Rick Just's Blog, page 199
May 9, 2019
Signing your Name in Nature
My father was an unrepentant creator of arboglyphs. He probably didn’t give it a second thought. It was simply his practice to carve his initials in the bark of quaking aspens from time to time when he was in the hills in the Blackfoot River country of Southeastern Idaho.
He probably knew that Basque sheepherders did the same thing across the southern part of the state. It’s a way to say “I was here.”
The Basques left initials and dates in the tree bark, but often added their hometown, images of churches, and other figures.
The three arboglyph photos shown are in the Basque Museum in Boise, which is well worth the hour you’ll spend there next time you’re in town.
#idahohistory #basquehistory #arboglyph
He probably knew that Basque sheepherders did the same thing across the southern part of the state. It’s a way to say “I was here.”
The Basques left initials and dates in the tree bark, but often added their hometown, images of churches, and other figures.
The three arboglyph photos shown are in the Basque Museum in Boise, which is well worth the hour you’ll spend there next time you’re in town.
#idahohistory #basquehistory #arboglyph
May 8, 2019
See You in the Funnies
Idaho has been the home for some nationally and internationally syndicated cartoonists.
The daily comic strip called Redeye ran in more than 400 newspapers from 1967 to 2008. Gordon Bess started the strip when he worked for a Cincinnati greeting card company. He’d grown up in Idaho and was pleased that he was able to move back to Boise when the strip became a success.
Bess let Idaho slip into the strip from time to time. He had a special love for the Owyhees, and many of his backgrounds were reminiscent of that mountain range. And, although the horse in Redeye didn’t sport spots, he once told me he thought of Loco as an Appaloosa, the Idaho state horse.
Redeye ran in 20 different countries and was especially popular in Europe. Bess received the Alfred Award in France for the best foreign humor strip in 1976. The cartoonist retired in 1988 and passed away in 1989. The strip went on until 2008, drawn by other artists.
Steve Moore, the cartoonist who created the In the Bleachers single-panel cartoon that appears on many sports pages, lived in Boise for a few years. It was during the time he was working on his animated movie Open Season . He once said that living in Idaho gave him some fodder for the movie. Moore was also one of the creators of the Alpha and Omega movie series. He no longer does daily cartoon work because of a debilitating disease, but he’s still active in film projects and books.
Todd Clark’s work is seen daily all over the country. The Boise cartoonist’s strip Lola is about a grandmother who is full of surprises. She’s patterned after the great aunt of cartoonist Steve Dickerson, who started the stirp in partnership with Clark. Clark now does it on his own. You might be surprised to learn that cartoonists sometimes write the setups for each other’s strips. Clark writes occasional strips for Sherman's Lagoon, Mother Goose & Grimm, Frank and Ernest, Tundra, B.C., Wizard of Id, Baby Blues, and Zits.
Boise finds its way into Lola frequently. Watch for BSU coffee mugs and other references.
#idahohistory #comicshistory #stevedickerson #toddclark #lola #stevemoore #gordonbess #redeye
The daily comic strip called Redeye ran in more than 400 newspapers from 1967 to 2008. Gordon Bess started the strip when he worked for a Cincinnati greeting card company. He’d grown up in Idaho and was pleased that he was able to move back to Boise when the strip became a success.
Bess let Idaho slip into the strip from time to time. He had a special love for the Owyhees, and many of his backgrounds were reminiscent of that mountain range. And, although the horse in Redeye didn’t sport spots, he once told me he thought of Loco as an Appaloosa, the Idaho state horse.
Redeye ran in 20 different countries and was especially popular in Europe. Bess received the Alfred Award in France for the best foreign humor strip in 1976. The cartoonist retired in 1988 and passed away in 1989. The strip went on until 2008, drawn by other artists.
Steve Moore, the cartoonist who created the In the Bleachers single-panel cartoon that appears on many sports pages, lived in Boise for a few years. It was during the time he was working on his animated movie Open Season . He once said that living in Idaho gave him some fodder for the movie. Moore was also one of the creators of the Alpha and Omega movie series. He no longer does daily cartoon work because of a debilitating disease, but he’s still active in film projects and books.
Todd Clark’s work is seen daily all over the country. The Boise cartoonist’s strip Lola is about a grandmother who is full of surprises. She’s patterned after the great aunt of cartoonist Steve Dickerson, who started the stirp in partnership with Clark. Clark now does it on his own. You might be surprised to learn that cartoonists sometimes write the setups for each other’s strips. Clark writes occasional strips for Sherman's Lagoon, Mother Goose & Grimm, Frank and Ernest, Tundra, B.C., Wizard of Id, Baby Blues, and Zits.
Boise finds its way into Lola frequently. Watch for BSU coffee mugs and other references.
#idahohistory #comicshistory #stevedickerson #toddclark #lola #stevemoore #gordonbess #redeye
May 7, 2019
A Horse is a Horse, of Course, of Course
Idaho is horse country and has been for more than 250 years. Idaho even stakes a claim to a breed of horse, the appaloosa.
The appaloosa horse can be traced back at least to the Mongols in ancient China. It is the oldest identifiable breed of horse. It wasn’t called the appaloosa until it became associated with a place that would become Idaho. There horses were well known on the Palouse prairie of northern Idaho, and over the years those Palouse horses, became appaloosas.
The spotted horses came to the Northwest by way of Mexico. Spanish conquistadors lost or traded away enough of them to assure thriving herds in the new world. The Shoshone Tribe had them first, but it was the Nez Perce who perfected the breed.
Horses gave the Nez Perce a greatly expanded range, and produced a whole new way of living for them. They became buffalo hunters, and developed trade relationships with other tribes far removed from their traditional range.
The appaloosa breed was nearly lost when the great Nez Perce herds were split up and scattered following the Nez Perce War. An ambitious plan to save the horses brought the breed back from near extinction in the 1930s.
Today, thousands of the tough little horses with spotted blankets on their rear quarters can be seen in Idaho and around the world. If you visit Moscow, Idaho, don’t miss the Appaloosa Museum, where you can learn the complete story of the breed that became Idaho’s State Horse in 1975.
The appaloosa horse can be traced back at least to the Mongols in ancient China. It is the oldest identifiable breed of horse. It wasn’t called the appaloosa until it became associated with a place that would become Idaho. There horses were well known on the Palouse prairie of northern Idaho, and over the years those Palouse horses, became appaloosas.
The spotted horses came to the Northwest by way of Mexico. Spanish conquistadors lost or traded away enough of them to assure thriving herds in the new world. The Shoshone Tribe had them first, but it was the Nez Perce who perfected the breed.
Horses gave the Nez Perce a greatly expanded range, and produced a whole new way of living for them. They became buffalo hunters, and developed trade relationships with other tribes far removed from their traditional range.
The appaloosa breed was nearly lost when the great Nez Perce herds were split up and scattered following the Nez Perce War. An ambitious plan to save the horses brought the breed back from near extinction in the 1930s.
Today, thousands of the tough little horses with spotted blankets on their rear quarters can be seen in Idaho and around the world. If you visit Moscow, Idaho, don’t miss the Appaloosa Museum, where you can learn the complete story of the breed that became Idaho’s State Horse in 1975.
May 6, 2019
Two-Gun Bob had a Dog
Robert Limbert was a renaissance man of the West. He was a taxidermist, a hunting guide, an exhibit designer, an explorer, a writer, a photographer, and a tireless promoter of Idaho. Limbert was known as “Two-Gun Bob” when he was demonstrating his shooting skills for an audience. He built Redfish Lake Lodge, and on and on… More stories to follow, but today’s story is a little footnote (you’ll forgive me for that one, maybe?) in his most famous accomplishment.
Limbert was the man who explored what we now know as Craters of the Moon, and wrote the 25-page article that appeared in National Geographic in 1924 that intrigued the nation enough for Calvin Coolidge to proclaim it a national monument later that year. The article is available online and includes many of Lambert’s pictures that are still stunning today.
The National Geographic article documented a trip he and a friend took across the forbidding black desert. Here’s the cavalier way he described it:
“One morning in May W. L. Cole and I, both of Boise, Idaho, left Minidoka, packing on our backs bedding. an aluminum cook outfit, a 5 x 7 camera and tripod, binoculars, and supplies sufficient for two weeks, making a total pack each of 55 pounds.”
And now, to the footnote:
“We also took with us an Airedale terrier for a camp dog. This was a mistake, for after three days' travel his feet were worn raw and bleeding. In some places it was necessary to carry him or sit and wait while he picked his way across.”
The dog of the adventure was not named Scout, or Hercules, or Intrepid. He was named Teddy. He was mentioned once more in the article: “The dog was in terrible shape also: it was pitiful to watch him as he hobbled after us.”
Left at what Limbert wrote for National Geographic you might think he just watched his companion animal suffer. He did much more than that for the Airedale. He cut up clothing to make booties for the dog, then did it again when they wore out.
The three of them—two men and a dog—covered 80 miles in 17 days.
The picture below, which appeared in National Geographic, is “a lava spout in Vermilion Canyon.” Teddy is resting to the right while Limbert and Cole pose for the picture. Limbert was the photographer. He was in most of the pictures he took of the expedition, which were apparently shot using a timer or remote shutter release. Limbert was a tireless promoter of Idaho, and of Robert Limbert, for which we should be glad. The photo comes from the Robert Limbert papers, Boise State University Library, Special Collections and Archives.
#two-gunbob #robertlimbert #cratersofthemoon
Limbert was the man who explored what we now know as Craters of the Moon, and wrote the 25-page article that appeared in National Geographic in 1924 that intrigued the nation enough for Calvin Coolidge to proclaim it a national monument later that year. The article is available online and includes many of Lambert’s pictures that are still stunning today.
The National Geographic article documented a trip he and a friend took across the forbidding black desert. Here’s the cavalier way he described it:
“One morning in May W. L. Cole and I, both of Boise, Idaho, left Minidoka, packing on our backs bedding. an aluminum cook outfit, a 5 x 7 camera and tripod, binoculars, and supplies sufficient for two weeks, making a total pack each of 55 pounds.”
And now, to the footnote:
“We also took with us an Airedale terrier for a camp dog. This was a mistake, for after three days' travel his feet were worn raw and bleeding. In some places it was necessary to carry him or sit and wait while he picked his way across.”
The dog of the adventure was not named Scout, or Hercules, or Intrepid. He was named Teddy. He was mentioned once more in the article: “The dog was in terrible shape also: it was pitiful to watch him as he hobbled after us.”
Left at what Limbert wrote for National Geographic you might think he just watched his companion animal suffer. He did much more than that for the Airedale. He cut up clothing to make booties for the dog, then did it again when they wore out.
The three of them—two men and a dog—covered 80 miles in 17 days.
The picture below, which appeared in National Geographic, is “a lava spout in Vermilion Canyon.” Teddy is resting to the right while Limbert and Cole pose for the picture. Limbert was the photographer. He was in most of the pictures he took of the expedition, which were apparently shot using a timer or remote shutter release. Limbert was a tireless promoter of Idaho, and of Robert Limbert, for which we should be glad. The photo comes from the Robert Limbert papers, Boise State University Library, Special Collections and Archives.
#two-gunbob #robertlimbert #cratersofthemoon
May 5, 2019
50 Years Hence
In 1921, the folks at the Idaho Statesman were feeling optimistic. They devoted a page and half to how grand Boise would be “Fifty Years Hence.” The article was full of “Predictions, based on scientific calculations and (the) law of averages.”
We’re just shy of a hundred years “hence,” so let’s see how well the prognosticators—various leading citizens--did.
Architect J.A. Fennel predicted hourly air service by 1971. That was probably correct. Some of his vision sounds familiar today. “The visitor will observe from his cab window a beautiful residential section festooning the hills, with wonderful winding driveways.” We can only wish his next prediction had come true. “The absence of parked automobiles from the streets will be accounted for by the fact that under-the-street garages or storage spaces have been provided.”
W.H.P. Hill, secretary of the Boise Chamber of Commerce expected 300,000 people to be living in Boise by 1971. It was closer to 75,000. Stay tuned, though. We aren’t far from Hill’s mark today. The chamber exec pointed out that Boise had the first tourist park for automobiles, and that he expected the future to bring an “Aero Tourist park with its perfect landing fields and accommodations for hundreds of flying machines and thousands of passengers.”
J.P. Congdon envisioned flying into Boise and seeing that “Both banks of the river have been very prettily parked and there are miles and miles of good driveways in them. Checks have been placed in the river to provide boating and bathing facilities.” He came the closest to guessing the 1971 population of Boise: 100,000.
Dora Thompson, the supervisor of schools in Boise, expected “well-proportioned business edifices, free from all advertising matter, and elegant in their simplicity of line and decoration.” She also predicted “Noiseless electric trains running without track or third rail.” She envisioned a magical device that would free the air from “noisome odors and flecks of begriming soot, for all the smoke of the city will be consumed in a municipally owned plant operated for that purpose.”
One prediction Ms. Thompson made had a sting it: “Boise will not be true to her name ‘wooded’ 50 years hence, however, if a city forester is not appointed in the near future, since trees are being cut ruthlessly and new ones are not being planted systematically.”
Perhaps the elected officials of the city heeded her call. Today we have a city forester and the nickname City of Trees.
What would you predict “50 years hence?”
We’re just shy of a hundred years “hence,” so let’s see how well the prognosticators—various leading citizens--did.
Architect J.A. Fennel predicted hourly air service by 1971. That was probably correct. Some of his vision sounds familiar today. “The visitor will observe from his cab window a beautiful residential section festooning the hills, with wonderful winding driveways.” We can only wish his next prediction had come true. “The absence of parked automobiles from the streets will be accounted for by the fact that under-the-street garages or storage spaces have been provided.”
W.H.P. Hill, secretary of the Boise Chamber of Commerce expected 300,000 people to be living in Boise by 1971. It was closer to 75,000. Stay tuned, though. We aren’t far from Hill’s mark today. The chamber exec pointed out that Boise had the first tourist park for automobiles, and that he expected the future to bring an “Aero Tourist park with its perfect landing fields and accommodations for hundreds of flying machines and thousands of passengers.”
J.P. Congdon envisioned flying into Boise and seeing that “Both banks of the river have been very prettily parked and there are miles and miles of good driveways in them. Checks have been placed in the river to provide boating and bathing facilities.” He came the closest to guessing the 1971 population of Boise: 100,000.
Dora Thompson, the supervisor of schools in Boise, expected “well-proportioned business edifices, free from all advertising matter, and elegant in their simplicity of line and decoration.” She also predicted “Noiseless electric trains running without track or third rail.” She envisioned a magical device that would free the air from “noisome odors and flecks of begriming soot, for all the smoke of the city will be consumed in a municipally owned plant operated for that purpose.”
One prediction Ms. Thompson made had a sting it: “Boise will not be true to her name ‘wooded’ 50 years hence, however, if a city forester is not appointed in the near future, since trees are being cut ruthlessly and new ones are not being planted systematically.”
Perhaps the elected officials of the city heeded her call. Today we have a city forester and the nickname City of Trees.
What would you predict “50 years hence?”
May 4, 2019
A Football Hero
Here's a trivia question for you. Where did the man named the outstanding guard in the history of professional football grow up? Idaho, of course, but which town?
Football fans got this one right away. Jerry Kramer, who was named the outstanding guard in the history of professional football back in 1969, grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho. Kramer attended high school there, then went on to the University of Idaho, where he was a business major and, of course, football player.
Kramer was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the fourth round of the 1958 NFL draft. He became a legendary guard with the team when he blocked Jethro Pugh in a do-or-die effort that allowed Bart Starr to make a winning touchdown and clinch the NFL championship in 1967.
The Packers called on Kramer's versatility in 1962 when their placekicker was injured. Jerry Kramer made nine of eleven field goal attempts and 38 of 39 extra points. Not a bad effort for a fill-in place-kicker.
Before retiring in 1968, Kramer played on five championship teams, was named All-Pro five times, and participated in three Pro Bowls. He played for the Packers in the first two Super Bowls. The team won them both.
After appearing as a finalist for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ten times, and is a member of the NFL's 50th Anniversary All-Time team. For many years he was the only member of that team not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was nominated ten times. Finally, at age 82, he got that well-deserved honor in 2018.
Kramer wrote several books about his football career, including Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer.
Football fans got this one right away. Jerry Kramer, who was named the outstanding guard in the history of professional football back in 1969, grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho. Kramer attended high school there, then went on to the University of Idaho, where he was a business major and, of course, football player.
Kramer was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the fourth round of the 1958 NFL draft. He became a legendary guard with the team when he blocked Jethro Pugh in a do-or-die effort that allowed Bart Starr to make a winning touchdown and clinch the NFL championship in 1967.
The Packers called on Kramer's versatility in 1962 when their placekicker was injured. Jerry Kramer made nine of eleven field goal attempts and 38 of 39 extra points. Not a bad effort for a fill-in place-kicker.
Before retiring in 1968, Kramer played on five championship teams, was named All-Pro five times, and participated in three Pro Bowls. He played for the Packers in the first two Super Bowls. The team won them both.
After appearing as a finalist for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ten times, and is a member of the NFL's 50th Anniversary All-Time team. For many years he was the only member of that team not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was nominated ten times. Finally, at age 82, he got that well-deserved honor in 2018.
Kramer wrote several books about his football career, including Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer.
May 3, 2019
Bomb Balloons over Idaho
I was listening to Radio Lab on NPR recently when the words “Rigby, Idaho” caught my attention. The program was about the Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs that were used briefly during World War II in a largely unsuccessful attack on the United States. How unsuccessful? Most people didn’t even know it was happening.
Japanese school children were key to the effort. They spent thousands of hours gluing together 600 pieces of tissue-thin paper to make the 33-foot diameter balloons. About 9,300 balloons were launched in Japan into the jet stream. Filled with hydrogen, the 70-foot-tall balloons were equipped with a mechanism that released sandbags when the barometric pressure indicated when it was time to lighten the load. It took about six days to drop all the bags. At that time the balloons were supposed to be across the Pacific and over the U.S. where they were to drop bombs randomly on the country. The bomb balloons were launched from late 1944 into early 1945. About 300 of them made it to the U.S.
Some of the bombs exploded and some touched down without going off. The press cooperated with the government, keeping sightings out of the papers to avoid a public panic and keep targeting information from the enemy, until May 5, 1945. On that day, one Fu-Go, or “fire balloon” bumped down near Bly, Oregon, where six picnickers from a local church found it and accidentally set it off. The pastor’s pregnant wife and five children from other families were killed in the blast. Newspapers across the country carried that story, with warnings to stay away from bombs and balloons if they were sighted.
What about that balloon bomb near Rigby? It was one of several found in Idaho. One was found between Hollister and Rogerson, one near Hailey, one near Boise, one near Gilmore, and several in the American Falls area. There were no reports of explosions anywhere in the state.
At least two of the balloon bombs came close to important targets. One landed harmlessly in a duck pond near U.S. war ships at the Mare Island, California navy yard. Another balloon got tangled in power lines outside the secret Hanford, Washington facility where fuel was being refined for the atomic bomb that would later be dropped on Nagasaki.
Illustration from Smithsonian Annals of Flight, Number 9.
Japanese school children were key to the effort. They spent thousands of hours gluing together 600 pieces of tissue-thin paper to make the 33-foot diameter balloons. About 9,300 balloons were launched in Japan into the jet stream. Filled with hydrogen, the 70-foot-tall balloons were equipped with a mechanism that released sandbags when the barometric pressure indicated when it was time to lighten the load. It took about six days to drop all the bags. At that time the balloons were supposed to be across the Pacific and over the U.S. where they were to drop bombs randomly on the country. The bomb balloons were launched from late 1944 into early 1945. About 300 of them made it to the U.S.
Some of the bombs exploded and some touched down without going off. The press cooperated with the government, keeping sightings out of the papers to avoid a public panic and keep targeting information from the enemy, until May 5, 1945. On that day, one Fu-Go, or “fire balloon” bumped down near Bly, Oregon, where six picnickers from a local church found it and accidentally set it off. The pastor’s pregnant wife and five children from other families were killed in the blast. Newspapers across the country carried that story, with warnings to stay away from bombs and balloons if they were sighted.
What about that balloon bomb near Rigby? It was one of several found in Idaho. One was found between Hollister and Rogerson, one near Hailey, one near Boise, one near Gilmore, and several in the American Falls area. There were no reports of explosions anywhere in the state.
At least two of the balloon bombs came close to important targets. One landed harmlessly in a duck pond near U.S. war ships at the Mare Island, California navy yard. Another balloon got tangled in power lines outside the secret Hanford, Washington facility where fuel was being refined for the atomic bomb that would later be dropped on Nagasaki.
Illustration from Smithsonian Annals of Flight, Number 9.
May 2, 2019
Fake News is not New
Here’s what we know:
In 1831, four Nez Perce arrived in St. Louis seeking a man the tribe had met 25 years earlier, William Clark. What they sought wasn’t entirely clear, because the only person who knew any words in the language of the Nez Perce was Clark, and he didn’t remember much from that long-ago expedition. We also know that a few weeks after their arrival, the two older men, Black Eagle and Speaking Eagle, became ill and died, though not before being baptized by Catholics. Their younger companions stayed the winter and left for home the following spring aboard the steamer Yellowstone on its way up the Missouri River. At some point on that trip, George Catlin painted the surviving men, who were in their 20s. In the Catlin images below that is No Horns on His Head on the left and Rabbit Skin Leggings on the right. No Horns on His Head succumbed to disease on the trip home. Rabbit Skin Leggings may have made it back, or he may have been killed by Blackfeet before reaching home.
Here’s what’s fishy:
FISH TALE ONE. The journey the men made is fuzzily famous, mostly because of two accounts of their visit. The first was given by William Walker and quoted in the March 1, 1833, edition of the Christian Advocate by his friend G.P. Disoway, the secretary of the Methodist Board of Foreign Missions. Walker described meeting three of the Indians in St. Louis, and he told of their overwhelming desire to secure a copy of “a book containing directions of how to conduct themselves” that members of the Corps of Discovery had talked about when they met the Nez Perce. Disoway argued that the Indians were clearly seeking the wisdom of the Bible.
Walker, who allegedly met the Indians, went on to describe them in detail. He said they were “small in size, delicately formed, small hands, and the most exact symmetry throughout, except the head.” The unusual thing about their heads, you see, was that their foreheads had been flattened and sloped radically back in the manner of the Flathead people.
There are several points that make this story difficult to swallow. First, recall that no one knew the language of the Nez Perce so communication of complex concepts would have been difficult. Next, they were Nez Perce, not Flatheads, and the “Flatheads” didn’t practice the head flattening custom in the first place. The rest of Walker’s description was also wrong, as the men were not small and delicate at all. Finally, records show that Walker was not in St. Louis at the time of the visit, so could not have met them.
FISH TALE TWO. An unidentified man supposedly overheard a little speech given by one of the Nez Perce when they left St. Louis. In part, it reads, “I came to you, the Great Father of white men, but with one eye partly opened. I am to return to my people, beyond the mountains of snow, at the setting sun, with both eyes in darkness and both arms broken. I came for teachers and am going back without them. I came to you for the Book of God. You have not led me to it… And I am to return to my people to die in darkness.”
The speech reads like the trumped-up eloquence of a storyteller, not like the words of a young man who could not speak English. Also, if they could make their wishes known so plainly, why didn’t someone just give them a Bible? The question of how they were hoping to read it might come up, but surely Bibles were not in short supply in St. Louis.
Whatever reason the Nez Perce delegation had for seeking William Clark in St. Louis (he didn’t bother to mention the visit in his journals), the myth that grew up around it had an important effect. It triggered the missionary movement to the West, starting with the Spaldings and Whitmans leaving in 1836 to make their missions in Oregon Country (present-day Idaho and Washington State).
#idahohistory #nezperce #lewisandclark
In 1831, four Nez Perce arrived in St. Louis seeking a man the tribe had met 25 years earlier, William Clark. What they sought wasn’t entirely clear, because the only person who knew any words in the language of the Nez Perce was Clark, and he didn’t remember much from that long-ago expedition. We also know that a few weeks after their arrival, the two older men, Black Eagle and Speaking Eagle, became ill and died, though not before being baptized by Catholics. Their younger companions stayed the winter and left for home the following spring aboard the steamer Yellowstone on its way up the Missouri River. At some point on that trip, George Catlin painted the surviving men, who were in their 20s. In the Catlin images below that is No Horns on His Head on the left and Rabbit Skin Leggings on the right. No Horns on His Head succumbed to disease on the trip home. Rabbit Skin Leggings may have made it back, or he may have been killed by Blackfeet before reaching home.
Here’s what’s fishy:
FISH TALE ONE. The journey the men made is fuzzily famous, mostly because of two accounts of their visit. The first was given by William Walker and quoted in the March 1, 1833, edition of the Christian Advocate by his friend G.P. Disoway, the secretary of the Methodist Board of Foreign Missions. Walker described meeting three of the Indians in St. Louis, and he told of their overwhelming desire to secure a copy of “a book containing directions of how to conduct themselves” that members of the Corps of Discovery had talked about when they met the Nez Perce. Disoway argued that the Indians were clearly seeking the wisdom of the Bible.
Walker, who allegedly met the Indians, went on to describe them in detail. He said they were “small in size, delicately formed, small hands, and the most exact symmetry throughout, except the head.” The unusual thing about their heads, you see, was that their foreheads had been flattened and sloped radically back in the manner of the Flathead people.
There are several points that make this story difficult to swallow. First, recall that no one knew the language of the Nez Perce so communication of complex concepts would have been difficult. Next, they were Nez Perce, not Flatheads, and the “Flatheads” didn’t practice the head flattening custom in the first place. The rest of Walker’s description was also wrong, as the men were not small and delicate at all. Finally, records show that Walker was not in St. Louis at the time of the visit, so could not have met them.
FISH TALE TWO. An unidentified man supposedly overheard a little speech given by one of the Nez Perce when they left St. Louis. In part, it reads, “I came to you, the Great Father of white men, but with one eye partly opened. I am to return to my people, beyond the mountains of snow, at the setting sun, with both eyes in darkness and both arms broken. I came for teachers and am going back without them. I came to you for the Book of God. You have not led me to it… And I am to return to my people to die in darkness.”
The speech reads like the trumped-up eloquence of a storyteller, not like the words of a young man who could not speak English. Also, if they could make their wishes known so plainly, why didn’t someone just give them a Bible? The question of how they were hoping to read it might come up, but surely Bibles were not in short supply in St. Louis.
Whatever reason the Nez Perce delegation had for seeking William Clark in St. Louis (he didn’t bother to mention the visit in his journals), the myth that grew up around it had an important effect. It triggered the missionary movement to the West, starting with the Spaldings and Whitmans leaving in 1836 to make their missions in Oregon Country (present-day Idaho and Washington State).
#idahohistory #nezperce #lewisandclark
May 1, 2019
Idaho's First Woman in Congress
Born Gracie Bowers in 1906 in Harrison, Arkansas, no one would have predicted that she would one day get the nickname “Hell’s Belle” while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from Idaho’s 1st Congressional District.
Gracie’s family moved to an Idaho farm near Meridian when she was five. In 1922 she quit high school to take a job in Nampa as a milk analyst. A year later, Gracie married a man twice her age, Jack Pfost, who was her supervisor.
Though Gracie Pfost never graduated from high school, she did go on to get a degree from Links Business College. That helped her become deputy county clerk in Canyon County. She ran for auditor and won, and then ran fortreasurer. She won that office, too, and became the biggest vote-getter, even though she was a Democrat in a Republican county.
The Democrats took notice of her ability to win votes across party lines and talked her into running for Congress in 1950. She lost. Then, in 1952 she ran again against Congressman John Travers Wood, narrowly defeating him. The first female member of Congress from Idaho, she was reelected in 1954, 1956, 1958, and 1960, winning by a bigger margin every time.
In the book Conversations , edited by Susan Stacy, Idaho Congressman Ralph Harding remembered how the Republicans put up the mayor of Caldwell, Erwin Schweibert, to run against Pfost in 1960. His campaign hammered on the theme that Idaho needed a strong, energetic man as a representative. While both were campaigning in North Idaho, Gracie challenged the strong, energetic man to a log-rolling contest during Lumber Jack Days. She sank his campaign when Gracie quickly dumped him into the river.
Pfost got the nickname “Hell’s Belle” in her first year in Congress by aggressively advocating for a single high dam on the Snake River in Hells Canyon. Ultimately that proposal went down to defeat, replaced by the three-dam complex we have today, Brownlee, Oxbow, and Hells Canyon.
Pfost ran for Senate in 1962 against powerhouse Senator Len B. Jordan, losing the race narrowly. She worked for the Federal Housing Administration after leaving Congress. Gracie Pfost died in 1965 at the age of 59 from Hodgkins disease.
Representative Gracie Pfost. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society Digital Collection.
Gracie’s family moved to an Idaho farm near Meridian when she was five. In 1922 she quit high school to take a job in Nampa as a milk analyst. A year later, Gracie married a man twice her age, Jack Pfost, who was her supervisor.
Though Gracie Pfost never graduated from high school, she did go on to get a degree from Links Business College. That helped her become deputy county clerk in Canyon County. She ran for auditor and won, and then ran fortreasurer. She won that office, too, and became the biggest vote-getter, even though she was a Democrat in a Republican county.
The Democrats took notice of her ability to win votes across party lines and talked her into running for Congress in 1950. She lost. Then, in 1952 she ran again against Congressman John Travers Wood, narrowly defeating him. The first female member of Congress from Idaho, she was reelected in 1954, 1956, 1958, and 1960, winning by a bigger margin every time.
In the book Conversations , edited by Susan Stacy, Idaho Congressman Ralph Harding remembered how the Republicans put up the mayor of Caldwell, Erwin Schweibert, to run against Pfost in 1960. His campaign hammered on the theme that Idaho needed a strong, energetic man as a representative. While both were campaigning in North Idaho, Gracie challenged the strong, energetic man to a log-rolling contest during Lumber Jack Days. She sank his campaign when Gracie quickly dumped him into the river.
Pfost got the nickname “Hell’s Belle” in her first year in Congress by aggressively advocating for a single high dam on the Snake River in Hells Canyon. Ultimately that proposal went down to defeat, replaced by the three-dam complex we have today, Brownlee, Oxbow, and Hells Canyon.
Pfost ran for Senate in 1962 against powerhouse Senator Len B. Jordan, losing the race narrowly. She worked for the Federal Housing Administration after leaving Congress. Gracie Pfost died in 1965 at the age of 59 from Hodgkins disease.
Representative Gracie Pfost. Photo courtesy of the Idaho State Historical Society Digital Collection.
April 30, 2019
Pop Quiz
Below is a little Idaho trivia quiz. If you’ve been following Speaking of Idaho, you might do very well. Caution, it is my job to throw you off the scent. Answers below the picture.
1). How long is Boise’s Union block?
A. A block long.
B. It’s 900 feet long.
C. One hundred yards.
D. The length of a football field
E. It’s 125 feet across the front.
2). What misspelling helped start a war in Idaho?
A. Tensed, which was supposed to be DeSmet spelled backwards.
B. Kansas, which was supposed be Camas.
C. Sagle, which was supposed to be Eagle.
D. Pahsimeroi, which was rejected by the US Postal Service as “too damn difficult to spell.”
E. Hagerman, which was supposed to be spelled Hegeman.
3). Why was the Malad River named such?
A. After Alfred E. Malad, an early trapper.
B. Because the gorge reminded Capt. Bonneville of a canyon of that name in France.
C. After Senator Joseph P. Malad.
D. Because early trappers became sick from eating beaver caught in the stream.
E. French explorers named it after expedition leader Toussaint Malade.
4). Who was Possum Sweetheart?
A. A world-record-holding cow from Meridian.
B. Two-Gun Bob’s companion dog.
C. A lady of the evening well known in Silver City.
D. A prize-winning pig at the 1919 Idaho State Fair.
E. It was the name Governor Steunenberg gave to his personal automobile.
5) What is unusual about the fossilized horse hoofprints in Malad Gorge State Park?
A. They are about one million years old.
B. The horses that made them were running.
C. They are preserved in lava.
D. They are on the roof of a cave.
E. All of the above.
Answers
1, E
2, B
3, D
4, A
5, E
How did you do?
5 right—Why aren’t you writing this blog?
4 right—A true Idaho native, no matter where you’re from.
3 right—Good! Treat yourself to some French fries.
2 right—Okay! Eat more potatoes!
1 right—Meh. You need to read more blog posts.
0 right—Really, you should reconsider your recent relocation.
1). How long is Boise’s Union block?
A. A block long.
B. It’s 900 feet long.
C. One hundred yards.
D. The length of a football field
E. It’s 125 feet across the front.
2). What misspelling helped start a war in Idaho?
A. Tensed, which was supposed to be DeSmet spelled backwards.
B. Kansas, which was supposed be Camas.
C. Sagle, which was supposed to be Eagle.
D. Pahsimeroi, which was rejected by the US Postal Service as “too damn difficult to spell.”
E. Hagerman, which was supposed to be spelled Hegeman.
3). Why was the Malad River named such?
A. After Alfred E. Malad, an early trapper.
B. Because the gorge reminded Capt. Bonneville of a canyon of that name in France.
C. After Senator Joseph P. Malad.
D. Because early trappers became sick from eating beaver caught in the stream.
E. French explorers named it after expedition leader Toussaint Malade.
4). Who was Possum Sweetheart?
A. A world-record-holding cow from Meridian.
B. Two-Gun Bob’s companion dog.
C. A lady of the evening well known in Silver City.
D. A prize-winning pig at the 1919 Idaho State Fair.
E. It was the name Governor Steunenberg gave to his personal automobile.
5) What is unusual about the fossilized horse hoofprints in Malad Gorge State Park?
A. They are about one million years old.
B. The horses that made them were running.
C. They are preserved in lava.
D. They are on the roof of a cave.
E. All of the above.
Answers1, E
2, B
3, D
4, A
5, E
How did you do?
5 right—Why aren’t you writing this blog?
4 right—A true Idaho native, no matter where you’re from.
3 right—Good! Treat yourself to some French fries.
2 right—Okay! Eat more potatoes!
1 right—Meh. You need to read more blog posts.
0 right—Really, you should reconsider your recent relocation.
