Sometimes in the early morning I go walking up through the fields. I think of the pioneers and wonder how this area that we call home must have seemed to them then. The route I take is a fairly good representation of how it was way back then. I take the old sheep trail east of my home. I walk that route clear up to the Mountainville Road. Fields and fields of sagebrush, cedar, rabbits hopping everywhere, and our own beautiful Horseshoe Mountain.
It seems to me that just clearing the land of all the sagebrush and cedar and whatever else was in the way must have been very discouraging. However, as I read the histories and biographies they weren't discouraged, but more thankful to have a place to call home. They looked forward to raising crops and their families in this beautiful valley.
The first pioneers here were welcomed by the Indians. But then more and more immigrants came and the Indians didn't like the way the "white man" abused the land, put up wire fences and the "white man's" cattle were forever tempting to the Indians who were used to going out and killing their game to provide for their own families.
All in all this valley is beautifully graced by the mountain formation someone named "Horseshoe". It might be well to note here that just east of our familiar horseshoe is another formation with the same vertical ridges. That formation is actually bigger than the one most are familiar with. That bigger formation isn't positioned so that everyone in the valley can see and appreciate it as well as they can the "smaller shoe". Some of the people who have lived here all their lives call the pair "Big Shoe and Little Shoe". Horseshoe is a beautiful landmark that represents "Home". I am grateful to have been raised in this valley and love to hear and read the stories of others who have loved and appreciated this location. If Horseshoe could talk, what stories it could tell. Kathy
No comments:
Post a Comment