[lit-ideas] Re: Michigan
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 22:44:59 EDT
I don't know from Canadian borders. I'm just glad someone else has
"to-be-read" piles..... if I read a book a day for the rest of my
life.....<sigh>.
Julie Krueger
scrubbing walls instead
========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: Michigan Date:
7/25/05 9:10:08 P.M. Central Daylight Time From: _ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(mailto:ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on:
While on vacation, I managed but one scribble, a postcard:
I just want to know why the U.S.- Canadian border, which runs straight in
the West, is so devious in the East. Here in Michigan I hit upon the idea
of asking people how the early history of the region goes. Since no one
proved very helpful on the subject in casual conversation, I went into
bookstores in search of a standard text that might explain the issues.
Preferably a nice, cheap, used copy.
I found none. Here's the piffle I picked up by skimming and dipping: the
Ottowas were a people and Cadillac was a Frenchman, who commanded a fort.
When the land became British--because of General Wolfe's defeat of Montcalm
on the Heights of Quebec--new forts were called Oswego and Drummond. I
don't know if that Drummond is somehow related to my man William Drummond
Stewart, or whether Oregon's Lake Oswego is related to that fort. Drummond
is not an unusual Scottish name.
Francis Parkman, in "Montcalm and Wolfe" says that somewhere in the series
of fights that decided who would control north America, a commander sent his
opponent's wife a gift of pineapples, with an expression of regret "for the
disquiet to which she was exposed."
Cadillac got a memorial in Michigan, also a car marque; Wolfe has neither.
Francois Bigot, who fought with the French, probably hasn't either either.
After the Revolution (or War of Independence), Americans did not have
control Michigan, but that was handed to them to keep it from falling to the
Spaniards. At one stage there was a skirmish between the early settlers of
Wisconsin and Michigan and the result was what people call "the upper
peninsular," which points sideways and belongs to Michigan. It has the
Hiawatha National Forest on it as well as the Ottowa National Forest. I
haven't visited the latter, but I'm guessing that land doesn't have any
Ottowa in it. We did pass through a reservation and casino in the lower
peninsular, but I don't know if they were Ottowa. Ottowa, the city, lies to
the South and East.
I came home with "Old Forts of the Great Lakes," and installed it on top of
Stephen Straker's copy of "Montcalm and Wolfe" in the "to be reads" pile.
Carry on.
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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