WHAT’S PAST IS THE PROLOGUE – MAGIC REVEALS

Featured

Posted on by
12

“HISTORY – an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.” 

Ambrose Bierce from The Devil’s Dictionary

“To remain ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain a child.  For what is the worth of a human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” 

Cicero from Orator

“What’s past is the Prologue”

William Shakespeare

Welcome to my blog

Lake Bled with Bled Castle across the Lake – same picture as on the first Lonely Planet volume on Slovenia

Blogs tend to focus on specific subjects. My focus tends to encompass my own learning as I make my way about in the World. Living in Portland, Oregon, there tends to be a quite a few stories regarding the Pacific Northwest. Show what you know?

My years have allowed me to visit many places around the world. Travel can push you to learning a lot about that world. The ‘learning’ doesn’t end with the travel. One story leads to another and so it is here on this site. There is a wide array of topics already covered. Easiest way to navigate through the topics is to use the sitemap here. I hope you find some of the entries as entertaining as I did in writing (and maybe visiting). Good journeys.

Continue reading →

LANDS OF THE WILD, WILD EAST – MAGIC OF EAST GREENLAND

Posted on by
2
Icebergs, fjords, white wilderness of the east coasts of Greenland - Kangertittivatsiaq is the large fjord stretching inwards above the large island.
Icebergs, fjords, white wilderness of the east coasts of Greenland – Kangertittivatsiaq is the large fjord stretching inwards above the large island.

1000 Places to See Before You Die includes only one entry for the Autonomous Territory of Greenland – Disko Bay.  Nowhere is East Greenland mentioned. Author Patricia Schultz only gives the Faeroe Islands one entry as well while Iceland merits two.  The mother country, Denmark, gets ten.  But as she said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune when she was out promoting her 2019 update of her book; 1000 places, can you really find that many spots?  Her reply, “How can I narrow it down to just 1,000?”

Continue reading →

DIFFERENCE A CENTURY MAKES – THROUGH THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER

Posted on by
2
Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin - Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rock slide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today.
Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin – Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rockslide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today. The view looks north from the open part of the Larch Mountain crater. State of Oregon photo.

Larch Mountain stands as one of the three big shield volcanoes of the extended Boring Lava Fields. Rising to 4055 feet high, the mountain presents an array of contrasts. Once the site of intense logging industry, the mountain shows an amazing natural renewal a century after most of the timber production came to a halt. Pockets of old growth, wonderful views from the top and remnants of past industry all make Larch Mountain and its crater, a fascinating walk in the woods.

Continue reading →

DEFT OF HAND AND A KEG OF WHISKEY: MAGIC AT CUMBERLAND GAP – JOHN DE COURCY IN AMERICA

Posted on by
Reply
Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture in 1864.
1864 Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture by John De Courcy.

I knew before that a certain Captain George Pickett, a thirty-four-year-old veteran of the Mexican War and graduate of West Point – albeit, last in his class – served on San Juan Island in the Puget Sound just before the American Civil War.  What I did not know, was one of his opposites in the whole Pig War ordeal in 1859 was an Anglo-Irish peer by the name of John De Courcy.  Like Pickett, De Courcy would figure in the next war, as well.  Pickett’s role would be bigger and better known, but De Courcy’s role was big enough for someone involved in command. And not even as a citizen of either side.

Continue reading →

A WALK IN THE TREES – THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER RIM

Posted on by
Reply
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.

We saw earlier how to climb to the top of the Larch Mountain crater from the Columbia River on the 1915 historic Larch Mountain Trail. But you don’t have to gain 4,400 feet over the 6.6-mile trek up to Sherrard Point. You can actually cheat and start at the top. Simply drive up Larch Mountain Road to its end. Fourteen miles up from the Columbia River Highway just west from Crown Point. Park in the large lot near the summit.

Continue reading →

TACTICS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR – WARFARE MOVES BEYOND NAPOLEON

Posted on by
Reply
The Army of the Potomac gathering for its Grand Review in Washington, D.C. at the end of the war – columns and lines all on display. Drawn by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly.

Walking out onto a Civil War battlefield, one can become bogged down by maps and monuments – regimental, State, and others.  Most of the major battlefields lie preserved within the National Park Service today, though there are a few important exceptions – Perryville, Resaca, Atlanta, Bentonville, are some of those not within the federal system. And how and why did the actions occur on those battlefields. Here, we dive a bit into the actual tactics used during the Civil War. 

Continue reading →

LARCH MOUNTAIN TRAIL – RIVER TO VOLCANIC CRATER AMIDST MAGIC OF THE GORGE

Posted on by
Reply
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain Trail.

Look out to the east from Portland and your attention draws to the snows and glaciers of Mt. Hood.  But search a bit to the left and you can notice another bulky mountain with a notch on its northern rim.  This is Larch Mountain one of three shield volcanoes sitting in a line of volcanic vents making up the Boring Lava Field range stretching from Mount Sylvania on the southwest edge of Portland all the way east past Larch Mountain to Beacon Rock standing near Bonneville Dam, almost thirty miles apart in a straight line. 

Larch Mountain sits on the western end of the canyon of the Columbia River Gorge rising just over 4,000 feet above the river running about three straight miles to the north of its peak.  Coming from the east along the river, Larch Mountain is the last significant Cascade peak on the Oregon side of the Gorge before the mountains begin to ease topographically into the northern end of the Willamette Valley.

Continue reading →

KENNESAW MOUNTAIN – A MORNING DASH IN GEORGIA

Posted on by
Reply
Cannon sits in an emplacement atop Big Kennesaw Mountain.
Cannon sits in an emplacement atop Big Kennesaw Mountain.

Kennesaw Mountain saw the third time during the American Civil War in which William T. Sherman employed a direct assault upon entrenched Confederate positions.  The attack failed as much as his previous two attempts.  All through the Atlanta campaign, Sherman had gotten around the Confederate positions set out by Joseph E. Johnston through flanking maneuvers.  Sherman wrote to Washington, “The whole country is one vast fort, and Johnston must have at least 50 miles (80 km) of connected trenches with abatis and finished batteries. We gain ground daily, fighting all the time. … Our lines are now in close contact and the fighting incessant, with a good deal of artillery. As fast as we gain one position the enemy has another all ready. … Kennesaw … is the key to the whole country.”  For the key, Sherman decided to open it with a direct frontal assault.

Continue reading →

HOOKER AT CHANCELLORSVILLE – CONCUSSIVE AMENDMENT TO THE CIVIL WAR

Posted on by
Reply
Major General Joseph Hooker, Commander of the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville.

Joseph Hooker, the commander of the Federal Army of the Potomac, stated before the battle of Chancellorsville, “I have the finest army on the planet. I have the finest army the sun ever shone on. … If the enemy does not run, God help them. May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.”  Such braggadocio did not go well with Hooker’s Confederate counterpart, Robert E. Lee.  Lee kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and was not at all amused by what he read.

Continue reading →

JAMES NESMITH, JOSEPH HOOKER – A UNIQUE MIX TOGETHER FOR THE UNION

Posted on by
Reply
James Nesmith from Centennial History of Oregon.
James Nesmith senator and congressman for Oregon friend of General Hooker – Centennial History of Oregon.
Major General Joseph Hooker - photograph by Matthew Brady.
Major General Joseph Hooker – photograph by Matthew Brady.

The union of Oregon Senator James Nesmith and California-Massachusetts rancher-soldier Joseph Hooker worked at high levels within the Federal attempts to quell the rebellion of 1861-1865.  The two men were not necessarily meant for each other.  However, life has twists and turns.  The same turns that brought Hooker into the doghouse with such Federal luminaries as Henry Halleck, William T. Sherman, and Winfield Scott brought Hooker into the light with Nesmith, Edward Baker and most conspicuously, Abraham Lincoln.

Continue reading →

GORGE(OUS) VIEWS – MAJESTY OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE

Posted on by
Reply
Magnificent viewpoint near Nesika Lodge looking upstream towards Bonneville Dam.
Magnificent viewpoint near Nesika Lodge looking upstream towards Bonneville Dam. One of the many spectacular views to be found within the Columbia River Gorge.

The Columbia River Gorge is one of the natural highlights of the Pacific Northwest.  Only the Columbia River penetrates through the Cascade Mountain range and does so in a magnificent manner.  Long an important transportation corridor whether rail, old highways, new freeways, canoes or flatboats.  Waterfalls tend to bring the tourists to the Gorge along with the views of the immense canyon from spots like Crown Point on the Historic Columbia River Highway.  But trails take you to the top of many other vista points as magical as those at the Vista House.  Here are a few of my personal favorite Gorge views.  Maybe you have others.

In no particular order with regard to personal preference, I present them from west to east.

Continue reading →