settlements in the world, have recently been devastated by war. To preserve these sites for future generations, Age Old Cities offers large-scale projections and digital reconstructions (more than eleven feet tall) of iconic monuments and ancient structures rising from ruins to their former glory.” The images “underscore the critical importance of cultural heritage and architectural preservation as well as the vital role digital reconstruction can play in safeguarding the past.”

The Souks of Aleppo

The Temple of Balshaamin, 1082

Theatre

Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo

Great Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul

Our Lady of the Hour Church

We wandered accidentally through the African Art while trying to find our way to the other exhibits we’d read about.

The Fisherman and the River Goddess with His Captured Multi-Colored Fishes and the River Night Guard c. 1960 by Twins Seven-Seven, Nigeria

Fiber mask with costume (minganji) by Pende artist, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rainbow Serpent (Dan-Ayido-Houedo) by Romuald Hazoumè

We also went through an exhibit on Contemporary Women Artists of Africa titled I AM… The exhibition draws its name from the 1970s song, “I Am Woman,” but highlights the vital contributions to numerous issues including the environment, identity, politics, race, sexuality, social activism, faith and more.

Liberal Women Protest March, 1995 by Nike Davies-Okundaye (Lagos, Nigeria)

Sketch for Church Ede, 1985 by Sokari Douglas Camp (Nigeria)Sokari

Tree Woman, 2016 by Wangechi Mutu

M-Eating, Sufi, 2013 by Maïmouna Guerresi (Pove del Grappa, Italy)

Sai Mado (The Distant Gaze), 2016 by Aida Muluneh (Ethiopia)

Studio Setting, 1986 by Penny Siopis (South Africa)

Sto Sognando? La Città è questa? (Am I dreaming? Is this the city?), 1958 by Bertina Lopes

We wandered outdoors to find our way to the Freer Gallery.

Smithsonian Museum

The next special exhibit we came to see was Hokusai: Mad About Painting.

Hokusai: Mad About Painting

The Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) is widely recognized for a single image—Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa, an icon of global art—yet he produced thousands of works throughout his long life. In commemoration of the centennial of Charles Lang Freer’s death in 1919, and in celebration of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, the Freer Gallery presented a yearlong exploration of the prolific career of Katsushika Hokusai.

Hokusai was born and died in Edo (modern Tokyo), where he lived and worked amid the city’s thriving artistic scene. According to the artist, he began sketching at the age of six. He hoped to live to 110 years old, an age when he was sure he would achieve almost divine mastery of his art. However, he only made it to age 90.

Works large and small were on view, from six-panel folding screens and hanging scrolls to paintings and drawings. Also included were rare hanshita-e, drawings for woodblock prints that were adhered to the wood and frequently destroyed in the process of carving the block prior to printing. Among the many featured works were Hokusai’s manga, his often-humorous renderings of everyday life in Japan.

Mount Fuji, the sacred mountain of Japan, and the life of common people throughout the shogun’s empire, were frequent subjects in Hokusai’s paintings. He often presented romanticized views of rural life instead of depicting the reality of daily hardships, reoccurring famines, and heavy tax duties.

Since his early days as an artist, Hokusai provided illustrations for popular printed books. These cheaply produced novels (kibyoshi, or “yellow covers”) were often bestsellers in Japan, and their popularity added to the artist’s reputation. Publishers commissioned him to illustrate their publications throughout his life.

screen by Hokusai

Autumn at Asakusa: Viewing Cherry Blossoms at Ueno Park by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694)

Hokusai screen

Country Scenes and Mount Fuji, Japan, Edo period ca. 1830-32 by Hokusai

Fujiwara no Tadahira, Japan, Edo period, ca. 1834 by Hokusai

Hokusai’s books

Hokusai fan

Hokusai

Boy Viewing Mount Fuji, Japan, Edo period, 1839 by Hokusai

Hokusai

In Dewing’s Poetic World, Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s work was showcased. He is best known for his tonal compositions featuring a solitary female figure lost in thought. He art was influenced by his friendships with Charles Lang Freer, who encouraged him to pursue Japonisme, and with architect Stanford White, who designed the elaborate frames for many of his paintings on view in this intriguing exhibition.

From 1886 to 1905, Thomas Wilmer Dewing and his wife, fellow artist Maria Oakey Dewing, escaped the summer heat of New York City by spending months in the village of Cornish in western New Hampshire. Women were actively involved in the art colony. While living in Cornish, Dewing painted large-scale “decorations” featuring figures in lush summer landscapes.

Portrait in Blue, 1898 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

The Lute, 1904 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

The Garland, ca. 1916 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

A Portait, 1902 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

After Sunset, 1892 by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

painting, 1893 by Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925)

In The Peacock Room in Blue and White, blue-and-white Chinese porcelains once again fill the shelves, just as they did in the 1870s, when Frederick Leyland, a shipping magnate in London, dined there.

When artist James McNeill Whistler was asked to consult on colors in Leyland’s dining room, the sinuous patterns and brilliant colors of Leyland’s Kangxi ware (porcelains that are part of a 1,500-year-old tradition of making porcelains in Jingdezhen, China) on display served as inspiration.

In 1876 and 1877, Whistler enhanced Frederick Leyland’s dining room with golden peacocks. He painted every inch of the ceiling and walls to create an elegant setting in which Leyland could display his collection of Kangxi porcelain as well as Whistler’s 1864 painting The Princess from the Land of Porcelain over the mantelpiece.

Charles Lang Freer purchased the room in 1904 and installed it in his home in Detroit, Michigan. After Freer’s death in 1919, the Peacock Room was moved to Washington, DC, and put on permanent display in the Freer Gallery of Art.

Peacock Room

The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, 1864, by James McNeill Whistler

Peacock Room

(Information on all the art was taken from the museum exhibitions.)

After our Asian art outing, we went out for dinner at Circa at Clarendon.

me at Circa at Clarendon

Mike at Circa at Clarendon

flatbread at Circa at Clarendon

Circa at Clarendon

*Saturday, February 8, 2020*

rocky mountain national park, colorado

wanderessence1025 November 29, 2020

After leaving Cheyenne, Wyoming we drove directly to “Colorful Colorado.” We passed metal sculptures of bison on a hilltop and had a view of the Rockies. We stopped briefly at the Visitor Center in Fort Collins and then took the scenic route to the Alpine Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Sculpture at the Fort Collins Visitor Center

We passed the Horsetooth Reservoir near the town of Stout, population 47 1/2. At Horsetooth Mountain Park, we picked up trail maps for a hike we planned to do the following day.

Horsetooth Reservoir

We drove past the “Masonville Mercantile: A Want & Wish Store” and the Bobcat Ridge Natural Area, passing a sign that said DR. BOB’S SNAKE OIL CURES ALL.

Masonville Mercantile: A Want & Wish Store

Snake Oil Cures All

On 34W, we were welcomed to… Sylvan Dale Ranch (guest ranch, weddings, horsebackriding), but we continued on.

The Big Pipe was a canyon of rocky cliffs dotted with pine trees. We took a road along the Big Thompson River. The Big Pipe carries water to Horsetooth Reservoir. This is the entrance to the Rocky Mountains by way of the Big Thompson River Canyon.

We passed the Colorado Cherry Company, the Snowy Silver Lodge and Drake. A sign warned of Open Range Livestock on Road. By 11:20, it was 65°F, and yellow cottonwoods gilded the forests. On the north-facing side, the pine trees squatted in dark dense clusters.

There was the Glen Haven General Store, an alpine meadow, and the Lumpy Ridge Trailhead. MacGregor Ranch (1873) boasted of “Grass-Fed Beef.” We sailed past the Black Canyon Inn and before we knew it, we were in Estes Park, gateway town to Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw Dick’s Rock Museum, Coffee on the Rocks, Lazy R Cottages, Sticks & Stones Home Furnishings, and Bird & Jim Colorado Cuisine.

Prohibitions abounded: Hunting Prohibited. Collecting Antlers Prohibited.

Our route today. Map from a pamphlet distributed by the Fort Collins Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Colorado Welcome Center: “Experience the Scenic Gateway to the Rockies.”

Just before noon, we arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park and the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center.

The Rocky Mountains form one of the world’s longest ranges, stretching almost unbroken from Alaska to below the nation’s southern border. Since 2009, Congress protected most of Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act. The designation protects forever the land’s wild character, natural conditions, opportunities for solitude, and scientific, educational and historical values.

Thrust up by earth’s forces 40-70 million years ago, then sculpted by multiple glacial episodes, the Rockies are “new” in geologic terms.

We entered the park through the montane ecosystem (below 9,000 feet). On warmer south-facing slopes, Ponderosa pines grow. Trees here are tall, up to 150 feet, and along with chokecherry, currant and juniper bushes, nourish many animals, insects and birds: beavers, otters, and elk. On cooler north-facing slopes, forests are dense with Douglas fir and lodgepole pine.

We drove up the Trail Ridge Road, past Beaver Ponds, where we got out to walk a short trail. Beaver dams once blocked the stream flows here, creating a pond. Silt and rich organic debris carried down from Hidden Valley accumulated behind the dam. In time, the dams decayed, draining the ponds and leaving fertile soil over 20 feet deep.

Sedges and grasses grow in this newly established soil to form marshes. Lush meadows developed over time as tree seedlings invaded the open space creating a new subalpine forest of pine, spruce and fir trees.

Beaver Ponds

At the Hidden Valley picnic area, we had a picnic lunch.

Then we stopped at Rainbow Curve Overlook to admire the landscape. Rainbow Curve is in the Subalpine part of the park (9,000-11,400 feet).

Snow that falls in the alpine zone blows down to the subalpine, creating a wet ecosystem with over 30 inches of precipitation annually. Engelmann spruce and flat-needled fir trees prevail, reaching 100 feet. The understory supports shrubs like blueberry, wax currant, huckleberry, and Wood’s rose. Wildflowers like arnica, fairy slipper, twinflower, and purple elephant’s head are abundant in open meadows.

Rainbow Curve

Mike at Rainbow Curve

Rainbow Curve

We continued the drive up Trail Ridge Road. Forest Canyon lay to the south. Tall snow poles were in place along the road to show the way during big snowfalls. The Big Thompson River flows swiftly down Forest Canyon as it has for thousands of years. Several times during the past two million years, frigid climates caused glaciers to form and move down the canyon. Flowing ever so slowly, these deep “rivers of ice” carved out Forest Canyon along an ancient fault line.

We stopped at the Forest Canyon Overlook. At the higher elevation, the temperature had dropped to 56°F.

The subalpine forest ecosystem of Forest Canyon is abundant with life. Difficult to access through fallen trees and steep terrain, Forest Canyon furnishes protected habitat for hundreds of plants and animal species – from elk herds to microorganisms.

A short trail here crossed the tundra – a Russian word for “land of no trees.” Here above the treeline, winds often exceed 100 mph (160 km per hour) and temperatures remain below freezing for at least five months each year.

Forest Canyon Overlook

We stopped at the Lava Cliffs Overlook.

Lava Cliffs

We crossed the highest point on the road at 12,183 feet (3,713 meters).

We finally reached the Alpine Visitor Center. Alpine Tundra (above 11,400 feet) is a fragile world, characterized by extremely thin soil, drying winds, and bitter cold. Many plants hug the ground in dense mats (avens), preserve moisture with waxen leaf surfaces, or trap warmth against stems and leaves with hairs. Animals must adapt or die.

There in the crowded parking lot, I had an altercation with a guy. The wind was blowing like there was no tomorrow and when I opened my car door, he yelled “Hold on to your door so it doesn’t hit my car!” (I was already holding it, and the door didn’t hit his car). I said, “Rudeness personified. That guy is an asshole,” (talking to Mike but saying it loud enough for him to hear). He said, “Some guy messed up my car with his door.” I replied, “Well, don’t take it out on me!”

I can’t stand bullies.

We walked up along the Alpine Ridge Trail in the midst of a fierce and relentless bitter wind. This trail is affectionately known as “Huffers Hill,” because it takes your breath away. We walked through a delicate yet hardy environment.

The scattered rocks form “patterned ground” that is found only in Arctic and Alpine regions where temperatures remain below freezing at least five months each year. During the last Ice Age, freezing and thawing of this tundra topsoil forced these patterns to the surface.

Some patterned ground has indistinct forms, while others are precise circles or other forms. The degree of slope determines the rock patterns. Rock streams “flow” downhill on Sundance Mountain in the distance, while polygons and circles form on level surfaces.

Alpine Visitor Center

Mike at the Alpine Visitor Center

Alpine Visitor Center

Leaving the Alpine Visitor Center, we retraced our drive up and stopped at the Gore Range Overlook. We could have gone further west and south on Trail Ridge Road, but we needed to return to Fort Collins to meet our son.

The Gore Range was named for Sir St. George Gore, an Irish aristocrat who was led there on a hunting expedition in 1854 by mountain man Jim Bridger. In 1976, Congress set aside 133,000 acres of the Gore Range as Eagles Nest Wilderness Area, which remains nearly as wild today as when Gore and Bridger first entered it.

Gore Range

We stopped again at Forest Canyon Overlook. This time, we walked to the other side of the road.

Forest Canyon Overlook

We made our way slowly to lower elevations, back to the montane ecosystem. The yellow trees on the mountains were glowing in the afternoon sunlight.

Colorful trees at Rocky Mountain National Park

On the way back, we forked off at the Deer Ridge Junction and stopped briefly at Sheep Lakes.

Sheep Lakes

This time, we stopped at the Fall River Visitor Center. Here are my cancellation stamps for Rocky Mountain National Park.

(Information about Rocky Mountain National Park is from National Park Service pamphlets and signs.)

cancellation stamp for Rocky Mountain National Park

On our way to Fort Collins, where we would meet our son Alex and spend the night, we passed God’s Country Cowboy Church. Someone had a bumper sticker that said, “I brake for wildflowers.” I liked that.

In Fort Collins, we stayed in a strange little place called Solarium. As the guy gave us a tour of the place, he showed us the tent and outdoor area where we were allowed to smoke cannabis, but this privilege was wasted on us, as we don’t do that stuff.

Solarium

When Alex arrived in Fort Collins, we went into the town to have dinner at Restaurant 415.

murals in Fort Collins, CO

square in Fort Collins

murals in Fort Collins, CO

We spent the night in Solarium; the next day, we’d head to Denver after hiking the Arthur’s Rock Trail at Lory State Park.

*Steps, 12,735, or 5.4 miles*

*Wednesday, September 25, 2019*

cheyenne: a historic walk, frontier days, & mid mod etc.

wanderessence1025 November 26, 2020

After eating leftovers for lunch in our room at The Plains Hotel, we went on a self-guided Historic Cheyenne Walk.

The Paramount Cafe was originally the Capitol Avenue Theatre built in 1904. It has housed a hotel, two theaters, a millinery (a ladies hat store), and survived two fires. It is now a cocktail lounge.

Paramount Cafe

The Nagle-Warren Mansion has a long history that involves two men, Erasmus Nagle and Francis E. Warren. Erasmus Nagle was known as the “Merchant King of Wyoming;” he sold pots and pans to rural folks and became wealthy enough to afford to build a brick house in 1874. He claimed he had the “biggest and best house in Cheyenne” so was shaken when Francis E. Warren built a sizable house next door. Erasmus decided to build a bigger house at the far east end of the block, using inferior stones that were deemed unfit in the building of the new Capitol Building. After he died, the inferior stones were crumbling and the home was covered in concrete stucco. At that time Senator Warren bought the house, now known as the Nagle-Warren Mansion. It is now a bed and breakfast, listed in the Smithsonian Guide to Historic America and the National Register of Historic Places. Inside we could see the home’s cherry, maple and oak woodwork, original chandeliers and 19th century furniture. Warren’s good friend President Theodore Roosevelt and other famous people spent time here.

Francis E. Warren was one of the most influential men in Wyoming. His sharp business savvy and easy ways made him the richest man in the territory by the early 1880s. In 1890, when Wyoming became a state, he was elected as one of the first two senators and held the office for 37 years.

Nagle-Warren Mansion

interior Nagle-Warren Mansion

First United Methodist Church (also known as First Methodist Church) at 18th and Central was built with local red sandstone in 1890 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The meager congregation of nine, founded in 1867, paid the railroad a dollar for two lots to build their sanctuary. In 1871, the first church was dedicated and nicknamed the “Little White House.”

To make room for the new structure in 1890, the Little White House was dragged into the middle of Central Avenue using horses and ropes. For three years, weddings, funerals and services were held in the little church in the middle of the street. The current building was dedicated in 1894. The Little White House was then dragged to the Union Pacific rail yard where, in its final days, it was used as a hay barn.

First United Methodist Church

The Ithamar C. Whipple Mansion was built by Whipple in 1883. He, Nagle, and banker Henry Hay developed the Union Mercantile into a wealthy enterprise. Whipple was also a sharp financier and cattleman.

Territorial Supreme Court Justice John Lacey also owned this house at one point. He was legal counsel for Thomas Horn, Jr. during his murder trial. For a number of years in the 1930s, it was a Greek gambling house and brothel. Also among its residents were hoards of pigeons that made themselves comfortable in the cupola to such an extreme that the tower had to be removed.

Tom Horn was an American scout, cowboy, soldier, range detective, and Pinkerton agent in the 19th-century and early 20th-century West. Horn was convicted in 1902 of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell, the son of sheep rancher Kels Nickell, who had been involved in a range feud with neighbor and cattle rancher Jim Miller. On the day before his 43rd birthday, Horn was executed by hanging in Cheyenne.

Ithamar C. Whipple Mansion

We wandered a bit more through the neighborhood and found other historic homes converted into businesses or abandoned.

Cheyenne houses

(Information on the Historic Walk is from the Downtown Cheyenne Historic Walking Tour pamphlet created by the Cheyenne Downtown Development Foundation.)

We found more of the cool painted “talking” boots throughout the town.

“Outlaws of Wyoming” boots by Cheyenne Artists Guild

“Gamblers Boot” by Max Larkin

“Journey of the Soul” boot by Vicki McSchooler

“Licensed to Boot” by Carey Junior High Art Club

“8 Second Steps to the Big Time” by Ross Lampshire

We drove to Holliday Park to see Cheyenne’s Big Boy 4004. Twenty-five Big Boys, the world’s largest steam engines, were built exclusively for Union Pacific by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York between 1941 and 1944. Each locomotive was 132 feet long and weighed 1.2 million pounds.

On October 31, 1958, Cheyenne’s 4004 took its final run, traveling from Cheyenne to Laramie. It was stored for a few years in Laramie before being donated to the City of Cheyenne. Cheyenne’s 4004 is one of eight remaining Big Boys on display throughout the country.

Mike and “Big Boy”

We went to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum. The last weekend in July is Frontier Days and draws nearly 200,000 people annually.

sculpture at Frontier Days Old West Museum

The museum showcases one of the largest Western carriage collections in the U.S. Many different carriage services operated in the early days of the Union Pacific Railroad to support the multitudes arriving by rail.

western carriage

Western Passenger Wagon

western carriage

me in a Canopy Top Surrey

Lil Lous Popcorn & Peanut Wagon

western carriage

U.S. Mail Wyoming

Hose Wagon

western carriage

Escort Wagon

Lakeview Ice Company Ice Wagon

Prairie Schooner

western carriage

Hansom Cab

Plains Dairy

Wooden Water Wagon

W.E. Dinneen Garage and Filling Station Oil Wagon

Top Buggy

Ambulance St. Johns Hospital

Laramie County Library

Spring Wagon

Yellowstone Coach

Three-Seated Canopy Top Surrey

western carriage

Laycock Horse Trailer

Cheyenne Fire engine

The museum also features a new narrative on the Cheyenne Frontier Days experience, which has been going on since 1897 with the world’s largest outdoor rodeo and Western Celebration. It was held from July 19-28, 2019.

Theodore Roosevelt looked out over the events of Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1910. The President’s arrival in Cheyenne was so significant that many special events were scheduled. Even the Barnum and Bailey Circus was added to the roster that year.

Theodore Roosevelt at Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1910

We found that in the Wild Horse Race, a rider has 90 seconds to train and ride a wild horse.

Originally built to feed cowboys out on the range, chuckwagons, or “chucks,” were made to move quick and cook up a tasty meal. The Chuckwagon Race, a fast-paced race of chucks fueled by horsepower, was discontinued in 1994 because of liability issues.

Saddle Bronc is one of the oldest and most difficult rodeo events. In order to score, the cowboy must synchronize himself to the motion of the horse. The cowboy holds on to the horse using a rope attached to a halter, his legs, and only one hand. His feet must stay at the top of the horse’s shoulder for two jumps at the start of the ride, called “marking out,” and continue to spur the shoulders throughout the ride. The cowboy’s free hand cannot touch his body or the horse for a full 8 seconds.

Bull riders must ride the bull for 8 seconds. The bull will try to unseat the rider off by spinning, kicking, bucking and twisting. If the cowboy stays on, he scores.

Steer roping has cowboys competing to rope steers the fastest. In competition, the cowboy ropes the steer around the horns, which are reinforced for protection. After the rider ropes the steer, he ties off rope to saddle and as quick as he can ties three legs together to finish.

Barrel racing is when cowgirl and horse engage a cloverleaf pattern around barrels as far apart as 105 feet. The course is often run in under 20 seconds.

Steer wrestling requires the steer wrestler, or bulldogger, to lean off his horse and onto a sprinting steer. From there the cowboy must catch the steer (often weighing between 450-650 pounds) behind the horns, stop its momentum (it can often run 30 mph), and wrestle it to the ground with all four feet pointing the same direction.

We saw movie posters, Native clothing, a Rodeo Clown uniform, posters for Cheyenne Frontier Days, western paintings, and cowboy and horse sculptures.

Native American clothing

“Two Fisted Law” movie poster

Poster for 73rd Cheyenne Frontier Days

Fall Round Up poster

cowboy sculpture

horse sculpture

Rodeo Clown Uniform

Western painting

In the Eighth Month of Winter by Gary Carter

Flying Hoofs by Lloyd Hartling

Ain’t No Easy Way by Rob Abbet

Information about the events at Cheyenne Frontier Days is from signs at the museum.

After leaving the Frontier Days Museum, we went into the adorable shop Mid Mod Etc. on Pioneer Avenue. It specialized in 50s/60s furniture, accessories, and automobilia. Sadly, it would be closing by year-end because the owner planned to retire.

Mid Mod Etc

We had dinner at the Met Downtown. I had a “Contortionist and Cucumber Collins” – gin, muddled cucumber, lime, a club soda, and orange flower water. I also had the soup du jour: a very thick chicken tortilla soup with a cream base and a Metropolitan Salad: arugula, peaches, goat cheese, candied walnuts and citrus vinaigrette. Mike had a Cowboy State Golden Ale and I’m sure he ate some food, but I don’t remember what.

Metropolitan Downtown

me at Met Downtown

Metropolitan Salad

After dinner, we went back to the Wrangler store, where we both did some damage suiting ourselves up with plaid flannel shirts. 🙂

*Steps: 10,529, or 4.46 miles*

*Tuesday, September 24, 2019*

the cheyenne depot museum & cowgirls of the west

wanderessence1025 November 25, 2020

Our first morning in Cheyenne, we slept in until 7:00. I remember the days when “sleeping in” was closer to 10:00 or later! Breakfast in the classy dining room at the Plains Hotel consisted of eggs, bacon and French toast.

We overheard that someone who goes by the name of Astrid bought the Plains Hotel at auction in 2015.

We walked to the Cheyenne Depot to start our day, passing the boots “made for talking” and the bright red Wrangler store.

“Don’t Feed the Animals” boot by Jill Pope

me with “Downtown Cheyenne” boot by various artists

The Wrangler

Cheyenne Street Trolley

“The Iron Horse” by Lyle Nichols

“Governors of Wyoming” boot by Alice Reed

“A New Beginning” by Veryl Goodnight, Sculptor

“Milestones: Chamber 100th Anniversary” boot by Jill Pope

We spent some time in the Cheyenne Depot Museum. Formerly the Union Pacific Depot, it has been restored to its original glory. The museum is rich with railroad history and exhibits.

The Union Pacific Depot replaced a small 1867 wooden structure that sat on the same spot. Due to the influence of the cattle barons, the railroad built one of the finest depots in America, finished in 1888. Of Richardsonian Romanesque styling, it used polychromatic stones – two colors of sandstone from the same quarry, a rarity.

In 1889, it was decided that the central repair shops for the entire Union Pacific system would be located in Cheyenne. Over 3,000 people would live and work for the railroad in the town.

The Seth Thomas clock in the tower was added in 1890; it still only loses about a minute a month. The lobby was redesigned in 1929 in Art Deco style. Completely restored in 2004, the depot is now a National Historic Landmark.

The Cheyenne Depot

The Union Pacific Railroad would be a prominent player in Wyoming’s Statehood, soon to follow (July 10, 1890), and the future of Cheyenne.

In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act was approved by Congress and signed into law by then-President Abraham Lincoln, an enthusiastic supporter of railroads. Congress had finally decided on a route following the Platte River Valley and two railroad companies were chartered. The Union Pacific (UP) would lay track westward from Omaha, while the Central Pacific (CP) would lay track eastward from Sacramento and they would meet someplace in between. Nearly 1800 miles separated these two points. A contest quickly developed to see which company could lay the most track the fastest.

Workers did not lay the first rail in Omaha until 1865 due to a shortage of money, materials and men due to the U.S. Civil War. In 1867 a base or “division point” for the railroad was selected, and it was called “Cheyenne” in honor of a fierce Indian tribe of the area. This location was chosen because it was where the gradual slope of the prairie met the steepening grades of the Laramie Mountains (previously known as the Black Hills).

laying the tracks

railroad coming through

Private property

During the winter of 1867-68, the Union Pacific Railroad ended at Cheyenne. Barracks were built for the workers, who set about working on the railroad facilities in Cheyenne and working their way up the daunting grade toward Sherman Pass. With the addition of the railroad workers, the town’s population boomed. Many estimates put the population of the town during this time at 7,000-10,000 people. Even with the building boom, space was at a premium. The image below shows what 16th Street in Cheyenne looked like a couple of months after the railroad had arrived.

Cheyenne after the arrival of the railroad

The two railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah on May 10, 1869. A ceremonial golden spike celebrated the completion of the first transcontinental railroad that crossed America.

It was intended that Cheyenne should be one of the most important railroad cities in North America. It has often been said that if not for the Union Pacific Railroad, the City of Cheyenne would not exist.

Train model in the museum

ticket window

Union Pacific Railroad Platte Valley Route Grand Opening: May 10, 1869

Cheyenne has had a close connection with the Union Pacific’s passenger service from the time the first passenger train arrived in 1867 until Amtrak moved out of the city in 1979. A passenger’s experience varied by what he could afford. First class passengers received the best cars, the best meals, and the best accommodations at the Union Pacific’s depots. Migrants or people without money were often treated little better than human freight with uncomfortable cars and equally uncomfortable accommodations trackside.

Emigrants who were not able to pay higher fares for first class accommodations found themselves in the emigrant cars. These cars got minimal attention from the railroad. They were hot in summer and freezing in winter and generally unpleasant. Passengers on these cars made the best of things by bringing their own food, blankets and anything else that might make their trip more comfortable.

a view of downtown Cheyenne, circa 1920

Illustration of an emigrant train published in Harper’s Weekly, November 13, 1886

dining car menu

Pullman parlor car, circa 1885

suitcase packed for travel

A Union Pacific Railroad travel magazine

Between November 1948 and March 1949, a series of blizzards struck the West. Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming bore the brunt of these storms as winds often reached 80 mph (128 kph) forcing the temperatures down to -51°F. Over 100 citizens perished and livestock losses topped half a million head. With drifts approaching 50 ft., citizens from nine states were completely isolated.

For the railroads, the storms were devastating. The Union Pacific’s lines were at the epicenter of the blizzards. The railroad would call in over 14,000 men, 180 bulldozers, 48 snowplows, and every rotary that could be found and moved to fight the storms. Despite their efforts, 44 trains were frozen to their rails and hundreds of travelers were stranded.

The Blizzard of ’49

The Burlington track, now referred to as the BNSF Railroad, continues to run north and south through Denver into Texas and north to the Wyoming coal fields and connections into central Wyoming and on into the northwest through Montana. Today, a sophisticated dispatch system is used to control the trains.

desk from the old train depot

control panel for today’s railroad

The upstairs of the museum had a huge model train setup that was captivating.

model train at the Cheyenne Depot Museum

Leaving the Depot, we strolled around the town on the way to our next destination. We encountered more of the “boots made for talking,” some buildings with fading ads, and street murals.

“Memories of the Old West” boot by Cody Hamil

downtown Cheyenne

We found a great mural about the suffragette movement in Wyoming. The passage of Wyoming’s Suffrage Law in December 1869 was over 50 years before the enactment of the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution that was passed on August 26, 1920 giving all women in America the right to vote.

Apparently, one of the main reasons for the passage of Wyoming’s suffrage law was intended as a public relations gesture to attract more settlers into the Wyoming Territory. Although the new law also gave women the right to hold public office, most of the men assumed that the women would have no interest in territorial politics and would choose to stay home. Instead, the newly enfranchised female voters promptly demanded a more active role for women in territorial government. This so upset the all-male legislature, that in 1871 they tried to repeal the 1869 suffrage bill. It failed to pass legislation by only a single vote.

When Wyoming entered the Union in July of 1890, it was the only state to have given women the right to vote. Colorado became the second state to pass a suffrage bill in 1893, and they were followed by Utah and Idaho in 1896.

suffragette movement in Wyoming

suffragette movement in Wyoming

suffragette movement in Wyoming

We arrived at the Cowgirls of the West Museum close to 11:00. We watched a short film about a famous female rodeo rider. There were displays of cowgirl clothes and framed stories about famous women cowgirls.

Cowgirls of the West Museum

Cowgirls of the West Museum, founded in 1995 by a group of trailblazing women, is dedicated to telling the remarkable stories of pioneering women who worked hard, right alongside men, to create the American West.

Women preparing for a move to western ranches and farms were advised to take no fine clothing, only “things suitable for everyday wear,” such as “calico frock dresses, plainly made, with no hoops, and sun bonnets.”

Back in the days when the sidesaddle ruled the female equestrian world, if a woman appeared in trousers because she was riding her horse in the astride style, she could be arrested and jailed for indecent exposure.

When it became socially acceptable that women could ride astride and wear split skirts, the Shipley Saddle Company of Kansas City, Missouri, found new customers. Early women’s astride saddles were compact and nearly 10-12 pounds lighter than the standard’s men’s stock saddle.

Styles for a Rigorous Life

cowgirl fashion

Women’s Astride Saddles and Split Skirts

Chaps

cowgirl fashion

The museum tells stories about Willa Cather, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of over 15 books; Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose prairie life was portrayed in the popular TV series Little House on the Prairie. Evelyn Cameron, Montana’s frontier photographer; Mardy Murie, Wyoming’s Grandmother of Nature and Conservation; Prairie Rose Henderson, Champion Bronc Rider; Mabel Strickland, “The Cowgirl’s Cowgirl;” Dale Evans, who co-starred with Roy Rogers in The Cowboy and the Señorita; the “unsinkable” Margaret Tobin Brown, who survived the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912; Oveta Culp Hobby, who organized and commanded the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II and who instituted the nation-wide inoculation program of Dr. Jonas Salk’s newly developed polio vaccine; and Mary O’Hara, who wrote My Friend Flicka.

Women cowgirls

There was a display of “Western Ladies of Questionable Moral Character,” “soiled doves who worked at Josephine Hensley’s Hurdy-Gurdy.” These included Pearl Hart, the last stagecoach bandit.

There were magazine covers showing girl champion buffalo and steer riders.

101 Ranch: Girl Champion Buffalo and Steer Riders

Miss Annie Oakley was known as “Little Sure Shot.” She was a performer in Buffalo Bill Cody’s immensely popular Wild West Show.

Miss Annie Oakley, the Peerless Lady Wing-Shot

A Bevy of Wild West Girls

The Sears Roebuck & Company catalog and store were featured, with its 1880s Rocker Style Washing Machine, based on the washing motion of a gold miner’s rocker box. These early washing machines were used well into the 20th century by mating them with an electric motor. Another display told about Wyoming’s first J.C. Penney store in Kemmerer. Others told of the domestic lives of cowgirls.

Cowgirls on the domestic scene

Dorothy Satterfield’s 1936 Mens Trick Saddle

Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalogue Store

1902 Sears Catalog

Washing machine

The Oregon-California Trail

By the dawn of the 20th century, America’s era of westward expansion was nearly over. Towns, homesteads and ranches flourished. The invention of the telephone in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell would forever alter the lives of people in America. This invention would be responsible for the influx of over 300,000 women into the American labor force as switchboard operators. One phone call could go through four (or more!) switchboards.

switchboard operator in cowgirl garb

After saying our goodbyes to the cowgirls of the west, we returned to the Plains Hotel to eat leftovers from last night in our room.

The Lincoln

The Plains Hotel

lobby of The Plains Hotel

After lunch we went back out to explore more of Cheyenne.

*Tuesday, September 24, 2019*

cheyenne, wyoming: the wyoming state capitol, sanford’s grub, & the wrangler

wanderessence1025 November 23, 2020

After leaving Scotts Bluff, Nebraska on Monday afternoon, we crossed into the flat plains and farmland of Wyoming. Around us were fields of sunflowers, grassland and dried up corn. Rectangular hay bales squatted neatly in stacks and tumbledown places were scattered around and about.

Welcome to Wyoming

We entered La Grange, population 448, with 4,587 in elevation. Silos and small ranches dotted the countryside. The Frontier School of the Bible called out, but we continued on, crossing Horse Creek. Cattle grazed on grassland that lay at the foot of buttes to the north. Later we passed cattle yards.

Wyoming is the least populous state in the U.S., with a population of 577,737 in 2018. We drove through short dry grassland in Laramie County. Cheyenne, the state capital, was still 48 miles away. We had a long wait at some roadwork on 85; we had to wait for a car to lead us through the construction.

We arrived in Cheyenne (population 59,466) close to 4:00 and went straight to the Wyoming State Capitol. It is the seat of two of Wyoming’s three branches of government. Over the past four years, it had the first comprehensive restoration in its 130-year history.

Wyoming State Capitol

The Capitol was built in 1888 and expanded in 1890 and 1917. Over the decades, elevators; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); plumbing; and other systems were added, but many systems had begun to fail. The last major work done from 1974-1980 concealed the character of the historic rooms and failed to rectify infrastructure issues.

Wyoming State Capitol

In 2014, the Legislature authorized the Capitol Square Project which meant to: add or update life safety systems, replace failing building systems, and increase public access in the Capitol.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the State Capitol now boasts marble floors, fine woodwork, stained glass, historic photographs, and a wildlife display.

Wyoming State Capitol interior

Senate Gallery

Wyoming State Capitol interior

House Gallery

Wyoming State Capitol

On the grounds of the Wyoming State Capitol, we found some true Western sculptures.

Looking out from the Capitol

horse and rider

Elling William “Bill” Gollings, A True Cowboy Artist(1878-1932) Bronze by Jerry Palen

Wyoming State Capitol

We checked in at The Plains Hotel. Finished in 1911 as a truly modern facility, the Plains was the first hotel in America to have a telephone in every room. Many famous people have stayed here: presidents Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan as well as Wallace Berry, Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, and many more.

Rooms in the hotel are furnished in an “Old West” style complete with original artwork and photography by the state’s artists.

The Plains Hotel

We wandered a bit around the town. We found a few of the twenty-five hand-painted 8-foot-tall cowboy boots. “These Boots are made for Talking” started as a joint project of the Cheyenne Depot Museum Foundation and the Downtown Development Authority. The nearly $100,000 raised when businesses sponsored the boots went to the Cheyenne Depot Museum Endowment Fund to benefit the museum.

Each boot was painted by one or more of the area’s talented artists. The project theme was “if this boot could talk, what story would it tell?” The two shown below are “Downtown Cheyenne” painted by various artists and bought by the Downtown Development Authority , and “Don’t Feed the Animals” by Jill Pope and bought by Pony X-Press Printing.

Downtown Cheyenne boot

Don’t Feed the Animals boot

The Wrangler

storefront in Cheyenne

Hello Darkness My Old Friend…

Cheyenne mural

The Lincoln Theater

We had dinner at Sanford’s Grub & Pub, which used to be an auto repair garage.

Sanford’s Grub & Pub

An elevator once used to take cars to an underground garage, and now takes customers to an underground bar. The place was jam packed with Americana: signs, gas pumps, the Blues Brothers, hot dogs, and any other kind of junk imaginable.

inside Sanford’s Grub & Pub

I had Jimmy’s Jammin’ Jambalaya and a margarita, and Mike had Cajun Cobb Salad with a Modelo’s.

Mike at Sanford’s

Jimmy’s Jammin’ Jambalaya

After dinner we wandered around the town and stopped into the Wrangler Western Store where I bought a Western motif cream leather bag (for Christmas) and Mike bought a plaid flannel shirt.

Wrangler Western Store

We would have the whole next day to explore more of Cheyenne.

*Steps: 9,014, or 3.82 miles*

*Monday, September 23, 2019*

baltimore: the american visionary art museum

wanderessence1025 November 22, 2020

On Saturday morning, I made coffee in my hotel room and ate a very sticky and decadent iced cinnamon roll. It was yummy but probably 1,000 calories!

It was a long slow walk to the American Visionary Art Museum in Federal Hill. It would have been a lot more enjoyable if I hadn’t hurt or twisted (or broken?) my left ankle the day before. It was a lovely sunny day.

American Visionary Art Museum

American Visionary Art Museum

Visionary Art, as defined by the museum, “refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.” It has to do with listening to the voices of the soul.

Fred Carter’s (1911-1992) paintings and woodcarvings reflected his take on encroaching environmental destruction, social injustices, and everything he loved and felt deeply about.

Mary Proctor, born in 1960, paints doors, covering them with spiritual images and messages with a jumble of buttons, fabric, mirrors, and other found objects.

Wayne Kusy, born in 1961, completed The Lusitania in 1994; it is 16 feet long and took 194,000 toothpicks and 2 1/2 years to complete. He specializes in 20th century ocean liners because he admires “the detail and prestige [they] had.”

Gary Larson words of wisdom

The Piano Family: Adagio, Amorosa, and Bucky, 2012 by Allen David Christian

by Fred Carter

Albert Einstein by Fred Carter

Martin Luther King, Jr. by Fred Carter

by Mary Proctor

The Lusitania by Wayne Kusy

I enjoyed Rick Skogsberg’s Can’t Lose Shoe Collection, a mix of painted new and found shoes and boots from 2014-2016.

Can’t Lose Shoe Collection by Rick Skogsberg

I enjoyed the museum’s quirky and thoughtful exhibits. The main one was “The Secret Life of Earth: Alive! Awake! (And Possibly Really Angry!)” timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The exhibition included little known facts about nature, information on how our diets and other individual behaviors influence our environment, the difference between weather and climate, the health and environmental price of using pesticides, the effects of a capitalist economy on the environment, positive solutions to many environmental problems, and even humor.

The Secret Life of Earth: Alive! Awake! (And Possibly Really Angry!)”

Mushrooms are the food of the gods. – Russian proverb

The Secret Life of Earth: Alive! Awake! (And Possibly Really Angry!)”

Rachel, 2015 by Peter Eglington

The Secret Life of Earth: Alive! Awake! (And Possibly Really Angry!)”

Guardian Spirits, 2019 by Judy Tallwing

White Spirit Bears, 2012 by Judy Tallwing

La Madre Tierra Herida (Mother Earth Injured), 2019 by Francisco Loza

La Madre Tierra (Mother Earth) by Macario Matias Carrillo

American Visionary Art Museum

In the Heart of the Woods, 2016 by Stephen Holman

In the Silence of the Sea, 2017 by Stephen Holman

Words for thought…

At the Earth exhibit was a televised interview with Greta Thunberg by Trevor Noah. She commented about the U.S. conversation around climate change as if we “believe it or not,” whereas, where she’s from, it’s a fact. Smart girl!

There was an interesting exhibit of “Reverend Albert Lee Wagner: Miracle at Midnight.” It had been ongoing since July 1, 2017 and would leave the museum on June 5, 2020.

Born into great poverty in rural Arkansas to a family of cotton pickers, Wagner was first-hand witness to extreme prejudice and racial violence. Not until the family later moved north to Ohio did Wagner feel the freedom to speak out on the horrors he had witnessed and began making “story pictures,” accompanied by his hand-written testimony.

Especially saddened by the increase of black on black crime, Wagner evolved into a lover of all humankind, greatly concerned with our human condition.

There was an especially amazing huge painting: Flee from Egypt – Moses Parting the Red Sea.

Flee From Egypt (Parting of the Red Sea), 1975 by Reverend Albert Wagner

The title of the exhibit is from a transformative moment when house paint spilled on a floor board, forever changing an actively sinning Wagner as he prepared for his 50th birthday. Transfixed by the scene of pooling paint, he experienced a spiritual awakening (epiphany), forever ending his womanizing and kick-starting an intense period of religious service and art-making that would endure until his peaceful death at the age of 82.

by Reverend Albert Wagner

Noah and the Rainbow Sign, 1994 by Reverend Albert Wagner

Abraham and Lot, n.d. by Reverend Albert Wagner

Adam and Eve, ca. 1990 by Reverend Albert Wagner

Maya Angelou’s wise observation: “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.”

Another fascinating exhibit was “Esther and the Dream of One Loving Human Family.” This features Esther Krinitz’s Holocaust survival story told through 36 hand-embroidered works. It pays tribute to humanity’s long history, past and current, of unjustly persecuted innocents and the dream of a world at peace.

“Esther and the Dream of One Loving Human Family”

My Childhood Home, 1977 by Esther Krinitz

Picking Cherries, 1996 by Esther Krinitz

Prelude to the Final Solution, 1992 by Esther Krinitz

Stefan’s House, 1992 by Esther Krinitz

We Find No Refuge, 1994 by Esther Krinitz

Also, there was work gathered from a partnership with Rwandan Tutsi genocide survivors and more. In this work, humanitarian and art activist Lily Yeh depicts Rwandan village life before, during, and after the 100 days of the Rwandan 1994 Genocide that left over 800,000 Tutsi men, women, elders and children murdered, mostly by brutal machete attack.

Lily Yeh’s Work with the Rugero Survivors Village, Rwanda

Lily Yeh’s Work with the Rugero Survivors Village, Rwanda

Lily Yeh’s Work with the Rugero Survivors Village, Rwanda

Prayer for Peace, by Apache Elder Judy Tallwing, is a painting infused with thousands of tiny glass prayer beads — each one a sincere focal point that Judy has used to pray for someone’s blessing or healing, other than for herself. Judy’s painting features two stylized stealth bomber military planes. Her message speaks to the essence of the Truth & Reconciliation mission. She explains, “The only way we will ever obtain peace in our own families, our communities,, and throughout the world, is if we rise above all the stealth or secret ways in which we act, and have acted, to secretly harm one another.”

Prayer for Peace, by Apache Elder Judy Tallwing

There was other quirky art found in the museum.

floating between the floors

Birds of Prey by Chris Roberts-Antieau

David R. Klein’s Pez collection began at the time of a surprise 40th birthday party when someone gave him a variety of gag gifts, among which was a Pez dispenser. Shortly after that, he came across a vendor selling a variety of Pez dispensers at a Pennsylvania flea market, and he began to collect them.

The Pez collection of David R. Klein (1955-2010)

I wandered over to an adjacent building and found these treasures between the two buildings.

Things on the grounds outside the Jim Rouse Visionary Center

Inside the Jim Rouse Visionary Center, I found painted screens, Fifi and friends from the Kinetic Sculpture Race, Leonard Knight’s Love Balloon, Andrew Logan’s Divine, and Devon Smith’s World’s First Robot Family.

Jim Rouse Visionary Center

by Pamela Smith

Bra Ball, 2001-2003, by Emily Duffy

Divine by Andrew Logan

Jim Rouse Visionary Center

Fifi from the Kinetic Sculpture Race

Jim Rouse Visionary Center

Devon Smith’s World’s First Robot Family

Jim Rouse Visionary Center

Bad Habits Die Hard by Chris Roberts-Antieau

Jim Rouse Visionary Center

Leonard Knight’s Love Balloon

The young lady in the gift shop suggested I walk ten minutes to the Cross Street Market in Federal Hill, where I could find a lot of eateries. Taking her advice, off I went, dragging my poor hurt ankle along!

*Saturday, February 22, 2020*

the walters art museum in baltimore & dinner with an old friend

wanderessence1025 November 21, 2020

After visiting the Baltimore Museum of Art, I went directly to The Walters Art Museum where I had a tuna sandwich in the cafe. (I wrote about the Baltimore Museum of Art here: the baltimore museum of art)

The Walters Art Museum has a striking four-story glass entryway. It is named for William Thompson Walters (1820 – 1894) and his son Henry (1848 – 1931). William was a leading investor in Maryland and Pennsylvania railroads before the Civil War.

Portrait of Henry Walters, 1938 by Thomas Cromwell Corner

The collection is the fruit of a half-century of conscious acquisition. The main collection covers 55 centuries from the antiquities to modern art.

William Walters appears to have been a religious man: in the 1860s he had compiled two albums of drawings on the theme of prayer.

The scene below by Eugène Delacroix is based on an incident recounted in three of the Gospels: a furious storm breaks out while Jesus and his disciples sail across the Sea of Galilee. To the disciples’ amazement, Jesus calms the wind and the storm, dramatizing the power of Christian belief.

Christ on the Sea of Galilee, 1854 by Eugène Delacroix

After the Civil War, when William T. Walters returned to Baltimore, he had lived abroad for nearly four years. The art in one gallery romanticizes foreign people and places encountered through the trading and colonizing activities of European countries and the United States.

An Arab Sheik, ca. 1870 by Léon Bonnat

Interior of a Mosque at Cordova, 1880 by Edwin Lord Weeks

The Slipper Merchant, 1872 by José Villegas Cordero

On the Desert, before 1867 by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Odalisque with Slave, 1842 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Hindu Snake Charmer, 1869 by Mariano José Maria Bernardo Fortuny y Carbó

Arab Fantasia, 1867 by Mariano José Maria Bernardo Fortuny y Carbó

Collision of the Moorish Horsemen, 1843-44 by Eugène Delacroix

Poultry Market, ,Tangiers, before 1881 by José Villegas Cordero

Toreros at Prayer before Entering the Arena, ca. 1870 by Jehan Georges Vibert

A recent acquisition at the Walters was Othello by Pietro Calvi. This sculpture depicts William Shakespeare’s tragic hero. Othello, a great warrior, secretly married Desdemona, a Venetian noblewoman, provoking jealousy among his peers. Othello’s supposed friend Iago used a silk handkerchief – Othello’s first gift to his wife – as evidence that Desdemona had been unfaithful; in a rage, Othello murdered her. Calvi captures Othello’s intense emotion: a tear falls from his eye as he contemplates the handkerchief.

Othello, modeled ca. 1868; this version executed ca. 1873 by Pietro Calvi

The work of contemporary French landscape painters was sought after by American collectors from the end of the Civil War onward, and the collections of William T. and Henry mirrored those of their East Coast peers. William acquired the work of the Barbizon School, whose members broke with tradition by working outdoors and taking inspiration directly from nature.

The Jungfrau, Switzerland, 1853-55 by Alexandre Calame

The Coming Storm, 1865-75 by Charles François Daubigny

Ploughing Scene, 1854 by Rosa Bonheur

Springtime, 1872 by Claude Monet

The Church of Eragny, 1884 by Camille Pissarro

View of Saint Mammès, 1880 by Alfred Sisley

Raby Castle, Seat of the Earl of Darlington, 1817 by Joseph Mallord William Turner

Landscape in Scotland, ca. 1878 by Gustave Doré

The Tulip Folly, 1882 by Jean-Léon Gérôme

A Roman Emperor: AD 41, 1871 by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

The Terracew at Saint-Germain, 1875 by Alfred Sisley

Before the Race, 1882-84 by Edgar Degas

A Stream in the Adirondacks, 1859, by James McDougal Hart

The Walters has a remarkable collection called “Books of the Art Nouveau,” which captures the romance and whimsy of that era (1890-1910). Motifs include undulating vines, gardens of abstract flowers, and elegant maidens in billowing gowns.

Books of the Art Nouveau

I loved Lady with a Guitar; Boldini presents a woman lost in thought, resting her guitar on her thigh. Boldini uses loose, visible brushstrokes to capture details of the figure’s hair, jewelry, and costume.

Lady with a Guitar, c. 1873, by Giovanni Boldini (Italian, 1842-1931)

The museum had a special exhibit on the St. Francis Missal. In 1208, St. Francis sought direction for his life at the Church of San Nicolò in Assisi. Hoping for divine guidance, he opened the missal (a book containing the texts used in the Catholic mass throughout the year) on the altar three times at random and in every case, the text on the page urged renouncing earthly goods. This idea provided the foundation for the Franciscan order.

This is the very book consulted by St. Francis and his companions.

The Saint Francis Missal, ca. 1200

Walters Art Museum

Saint Clare

Walters Art Museum

Saint Francis

The arrival of Christianity in Ethiopia in the early 4th century marked the beginning of the important role played by this African kingdom in the spread of the Christian faith. Following the conversion of King Ezanas around 324, the coins of his kingdom, centered in Aksum, were the first anywhere to carry the cross as a new and powerful symbol only a few years after Christianity was accepted in Byzantium under Constantine the Great.

Triptych with Mary and Her Son Flanked by Archangels, Christ Teaching the Apostles (Center); Scenes from the Life of Christ, Saints (Left and Right), Ethiopian, Early 16th century

Diptych Icon with Saint George, and Mary and the Infant Christ, Ethiopian, early 15th century

Triptych with Mary and Her Son Flanked by Archangels (Center); Crucifixion and Resurrection, Apostles and Saints (Right and Left), Ethiopian, late 17th-early 18th century

Walters Art Museum

Diptych Leaf with Mary and Her Son, and Archangels Michael and Gabriel, Ethiopian (Central Ethiopia), active 1445-80

Diptych with Mary and Her Son Flanked by Archangels (Left); Apostles and a Saint (Right), Follower of Fre Seyon, Ethiopian (Tegray), late 15th century

Walters Art Museum

The history of Russian art and culture is closely tied to the legacy of Byzantium. In A.D. 988, Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev, in what is now Ukraine, chose the Orthodox Christianity of the Byzantine Empire over the Catholicism of Europe, at least in part because of reports of the grandeur of Byzantine churches.

The Orthodox Christian faith was thus brought to the Slavic lands (Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia) where it flourished, even during the turbulent period of Mongol (“Tartar”) rule (ca. 1240-1380).

Double-Sided Icon with the Presentation of the Virgin (front), Russian (Moscow?), early 17th century

Double-Sided Icon with the Virgin of the Burning Bush (back), Russian (Moscow?), early 17th century

Icon with the Virgin of the Burning Bush, Russian, 19th century

Throughout the Islamic world, Muslims share the same religious convictions, including the belief in one God, called Allah, and in the prophet Muhammad as the messenger of God. Unlike Christian churches, where images of holy figures may abound, Islamic religious buildings do not feature icons or other figural representations. Instead, interiors are adorned with the word of God, through written verses from the Koran and other pious sayings.

Mausoleum doors from Iran (Tabriz?), made by Qanbar ibn Mahmud, originally opened into the mausoleum, or tomb, of Imamzada Sulayman, the son of a spiritual leader in Iran, where one particular branch of Islam, called the Shia, flourished. The doors’ intricately carved and inlaid decoration is typical of the ornamentation in religious buildings and includes inscriptions in praise of Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad and the leader of Shia Muslims.

Mausoleum doors from Iran (Tabriz?), made by Qanbar ibn Mahmud

Walters Art Museum

By the 1430s in northern Europe, the elegance of the International Gothic style had given way to a style of realism.

The Crucifixion, 1537 by Peter Gärtner

Scenes from the Life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, ca. 1430-50, German (Swabia)

Exterior of an Altarpiece with Saints Lawrence and Leonard, ca 1450, by Arguis Master

Walters Art Museum

Portrait of King Louis XII of France at Prayer, 1500-10, by jean Perréal (design attributed to)

Adoration of the Kings, 1526 by William Stetter, German

Another exhibit was on European ceramics, objects made from clay hardened into a permanent form by firing at high temperature in a kiln. The pieces displayed here are glazed earthenware or stoneware. Beginning around 1515, a new approach to decoration known as istoriato (“painted with stories”) became popular. Depicting biblical and classical subjects, painters of istoriato treated a plate like a canvas to be covered with a narrative scene.

Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, ca. 1483 by Andrea della Robbia and workshop

Istoriato Ware

Snake-Handed Vases with Scenes from Genesis, ca. 1580-1600, Patanazzi workshop

The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, ca. 1525-35 by Santi Buglioni, workshop of

I found an exhibit on Saint Mary Magdalene. In the New Testament, Mary from the town of Magdala was one of Christ’s most loyal followers. Later tradition associated her with a reformed prostitute. The merging of these identities produced emotionally powerful images of a remorseful yet alluring young woman.

Saint Mary Magdalene, ca. 1625-35 by Giacomo Galli, known as Spadarino

The Penitent Magdalene, ca. 1635 by Guido Reni

In the exhibit “Late Baroque and Neoclassical Art in Italy: 1700-1800,” the baroque style of the previous century gradually took on greater lightness and grace.

This gallery, with its densely hung walls, gilded furniture, light-painted wainscot, and cove ceiling evokes the installation of art in an 18th-century nobleman’s palace.

The Adoration of the Sepherds, ca. 1615 by Bernardo Strozzi

Walters Art Museum

One of the last things I saw in the Walters Art Museum was Adam and Eve (1515) from the Della Robbia worskshop. Here, the first two humans are depicted with ideal bodies that recall ancient marble sculptures. The snake has a woman’s face that resembles Eve’s. During this period, women were often described as untrustworthy, and this negative idea is reflected in the gender of the face of the snake.

Adam and Eve (1515) from the Della Robbia worskshop, Italian (Florence)

It was right after meeting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that I took a tumble, stepping out over the bottom step of a marble staircase and suffering a wrenching left ankle twist. I yelled, “Sh*t!” and a young man came to help me up. What an embarrassing senior moment.

After dusting myself off, my stepmother called and asked if I had just called her. I said I must have accidentally dialed her when I fell. She had heard me thanking the guy who helped me up. I told her I’d fallen and she said that’s how she’d broken her ankle.

While talking to her, I hobbled around through Chinese snuff bottles of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), which were made to hold snuff: a mixture of spices, aromatic herbs, and powdered tobacco. Valued for its stimulating effects and supposed medicinal benefits, tobacco had been introduced by Europeans to China in the 17th century. Inhaling tobacco as snuff was considered to be more genteel than smoking, which was outlawed in China. By around 1800, snuff was enjoyed at every level of Chinese society.

Chinese snuff bottles

I felt disheartened and in pain after that, so I left the art gallery and went to check in at Days Inn Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor. I waited in my room until an old friend from the past, Terry, came to the hotel to meet me.

We painstakingly made our way to Watertable, on the 5th floor of Renaissance Baltimore Harbor Place Hotel. I had a glass of wine, Harborplace Cream of Crab Chowder (delicious!), and we shared an entree of a Crab Cake dinner: 6 oz crab cake, fingerling potatoes, Chesapeake corn puree and roasted cauliflower, except I think we got roasted zucchini instead of corn puree.

Terry was my roommate at Riverside Hospital School of Professional Nursing in 1974. I hadn’t seen her since I dropped out of nursing school (deciding nursing wasn’t for me); she went on to become a nurse. She had contacted me through Facebook the week before I planned to go to Baltimore, and since she lived in Annapolis, and happened to be in a seminar in Baltimore on Friday, she met me there.

Terry wasn’t working at that time and was just doing locums (temporarily fulfilling the duties of another, like a substitute nurse).

She told me all kinds of stories about myself that I didn’t remember. She heard a story that I flipped a tall guy (perhaps my first husband Bill) on the dance floor, and I said I remember flinging him into a ditch after drinking too much tequila after a Busch Gardens party. 🙂

I told her Bill published two books, Mathews Men and The Ghost Ships of Archangel. She said she had gone to The Annapolis Maritime Museum to hear someone talk about Ghost Ships of Archangel. She didn’t think the lecturer she heard was Bill, but he had mentioned Mathews Men. I said it must have been Bill because he wrote Ghost Ships. She said she was confused and didn’t realize they were one and the same. I showed her his picture and she said, yes, that was him. It’s a small world sometimes.

She said she thought I was always so smart and for some reason she believed I’d become a successful lawyer. I said not at all; I hadn’t done much of substance with my life. I said I’d lived and worked abroad teaching English for a number of years, and the living abroad was the highlight of my life. She said I used to come in late to our dorm room and I’d say, “Read your notes to me,” and she did. Then we’d take a quiz in class and I’d get 10 points more than she did. I honestly didn’t remember that at all.

I told her that in my Master’s program in International Commerce & Policy at George Mason University, I read all assignments, took massive detailed notes and studied them assiduously and I got almost all As but one B. But I had to work hard!!

We shared stories about our children and our stories were eerily similar: mostly problems with under-motivated children who blame us for everything that’s gone wrong in their lives. One of her sons tragically committed suicide and the other is an acupuncturist who does just enough work to get by. Her son was verbally abusive to her, so she made him move out. He is brilliant but has always done the bare minimum. Her daughter doesn’t speak to her and blames her for all that’s gone wrong in her life.

I told her about calling the police on my youngest son and much later, helping him move in with his older brother. The younger was trying to get sober but the older was still drinking and the younger went ballistic and smashed up the apartment building including the older’s TV. I told the older to call the police on him but he wouldn’t. It was a real sh!tshow and we had to get the younger permanently out of the older’s apartment, long distance, as they both lived in Denver, CO.

I told her about traveling to Charleston with my daughter and it turned into a disaster because my daughter thinks I criticize her for everything.

I told her about walking the Camino de Santiago and she was very interested since she wasn’t currently working.

It was interesting to meet up with Terry after so many years had passed and to find out our situations, at least with our children, were similar. I felt sad for the loss of her son, and she said she would do things differently if only she could have him back again.

Little did we know that we would be under lockdown in a couple of weeks due to COVID-19.

*Friday, February 21, 2020*

chimney rock national historic site, nebraska

wanderessence1025 November 20, 2020

We visited Chimney Rock National Historic Site while in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska. In the 1800s, this pointy rock was the most noted landmark along the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails.

Names for the rock have ranged from inspiring to vulgar. Native Americans, according to early fur traders, named the rock after the penis of the adult male elk. However, prim and proper Anglo-Americans preferred the more delicate “chimney.” It has also gone by other names such as “Haystack with a pole stuck in the top,” “Nose Mountain” by Warren Ferris- American Fur Trading Company, “The Smokestack,” “The Teepee” and “Wigwam.”

Chimney Rock

The Oregon Trail began as an ancient network of Indian footpaths and animal trails that crisscrossed the West. In the early 1800s, British, French and American fur trappers followed these paths as they hunted for beaver. After a fur trader found a wide pass across the Continental Divide in 1812, South Pass in Wyoming made overland travel with ox-drawn wagons possible, and the trail became the gateway to the West. The “fur trace,” wheel tracks along the Platte River and through the Rockies, began the Oregon Trail. Christian missionaries, eager to convert Indians, joined the fur caravans for safe passage.

Desperate farmers and businessmen, hit hard by economic depressions in 1837 and 1841, traveled West in search of opportunities. The idea of “Manifest Destiny” – that God intended the United States to stretch from coast to coast – made citizens feel it was their patriotic duty to go West.

In early 1841, the first emigrant wagon train set out from Independence, Missouri. They followed the old fur trace past Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff. Chimney Rock was by far the most mentioned landmark in journals of over 300 settlers who moved west along the Oregon Trail.

Chimney Rock

The risk of long-distance wagon travel was high, yet traffic on the trail kept growing. The highway was not straight, smooth or direct, and many discouraged travelers turned around.

Wagon replica

Wagon at Chimney Rock

At first relations between Native Americans and emigrants were cooperative, but when the stream increased in 1849 due to the California gold strikes, tensions grew. By the late 1850s, Indians killed travelers and travelers killed Indians. Indian resistance continued into the 1880s. By then the Indians had suffered military defeats, settlers had claimed their most productive lands, treaties were made and broken, and most tribes were forced onto reservations.

When the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, the Oregon trail fell into disuse except as local trips. In 1978 Congress designated the old wagon road as the Oregon National Historic Trail.

Historic Trails, Alternates and Cutoffs

the trails through Nebraska

Legend for the map

The Lewis & Clark Trail is shown in cranberry on the map above. I have written about this extensively on my blog.

The California Trail, shown in orange in the map above, evolved as more than a quarter million people heeded the promises of California: Free land, gold, and adventure. By 1849, gold fever beckoned thousands of travelers, known as forty-niners, to California. They clogged the 2,000 mile California Trail, decimating grasslands, spreading cholera, and destroying plants and animals that Native Americans depended on for food; this led to increasing tensions with Native Americans. From Fort Kearny and South Pass in present-day Wyoming, the trail was a single cord, but it frayed after that, offering many paths to California.

By 1860, freight and mail companies, military expeditions, new settlements and trading stations, and thousands of travelers going in both directions transformed the California Trail into a road.

From 1846 and 1847, the start of war with Mexico, to 1869, over 70,000 Mormons traveled along the road west, what came to be known as the Mormon Pioneer Trail (shown in yellow on the above map). The trail started in Nauvoo, Illinois, went across Iowa, and ended near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Generally following pre-existing routes, the trails took tens of thousands of Mormon emigrants to a new home and refuge in the Great Basin. From their labors arose the State of Deseret, later to become Utah Territory, and finally the state of Utah.

The Mormons had a different motivation than other emigrants. They wanted to maintain a religious and cultural identity in an isolated area where they could permanently settle and practice their religion in peace. Mormon leaders hoped to be insulated from harassment, antagonism, and persecution.

Congress established the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, a designated corridor almost 1,300 miles long, as part of the National Trails System in 1978. This trail commemorates the 1846-47 journey of the Mormon people from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Valle of the Great Salt Lake.

Finally the Pony Express Trail, shown in purple on the map above, only lasted 19 months. After many less-than-ideal attempts to deliver mail across the continent, William H. Russell created the Pony Express. He and his two partners, who had great experience in hauling cargo and passengers, started a new firm, the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company (COC & PP) – the official name of the Pony Express. It began mail service April 1860 between St. Joseph, Missouri and San Francisco, CA. Home stations were established every 75-100 miles (to house riders between runs) and smaller relay stations every 10-15 miles (to provide riders with fresh horses).

The company employed between 80 and 100 riders and several hundred station workers. Riders earned wages plus room and board. Hires ranged from teenagers to about age 40. Weight restrictions were strict. Riders had to weigh less than 120 pounds and carry 20 pounds of mail and 25 pounds of equipment.They also had to be “willing to risk death daily.”

Pony Express Advertisement

Horses were selected for swiftness and endurance. The company bought 400-500 horses, many thoroughbreds for eastern runs and California mustangs for western stretches. Horses averaged 10 miles per hour, at times galloping up to 25 mph. During this route of 75-100 miles, a rider changed horses 8-10 times.

Transcontinental telegraph lines were completed in October of 1861 and the Pony delivered its last mail in November of 1861.

Pony Express Route

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According to the National Park Service, Chimney Rock consists of “Brule clay (not “rock”) interlayered with volcanic ash and Arikaree sandstone.” Because the soft Brule clay is susceptible to erosion, it undermines the hard Arikaree sandstone (which does not erode easily), resulting in episodic changes that are unpredictable, such as rock falls.

There were many dangers along the Oregon trail, including rattlesnakes. They are still a danger here today.

Rattlesnake warning

In 1895, the United States Geological Survey calculated the elevation of Chimney Rock as 4,225 feet above sea level. The spire has lost about 30 feet in the last 150 years. Today the summit rises 470 feet above the North Platte River and measures 325 feet tip to base, with the spire measuring 120 feet.

In 1906, Ezra Meeker, who went west in 1852, retraced the Oregon Trail from west to east, again in an ox-drawn wagon. His efforts led to the formation of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association.

The Chimney Rock Cemetery was a later addition to the Historic Site.

Chimney Rock Cemetery

In 1941, the 80 acres containing the site were transferred to the Nebraska State Historical Society. In 1956, Chimney Rock was designated a National Historic Site by the federal government.

Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock

bluffs at Chimney Rock

bluffs at Chimney Rock

Below is my cancellation stamp in my National Parks Passport for Chimney Rock National Historic Site.

Cancellation stamps for Scotts Bluff National Monument and the Oregon National Historic Trail (NHT), California NHT, Mormon Pioneer NHT, and Pony Express NHT for 9/22 and 9/23, as well as Chimney Rock NHS.

All information comes from brochures and signs created by the National Park Service.

*Monday, September 23, 2019*

scotts bluff national monument in nebraska

wanderessence1025 November 19, 2020

We arrived at Scotts Bluff National Monument late Sunday afternoon. The bluff stands out on the landscape along the North Platte River in western Nebraska.

Scotts Bluff is a remnant of the ancestral high plains that were hundreds of feet higher than today’s Great Plains. The layers are like a 10-million-year-timeline showing how the ancient plains developed. Caprock has protected Scotts Bluff from the same fate as adjacent badlands.

We drove to the top and walked along the South and North Overlooks.

Scotts Bluff – South Overlook

Scotts Bluff – North Overlook

Scotts Bluff – South Overlook

Settlers learned the benefits of prairie grasses. In spring, they were used as grazing for livestock. Blue grama and buffalo grass have dense roots that created thick, sturdy sod used to build homes. Grasses hold soil and feed and shelter prairie animals such as black-tailed prairie dogs, mule deer, and the prairie rattlesnake.

The North Platte River Valley has been a prairie pathway for 10,000 years for everyone from American Indians to bison herds. It was called “Me-a-pa-te” by Native Americans, meaning “hill that is hard to go around.”

Through this area passed hunters from the early 1800s. Trappers came in search of “soft gold” – the pelts of fur-bearing animals inhabiting mountains and valleys. Clerk Hiram Scott from the Rocky Mountain Fur Company died near Me-a-pa-te in 1828, thus the name Scotts Bluff.

Fur traders blazed a trail through the mountains to the far west. Their old caravan route became the Oregon Trail, a 2,000 mile roadway to the Pacific Northwest.

Drive down from the summit

From 1841-1869, some 350,000 people joined wagon trains at jumping off points along the Missouri River and set out westward on the California and Oregon trails. Each mile was hard-won in the face of unpredictable weather, violent winds, quicksand, floods, disease, buffalo stampedes, and rarely, Indian attacks.

Once emigrants saw the strange landscape around Scotts Bluff, they knew for sure they were in western lands. Large formations loomed in the distance for days before the wagon trains reached them. Scotts Bluff was one such sight, as was Chimney Rock. Travelers called the large fortress-like vision on the horizon “a Nebraska Gibraltar.” Not many emigrants lingered here, however, as they were wary of an approaching winter. They moved on, grateful to have completed at least a third of their journey.

In the early 1860s, emigrants shared the Oregon Trail with mail and freight carriers, military expeditions, stagecoaches and Pony Express riders.

By 1867, emigrant traffic waned and the coast-to-coast telegraph replaced overland mail routes.

In 1869, when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads linked up at Promontory, Utah, the Oregon Trail fell into disuse.

We also walked along the bottom toward the Oregon National Historic Trail, where we saw wagon trains and good views of Eagle Rock.

Eagle Rock

trail to Oregon National Historic Trail

In the town of Scotts Bluff we found that the Western Sugar Cooperative is the lifeblood of the town. It is made up of 850 sugar beet growers and shareholders. Products include regular granulated and brown sugar and powdered sugar. Sugar beets are grown in a “temperate zone,” which encompasses 11 states including Minnesota, North Dakota and Idaho. Sugar beets provide 55% of the sugar in the U.S. Sugar cane, which makes up the other 45%, is tropical and is grown in four states.

We had dinner at the Flyover Brewing Company. Mike had flights of beer. I had a Festbier, a pale German lager with strong malt flavors and “incredible drinkability.” I had a wild mushroom pizza with olive oil, roasted wild mushrooms, shredded cheese, red onion, fresh herbs and shaved Parmesan. We also had a Burrata Caprese: “You’ve never had it like this: a whole ball of creamy burrata, tomatoes, basil and balsamic reduction.”

Burrata Caprese

Flyover Brewing Company

wild mushroom pizza

*Sunday, September 22, 2019* (The earlier part of this day is here: on journey: rapid city, s.d. to toadstool geologic park to fort robinson state park)

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Overnight in Scotts Bluff, I had a dream that a woman in our neighborhood who had just lost her twenty-six year-old son to a prion disease, a rare kind of encephalitis, had somehow turned into actress Kerry Washington (who played Olivia Hope in Scandal). She was grieving and crying over losing her son. She drove past us crying, and Mike was acting very strange. When I confronted him, he said he was having an affair with her and was going to leave me, but I would be well-provided for. I was walking atop cliffs like Scotts Bluff and thought I might just throw myself off but then I decided I’d just enjoy being free.

A very strange dream!

On Monday morning, Mike had to run to Fat Boys Tire to replace the rear driver’s side tire, which had sprung a leak during our rough drive on the gravel road to Toadstool Geologic Park. Fat Boys had instead patched the tire and it would have to last the rest of my trip.

When we finally got going, we went first to Chimney Rock, which I’ll write about in another post.

After Chimney Rock, we returned to Scotts Bluff as we had felt rushed the evening before and wanted to explore it more.

We drove again to the top and wandered around.

Scotts Bluff South Overlook

Mike wanted to take the Saddle Rock Trail, which gradually descended from the steep slopes of Scotts Bluff to Scotts Spring and the Visitor Center. We agreed I would drive the car down to meet him, otherwise he’d have to climb back up. He could see eroding layers of sandstone, siltstone and volcanic ash exposed along the way, along with intriguing geological features at close range.

Meanwhile I continued to walk around the top of the bluff taking pictures of the interesting rock formations, the plains and the town below.

Scotts Bluff

Below is my National Parks Passport with cancellation stamps for Scotts Bluff for September 22 and 23, 2019.

Cancellation stamps for Scotts Bluff National Monument and the Oregon National Historic Trail (NHT), California NHT, Mormon Pioneer NHT, and Pony Express NHT for 9/22 and 9/23

After leaving Scotts Bluff close to 2:00, we drove nearly two hours to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where we would stay two nights.

*Steps: 9,014, or 3.82 miles*

*Monday, September 23, 2019*

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