Category Archives: History

CRUISING INTO THE MAGIC OF BAYS OF KOTOR

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Sunset over the Bays of Kotor - the mountain of Vrmac looms darkly in the middle.
Sunset over the Bays of Kotor – the mountain of Vrmac looms darkly in the middle.

In the past, I have not been a big fan of vacationing on huge cruise ships.  A few friends and I watched from the shore of Glacier Bay as cruise ship after cruise ship made their way up the large fjord.  We were happy experiencing the wilderness of one of the America’s most magnificent national parks on a more personal scale.  Just us and the grizzly bears.  Could the Bays of Kotor change that feeling?

Another time, I stayed at a hotel in Kusadsi for almost a week a few years ago.  Every day brought several behemoths to dock at the waterfront. Buses lined up for the inevitable bus pilgrimage to nearby Ephesus.  And then, at sunset, the giant ships would set sail into the sunset for their next day’s destination – Bodrum, Mykonos, Santorini, Istanbul. Again, I was happy to be staying behind.  This year, I bit the bullet joining a cruise taking in the Adriatic and western Mediterranean.  The cruise turned out very enjoyable.  The highlight, the slow entry into the wondrous fjord system making up the Bocche di Cattaro, known locally as the Boka Kotorska or simply, the Magic of Kotor.

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GEORG VON TRAPP – PRELUDE TO THE SOUND OF MUSIC

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Postcard showing SMS U6 commanded by Georg von Trapp from 1910 until 1913.

A recent trip took me to Kotor, Montenegro.  The city sits spectacularly ensconced amidst mountains and fjords, probably the most scenic port in the Mediterranean.  Kotor has seen its share of history over the centuries, but one relatively recent story gets overlooked by even more recent events leading to one of the most famous movies of all time, The Sound of Music.  Understated and often forgotten, here, the story of Georg Luther von Trapp, ace of Austro-Hungarian submariners from World War 1.  His career before falling back on family and music concerned the sea and the Bays of Kotor.

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WELL SPRINGS – “MUD HOL” MIRACLE IN THE DUST OF THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU

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Emigrant Lane heading west with the Bombing Range on the right and Well Spring just ahead.
Emigrant Lane heading west with the Bombing Range on the right and Well Springs just ahead.

Travelling along at 70 mph along Interstate 84 along the Columbia River, it is easy to think Oregon’s mid-19th century pioneers just shuttled along rambling into Portland on Sandy Boulevard in no time at all.  Drive out to Well Springs and that idea disappears very quickly.  The long drive out here on the south side of the US Navy’s Boardman Bombing Range gives one the best example of what it must have been like to drive a wagon along the Oregon Trail with the end coming finally into view.

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WAGON RUTS ON THE OLD OREGON TRAIL – ECHO MEADOWS-CORRAL SPRINGS

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Wagon ruts across the sands and sage of the Columbia Plateau at Echo Meadows.
Wagon ruts across the sands and sage of the Columbia Plateau at Echo Meadows.

Following the deaths at the Whitman Mission in December 1847, emigrants travelling the Oregon Trail elected to bypass the jaunt of the trail to the north following the descent out of the Blue Mountains.  Instead, the new path led down the Umatilla River before heading out across the dry Columbia Plateau roughly parallel to the river about 6-8 miles to the south.

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DEADMAN PASS – OREGON TRAIL OUT OF THE BLUES

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Descent of western flank of the Blue Mountains, Oregon Trail, 1849 (Cross 1850) (OrHi 35, 575).
Descent of western flank of the Blue Mountains, Oregon Trail, 1849 (Cross 1850) (OrHi 35, 575).

Pioneers on the Oregon Trail found the crossing of the Blues to be a taxing affair, especially so late in their journey.  Some writers have declared the passage over the Blue Mountains as the last big challenge faced by the Overlanders. 

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CERJE – SLOVENIA AND ITS HISTORY DEFINED IN TOWERING FASHION

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The tower atop Cerje.
The tower atop Cerje.

To better understand the eleven Italian offensives of World War One on the lower Isonzo River, two highpoints should be among your tour stops – Monte San Michele (for the first six offensives) and Cerje (for the rest).  Atop the tower built on Cerje, one has a view over most of the Isonzo battlefields from Sabotin-Monte Santo to the final Austrian lines atop Monte Ermada.  The vastness of the Carso-Kras region lays out at your fingertips.  The Adriatic Sea glints in the distance to the southeast while the snowcapped Julians shine to the north.

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TERRITORIAL OREGON – IN THE THRALL OF THE SALEM CLIQUE

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Shirt commemorates one of the election slogans of James K. Polk in 1844.

With the Cayuse War, the federal government finally acted in Washington, D.C., 18 August 1848, to develop an official form of government over the region of the Oregon Country transferred to American control by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 officially ending the awkward condominium shared with Great Britain since 1818.  The new territorial government ushered in new power brokers – aka the Salem Clique – to administer the political machine during the next decade. This setting the stage for a Statehood granted 14 February 1859 with war clouds gathering furiously back in the East.

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OREGON TRAIL TAKES THE HIGH ROAD ON THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU

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Looking out across what was the Well Spring - Tub Spring complex dry today. The Trail came south up the little valley to the right center skyline to the spring before veering hard left, resuming the trek to the west.
Looking out across what was the Well Spring – Tub Spring complex, dry today. The Trail came south up the little valley to the right center skyline to the spring before veering hard left, resuming the trek to the west.

Driving down Interstate 84 today, you might be forgiven for thinking your route follows that taken by the pioneers of the middle 19th century coming to the new lands of Oregon. The hardest part of the Oregon Trail came at the end, from The Dalles through the Cascades. Before the Barlow Trail became a viable alternative in 1847, pioneer families put their wagons onto handmade rafts floating them through Columbia Gorge, whitewater of the Cascades Rapids and all. The river served as a highway for Lewis and Clark in their journey to the Pacific Ocean. It did not serve as such a fine route for the settlers who came later. But today, we focus on the Trail crossing the arid Columbia Plateau.

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THE ROYAL ALTERNATIVE – DUKE OF AOSTA; “THAT’S WHAT THEY WANT!”

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The Duke stands in the middle of the Third Army Monument in Torino.
The Duke of Aosta stands in the middle of the Third Army Monument in Torino.

Right around the southeast corner of the former Royal Palace in Torino stands an old Roman gate, repurposed on the west side into the Palazzo Madama, the first Senate of the Kingdom of Italy and today a museum of art dating back to the late Middle Ages.  The museum opens up onto Piazza Castello to the west with a statue dedicated to the army of Sardinia which played a significant role in the Risorgimiento.  On the east side, past the two remaining Roman towers, stands a large monument mounted by two groups of four soldiers with a large, somewhat brooding man standing alone, fists clenched, looking to the east.  This man depicted is Emanuele Filiberto Vittorio Eugenio Alberto Genova Giuseppe Maria di Savoia, Duke of Aosta and a a cousin of Italy’s king Victor Emanuel III.  

Filiberto, during World War One, led the Italian Third Army against the Austro-Hungarian forces on the Carso for two years from June 1915 until October 1917.  Erected between 1933 and 1937 after the general’s death in Torino in 1931, the bronze statue stands cast from four captured artillery pieces, the “Statue in a Coat” – “statua in un cappotto”.  The monument memorializes the “Undefeated Duke” of the “Undefeated Third Army” – “la armatta invitta”.

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MCLOUGHLIN PROMENADE REVEALING MAGIC OF A NEW DAY

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The McLoughlin Promenade rambling atop the cliff rising above the old city-paper mill complex-Willamette Falls Legacy project.
The McLoughlin Promenade rambling atop the cliff rising above the old city-paper mill complex-Willamette Falls Legacy project.

Oregon City is packed full of history.  The first city of Oregon features two fine museums – Oregon Trail Museum and the Museum of the Oregon Territory – besides being home to the houses of two pioneers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, John McLoughlin and Forbes Barclay.  Beyond that, the dramatic power of the Willamette is on display from roadside vista points off Oregon Highway 99E and Interstate 205.  While the views are dramatic enough, that will change in the near future as the plans of the Grand Ronde Tribe come to fruition as the former industrial area reinvents itself to take advantage of the sheer magnificence of Willamette Falls.  Two other nearby sights are not as well known to those outside of Oregon City – Singer Falls and the McLoughlin Promenade.

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