Izzy Bird, men are arguing
October 07, 2020
Isabella is in the Link’s cabin. It is dinner time.
One of the ways people pass the time in these parts is to talk about roads and weather.* The folks around the table — Mr Link, an old hunter, a miner, and a teamster — are in a heated discussion about the route Isabella should take in the morning. Even after everyone goes to bed that night, the discussion kicked back up before she left “with increased violence, so that if my nerves had not been of steel I should have been appalled.
“The old hunter acrimoniously said he ‘must speak the truth,’ the miner was directing me over a track where for 25 miles there was not a house, and where, if snow came on, I should never be heard of again. The miner said he ‘must speak the truth,’ the hunter was directing me over a pass where there were five feet of snow and no trail.”
The teamster weighed in, of course, and advised her to “take the road into South Park,** which I was determined not to do. Mr Link said he was the oldest hunter and settler in the district, and he could not cross any of the trails in snow. And so they went on.”
They did agree on part of one route, which contains “the worst road in the Rocky Mountains.” It has two feet of snow on it — but a hunter had jus hauled an elk over park of it so maybe it wasn’t so bad?
“The upshot of the whole,” she tells her sister, “you shall have in my next letter.”
* This is how humans pass the time in many parts. Glad to see it’s not a new phenomenon.
** same place as the show? Anyone?
There was a town named South Park in Colorado. It's named Fairplay now. The show conflates a lot of Colorado landmarks and fictionalizes others - this article gives a good overview:
https://www.outtherecolorado.com/adventures/11-real-south-park-locations-you-ll-find-in-colorado/article_495a072e-dc36-58ca-a174-5eaa87de649c.html
Posted by: Pamela | October 09, 2020 at 06:03 PM
Huh. Thanks for the info!
Posted by: Adrienne Martini | October 11, 2020 at 02:46 PM