
My friend Earl Sager, a retired science teacher and Anaconda school administrator, told me about the quarry where the sandstone for this building was mined. Dave Carter and I decided to have a look. It's been very smoky in Butte -- visibility down to 5 miles or less most days -- and one needs to keep busy so as not to dwell on a scene out of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Here is the sunrise in Walkerville yesterday (the smoke only thickens as the day progresses):
The day was still young, so Dave & I did a long, looping hike through the cemetary. In death as in life: graves were grouped into distinct ethnic, religious, and fraternal association areas. For example, there was a Masonic section, one for Spanish American War veterans, one for members of the Eastern Orthodox faith, Knights of Pythias, Order of Woodmen, etc.
The most unusual and -- to me -- unfamiliar plot was for the "Improved Order of Red Men." There is one hell of an impressive monument:
These fraternal organizations were very important at a time when there was no health care insurance and people grouped together to take care of one another in the event of tragedy. Like the exagerrated claims of most fraternal organizations (cf. the Masonic claim to have descended from Moses' men who built the Great Pyramid), the Red Men claim to have descended from patriots at the Boston Tea Party. Whatever the truth of 'at, the group was officially chartered in 1834, and is still in existence today--though the membership of 38,000 is considerably down from the historic mark of 500,000 in 1938 (info from Wikipedia entry). Not surpisingly, perhaps, the current seat of the organization is in Waco, Texas!
On our hike, we also spotted a few wildflowers, such as this white knapweed (genetic variant or true white knapweed species?)--an exotic and many would say "noxious" species:
4 comments:
Great piece, Pat. I've spent many a day wandering around the Butte cemeteries, in similar awe of some of the monuments there.
As for the "white" knapweed, no doubt a genetic variant. The same phenomenon is common among many native and non-native species, such as shooting stars, evening primrose, Rocky MT bee plant to name a few and I've seen white common toadflax blooms before. As for spotted knapweed, let it still be damned, the bees happen to use it to make some of the best and sweetest honey in the state.
There's a few stories of people having had supernatural encounters at those Native American statues in Anaconda. I've heard stories about the branches moving on the statue trees. I always wondered if there was some coincidence of the ghost stories having to do with Native Americans since pretty much everybody in Anaconda now is white.
Sean, note that the monuments are not Native American. They were erected by white guys organized into fraternal associations that appropriated Native American symbols. Sort of like the Boy Scouts “Order of the Arrow”—white guys playing at being Indians. On the other hand, as you point out, maybe the Indian spirits are angry at white guys having stolen their symbols (as well as their land—note the massacre of Indians that occurred near Anaconda). – Pat
I think that this is really good, I would like to have the chance of read more about it because this place look so nice. I love the natural place.
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