Tuesday, March 1, 2011

In The Shadow Of Indians.



Legend tells of a mischievous plan way back in 1737 between three brothers and sons of the late William Penn. They reached an agreement, along with the help of their father's secretary James Logan, with local Indian tribes such as the Lenape to settle land via a "walking purchase". The agreement between the Quakers and Indians called for three able bodied and fit young men to walk as far as they could in a single day. The land that they walked would fall under the ownership of the Quakers and the three sons of Penn would later parcel it to eager colonists. This would settle a previous dispute over the territory. The mischievous part of the whole ordeal, was that the three men chosen to make the "walk" actually ran for some eighteen hours and covered over sixty miles. Their journey began early in Wrightstown, Bucks County & by the end of twenty four hours, they had reached beyond Blue Mountain to Jim Thorpe. One of their stops brought them into the town of Northampton, before they embarked to Blue Mountain. This area was known to the Indians as the "forks," and is where I spent the majority of my life growing up. Little did I know, but I grew up and learned to fly fish in the shadow of Indians and the famous "walking purchase," that created tension between tribes and colonists on the eve of the French and Indian War.



A Long Time Ago, This Would Have Been A Brookie. 

Almost every time I find myself fishing on my home water, this tale is usually resonating in the back of my mind. I remembered hearing it in my early grade school years but never realized its relevance until recently. It is nice to know a little bit of history about the area in which you lived, and it adds a little something whenever you get in touch with mother nature. I am sure the indigenous who eventually fell victim to our manifest destiny would appreciate a solitary angler respecting what remains of a resource. A resource that was taken from them by any means necessary resulting in the eventual depletion of their way of life.


Favorite Small Stream Rod.


Early Black Stones.


Respect the Resource.


Emergence.


Winter Bounty.


Close Up.


Fairly Large For My Home Water.


I Caught This Guy in 2008, 2009, But Didn't in 2010.


2009 Minus a Few Inches & The Scar on His Back.


I Feared the Worst, But He Is A Survivor. 
A True "Lunker" From My Home Water. 
A Beautiful One At That.

3 comments:

Mark Kautz said...

I had never heard that story about the "walking purchase". Interesting story. Reminds me of the land I purchased some years ago. Your property corners (surveyed by professionals) are the tree over there, that big rock down in the canyon, etc. I owned 10feet on the other side of my neighbors fence, but he laid claim because he had fenced it 40 years ago and I could just go and blow smoke.

Wade Rivers said...

Heap big medicine! Love the way you nailed the exposure on the Emergence image.

Another super duper good one from the boyz at TRIW.

cliftz said...

nice detail and images...
thanks for posting