Three from the Road #19 – 2010 trip¹

“Ancient Bluff Ruins” on the emigrant trails, near Broadwater, Nebraska, July 9, 2010

This frequently mentioned landmark is the most dramatic and extensive bluff formation along the north side of the North Platte River. These three erosional remnant buttes were named by English Mormon converts who thought they resembled ancient towers, castles and ruins seen in their homeland.²

Courthouse and Jail Rocks

The Oregon-California Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Pony Express Trail and the Sidney-Deadwood Trail all ran near the rocks. The pair of rock formations served as a landmark along the trails for many pioneers traveling west in the 19th century. Many travelers would stray as much as five miles (8 km) from the Oregon Trail just to get a glimpse of the rocks.

Hundreds of westward-bound emigrants mentioned Courthouse Rock (originally also McFarlan’s Castle) in their travel logs and journals. The name “Courthouse” was first used in 1837. In 1845, one traveler described the rock as “resembling the ruins of an old castle [which] rises abruptly from the plain….It is difficult to look upon it and not believe that art had something to do with its construction.³

Chimney Rock National Historic Site

Designated the Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Chimney Rock is one of the most famous and recognizable landmarks for pioneer travelers on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, a symbol of the great western migration. Located approximately four miles south of present-day Bayard, at the south edge of the North Platte River Valley, Chimney Rock is a natural geologic formation, a remnant of the erosion of the bluffs at the edge of the North Platte Valley. A slender spire rises 325 feet from a conical base. The imposing formation, composed of layers of volcanic ash and brule clay dating back to the Oligocene Age (34 million to 23 million years ago), towers 480 feet above the North Platte River Valley.⁴

Endnotes

1. Three from the Road is a series sharing images from places we’ve visited.  Initially, each post included thee images, related by a randomly selected location or topic. Posts now may be random choices or pre-planned sequences.  This post is in a series sequentially sharing images from our 2010 trip west.
2. Ancient Bluff Ruins – Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, National Park Service
3. Courthouse and Jail Rocks – Wikipedia
4. Chimney Rock – National Park Service

References

• Ancient Bluff Ruins
  • Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, National Park Service
• Courthouse and Jail Rocks
  • National Park Service, Scottsbluff National Monument
  • National Park Service, Oregon National Historic Trail
  • Wikipedia
• Chimney Rock
  • National Park Service, Scottsbluff National Monument
  • Wikipedia
  • Nebraska’s popular Chimney Rock eroding, USA Today
  • Wikitravel
  • Latter-Day Saints

Faces Out of Time #20

I am on my third time blogging my way through the American civil war, “stepping through the war with news, diary and journal entries, and more.” Each post, with very few exceptions, includes an image. For news articles, the image may be a thumbnail of the newspaper’s front page. Diary and journal entry posts are usually accompanied by an image of the author, or, in a few instances, some image relevant to the author.

An image of John Beauchamp Jones – the most prolific Confederate diarist – eluded me. While he is included in two antebellum¹ political cartoons,² there seemed to be no other image available.  Finding nothing, I created a generic image from a photo of a 19th century unidentified man to used with Jones’s posts to use for posting during the sesquicentennial years of the civil war.

For this third time blogging through the war, I tried, once more, to find an image of Jones. The search turned into a minor online research project with 65 end notes, published at American Civil War Chronicles (my site) as John Beauchamp Jones.  During the research, I found three image of Jones, one in a group painting and two photographs.

John Beauchamp Jones in George Caleb Bingham’s “Canvassing for a Vote”³

Canvasing for a Vote⁴

John Beauchamp Jones (mid 1840s)⁵

Photograph taken only days before his death in February, 1866, from tuberculosis.⁶

1. Antebellum – occurring or existing before the American civil war. It is derived from Status quo ante bellum, a Latin phrase meaning “the status before the war.”
2. Library of Congress Prints and Photograph catalog: Treeing coons and The patriots getting their beans
3. From Edgar Allan Poe, John Beauchamp Jones, and George Caleb Bingham: Southern Patronage and the Road Not Taken by Robin Grey:
   “Bingham, in fact, is featured as an artist and political stump speaker in Jones’s novel The Life and Adventures of a Country Merchant (1854). Reciprocally, Bingham painted scenes from their lives in Missouri in his famous studies called the Election Series; Stump Speaking (1850 – 51); Canvassing for a Vote (1851 – 52), in which Jones is depicted (the seated figure on the left in the painting accompanying this essay…”
   “This is my own attribution based on photographs of J. B. Jones from various archives. Although other figures in the painting have been identified, this figure has not. It is noted, moreover, in Paul C. Nagel’s George Caleb Bingham that Jones’s autobiographical character Nap Wax (in Life and Adventures of a Country Merchant) was told that ever y citizen in the town was likely to be in the picture or in the Election Series: ‘Me, too, with my pot-belly. I’ve seen the first sketch of it, and it ’ll be a famous picture . . . better than an advertisement.'”
   Read more at Edgar Allan Poe, John Beauchamp Jones, and George Caleb Bingham: Southern Patronage and the Road Not Taken by Robin Grey.
4. Canvasing for a Vote – George Caleb Bingham, 1852, oil on canvas (Google Arts and Culture)
5. Clark Brockman, “John Beauchamp Jones” (master’s thesis, University of South Carolina, 1937) A likeness of Jones when he was editor  and majority owner of the Daily Madisonian during President John Tyler’s administration.  Late in September, 1841, Tyler told a friend, “The Madisonian is the official organ and is now enjoying the Executive patronage.”
6. Clark Brockman, “John Beauchamp Jones” (master’s thesis, University of South Carolina, 1937)

Grandmother of sharecropper family near Cleveland, Mississippi.¹

1. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. June, 1937. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000001328/PP/. (Accessed October 25, 2016.)

Three from the Road #18 – 2010 trip¹

Lake Ogallala sits below Kingsley Dam on its east side in western Nebraska.  Located immediately downstream from Lake McConaughy on the North Platte River in Keith County, it was formed in the late 1930’s when the dredging of materials for the construction of Kingsley Dam resulted in a large borrow pit. Water supplied to Lake Ogallala is primarily from deep-water releases from Lake McConaughy resulting in cold water temperatures ideal for trout.²

Lake Ogallala, at 320 acres, is comparatively small, gentle and sedate. Its protected shoreline wards off winds that would send the big lake into torment. Lake Ogallala’s modern campground is a pay-for-use area, but has all the conveniences electricity, modern restrooms, hot showers and fire grates. Its camper pads are nestled among mature cottonwoods in a serene lakeside setting. On the west side, a more primitive atmosphere prevails at campsites without all the amenities.³

References:

• Lake Ogallala State Recreation Area
  • Nebraska Game and Parks
  • Camping – Reserve America, Nebraska State Parks

End Notes

1. Three from the Road is a series sharing images from places we’ve visited.  Initially, each post included thee images, related by a randomly selected location or topic. Posts now may be random choices or pre-planned sequences.  This post is in a series sequentially sharing images from our 2010 trip west.
2. Lake Ogallala Project Ready to Move Ahead; Environmental Update, Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, Summer 2009 (Accessed 10/15/2016)
3. Lake Ogallala SRA, NE – Reserve America, Nebraska State Parks

Empty barns and idle trucks are found throughout the drought area. Beach, North Dakota. July 1936.¹

Typical farm in drought area. Beach, North Dakota, July 1936.²

John Frederick of Grant County, North Dakota, shows how high his wheat would grow if there were no drought; July 1936.³

1. Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. Empty barns and idle trucks are found throughout the drought area. Beach, North Dakota. July, 1936. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998019575/PP/. (Accessed October 18, 2016.)
2. Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. Typical farm in drought area. Beach, North Dakota. July, 1936. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998019586/PP/. (Accessed October 18, 2016.)
3. Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. John Frederick of Grant County, North Dakota, shows how high his wheat would grow if there were no drought. July, 1936. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998019584/PP/. (Accessed October 18, 2016.)

Faces Out of Time #19

Irish spinner and spinning wheel. County Galway, Ireland²

1. Irish spinner and spinning wheel. County Galway, Ireland. [between and Ca. 1900, ca. 1890] Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002717414/. (Accessed October 18, 2016.) Title from the Detroit Publishing Co., catalogue J foreign section. Detroit, Mich. : Detroit Photographic Company, 1905. Forms part of: Views of Ireland in the Photochrom print collection. Medium: 1 photomechanical print : photochrom, color.

Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:

• fade correction,
• color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
• selected spot and/or scratch removal
• cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
• straighten image

Three from the Road #17 – 2010 trip^a

Top of Windlass Hill, looking down into the hollow
Ash Hollow State Historical Park, Nebraska, July 8, 2010

Ash Hollow

After negotiating the climb up California Hill, the emigrants traveled for 18 miles across the high tableland between the South and North Platte rivers before descending into the North Platte Valley through Ash Hollow. Ash Hollow, one of the major landmarks on the Oregon Trail, was labeled “The Gateway to the- North Platte Valley.” In addition to being a physical landmark, Ash Hollow was one of the most famous campsites on the entire trail, for it offered wood, pure water, and grass for the stock. Wood was a scarce commodity on the treeless great plains and made a pleasant change from burning buffalo chips, and the fresh water from Ash Hollow Springs was a special treat after several weeks of obtaining water from the Platte River. In short, Ash Hollow was an idyllic campsite–an oasis of beauty on the generally drab and dreary Great Platte River Road.

Entrance to Ash Hollow was by way of Windlass Hill, where the Oregon Trail dropped from the high tableland between the rivers into the ravine which formed Ash Hollow. This 25° slope of 300 feet length was the first really steep grade encountered on the Oregon Trail, and the impression made upon emigrants was particularly vivid. The hill was usually negotiated by rough-locking the wagon wheels and using ropes to carefully lower the wagons. An 1849 emigrant complained that it took three hours to safely descend the hill. (The name of Windlass Hill post-dates the emigration period, and there is no evidence that a windlass was ever used to lower wagons down the grade.)¹

Looking down from Windlass Hill, the “ditch” in the center of the image is the eroded trace left from the Oregon/California trail traffic.

Windlass hill is scarred by deeply eroded ruts cut by thousands of wagons sliding downhill with their wheels locked. A paved (but steep) walking trail with outdoor exhibits leads visitors along the ruts to the top of the hill, where hikers are rewarded with a vista of Ash Hollow and the Platte River.²

This ravine on Windlass Hill eroded from the trace left by Oregon/California trail traffic.

Sources:

1. Ash Hollow – Oregon National Historic Trail, Comprehensive Management and Use Plan B1; Comprehensive Management and Use Plan Appendices: Environmental Impact Statement, Issue 3, page 90; National Park Service, 1981 (accessed 10/14/2016)
2. Windlass Hill – National Historic Trails Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guide, Nebraska and Northeastern Colorado, page 51

References:

• Ash Hollow Complex – California National Historic Trail, National Park Service
• Ash Hollow State Historical Park
  • Wikipedia
  • Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
    • YouTube
  • Garden County Visitor’s Committee
  • Nebraska State Historical Society

Notes:

1. Three from the Road is a series sharing images from places we’ve visited.  Initially, each post included thee images, related by a randomly selected location or topic. Posts now may be random choices or pre-planned sequences.  This post is in a series sequentially sharing images from our 2010 trip west.

Art on Sunday #21

Snap Apple Night: All Hallow Eve¹

Snap apple, of Irish origin, is a synonym for apple bobbing, a game in which contestants try to pick apples out of a tub or basin of water, using only their mouth. A variation has the apple hanging by string, with the same goal of picking the apples using only one’s mouth.²

All-hallow Eve by Daniel Maclise³

Maclise revisits Cork —‘ All-hallow Eve’—‘ Scene at Blarney’— His Picture⁴

At this period there lived. in the village of ‘Blarney’ (a very few miles from Cork) the Rev. Matthew Horgan; he was the parish priest, a genial old gentleman, famous for his antiquarian research, and his profound acquaintance with the literature of Ireland.

A man he was to all the country dear,’—

the arbiter to whom all disputes and differences that sprang up in the parish were invariably referred; in fact, he claimed to possess a kind of feudal jurisdiction over his tractable parishioners, and he ‘had his claim allowed.’ It was the invariable custom of the good old priest to invite a large party on ‘All-hallow eve:’ it was a social gathering, where persons of superior position in society were to be found unaffectedly mingling with the poorest peasantry of the parish. Crofton Croker and Maclise were invited to this entertainment, and whilst the young artist, charmed with the novelty of the scene, surrendered himself, heart and soul, to the enjoyments of the night, and joined in the harmless hilarity that prevailed, he contrived to sketch every group in the ‘Barn.’ On his return to London in the beginning of November 1832, he commenced his wonderful picture of ‘All-hallow Eve,’ and he wrought with such unceasing diligence and rapidity, that it was ready for, and appeared in, the Exhibition of 1833. As the earliest specimen in oil, of his powers on a large scale, its appearance produced an almost electrical effect on the public.

• Then Peggy was dancing with Dan,
• While Maureen the lead was melting,
• To prove how her fortunes ran,
• With cards that old Nancy dealt in;
• ..
• There was Kate and her sweetheart Will
• In nuts their true love burning;
• And poor Norah, though smiling still,
• She’d missed the snap-apple turning.

In the fore-ground of the picture several groups appear; the most prominent are a stalwart and openmouthed country boy and a buxom girl, trying to catch the apples which are affixed to the points of the cross-sticks, or ‘snap-apple,’ suspended from the ceiling: near this group a couple are dancing, and on the right are the fiddler and piper: the former has the expression on his face of exquisite torture caused by a young urchin who is slyly tickling his ear with a straw; and as the unhappy musician dare not stop the music, the contortions of his face are most ludicrous. This picture is so well and so widely known by the engraving from it, that a more detailed description will be unnecessary here. It is characterised by, great boldness of touch with simplicity of composition. The grouping and attitudes are most artless and unrestrained, and the entire coup d’œil fraught with beauty and effect.⁵

---

1. Currier & Ives, American, active 1834 – 1907, Snap Apple Night: All-hallow Eve. Image retrieved from (Photo credit:) Yale University Art Gallery  (Accessed October 19, 2016)
2. Apple bobbing (Wikipedia): In Ireland, mainly County Kerry, it is known as “Snap Apple”, and in Newfoundland and Labrador, “Snap Apple Night” is a synonym for Halloween. A variation of the game exists, with the apples hung on string on a line, rather than in a bowl of water. (Accessed October 20)
3. “All-hallow Eve,” painting, oil on canvas, in private collection. (Despite extensive searching, I was unable to find a high quality, higher resolution image.)
4.  A Memoir of Daniel Maclise, R.A.; pp. 46-48; W. Justin O’Driscoll, Barrister-at-Law; London: Longman’s, Green, and Co., 1871
5. The principal characters are portraits of Sir W. Scott, Crofton Croker, the Sisters of the Artist, ‘Perceval Banks (who was married to Anne, the younger sister), and the Old Clergyman, who appears in the back-ground, compelling two of his ‘Boys,’ who had been trying their shillelahs on each other’s heads, to shake hands and be friends.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign #8

Camped in the rain behind billboard: three families, fourteen children. On U.S. 99. Near Famosa, Kern County, California. Nov, 1939¹

A rather ironic photo by Dorothea Lange juxtaposes the extreme poverty of migrant workers with the relative luxury offered by passenger trains of the 1930s.

1. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/fsa2000004591/PP/. (Accessed October 16, 2016.)