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

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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.)

Eyes of Woman Migrant Near Strathmore, California

Near Strathmore, California. From Wyoming and Missouri. Eight years in California. Working in lemons. “It’s easy for us because we haven’t got a bunch of kids to get drug around.”¹

1. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Feb, 1939. Images retrieved from the Library of Congress, (Accessed October 24, 2016.)
   • www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000002400/PP/
   • www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000002379/PP/
   • www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000002368/PP/
   • www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000002367/PP/

Huts and unemployed, West Houston and Mercer St., Manhattan, October 25, 1935¹

Men sit in front of huts made of salvaged materials, some decorated with pictures, cat plays in front near baby carriage.

Dust Storm in Rolla, Kansas; 05/06/35²

“Darkness came when it hit us. Picture taken from water tower one hundred feet high.”

Over this bridge drought refugees are crossing the Colorado River into California. 1935.³

1. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Huts and unemployed, West Houston and Mercer St., Manhattan.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1935. digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-4fc1-a3d9-e040…; Collection: Changing New York; Date Created: October 25, 1935. (Accessed October 17, 2016.)
2. National Archives, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs. Original Caption: Dust Storm in Rolla, Kansas; 05/06/35; Dear Mr. Roosevelt, Darkness came when it hit us. Picture taken from water tower one hundred feet high. Yours Truly, Chas. P. Williams.” Photo: Massive Dark cloud approaching village in forefront. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/195691 (Accessed October 17, 2016.)
3. Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Over this bridge drought refugees are crossing the Colorado River into California. U.S. 80 / Dorothea Lange, 1935. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2007683523/. (Accessed October 17, 2016.)

Faces Out of Time #18

ca. 1915
B.J. Falk, American, 1853–1925¹

The Faces Out of Time series is being recommenced four years to the day after the last post, Turkish woman, circa 1860-1870.

1. B.J. Falk, American, 1853–1925; Two women seated on bench, interior. ca. 1915; Image retrieved from Eastman Museum collections.eastman.org/objects/342514/two-women-seated-o… and Flickr (George Eastman House) www.flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/3334093628/ (Accessed October 17, 2016.)

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 #16 (plus one) – 2010 trip¹

Lake McConaughy,  August 17, 2007.
The lake had been quite low for many years,
with trees growing in the bay at Lemoyne, Nebraska.

Lemoyne boat ramp on Lake McConaughy. August 17, 2007

Lemoyne, Lake Mcconaughy, Nebraska, July 8, 2010

In later images from Google Street View, all of the trees in the water are dead.

Former Viersen cabin at Lemoyne, Nebraska, July 2010.

I’ve slept many nights in the old, small Viersen family cabin at Lemoyne, Nebraska – the last time in September 1973, when we were on leave before I reported for duty in New London, Connecticut.  We stayed again at Lemoyne in the late 80s when we were visiting my grandfather, who had had his mobile home moved to a lot next to the cabin, but we slept in our own tiny travel trailer. After my grandfather’s passing, the property went to the family of a nephew, who later built a large home on the adjacent property. The shop on the right in the picture is about where the old two hole outhouse was located. Though I’ve never seen it, in the early days of the lake, it was filled to the point that water was almost up to the cabin.

.

References:

• Lake McConaughy
  • Wikipedia
  • I Love Lake Mac – Keith County Visitors Committee
  • The Denver Post – article
  • Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area
  • • Camping Reservations – Reserve America
  • Admiral’s Cove – at Lemoyne
  • Dam Worker Lives to Tell of Being Swept through Construction Drain Pipe at Kingsley Dam
  • Construction of the Tri-County Project – nebraskastudies.org

Endnote:

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. The “plus one” simply indicates that there is one more photo than the normal three in this post.

21^st Century Digital #7

Middle Bay or Mobile Bay Lighthouse, Mobile Bay, Alabama. 2010.¹

Due to high labor costs in the post-Civil-War South, the lighthouse was prefabricated in the North and then shipped to Mobile Point, where it arrived in 1885. The screwpile lighthouse consists of a wooden hexagonal dwelling with a roof that sloped upwards to a centrally located lantern room. The lighthouse is supported by seven legs-one in the middle, and a single leg extending from each corner of the superstructure.²

The light was automated in 1935 and deactivated in 1967.  In 2003, a real-time weather station was added to the lighthouse by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. Still running, the weather station, one of seven in Mobile Bay, samples precipitation, total and quantum solar radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, water depth, and dissolved oxygen. These data can be seen in real-time at www.mymobilebay.com.³

End Notes:

1. Highsmith, Carol M, photographer. Image retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010637365/. (Accessed October 16, 2016.); Medium: 1 photograph : digital, TIFF file, color;  Credit line: The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
2. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010637365/
3. Middle Bay Light – Wikipedia

Art on Sunday #21 and Random Topic #12 (sacrifice)¹

Artist: Julian Scott (1846–1901)
1873.
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 19.5 × 15.5 in (49.5 × 39.4 cm)
Current location: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Gallery Description:

At the age of fifteen, Julian Scott lied about his age to enlist in the Union army. He rose from drummer boy to infantryman, and for his service he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. After his discharge he became an artist, initially focusing on images of heroic moments of sacrifice during the war. He painted this Confederate soldier with dignity. The raised white flag is simultaneously a surrender of the individual, his family, the Confederate cause, and the Southern way of life. The soldier’s wife cradles their infant child, while the enslaved man with them looks away, perhaps envisioning the changes in his own future. Scott imbued this work with respect for his Confederate counterpart, sounding a hopeful note for the future. (Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum )

Notes:

1. This week’s Art on Sunday post was “inspired” by random topic selection “sacrifice” which was searched in Flickr. The image selected was found in my images, uploaded August 3, 2016.

Source:

• Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, Surrender of a Confederate Soldier. (Accessed August 03, 2016.)