Travel on the Gravel

The Ladbury Lecture Series resumes this September-October, with funding from the North Dakota Humanities Council. There are programs at the old Ladbury Church on three Saturday evenings at 6:00: September 9 (on the Sibley expedition), September 30 (on the fur trade), and October 21 (on Growing Up on Bald Hill Creek). For full details see the website of the Center for Heritage Renewal.

A couple weeks ago Mary Jo Cunningham, in my old hometown paper, the Ellinwood Leader, published a lovely tribute to Sam Arnold, historian and restaurateur, proprietor of the Fort, ardent Westerner. In response I sent her the following note.

"Hey Mary Jo, it was fun reading your tribute to Sam Arnold, the restaurateur and historian. A visit to his establishment, the Fort, was always a pleasure. So I thought I'd drop you a line with an anecdote about Sam. Sam, as you know, was active in the Santa Fe Trail Association. So about twenty years ago the SFTA was meeting in Hutchinson, and I was doing a program of folksongs for the after-dinner event. I was closing, as usual, with "Home on the Range," when I heard an odd but melodic sound coming from somewhere in the hall. At first I thought it was a professional whistler, you know, a performing whistler like in Chautauqua days, but then in the crowd I spied Sam with his musical saw on his lap, sometimes joining in on the melody, other times filling the interludes with flourishes, like a pedal steel player. I've sung "Home on the Range" hundreds of times and in several countries, but that was, as I recall it, the most memorable rendition of all."

Worth a plug--it looks like Dickinson State University has put together an outstanding program for the symposium, "Theodore Roosevelt: The Explorer in the Arena," 12-14 October. I wish time permitted me to attend, as I'd particularly like to hear Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. For the full line-up and registration information, go here.