Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

When asked what is his greatest mystery astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson said:

“One of my greatest mysteries is how did a chemical molecule in the beginning morph into the self-replicating, intelligent beings that we are today.” Religion could enter this picture at this point but Tyson is a scientist.

Years ago this area of South Carolina was the textile mill capitol of the world. Each mill had a surrounding village where the workers lived. The houses were owned by the cotton mill company and they charged rent making the phrase “owe my soul to the company store” a reality. One of them was a mill and village known as Monaghan. Here it is pronounced Mona-gon. Everywhere else in the world including Ireland where the name originated it is pronounced Mona-han. I suppose those that did not know this pronounced it as they interpreted the spelling. The same can be said of Edinburgh the capitol of Scotland. According to the Scots it is NOT pronounced Edin-burg...it is pronounced Edin-boro. I guess it is all in how you perceive it but it is a Scottish city and they can call it anything they want. During the Civil War there was an Irish immigrant that became the commander of a Union infantry unit.  His name was Thomas Meagher.  It is pronounced "Marrr".  The extra "r's" is so you roll them with your tongue.  New York is similar...natives up there pronounce it "Noo Yawk" regardless of the spelling. By the way, it bothers me to say “up” north or “down” south. That means you are seeing the world in two dimensions. Actually on this planet “down” is toward the center of the earth and “up” is toward the heavens. Think in 3D for a change.

Here is a short biography of one of the first trappers and explorers this country has ever seen.

                                             John Colter

John Colter was born near Staunton, Virginia in 1774. Little is known of Colter until his family moved to what would later become Maysville, Kentucky when little John was about five years old. Surviving in that area of the country was no easy trick. Even though the land later known as Kentucky was ceded to Virginia, the Indian tribes in the Ohio River valley who had not been party to this and considered that area to be their private hunting grounds. Believe it or not, the area was swarming with bison at the time. Anyway, the Indians raided the homes and villages of these honky settlers on a regular basis. Because of this, John Colter became an astute woodsman and an expert hunter and fighter. He was described as about 5’-10”, which was tall for that time. He was blond, blue eyed and somewhat shy. He gained a reputation that caught the eye of a man named Meriwether Lewis. Lewis and his partner William Clark had been tasked by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the upper reaches of the recently acquired Louisiana Purchase and find out what was there and they began assembling a crew. The obvious choice of travel was the Missouri River basin. No one at the time knew where the rivers origin was but they knew it went out of sight northwest of Saint Louis, Missouri at its branch with the Mississippi. America was very interested to find out if there was a water passage to the Pacific Ocean. In October of 1803, Lewis offered Colter a place on the expedition at the pay of $5.00 a month. The offer was accepted and the expedition began gathering boats and supplies in Saint Louis. When Lewis and Clark were in Washington celebrating the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase, against the orders of the sergeant left in charge, Colter and three others left the camp named Fort Dubois and went to the closest “grog” shop (bar) and got hammered. After Lewis and Clark returned to the camp they told Colter and the others that in their absence, the sergeant left in charge had the authority of a Captain and any further disobedience would result in expulsion form the expedition and ordered them to not leave camp for ten days. Colter was given a court martial because he threatened to shoot the Sergeant that had turned them in. But after Colter apologized to Lewis and the sergeant, he was reinstated. Soldiers will be soldiers, y'all. In May of 1804 Colter and the others departed Saint Louis, crossed the Mississippi and began rowing up the Missouri River amid much ceremony. Before the day was out they were out of sight of civilization. Right from the start it became obvious that Colter was a superior hunter and was assigned as the provider of game for the expedition. It also became obvious that Colter was a superior woodsman and frequently led small scouting groups. The expedition wintered on the opposite bank of the River from a large Mandan Indian village in North Dakota. When the river froze over, the curious but friendly Indians came over to visit and trade. As the expedition passed through Blackfoot Indian country, they were frequently harassed. The Blackfeet had a virtual monopoly of the fur trade in their area and would not hesitate to keep it that way. They just could not understand that the expedition was not interested in furs. But they lusted after what they saw in the boats like swords, guns and knives and would steal them at any opportunity. Lewis and Clark did not want to kill any of them because they did not want to start a war. Finally, taking the advice of their Shoshone guide, they crossed the Rocky Mountains via Lost Trail Pass. It proved to be a very strenuous undertaking. The expedition finally reached the upper reaches of the Columbia River and Colter was selected to be one of a small group to see where the river ended. Colter had located some Nez Perce Indians and the Shoshone guide was able to communicate with them and they said the Columbia River emptied into the Pacific. And indeed the River did empty into the Pacific and the expedition beached their boats near present day Astoria, Oregon. Colter was selected part of a small group to explore the coast north of their location. The group made it up to the coast of present day Washington State but not before having several run-ins with the Klamath Indians. This group established a camp that they named Fort Clapsop and spent a miserable winter amid weeks long rains and snow as is the norm in that area. In the spring of 1806 Colter and the others began retracing their steps to re-join the rest of the expedition. It went much faster now because they knew what lay ahead. After reaching the rest of the expedition, Colter, Forest Hancock and Joe Dickson requested to be discharged so they could go out on their own and trap furs. All three were honorably discharged and set out down the Rocky Mountains on their great adventure. The only problem was that three weeks later the three had a falling out and Colter set out alone. In 1807 in the vicinity of the Big Horn River, he ran across a fur trapping expedition led by Manuel Lisa. Lisa later became a legend in the lore of Mountain Men. Colter joined with this group for a while, and as you might suspect the irascible Blackfeet was on their ass constantly because there was no doubt that these honkies were trapping furs. He helped the Lisa expedition build Fort Raymond at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Big Horn Rivers. He stayed with Lisa until 1809 and then he and a man name Joe Potts split off from the Lisa group. It was after this that Colter enhanced his reputation. He and Joe Potts were captured by those damned Blackfeet and given an option. Be killed immediately or be stripped naked and after given a small lead, try to outrun a group of pursuing warriors. Potts and Colter chose the later. Potts was not as fast on his feet as Colter and was caught and killed but the fleet-footed Colter ran until there was only one Blackfoot left so he stopped and killed that one and took his clothes. It is believed that Colter was the first white man to lay eyes on the wonders of Yellowstone. He reported many “gushers of steam” (geysers) and “bilins” (hot water mud holes). He was not readily believed but further exploration proved him right. Further descriptions that he made ensured that he had explored the Grand Teton Valley around what is now the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area. During the entire time he had to be on the alert for the Blackfeet. Colter headed back toward Fort Raymond to meet up with two friends that were going into a fur trapping expedition with him. When he got there he found out that both of his friends had been tortured and killed by the Blackfeet. Colter decided that he had enough of the Blackfeet and headed to Saint Louis where he arrived in the fall of 1810. He met with William Clark, his old commander and told him what he had seen. Using this information, Clark created a map that was used for the next 75 years. Colter fell ill and died in 1812 of “jaundice”. He is buried near New Haven, Missouri on private land...he was 38 years old.

     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow