Everett Ruess (NEMO) (1914-1934?) was a young artist and poet that explored, wrote about the high desert, and captured the lust of Utah and the High Sierra in linoleum block prints (with which he traded with Ansel Adams). Jon Krakauer likens Christopher McCandless to Everett Ruess in Into the Wild, in a gripping, harsh retelling of Ruess' escape to the wilderness and proposed fate, leaving only his pen-name "NEMO" scrawled on the stone walls in his wake. In 2009, it was thought that Ruess' remains were found, being believed by some that he was attacked and killed by Ute indians, an assumption that was taken back by a Utah archeologist after thorough DNA analysis. If you haven't read the book Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty, a book written in 1983 about Ruess' life, buy it this morning.Cruising eBay an hour ago I ran across these gems that an antique seller recently grabbed from a California estate sale: newspaper clippings about Ruess, 2 photos of Ruess (one with an American Indian mother and child), as well as handwritten letters/poems by Ruess (!), all found in a dusty leather case (included).More resources about Ruess and his life can be dug through here.
Old Man of the Lake
The Old Man of the Lake is a 30-foot tall Hemlock stump that bobs and floats vertically in Crater Lake (Oregon), and has since at least 1896. Scientists have studied the stump for over 100 years, chalking it's longevity and oddity up to Crater Lake's ice cold, clear, clean water. During one month in 1938, it is noted, the Old Man traveled at least 62.1 miles with the ebb and flow of the lake.Learn more here, I did.
The Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Filmmaker Werner Herzog was interviewed yesterday on NPR's Fresh Air about his 2010 film, "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams", just before it's US release at the end of April. This film, shot in 3D (I know, I know) contains footage of some of the oldest cave paintings on the planet. The Chauvet Cave in Southern France is closed to the public, due to it's immense sensitivity and presence of harmful levels of radon and carbon dioxide. Herzog, creator of many films, including Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, is known for going to unprecedented lengths and some of the most inhospitable places for footage. I don't know about the whole 3D thing (Herzog speaks to this skepticism which he initially shared) but this looks amazing.Check out the trailer here.
Fight for Wild America
The 2005 documentary about David Brower's life and career, titled Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America, is available to watch on Netflix. If you haven't seen this yet, get inspired. David Brower, the former leader of the Sierra Club and noted by many as responsible for the modern environmental movement, is held in high-regard for his steadfastness and unwillingness to budge in defense of wild America, alongside Edward Abbey and few others. Beautiful film with some amazing footage of the American west from the 30's onward.Check out the trailer after the jump.
Bev Johnson
Regarded by most as one of America's greatest climbers, in 1978 Beverly Johnson was the first woman to ever climb the Dihedreal wall of El Cap in Yosemite, and did it alone in 10 days. Born in 1947, Johnson was putting up first ascents all across the country before many of us were even born.Read a great summary and check some other great photos of Johnson's career over at rockriprollgirl.com then pick up the book about her life, The View from the Edge.Hats off.
Nanook
Nanook of the North (also known as Nanook of the North: A Story Of Life and Love In the Actual Arctic) is a 1922 silent documentary film by Robert J. Flaherty. In the tradition of what would later be called salvage ethnography, Flaherty captured the struggles of the Inuk Nanook and his family in the Canadian arctic. The film is considered the first feature-length documentary, though Flaherty has been criticized for staging several sequences and thereby distorting the reality of his subjects' lives.
In 1989, this film was one of the first 25 films to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
HOLLERIN
The 1978 film Welcome to Spivey's Corner just got added to Folkstreams a week or so ago and, like most of the films on Folkstreams, it's absolutely amazing. The film spotlights Spivey's Corner (then pop. 49) annual Hollerin' Contest which still takes place every year in this tiny North Carolina town. What's hollerin'? From Folkstreams.net:
Hollerin' is considered by some to be the earliest form of communication between humans. It is a traditional form of communication used in rural areas before the days of telecommunications to convey long-distance messages. Evidence of hollerin', or derivations thereof such as yodeling or hunting cries, exists worldwide among many early peoples and is still be practiced in certain societies of the modern world. In one form or another, the holler has been found to exist in Europe, Africa and Asia as well as the US. Each culture used or uses hollers differently, although almost all cultures have specific hollers meant to convey warning or distress. Otherwise hollers exist for virtually any communicative purpose imaginable -- greetings, general information, pleasure, work, etc. The hollers featured at the National Hollerin' Contest typically fall into one of four categories: distress, functional, communicative or pleasure.
Spend 17 awestruck minutes here.
THE COOKIE LADY
June Curry (aka The Cookie Lady) received the Adventure Cycling Association's first ever Trail Angel Award in 2003. The award has since been named after her, in honor and recognition for her help towards over 11,000 weary traveling cyclists on the Transamerica Trail. June Curry began baking cookies for cyclists the very first year that the Transam was run, during Bikecentennial '76. Curry lives atop a ridge just after a grueling climb in Virginia, just before the Blue Ridge Parkway. Over the years Curry offered water, lodging, a place to relax, and of course cookies in exchange for stories from people all around the world. Curry's home (and cycling "hostel") serve as a literal museum, with yellowed polaroids, sweaty caps, and used bike tires, archiving over thirty years of the Transam. Over the years there have been hundreds of articles written about The Cookie Lady, including from the New York Times. Hats off to you miss Curry.
ELDER OF THE TRIBE
Click on over to google books and read the June 1978 article in Backpacker Magazine titled Elder of the Tribe: Aldo Leopold. A great primer to Leopold and his "land ethic"."What I am trying to make clear", he wrote, "is that if in a city we had six vacant lots available to the youngsters of a certain neighborhood for playing ball, it might be 'development' to build houses on the first, and the second, and the third, and the fourth, and even on the fifth, but when we build houses on the last one, we forget what houses are for. The sixth house would not be development at all, but rather ... stupidity."After reading the article go to your local library, check out A Sand County Almanac and read it twice.
Open Road Pioneers
The Open Road Pioneers was a club started in 1927 by The Open Road For Boys, a boys' magazine encouraging the outdoor life that was published from 1919 to the 1950s.The Club Undertakes 1) To acquaint each member with the spirit and ideals of the frontier 2) to encourage each member to adopt the principles of courage, self-reliance, honesty, sportsmanship, endurance, progress and co-operation. 3) To teach each member useful things about woodcraft and outdoor life. 4) To familiarize each member wit the natural wonders which are all about him 5) to enlist each member in helping to conserve and increase the fish, the game, the forests and the other natural resource of his locality.*Learn more about the Open Road Pioneers and other old kids' clubs at Vintage Kid Stuff.
Geoff Holstad
I've been doing this Cold Splinters thing by myself since May 2008, a little bit more than two and a half years. There are going to be some big things happening in this neck of the woods in the Year Of The Rabbit, things I can't wait to work on, and the first of many is the addition of Geoff Holstad, whose brainchild, SO SWEATY, is one of my favorite places on the Internets. Holstad is an artist from Michigan with an amazing eye and a shared interest in all the things we like to write about on this rag. And it doesn't hurt that he's one of the nicest people in these United of States. Geoff has already written several posts here for your reading pleasure, and despite the spelling of his name, he'll be sticking around for good as a guest contributor. Make him feel welcome.Thanks everyone for reading and emailing and asking questions and commenting and just bein' around. You're the best.Happy 2011,Jeff and Geoff