John Muir - Father of the National Park System

 

Post by (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Image (C) Doris McCraw

John Muir (1838-1914) was considered the Father of the National Park System and the founder of the Sierra Club.

For more information about the man and his work, a link will be provided at the end of this post. For this post, I'll use his words to give you a sense of who John Muir was.

"Thousands of nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home."

"Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, casing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another."

"Even the blind must enjoy these woods, drinking their fragrance, listening to he music of the winds in their groves, and fingering their flowers and plumes and cones and rightly furrowed boles."

Image (C) Doris McCraw

"Keep close to Nature's heart..."

"The mountains are calling and I must go."

Image (C) Doris McCraw

"The power of the imagination makes us infinite."

"Storms of every sort, torrents, earthquakes, cataclysms, 'convulsions of nature,' etc., however mysterious and lawless at first sight they may seem, are only harmonious notes in the song of creation, varied expressions of God's love."

"Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you."

Image (C) Doris McCraw

Sierra Club Short Biography

National Park Service Biography

Until Next Time

Doris

Angela Raines - Amazon

Doris A. McCraw - Amazon

Upper Missouri River Breaks by Zina Abbott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      I have visited parts of Montana, including driving along the banks of much of the Yellowstone River. However, researching the Upper Missouri River territory in Montana opened a new world about which I knew almost nothing.

Area between yellow arrows approximate location of Upper Missouri River Breaks

     The Missouri River is the longest river in the United States. It flows east and then south for 2, 341 miles from the eastern Centennial range of the Bitterroot Mountains to where it empties into the Mississippi river north of St. Louis, Missouri. It drains over 500,000 square miles of watershed—much of it arid country—including ten states in the United States and two Canadian provinces. One of the great obstacles for any transportation or settlement in this area was the Upper Missouri River Breaks.

      The Upper Missouri River Breaks area is a badlands that starts at about Fort Benton, Montana, in the west and follows the Missouri River for 149 miles east to what is today’s James Kipp Wildlife Recreation Area. For those who like remote territory, this will appeal. It was a region explored by the Lewis and Clark Expedition early in the nineteenth century. The following is what Capt. Clark wrote about the badlands:

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“This country may with propriety, I think, be termed the Deserts of America, as I do not conceive any part can ever be settled, as it is deficient in water, timber, and too steep to be tilled.” 

     In the early days of exploration and riverboat travel, the west-east flow section of the Missouri River was known as the upper Missouri, or northern route of the Missouri. It was shallow, often turbulent, and filled with snags (downed trees with branches that snagged boat bottoms, sometimes called sawyers). The entire Missouri River was known for its ever-shifting sandbars, often submerged mere inches below muddy water that rendered them all but invisible. The upper Missouri River, including the Breaks area, was no exception.

Citadel Rock painted by Karl Bodmer, c.1833

     When it came to riverboat travel, the upper Missouri from Sioux City, Iowa, north soon became restricted to specialized steamboats with very shallow hulls, spoon-shaped bows, and low profiles that allowed them to avoid the worst of the submerged sandbars. They were able travel much farther up the river than the steamboats that plied the other large rivers or even the lower Missouri River. This restriction was not due to legislation, but due to experience received as far too many riverboats with deeper hulls having met their ends in the Muddy Missouri.

Steamboat on neighboring Yellowstone River aground on sandbar. Note snags in front.

     Due to the shallow water level and the river freezing solid in the winter—often as early as November—and not thawing out until late March or April, the most reasonable farthest point for navigation by even the shallowest, lowest profile steamboat was Fort Benton. Fort Benton is considered the most westerly end of the Upper Missouri River Breaks region. Even after the ice began to break up, the threat of it cutting into steamship bottoms was as great as snags. Roustabouts were employed to—among other tasks—keep watch to help the vessels stay clear of ice chunks as well as snags. So it was when steamboats traveled these last 149 miles approaching Fort Benton that they often encountered obstacles that threatened to capsize their vessels, leading possibly to the loss of human life as well as cargo.

     Although many steamboats bound for Fort Benton left in late March or early April with the hope that the snowmelt would raise the river level enough to avoid many of the obstacles, that window when the ability steam all the way to Fort Benton existed did not last the full season. Often, both goods and passengers bound for Fort Benton and points beyond were off-loaded at a place called Cow Island, located at the easterly end of the Breaks region. Although the island is near the southwestern riverbank, it actually served more as a landmark than a landing. The transfer of goods and passengers took place near the mouth of Cow Creek on the northeast riverbank, the bed of which served as one of the few passes through the steep sedimentary rocks, composed predominantly of sandstone and shale. By traveling to the headwaters of the creek, freight trains were able to skirt the northern boundaries of the Breaks region and eventually reach Fort Benton.  

Schultz map, c. early 1900s

     When one reads “Cow Creek,” “Bull Creek,” or “Two Calf Creek” on the old maps, it is important to think “bison” or ‘buffalo,” not “beef.” This was not cattle country. There was insufficient pastureland and water to support raising large herds of livestock. The Upper Missouri River Breaks region served as a migratory route for the herds of bison moving between their northern and southern grazing grounds. They did not stay in the Breaks region long.

     Today, steamboats no longer work their way up and down this treacherous section of what is considered a challenging river from its headwaters to its outlet in the Mississippi River. Instead, to preserve its rugged beauty for future generations, it is now included in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, which was created January 17, 2001. If you wish to visit, plan to take your hiking shoes and survival gear. It is still as wild and rugged as it was 200 years ago when it was first explored by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

 

In my recent release, Hal’sLucky Escape, my hero and heroine, Hal and Marta, travel the upper Missouri River on the steamboat Far West. Although they leave at a good time with expectations their ship will take them all the way to Fort Benton, they discover they must leave the vessel at Cow Island and travel with a freight train through the Upper Missouri River Breaks. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE

 

Sources:

Wikimedia commons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Missouri_River_Breaks_National_Monument

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/montana-canoe-adventure-floating.html

https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/montana-dakotas/upper-missouri-river-breaks

https://www.missouribreaks.org/the-breaks/history/

Gene Stratton Porter

It just wouldn't be summer without reading a book or two by the incredible Gene Stratton-Porter.

Gene was an Indiana native who became a self-trained American author, nature photographer, and naturalist, and pioneer in the film industry.

Born August 17, 1863 near Lagro in Wabash County, Indiana, Geneva Grace Stratton was the twelfth and last child born to Mary and Mark Stratton at the family’s Hopewell Farm. Mart was a Methodist minister and farmer of English descent. Mary was a homemaker of German-Swiss ancestry.

In 1874, when Gene was 12, she moved with her parents and unmarried siblings to Wabash, Indiana. Initially, they resided with her married sister, Anastasia, and her husband, Alvah Taylor, a layer. Gene’s mother died just a few months after the move to Wabash. After that, Gene boarded with various relatives for the next twelve years.

Her early years had not been conducive to schooling, but she developed a strong interest in nature, especially birds. As a young girl, Gene’s father, and brother Leander (whom she called Laddie) taught her to appreciate nature as she roamed around the family farm, observing animals and caring for pets. After the move to Wabash, Gene regularly attended school and became an avid reader. She also began music lessons in banjo, violin, and piano from her sister, Florence, and receive private art lessons from a local instructor. Gene was failing her classes and quit school in her final term of her senior year, later claiming she’d left school to care for Anastasia, who was terminally ill with cancer.

During a trip to Sylvan Lake, Indiana, in 1884, Gene met Charles Porter, a druggist who was thirteen years older than her. After ten months of regularly exchanging letters, they met at another gathering at Sylvan Lake in 1885. They became engaged and wed in 1886. Gene kept her family surname and added her husband’s name after they wed.

Gene and Charles had one child, a daughter named Jeannette, born in 1887 when the Porters lived in Decatur, Indiana. In 1888, Gene persuaded her husband to move to Geneva, Indiana, where he would be closer to his businesses. He initially purchased a small home within walking distance of his drugstore, but when oil was discovered on his land, they built a larger home. At one time, more than sixty oil wells were drilled on their land. The Limberlost Cabin served as their home from 1895 to 1913. Charles traveled while Gene remained at home. Charles had numerous business interests and became a successful businessman. In addition to owning drugstores, he owned farms, a hotel, and a restaurant. Porter invested in the Bank of Geneva in 1895, and Trenton Oil Company.

Gene took pride in her family and home, but opposed the traditional roles of marriage of her era. She maintained her independence through pursuits of lifelong interests in nature. She began writing about these subjects to earn her own income and eventually became a wealthy novelist, nonfiction writer, and film producer. In the early 1900s, Gene was as popular then as J.K. Rowling is today. She wrote 26 books that included novels, nature studies, poetry collections and children’s books. During the years of 1895-1945, only 55 books sold more than a million copies each. Of those, five belonged to Gene. Nine of her novels were made into films, five by Gene Stratton-Porter Productions, one of the first movie and production companies owned by a woman. Gene also wrote for magazines like Good Housekeeping and McCall’s.

Her books were published during a pivotal time in America. The frontier was rapidly fading away. Small communities were turning into industrial centers connected by railroads. And the wilderness she’d loved during her childhood years was all but disappearing. Gene spent her life capturing the landscape before it was nothing more than a distant memory. In later years, her impact on conservation was later compared to the work down by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Her career really began in 1895 when she sent nature photographs she’d made to Recreation magazine. Her first published article, “A New Experience in Millinery,” appeared in the publication’s February 1900 issue. The article highlighted her concerns about harming birds in order to use feathers as hat trims. At the magazine’s request, Gene wrote a photography column called “Camera Notes.” She began doing similar work for natural history magazine Outing in 1901. Soon, she regularly submitted short stories and nature-related material to magazines. 

Her first story, “Laddie, the Princess, and the Pie,” was published in Metropolitan magazine in September 1901. To garner a wider audience, Gene decided to include fictional elements in her writing and began penning novels. Bobbs-Merrill published her first, full-length attributed novel, The Song of the Cardinal (1903), about a red bird living along the Wabash River. The story featured how birds lived in the wild and Gene’s photographs were included. Gene’s publisher believed nature stories would not become as popular as romance novels. Her second novel, Freckles (1904), combined nature and romance and become a bestseller.

In 1909, A Girl of the Limberlost, released and became her best-known work. In the story, Elnora Comstock, a lonely, poor girl living on a farm, goes to the Limberlost Swamp to escape from her troubles. She lands on the idea of collecting and selling moth specimens to pay for an education when her mother refuses to help her. Literary critics called the novel a “well written” and “wholesome story.” I call the story a brilliant combination of desperation, hope, struggle, truth, and the unstoppable power of love. This book was one I read when I was an impressionable teen and it made such an impact on my life. Not only was it so beautifully written with a setting that felt so real I could almost smell the loamy fragrance of the swamp or taste the disappointment on Elnora’s tongue. The vivid details not only brought the place to life, but also the characters. What I learned from Gene and this incredible story definitely influences my writing style, challenging me to write characters and settings that feel real and true, and aren’t easily forgotten.

After years of strenuous work outdoors, battling with the Indiana state government to protect the state’s wetlands, concerned over the events of World War I, Gene checked into a sanitarium in New York for a retreat. She recuperated there for a month before returning to her home at Wildflower Woods. In 1919, after recovering from influenza, she decided to move to Los Angeles. From her California home, Gene continued to write. She founded Gene Stratton-Porter Productions, Inc., one of the first female-owned studios, and worked with film director, James Leo Meehan (her son-in-law), to create films based on her novels.

In 1924, she passed away from injuries sustained in a traffic accident, leaving behind a rich legacy, full of beautiful written stories that continue to touch our hearts even today.

If you've never read her works, I encourage you to check out one of her books. Among my favorites not already mentioned are the Keeper of the Bees and The Magic Garden.

USA Today Bestselling Author Shanna Hatfield is a farm girl who loves to write character-driven romances with relatable heroes and heroines. Her sweet historical and contemporary romances are filled with sarcasm, humor, hope, and hunky heroes.

When Shanna isn’t dreaming up unforgettable characters, twisting plots, or covertly seeking dark, decadent chocolate, she hangs out with her beloved husband, Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna is a member of Western Writers of America and Women Writing the West.

Beat the Heat with Sleigh Bells, Sleighing Songs and Snowflakes

Some say that July is too early to be humming Jingle Bells and daydreaming about snowflakes swirling through a starlit sky. But if a bit of holiday magic helps you survive the summer heat, let's bring on the sleigh bells!


https://americanheritageusa.com/new-designs-and-images/jingle-bells-sheet-music-open-sleigh-ride/

One of the most iconic winter songs of the 19th century is Jingle Bells. Initially published in 1857 under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh," it was written by James Lord Pierpont and quickly found its way into the hearts of Americans. Interestingly, the song makes no mention of Christmas, yet it became a beloved holiday staple after a lively debut at a Thanksgiving service and an encore performance later that December. With its infectious rhythm and vivid imagery, it perfectly captured the merriment of a sleighing party, a popular winter pastime in the snowy towns of the North.

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh,
O’er the hills we go,
Laughing all the way...

In the 19th-century frontier, sleighing songs like "Jingle Bells" and "Over the River and Through the Wood" brought a touch of joy to long winter nights. Their lively rhythms echoed the steady trot of a sleigh horse, while the lyrics painted scenes of snow-covered fields, jingling harness bells, and sweethearts bundled beneath warm blankets. These songs weren’t always about Christmas, but they carried the spirit of simple pleasures, shared laughter, and the quiet hope of love blooming beneath the frost. For settlers facing harsh winters and isolation, a sleighing song was more than music, it was a reminder that joy could still ring out across the snow.

While Jingle Bells remains a seasonal staple today, it was just one of many carols that would have echoed through 19th-century homes, churches, and snowy street corners during the holiday season. Other favorites from that era include:

🎵 "The Bells" (1865) by William Shakespeare Hays
A sentimental sleighing ballad that was printed in several 19th-century songbooks.
Reflects more on the romance and soft jingle of sleigh bells.

🎵 "Over the River and Through the Wood" (1844) by Lydia Maria Child
Though often thought of as a Thanksgiving song, it's unmistakably a sleighing song:
“Over the river and through the wood, to grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh, through the white and drifted snow.”



As a native of Georgia, snow is more of a dream than a reality. However, that doesn't stop me from envisioning drifting snowflakes, the sound of jingling sleigh bells, and a cozy sleigh ride as the perfect romantic setting. My heroine in "A Sleigh Ride for Georgia" feels just as enchanted by this idea. When the man she has been writing to promises her a sleigh ride, she doesn’t picture hauling firewood; instead, she imagines moonlight, mittens, and the kind of magical evening one might find in poetry or hidden within the verses of a Christmas carol.

Free on Kindle Unlimited

A Sleigh Ride for Georgia

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D32LX394

For Georgia, hearing or imagining these familiar carols while curled beside a glowing fire, wrapped in quilts, would bring comfort in the uncertainty of starting over. But life on the frontier rarely follows the script of a romantic ballad. Nor is it wrapped in red ribbon and topped with a bow. Reality, as Georgia soon learns, is often more practical than poetic, especially when it comes to her intended groom.

Still, even the most no-nonsense hero might find himself softening under the influence of carols, candlelight, and the gentle snow that whispers of second chances and unexpected joy.

So this July, while the sun sizzles and ice melts faster than you can sip your lemonade, transport yourself to a simpler time. Let the melodies of a sleighing song fill your mind. Close your eyes and picture snow-covered fields, woolen mittens, and the rhythmic jingle of sleigh bells echoing across a frozen night.

Because, despite the summer heat, visions of romantic sleigh rides and songs of pioneer hearts remind us that holiday magic never goes out of season.

Fire Place Etiquette? Yeah, you betcha!

I know I’ve talked about the duties of servants, maids, odd beauty secrets and old West etiquette in before. But it never gets old. Especially since much of the advice given back then was so outlandish it bears looking at (and laughing at) again now and then. I have an extensive research library and have collected some fun “field-guides” on these subjects ranging from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. And not all were written by women. Did you know there was a Mr. Walsh who wrote a manual of domestic economy in 1856? Someone then updated the book in 1873. He wrote extensively about household management. One tip I found from his book was this advice for women whose clothes have caught fire. According to Mr. Walsh, you should first:

 1. Call for help by ringing the bell. A servant should come. If one doesn’t then you better pray your socks off. My thought, not Mr. Walsh’s.

2. Rip off the clothes that are aflame and pour water on the clothing. The servant should have water in your room for this reason.

3. If this doesn’t stop the flames sit down on the floor in an upright position.

4. Roll oneself in a rug. Every room should have a rug in case of flaming females.

5. Stop wearing fine muslin.

 

Easy for Mr. Walsh to say. And where are the instructions for flaming males? That’s what I want to know. Maybe men never caught fire. And why would they? There was an etiquette rule that dictated gentlemen should never put their backs to the fire while conversing with others. And if one does put their back to a fire, it was considered extremely impolite to warm one’s derriere by raising the coat flaps at an angle of 45°, while the rest of the company in the room was freezing.

The queen of these tomes on cooking and domesticity was, of course, Isabella Beeton. Mrs. Beeton lived from 1836 to 1865. She was the original domestic goddess and published her famous Book of Household Management in 1861. It sold 60,000 copies in the first year, and 2 million copies by 1868. What’s interesting is that her commentary on servants, household management, and cooking are still used as primary sources today. Unfortunately, Mrs. Beeton died in 1865 from an infection during childbirth. Her husband, Samuel Beeton who was also her publisher, kept up the idea that she lived on, since her name was a large source of income. Mr. Beeton published spinoffs and abridged versions of her book to keep up the image that a matronly Mrs. Beaton was still alive and well.

I have a maid, Betsy, who works for Mayor Vander and his wife, Mercy. These characters are from my town of Independence, which is featured in my Holiday Mail-Order Bride Series. She’s the servant that would throw a bucket of water on you if your skirts caught fire or roll you up in a rug herself. Mayor Vander wouldn’t care if he conversed with his back to the fireplace or not. That’s the thing about manners and some of the other things the experts of the day wrote about. Out West folks didn’t pay as much attention to such things. Unless, of course, they were from back east and brought their manners and etiquette with them.

Until Next Time,

Kit

FOOD CHEATS AND THE 1800S: Be very afraid! by Marisa Masterson

https://www.docsteach.org/activities/printactivity/progressive-era-food-regulation

Lately, food dyes and chemicals in food are often in the news. I even heard someone talk about returning to the purity of the foods from bygone eras. Well, some of what folks ate was not all that pure! 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/389842911467779358/

  Take milk, for instance. Healthy milk. In the 1800s, sellers played an awful trick on consumers. Many watered down the milk. They added chalk to restore the white appearance. Formaldehyde, what was used in embalming, went into it to prevent spoiling. Fresh did not describe what they presented to the public. Sadly, this led to infant deaths. One more reason infant mortality was so high at that time. 

https://beavertrust.org/beaver-basics/beaver-history/

  How about sweet vanilla? What could be done to vanilla, right? Well, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a handy cheat was used to replace this. Castoreum, which tastes similar to the flavoring, was highly sought after. Its source? The anal secretions of a beaver! People knew where it came from and wanted it anyhow because of the cheaper cost compared to vanilla. 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pure-Food-and-Drug-Act

  Did the flour go sour? Add ammonium carbonate so the buyer believes it is freshly milled. 

Speaking of flour, white flour was more costly than the brown multi-grain variety. To make white bread, some bakers added chalk. To increase the weight of a loaf, they added pipe clay. 

  So, if those foods could be tainted, how about simply eating candy? No, that was a risk. Lead was used to color it. If the candy was green, it probably contained arsenic. 

  Little wonder the federal government finally stepped in to create the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Before that, states were supposed to supervise what was consumed.

  

Wow! I am beginning to see how blessed my poor but healthy ancestors were to live on a farm and raise their own milk, meat, and vegetables. Perhaps we have slipped backward with our junk foods and fast food today.

NOW AVAILABLE. FREE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED!

Will love force Ike to leave paradise?

Meet Ike Walton, the elusive banker's stepson who disappears into the mountains without a trace. No one in town knows why he left his stepfather's business. One woman will find an answer.

Ike has no intention of revealing his secret. He hides away in the mountains rather than face his only parent’s schemes. Only, Emmaline will force his return to the town where his parent controls too much and too many people.

Emmaline Bradley stares at the mountain every day, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ike returning. He broke her heart when he disappeared the day before their wedding. She is determined to find him and demand an explanation. Gathering her resolve and abducting a preacher, she sets off to where she believes he is hiding.

Arriving at Ike's mountain hideaway, she finds a conflicted man. Will their reunion reignite their plans for a life together, or will it finally give them closure and allow them to move on?

For fans of rugged mountain men and clean romances, this book will keep you hooked until the very end.

• Ø  Spunky heroine.
• Ø  Western adventure and wholesome romance.
• Ø  Guaranteed happy ending.
• Ø  Faith-filled fiction with the theme of redemption.

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