Montana Folk Festival 2011

After three years of hosting the National Folk Festival (it will be in Nashville this year), my little city of Butte Montana has launched the Montana Folk Festival as a new annual event. Modeled on the national festival, it did not disappoint: musicians came from all over the world to the free (donations, please!) event.

Here are a few of the many acts I was able to take in over the 3 days. Most of the links will take you to a YouTube video of their performance. Enjoy!

Kotchegna (Ivory Coast Dance):

Daryl Davis (Boogie Woogie Piano legend):

Blue Highway (American Bluegrass):

Vishten (French Acadian):

My personal favorite, Nukariik (Inuit Throat Singing):

In Inuit culture, women throat sing as a contest where the leader weaves a hard path for the follower to keep up with. The "loser" is the first to laugh. Men throat sing as a contest too, but it's often an insult contest and the loser is the first to lose their temper (see the quasi-documentary film "The Wedding of Palo" by Knud Rasmussen, 1935). I like it when the throat singers use a drum, too:

Dance tent and Montana local favorite, Wylie & The Wild West (Cowboy & Western Music); Wylie invented the trademark Yahoo yodel:

And closing out the dance tent on Saturday night to a packed crowd, Boukman Eksperyans (Haitian Mizik Rasin):

In addition to music, there was JD Old Mouse telling his traditional stories, show'n'tell exhibits by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and great food. And dancing. Did I mention lots of dancing?

It all takes place in uptown Butte, Montana. Come join us next year amid the old mining head frames ("gallows frames") of the festival city.

Thank You, Craig Woodson

Sunday I was privileged to attend a memorial service for Charles "Craig" Woodson, Jr (1933-2011). I came to know Mr. Woodson in the early 1990s after he bought and began restoring a ranch on the Ruby River here in southwest Montana. My daughter Emily, "Little Brother" A.J., and several friends shot their first deer there. It was a beautiful place to hunt and a typical day included watching ducks, pheasant, turkeys, and even (once) bear.

The place was pretty beat-up when Mr. Woodson took it on as both a restoration project and a working cattle ranch. Along the way, the ranch became the Ruby Habitat Foundation--an outdoor classroom dedicated to conservation education and sustainable agriculture. I met Mr. Woodson just a few times and talked only briefly, but I think I got to know him pretty well through his stewardship.

 The ceremony was a quintessential Montana experience. A couple of cowboys sang western tunes and played guitars. The preacher told how Mr. Woodson got to know his neighbors by visiting house to house, sitting at kitchen tables over coffee. A grand-daughter explained that she didn't know which was more embarrassing, driving the truck into an irrigation ditch or pulling over so Grandpa could pee by the roadside. Above all, however, these memories stand out for me from the ceremony:

• Wafting on the breeze, the smell of fresh-cut alfalfa hay;
• Mayfly duns alighting in the hair of the girl sitting in front of me;
• Belted kingfisher hovering over the nearby creek before diving down to seize a minnow;
• Bald eagle soaring over the valley, swooping low over the river before ascending on a thermal;
• Western meadowlark's sweet song drifting down from the sagebrush;
• Storm of cottonwood seeds floating through the air, shining bright against a dark cloud; and
• Yes, oh yes, violet-green swallows swooping over our heads, feasting on the abundant mosquitoes.

 Thanks for the day, Craig!

Those wishing to donate in honor of Craig Woodson may send contributions to:

Ruby Habitat Foundation
2597 Hwy 287
PO Box 638
Sheridan MT 59749

Skywatch Friday: Hiking Around Butte America

Summer has arrived with a vengeance--temperatures in the 80s everyday and most days not a cloud in sight. One sure way to avoid the heat is a hike in the hills surrounding Butte America. It's also a major mosquito year, but the dry heat should take care of them very soon.

Warm Springs Ponds

We hiked a pleasant morning around Warm Springs Ponds at the headwaters of the Clark Fork River. Here is Mt Powell reflected in one of the ponds, with the 500+-foot tall Anaconda Smelter Stack on the left:

Bald eagles have long has a nest site at the ponds, and we were at first puzzled to see two dark eagles (which we took to be a golden) near the nest while a bald eagle looked on:

We were even more puzzled when they perched together:

Mystery solved: birder friend Andrea Stierle explained to us that these are juvenile bald eagles--apparently not all juveniles have the white flecks or underwing markings that usually characterize them. Though not a birder, I appreciate the abundant flying things (well, maybe not the mosquitoes) that populate the ponds. These range from swarms of blue damsel flies:

To white pelicans:

And yellow-headed blackbirds:

Continental Divide

On a small west slope (i.e. Pacific-bound) drainage, we visited a favorite pond to celebrate Independence Day, roast weenies, and where the dogs could have a swim:

The dense grove of quaking aspens along the creek makes for good black bear habitat, with tracks and other fresh sign:

And the usual bear claw marks on some aspens:

In the lush grass along the creek, we found Starry Solomon's Seal (Smilacina stellata):

And on a dry, open slope, the first flowering Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax) of the year:

ATVs (aka "four wheelers") frequently go (illegally) off road in the area, and it seems wherever they travel weeds grow behind them--such as this Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia esula):

Walkerville Creek

Friends Brent and Karina Patch are in town for the upcoming Montana Folk Festival. Brent and I hunted and backpacked together before he moved over to Pocatello, and we took this opportunity (along with two other friends and two dogs) for a hike on a small creek just off the Continental Divide near town. I've hiked and skied this area often, but we dropped off a steep ridge and came upon this tumbledown miner's cabin that I'd never seen before:

Inside, the old cook stove was about all that remained:

But nearby we found a few tasty morel mushrooms:

The wet spring has made fungi abundant, and even when I don't know the species (or whether they are edible) I love their shapes, textures, and colors:

The wet meadows (and they are still VERY wet--wish I'd brought a change of socks!) are home to Blue Camas (Camassia quamash; the roots were an important food source for Indians that once lived here):

Also our native Elk Thistle (Cirsium scariosum):

On the way back down to the LandRover, we stopped by a mid-elevation lake where the young (and young at heart; and dogs, of course) could cool down with a refreshing swim:

Back at the Rover, MollyTheDog was too tired to chew the elk leg bone she had found. She lay down on it, however--just in case someone else might want it.

This weekend: the Montana Folk Festival--three days of peace, love, and music with musicians from around the country.

Skywatch Friday: Elk Racks & Bitterroot Flowers

Summer came to Butte, Montana, exactly with the calendar this year. Before the summer solstice, nights were frosty, many mornings we woke to snow, and most days temperatures hovered in the 50s (deg F). After the solstice, it's been 70+ with plenty of bright, blue skies. On a recent hike through the Boulder Batholith near town, Dave Carter & I were greeted by the familiar spires of the rock formation that marks this area:

Just over the Continental Divide south of town, we navigate by our view of the Highland Mountains:

Molly & Jack TheDogs stayed peculiarly close to us, perhaps it had something to do with the fresh bear sign:

I'm scouting a place to bowhunt come September. We did not see any elk, but as usual saw a few dependable mule deer, including this young doe:

Now, if you find a rabbit's foot from a coyote kill, can the rabbit's foot possibly be lucky? Certainly wasn't for the rabbit:

There was plenty of elk sign, and hiking back to the truck we cut across a large, open park, only to come upon this very symmetrical 5-point elk rack with skull (possibly winter or wolf kill):

In the woods, the Kinnikinnick (Arcostaphylos uva-ursi) is blooming. Indians used the leaves medicinally (they have antibiotic properties) and smoked it. Not sure why they smoked it--I've tried it and it seems to have no narcotic effect:

At a small old mining site up on the ridge, Dense-leaf Draba (Draba densifolia) had colonized all the tailings piles:

Down low, the wet meadows are lit up with Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum; aka "Purple Avens"). The flowers are pretty but not all that showy--that has to wait for pollination and seed development, when the seed heads burst open with long, smoke-like tendrils to carry off the wind-born seeds:

After a long morning hike, what's better than stopping at Dairy Queen for ice cream? Including, of course, a couple of cones for Molly and Jack: 

Back home in Walkerville, on the west slope of the Divide, the wet spring has made for  lush blooms on the wild apple trees in the horse pasture behind the house:

The humblebees must be very grateful for the rich nectar:

I am grateful for the butterflies that are beginning to show up:

For the Field Pussytoes (Antennaria neglecta) that dot the sagebrush:

And, most especially, for the Rock Roses (Bitterroot; Lewisia rediviva). Aptly chosen as Montana's state flower, Bitterroots and other native flora have been colonizing the Butte Hill. Rare when I moved here 20+ years ago, they now carpet many of the most barren, rocky areas:

There are just a few blooms now, but it looks as though there are plenty of buds yet to open:

Happy 4th of July to American readers, and happy summer to all.

SkywatchFriday: Washington D.C., Fulbright to China

A long way from Montana, I'm in Washington D.C. for an orientation to prepare me for being a visiting professor next year in China.  A Fulbright Award is a huge honor and going to China is a huge -- and daunting -- adventure. It's been an intense 3 day orientation and on a short break between sessions I walked outside the hotel to take in a view of the sky:

By global standards, even the D.C.'s oldest architecture is quite young. Like my home in Butte or like most American cities, many of D.C.'s buildings date to our nation's industrial development after the Civil War. A building like this would not be out of place in Butte, Buffalo, or Boise:

But buildings get old, maintenance becomes expensive, and sometimes they fall into disuse (National Union Building, 1890):

Eventually, like D.C.'s Webster School (1881-2; a classic red brick urban school of this period), they are shuttered up and slated for demolition. But in D.C. as in Butte, there is a powerful social movement to save such buildings:

Despite the sentiments of historic preservationists, if a city is healthy, it must make room for new construction that better meets the needs of business and current residents. I was curious about the huge hole in the ground/construction site across from my hotel--turns out D.C.'s convention center has been razed and will be replaced with a giant shopping plaza:

I'm not judging whether this is good or bad, but it does indicate a changing urban American worldview, with private commercial space replacing public space (though it was public space built for private commerce). 

My soon-to-be host country of China seems to have no qualms about this sort of thing. I'll be with Southwest University of Chongqing, a city of 31.4 million people. Yep. That's 31,400,000 or  four times the size of New York City. It seems that everything is bigger in China: the university has more than 50,000 students. And, like much infrastructure in China, most of it is new and a product of China's phenomenal economic growth over the past decade or so (this photo is from China Travel Tips):

As I know from the friends I made many years ago in graduate school, many Chinese are friendly and welcoming of Americans. This was affirmed last night in a sumptuous reception at the home of Dr. You Shaozhong, the China Embassy's Minister Counselor for Education:

By the way, it's a classic c. 1900 house:

As those of you that know me and/or who read this blog understand, this is going to be quite an adventure for me. Accustomed to the 4-season outdoor recreation of Montana (fish, hike, hunt, ski), what's a nature boy to do? Check back next year and I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, it's back to my beloved mountains.