Following the Ghost of John Wesley Powell
Tuesday, May 16 2023
A recent journey following the Colorado River has Clay and his colleagues tracing a trail first mapped by the great American explorer and scientist John Wesley Powell between 1869 and 1875.
- Published in Features
Mother’s Day
Monday, May 15 2023
My mother has been dead for five years now. She died at 86, without spending a single night in a hospital.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Salvaging History with the “Yukon Paleontologist”
Friday, March 17 2023
In the harsh conditions of the Arctic, Dr. Grant Zazula leads an ongoing race against time and nature to save the rich paleontological treasures relinquished by thawing permafrost.…
- Published in Features
The Life and Times of Sitting Bull
Sunday, March 12 2023
The Lance and The Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull by Robert M. Utley, first published in 1994.
Bismarck, N.D. — I’m reading a biography of Sitting Bull (1831 – 1890).…
- Published in Books
A Visit to Camp Disappointment
Sunday, March 12 2023
Browning, Mont. — Wandering about what is called the “Hi-Line,” U.S. 2 and the tracks of the Great Northern Railway, I came upon this obelisk monument to Lewis and Clark.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Luxury of Reading the Lewis and Clark Journals
Tuesday, February 28 2023
Gary Moulton edited a definitive thirteen volume set of the Lewis and Clark expedition journals.
Over the Christmas holidays, because I was alone this year, I decided to read all the journals of Lewis and Clark, John Ordway, and Patrick Gass for the return journey of the Corps of Discovery, from March 23 to September 23, 1806.…
- Published in Books
Happy Birthday John Steinbeck
Monday, February 27 2023
Bismarck, N.D. — Normally I don’t observe the birthdays of my literary and historical heroes. I know Jefferson’s birthday (April 13, 1743) and Shakespeare’s (April 23, 1564), and Bertrand Russell’s (May 18, 1872), and Samuel Johnson’s (September 18, 1709), and not many more, at least by day of month.…
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Tortuous Trail to Publish Lewis and Clark’s Journals
Sunday, February 26 2023
President Thomas Jefferson entrusted Meriwether Lewis with the first great exploration of the American West. At the journey’s successful completion, both men held high expectations for a book worthy of the singular accomplishment and the Age of Enlightenment of which it was a part.
- Published in Features
Why Read Moby Dick?
Saturday, February 25 2023
Why Read Moby-Dick? By Nathaniel Philbrick, 2011.
Bismarck, N.D. — I’m reading Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. I’ll be teaching it at one of my literary retreats come next January, but I wanted to read it anyway.…
- Published in Books
Just Who Is Buried on the Wind River Reservation?
Saturday, February 25 2023
Sacagawea has become a giant figure in American memory and mythology. There are more statues of her than any other woman in America. But we know little about the facts of her actual life.
- Published in Features