Writing the West: Episode 22(040626)

0:00This is Monday, Matinee, on the Mutual Audio Network. Come on, let's all go to the lobby. Because people are staring at us listening to these shows while we're in the theater. The following audio drama is rated PG for parental guidance. Writing the West. Stories and poems by Rick Steer. Read by Michael Messner and Friends. Rumors of gold. Henry Hill listened to the rumors that gold had been discovered in California. He caught the gold fever and walked away from his Wally homestead, bought a native canoe and paddled to the mouth of the Columbia, where he joined a group of other anxious men working to salvage a derelict ship, the Starling.

1:01They refloated the ship and made necessary repairs, but the Starling, her timbers waterlogged and leaking badly, was barely seaworthy. The greenhorn crew ignored the way the old ship wallowed crossing over the dangerous Columbia River Bar and into the open ocean. They swung south, added all the sails they had, and managed to keep the ship afloat long enough to reach San Francisco Harbor, where they abandoned her. They took passage on a small boat to Sacramento and walked the remaining miles to the mines at Hangtown, today known as Placerville. Hill and three companions staked adjacent claims and worked them for a year and a half before the gold peedered out. The largest nugget they found was worth $30, and twice they took out $400 of gold in a day. Hill headed north with $4,300 worth of gold in his poke.

2:02During his absence, a flood of settlers had reached the Wlamut Valley, and only a portion of his original homestead remained, but he used his grub steak earned in the California mines to buy back his land and eventually acquired over 1,000 acres of prime farm land. Mark Twain Samuel Clemens was born in a small Missouri town. He said, I increased the population by 1%, it is more than many of the best men in history could have done for a town. The family soon moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where Samuel grew up. He left home at the age of 18, traveled to the East Coast, returned to become a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, and finally headed west to Virginia City, Nevada. He began writing humorous stories for the territorial enterprise newspaper

3:05under the pen name Mark Twain, a term used on the Mississippi to indicate a depth of two fathoms. After several years, Samuel moved to San Francisco and worked as a reporter for the Morning Call newspaper and wrote for a number of magazines. A story titled The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County appeared in the New York Saturday press and was republished across the nation. This propelled Samuel into the literary spotlight. He used his growing reputation to become an entertainer, appearing in theaters and regaling the audiences with humorous accounts of his adventures. Samuel married in 1870, moved to Hartford, Connecticut, and began his most productive years as a writer. Tom Sawyer was published in 1876, followed by the even more popular adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In 1895, he made a grand world tour promoting his books and lectures,

4:08but the good times ended with the death of Samuel's wife. He wrote, she was my life and she is gone. She was my riches and I am a pauper. In the span of a few short years, he also buried three of his four children. Samuel Clemens, one of the greatest figures of American literature, died of a broken heart on April 21, 1910. Song of River I listen to the cheerful song of river, contemplating it from the point of a man which is basically thin skin pulled over bone, a fabrication of absurdity that is mostly scar tissue.

5:11How can I hope to give a river the justice it deserves? It begins high in the mountains with a single drop. That drop joining random drops to be fashioned into seeps, trickles, and rivulets running frothy. Snow-meled adding even more flowing water, fed by springs and still more drainages, forced to fall by the threat of gravity, tumbling, arcing, spiraling down, braiding and unbreeding itself, rushing to reach the ocean. My mind is way too puny to ever contemplate the song of river. Redwood Observatory For the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the United States government came up with the grand idea of a unique display.

6:14They would have an observatory carved from the trunk of a California Redwood. The tree selected was a giant sequoia growing just outside the boundary of the newly created Sequoia National Park. It was estimated to be 3,000 years old and measured 300 feet tall. It took 18 workers linking hands to reach all the way around the massive 90-foot base. They posed for a picture and went to work erecting scaffolding to the 50-foot mark. They managed to fill the top 250 feet, leaving a 50-foot tall stump. The top 14 feet of the stump was hollowed out, leaving a shell 2 feet of bark and 6 inches of wood. This was cut into staves. The staves were numbered and created for shipment. The next 2 feet was cut as a solid block. Another 14 feet of shell was taken and cut into staves. The parts were transported by rail to Chicago and reassembled into a roofed observation tower.

7:19Visitors to the exhibit were allowed to climb a 30-foot spiral staircase inside the stump that passed midway through a hole in the solid section. The reason for the solid landing was to prove to any skeptics that the stump had once been a real tree. After the Chicago Fair, the Redwood Observation Tower was taken to the mall in Washington, D.C. where it remained for several years until it was disassembled for storage. Where it was stored is unknown. The government lost it. To vote. Lou Southworth was born a slave and came west with his master in 1851. Times were difficult and Lou began gold mining using what he made to purchase his freedom. During the Rogue River War, weapons were scarce and a group of volunteers insisted Lou give up his rifle.

8:21Rather than give it up, he joined the volunteers and fought in the war without compensation. Eventually, Lou moved to the coast and took up residence in a cabin near the mouth of the Alsea River. On election day 1864, he announced, Mr. Lincoln is on trial in this election. I am going to vote. A big storm hit the coast that day. In order to vote, Lou would have to cross Alsea Bay to reach the town of Waldport. Friends told him he'd never make it, but Lou said he owed it to President Lincoln to at least try. Lou went to work, securing empty oil barrels to his robot in the hope that they would protect him from capsizing. As he shoved off a small crowd gathered, none gave him a ghost of a chance of making it. The small boat was tossed on the waves and all the while Lou pulled with the ores. For a short time, the boat was lost from sight and then someone shouted,

9:25there he is! Lou had passed the area of most danger and had entered calmer water. Lou succeeded in reaching Waldport where he cast his vote. But it was not until 1927 that the Oregon Constitution was amended to remove the clause denying African Americans the right to vote. You've been listening to Writing the West. The stories and poetry in this podcast are by Rick Steber and appear in Books By Him. Log on to www.ricksteberauthor.com to find out more. This program was produced by Michael Messner by permission of the author. Special thanks to Michael Tucker, Rachel Pulliam, and Art Schingler. Thank you for listening. You're tuned into Monday, Matinee on the Mutual Audio Network.

10:28Tomorrow is all things horror on Tuesday Terrors. Subscribe to the full Mutual Audio Network feed for every day. Or find Tuesday Terrors in your favorite podcast players. The Mutual Audio Network. Listening and Imagining. Together. The Mutual Audio Network.