gem of some sort or another...It's called "The Gem State" for a reason.
It's not just because of the mineral deposits God saw fit to leave lie around.
It is truly beautiful. The bad news for Idaho,was Humanity!
The likes of which can only be guessed. The famous and the infamous
walked the board walks and rode the stern wheelers across the big lake.The Natives used to camp, fish and harvest their berries along the dancing waters. That was before, Before there was A Gold Rush!!!
The likes of Calamity Jane,
Wyatt Earp and his wife and many others have been through the "silver
valley" since Noah Kellogg's fabled "Jack Ass" supposedly kicked a chunk
of dirt off of a shelf of silver! If That silver was nearly the undoing of North
Idaho, First It became it's salvation! They had to mine that ore, be it silver,
lead, or gold! Then they had to smelt it. The sulfuric acid from the smelter
was enough to eat the lining off your lungs, or the paint off your car. It was
enough to turn a beautiful forest into a waste land. It turned beautiful flowing
water into a muck that poisoned killed and destroyed what ever it touched!
Man had a real affect on North Idaho's silver valley. The grave yards are full
of those who's lives it changed!
"Jack, I don't want to see the distraction of the area. I want to see the
wonders you promised! I want to see the deer, the elk....and perhaps a bear
or two! Can we do that?" I smiled as we roared down a "goat trail" in a
speeding pick up truck. I could barely see the track he followed, He followed
it at a very high speed. I was glad he'd fussed with the seat belt when he so
unceremoniously stuffed me into this thing!
Jack jocked his old pick up through the bushes pushing over small trees as he went. The Bull pines stood like soldiers against a blue sky. The limbs half way up seemed to be dead or dying. The Douglas fir were a prettier tree with it's radish colored bark and rich foliage. My favorite were the Hemlock and cedar trees growing in tall splendor on the ridge and flat of our route..We'd splashed through several small creeks "crick" in Idaho. We were coming up on a very big "crick" Jack followed the banks of the larger creek for quite a while before he came to a spot that was obviously the local "ford" It was the place of many tracks on both banks of the deep green water. I hung off What is lovingly called the "OH CRAP" handle on that pick up truck! The creek was deep this time of year and the floor of the creek was NOT all to gether level!
Jack must have seen me make the grab for the "Ohhh Crap" handle. He smiled a bit and slowed to a gentle roar! "First let me tell you about the "HAUNTED GLEN." He was pretty pleased
with himself. "During the Civil war there was an old boy who came to town once a month to buy supplies with gold coin. He only showed up once a month. He only bought what he needed and he never threw his money around. No one ever knew where it came from, or where HE went! One day it was noted that he had stopped coming to the store! There was some hue and cry...But his body and his cache of money were never found!"
"This time of the day there is only wild life. The Deer and elk love this area. I've always thought there were natural salt licks around the valley. I think they are natural. Some of the old boys around here who have to live on "rocking chair" Unemployment, money from the state aren't to careful where they leave salt blocks lay around ..That's against the law you know. Well NOT really against the law to put salt out for the animals. It's against the law to hunt where you have been placing salt licks for the wild animals!" He smiled at me and nearly hit a big old bolder ...."I wonder who left that THERE!" he chuckled....
"This was all glaciated during the ice age. There was a huge ice block that blocked water from way above Missoula Montana. This was all a part of Lake Missoula! Lake Missoula backed up water clear into the Rathdrum prairie, down by Coeur d' Alene! The small ponds and pot hole lakes were all a part of that! These big rocks you see tossed out here like building blocks tossed by a spoiled kid, were left here by a receding glacier! So literally, I suppose God, or Mother Nature LEFT that there!" He grinned around a tooth pick he'd been chewing on. I held onto that handle and occasionally hit the imaginary "air brakes." If you have ever been in the woods with a man who Knows his way around and is showing off a bit you KNOW where those air brakes ARE! He seemed to be showing off a GOOD BIT!
I could smell the smells of spring. I could smell the wet bark the spring flowers waking from their snow covered beds. The sky was blue as blue as water. White clouds floated lazily by. The creek sung to us when ever we could hear it over the roar of the truck!
"STOP" I yelled!
Jack did as he was told. He locked that truck up so tight a pencil couldn't of got out of it's mufflers! The truck slid sideways in the mud! If there would have been anything dry out there, it would have been DUST!...
"Would you shut this thing off for a minute?" I was not really happy. I'd been jerked around, battered and flailed by every bit of junk that was ratting around in that old truck! When he'd shut it down the silence seemed eerie! There was NOT a bird, or a bee to buzz; the air was so very still.
"Jack, I couldn't see a game animal if I had Super Man's glasses! The noise of this old truck has ran off every thing for miles and miles. It is wonderful out here....I love it! I love the sounds the smells and the gifts that have been offered to us! I can't enjoy them while I am hanging on for Dear life so you can barrel through this beauty to get to Lord only knows what could be better! Just stop, please, I want to get out. I want to walk around. I want to touch, see and even TASTE a few things while I am here. Most of all I want to live another day to see more and more of the things I've NEVER seen before . If you keep us moving at the rate you were going there is NOTHING to guarantee I will be able to DO that!"
"OK! He opened the door of the truck and sat with one foot on the door jam! I'm glad you told me! Now we are getting some where! You have to tell ME what you LIKE. You also have to tell ME what you don't like. I do not read minds. MOST of the people of this area have been here before. This is not new to them. This is just woods! There is nothing spectacular about it!"
"JUST WOODS! I sputtered!...Jack where I come from there is no forest. there are rattle snakes, you don't walk around those areas without a gun! Yellowstone is just a skip and a jump! I love elk, deer and Moose. I love these lush green forests. This is wonderful to me! I haven't seen ONE sage bush in several weeks! I can GET into THAT! I don't care for sage brush! I don't care for rattle snakes! I don't like spuds all that well! Specially Spuds planted and growing in fields for miles and miles and miles! We are in the BEST part of Idaho. Southern Idaho is pretty much a desert! You didn't even KNOW I AM from Idaho, did you?"
"I knew you weren't any hot house flower, California gal! I brought you out here to show you my favorite spots...This is one...As it happens the Glen is just up the road a bit! I want you to see it before we have to go back and get you to work! Do you mind if I start up the truck one more time so we can do that?" He picked up the green felt hat and pulled it down on his head!
"OK, Start it up!" I giggled. "Jack, where did you get that hat?" I strapped back into the seat belt.
"It's tradition! My Dad wears one. His father in law wears one! It's like the staged off black pants and the suspenders...A good logger never leaves home without them! I left my cork's at home! A man don't come courtin' with his Corks on!"
He drawled his words so he sounded like he was from the Waaaay back woods....
"Is that what we are doing, are we courtin?" I tried to mimic the spin he'd put on those words! "Shoot Man! We could have done that by the river! We could have done that by the lake, or on my couch! We didn't have to drive all the way out here to COURT!" I was giggling, for the first time since we'd gone out there I'd actually relaxed!
"What in the hell are Corks? and PLEASE...buy a base ball cap! I've been wanting to snatch up one of those green felt hats and use it for a frizbee since I got up here!"
"Where are you from Robin? You are from Idaho? What part of Idaho?" He wasn't driving so fast or hard so he could actually talk....This didn't take the skill he had been putting into his driving. I was beginning to think someone had entered us in a race, and forgot to tell me!
"I'm from the deepest darkest part of Idaho. I'm from a part of Idaho very few
have ever heard of. I'm a mystery woman who sprung from the desert like
a cactus. I'm a mystery. just like your Soldier who owned the Glen!"
He stopped on the very edge of a mountain where we could look down and see, and see, and see......It seemed to go on for miles and miles and miles...and beyond those trees was a lake, I could see it like a desert mirage...It was a lake so far away. On this day of clear clean air I could see it was there....I could see there was a boat....It seemed to be going round and round and round....but I could not hear the boat....I could hear birds singing. I could hear them and see the squirrels high in the trees! Deer played in a meadow flanked by willows and bushes that grew along creek beds...
Jack Unsnapped the seat belt and pulled me into his arms....".NOW I have YOU...You are my prisoner...NO ONE but ME knows you are HERE! I can
Do MY will with YOU!!! Bawwwwwwwhahaha...".His fake laugh robbed his
delivery of those words with any malice! The kiss that rocked me to my toes
NOW that had POWER!
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