Travel on the Gravel

I've just dispatched a column dealing with William T. Hornaday's bison exhibit for the Smithsonian. Here's a selection of illustrations from Hornaday's Extermination of the American Bison. The first two are drawings by Ernest E. Thompson; the third one is a drawing from an L.A. Huffman photo.
hornaday2.jpg: Hornaday's bull - shot in Montana in 1886, exhibited in the Smithsonian
hornaday7.jpg: Half-breed (buffalo-cattle) calf owned by Buffalo Jones, Garden City, Kansas
hornaday3.jpg: buffalo killed by a hide hunter in Montana

North Dakota is a place where getting into the spirit of Lent requires no conscious effort. Today the landscape of the Red River Valley is about 60% dirty snow and about 40% snowy dirt. Our palette has narrowed to shades of gray. A limp low has settled in, blanketing the country in mist that will glaze after dark. The redpolls have deserted the feeder, depriving us of even their tiny splashes of color. Services at Maple-Sheyenne Lutheran Church today were dispirited, the church lot a muddy mess, all vehicles the same loamy color. Ours is an ashen world.

Cooking at least warms the house and stirs the senses. Lefse and eggs are a comfort breakfast. There is left-over dough to make a Zwiebelkuchen tonight.

In this season otherwise good friends at the university no longer can be counted on for cheerful greetings. They slump the hallways, mumble eyes-averted as they pass, retreat to window-less cubbies and savage the bluebooks of students. My seniors duck into doorways when they see me approaching; half of them have work overdue, not because of lack of time or talent, but simply for lack of will. Their research subject is the history of divorce in the 1890s. I realize now that it was stupid to set them such a depressing task in winter term. For a while they joked about the sad cases in their files, but there is no humor left in them. Usually it is enough to ride point for them and show the way. Now I have to ride drag every day.

The dog, at least, enjoys a hike down the Sheyenne River floodway. Smells are beginning to emerge where before all was white blindness to a creature that sees with his nose. Today he has the advantage of me. No bird of color is in the land. Snowbirds are the norm. Snow buntings, ordinarily flashes of cheer, today seem to blend into the frozen ground. The dog flushes a covey of partridge. I call him back. He is puzzled. I tell him it is Lent.

Just posted on the recipe page are two things to do with lefse. OK, I just realized that sounds like a joke, but really, these are good things.

Serious cooking around our house this afternoon. First, a batch of venison tacos, pinned & fried--receipe to be posted later. Second, a batch of bourbon BBQ sauce and some venison ribs, into the crockpot for tomorrow. Third, a beautiful batch of bierocks (see receipe page), these made with pork. Photos: The vorteig - Kneading - Rolling out and filling - Done

This posting announces several new features available from my various websites. The first, as noted in this week's Plains Folk column, is an MP3 page. It offers sound files of Plains Folk columns, traditional folksongs, and original songs. It will be expanded as I get time, so check back later, too. The second new feature, also announced in this week's column, is the Buffalo Commons, a weblog for discussion of Great Plains books. Both the MP3 page and the bookblog are accessible from the Plains Folk Home Page. The third new feature is in my NDSU website (www.ndsu.edu/instruct/isern/)--a new online graduate course, HIST 790, Grassroots History. I've undertaken to make continuously available online a strong selection of graduate History courses on the Great Plains. First was HIST 730, Coyote Culture. It's a reading seminar. HIST 790 is a research seminar. In the works is a packaging of my lecture-discussion course on the plains, HIST 631, The North American Plains, on CD or DVD for distance delivery. That's a massive job; maybe it will be done by summer.

Temperatures eased up a bit this morning, making better snow for skiing. A prairie creek tributary to the Maple cuts a deep trench through surrounding croplands; a snowmobile packs a track down the creek bottom; and the result is a roughly groomed ski trail sheltered from the wind.
ski1.jpg - ski4.jpg - ski6.jpg - ski9.jpg

Just posted at the Plains Folk website, in the recipe pages, is a recipe for bison stew. This afternoon we made one, only with venison--venison being in surplus in this part of the country, where some people bring home three deer on opening day. Here's the crockpot of stew.

I'm tooting the horn a little bit here for a venerable institution founded at North Dakota Agricultural College and still gracing our life at North Dakota State University--the Little Country Theatre. This Tuesday the LCT celebrated the 90th anniversary of its founding by Alfred G. Arvold. Arvold was a great exponent of the Country Life Movement and a great believer in the power of community theatre to enrich rural life. I have talked to many citizens who recall his influence--how he taught them to run a meeting and give a speech, how he inspired them to organize theatrical productions in community halls and even church basements. As part of the current celebration, the LCT rededicated a memorial placque that has been reinstalled in the lobby of the LCT. Here is the press release about the event.

"NDSU’s Little Country Theatre (LCT) continues its 90th anniversary celebration with the unveiling and rededication of the LCT Bronze Plaque. On February 10, 2004, at 4 p.m., the Little Country Theatre will unveil the LCT plaque made in 1952 to commemorate the beginning of the theatre in 1914. The plaque was originally installed in Old Main. It will provide the theatre with a tangible connection to its early NDAC beginnings. The commemoration ceremony will take place at Askanase Hall on 12th Avenue North and Albrecht Blvd.

"The bronze plaque was created to honor A.G. Arvold, originator and founder of the Little Country Theatre on December 14, 1952. Arvold founded LCT on February 10, 1914, as a 'country life laboratory' and 'sociological experiment station which would depict the different modes of life.' He said 'happiness is most often found in social contact and in individual and community expression.'

"Arvold staged massive pageants at NDAC including 'The Pastime of the Ages' seen by 15,000 people. In 1931, Arvold started Lilac Days, which became an annual NDAC event for 20 years. As director of drama for the Agricultural Extension Service, Arvold spent three months a year traveling across North Dakota and holding training sessions for communities. Arvold was retired from NDAC in 1952 and died in April 1957. He was the first person inducted into the North Dakota Speech and Theatre Association Hall of Fame in 1987."

I had the honor of participating in the ceremony, but the empresario was Don Larew of the Theatre Department. University Archivist Mike Robinson, I take it, had the original idea of returning the memorial placque to service. Well done, fellows.

Thanks to Tom & PJ Colbert for their hospitality during my recent visit to Marshalltown Community College to participate in the Shear Symposium. While there I also had the pleasure of hearing a lecture by Will Goudy, emeritus faculty from Iowa State, demographer. His analysis of population trends in Iowa was superb, and enlightening as to common demographic issues in the Midwest and the Great Plains.

Many thanks to the Rotarians who hosted the Northwest Farm Managers last Wednesday, and especially to Doris, who not only worked her magic at the keyboard but also had the great good sense to give us the northern version of "Red River Valley." It was a pleasure being with the NWFMA and the Rotarians and seeing some old friends.

I've just sent out a column having to do with the sad state of blogging on the plains, but mentioning two exceptions. Here are links to those two.

Geitner Simmons, "Regions of Mind"
Peg Britton, "Kansas Prairie"

If there are other weblogs out there that are grounded in regional life and have something to say about it, I'd like to hear of them. If I can identify a reasonable number, then I'll create standing links for them at www.plainsfolk.com.