This Way Thursway--A Patriot and a Pirate

 This way to This Way Thursway.

Seen during a stroll in the park

...just another way to travel.

This Way--That Way--Thursway--Alaska Flashback

This signpost in Fairbanks, Alaska gives distances to cities around the world. Cities in Alaska itself are listed in the top section, those outside the state at the bottom.

Distances are far within Alaska. It is amazing how far it might be to the next town. And in the case of small towns, they may even be inaccessible by road during the winter.

That's why there are more private pilots in Alaska than anywhere else.

Skagway has its

own version.

No distances,

 but at least you are

starting out

in the right direction.

Thisway Thursway

is sponsored here.

This Way Thursday--Old Chief Joseph

 This Way Thursday
--

others can be found here.

Old Chief Joseph was a participant in the treaty negotiations of 1855. In 1863, he refused to sign what he called the subsequent "Steal Treaty" which ceded 90% of Nez Perce land, including all theWallowa Valley to the government. Old Joseph died in 1871 and was buried near Wallowa. His grave was moved to this site between Enterprise and Joseph in 1921.

Old Joseph had refused to leave the land, and died at winter camp in 1871.

Items left at the gravesite to honor Old Joseph are varied.

It was Old Joseph's son Young Joseph who was chief when the Nez Perce were driven from their traditional homeland. He led them on a nearly 1200 mile trek through mountainous terrain into Montana and Canada with the U.S. Army in pursuit, finally surrendering in October of 1877. These words attributed to his speech of surrender are well known.

"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

This Way to Good Advice

This Way Thursday is here.

There's gotta be a story

We were merely intrigued by the old building that houses the Wallowa County Historical Society Museum in Joseph, Oregon, because it looked interesting. The museum wasn't open. (One problem with traveling in the off season.)

Undoubtedly, the museum would hold many stories in its collections, but little did we know the building's own story until a gentleman who had noticed our interest asked if we would like to hear its history.

Sure.

We hadn't noticed that it had been a bank.

The story goes like this.

One day in 1887 or 1888, three armed men strode into the First Bank in Joseph, Oregon, and robbed it of $8,000. One of the robbers was shot and killed before they were able to make their escape.

The other two headed east toward the Snake River and Idaho.

A posse was formed and caught up with them about thirty miles out  near the town of Imnaha. A gun battle ensued, and another of the robbers was killed. The other was brought back to Joseph.

(Here's what Imnaha looks like today. You would miss it if you blinked. Well, maybe you wouldn't, because it is basically the end of the road. Other than the highway by which we arrived, the only roads out are gravel or dirt, and pretty iffy this time of year. I've actually traveled on one of them in the fall a number of years ago, but that's another story.

A quick shot back over my shoulder to get the post office, too--didn't want you to think that Imnaha was really small, did I?)

Okay, back to the bank robbery. the surviving robber, badly wounded, was taken back to Joseph, where he recovered from his wounds, was tried, and sentenced to eight years in state prison.

Upon being released, he returned to Joseph to establish himself, and became the manager of the bank he had robbed.

The hills near Imnaha.

We expect to return to visit Enterprise and Joseph in a different season, finish the hike we left half done, and get out to the edge of Hells Canyon, accessible by those dirt and gravel roads out of Imnaha. Hopefully the museum will be open in Joseph, as we want to see one exhibit our impromptu guide told us about. He said he was upstairs in the museum when he noticed some cards--not very large--maybe about the size of half a sheet of paper. On closer inspection he found that they were formal invitations: "You are cordially invited to the execution of..."

See, I told you, there's gotta be a story...

 An entry to This Way Thursday. See others here.

This Way Thursday--admonished? advised?

Is a Caution a Warning?  If there are no Warning Signs, then what is this? Oh, no it is a Caution, not a Warning. Hmmmm.

 Go to This Way Thursday to see where everyone else is going today?

This Way to the Future...

We've spent quite a bit of time in Spokane in the last month doing Grandma and Grandpa duty, so I've had quite a few pictures from Gonzaga campus, Mt. Spokane, Ft. Wright, and South Hill. As we'd drive around taking kids to music or gymnastics or school, I spotted a lot of images I would have liked to shoot. I think I need a week in Spokane just for taking pictures.

I posted the main entrance to the Gonzaga Administration Building a few weeks ago as This Way to Education. Back there again after Mass on another Sunday, I caught this shot of my granddaughter headed to school. Well, maybe in a few years. After all, might as well keep up the family tradition.

This Way Thursday
paths, roads, signs and travels
and other related marvels--
found here.

This is the way to go...

If you happen to be a squirrel.

You'll find This Way Thursday here.

...or a deer.

This Way Thursday

This was the way throught he taiga forest on our long ago trip to Siberia.

This is the way to This Way Thursday.

This Way Thursday--This Way to an Education

When I first entered these portals some years ago, Gonzaga was not so well known as it is today. We did have a great basketball team in the Big Sky League, playing other schools of similar size from Oregon, Montana, Utah. Basketball has brought my alma mater into the national spotlight, but the solid education provided is still the main feature of the university.

In our time, the new statue of St. Ignatius and its fountain pool would have been in the traffic of Boone Avenue. The whole stretch of Boone through campus was closed to traffic and made into a bricked pedestrian area a number of years ago as the University grew.

I remember checking into a hotel on the ridge west of Spokane with my parents and looking down over the city for my first glimpse of the spires of St. Aloysius (fondly called St. Al's) the parish church which is an enduring symbol of Gonzaga University. As a terrified seventeen year old about to embark on the great adventure of college, I was not sure I didn't want to crawl back into the car and go home.

High school seniors are pondering college entrance forms and scholarship applications at this time of year--waiting and hoping for the thick envelope full of additional forms to fill out instead of the thin one with the single "I am sorry...." sheet. Hopes, studies, struggles, friends, independence...what an adventure looms ahead for them!

This Way Thursday--look here for other paths.

This Way Thursday

I have discovered a group posting pathways and signs and such under the meme "This Way Thursday." I've not had a specific theme to blog on for for Thursdays, leaving it open to post whatever strikes me, and if nothing strikes me...well, there are postless Thursdays in my past. I may not post a This Way every Thursday, but it's nice to have another inspiration.

This was our way as we hiked Trail 100 at Mt. Spokane State Park last Saturday. The trail turns off of this park road, which obviously leads somewhere by car in the summer--but not for now.

No, not this way...

Not a day for a picnic, and we'd already had lunch and arrived too late in the afternoon for a long hike, so let's head up the hill before we have to turn back when the light starts to fade.

This must have been a "road less travelled" section of the trail--at least for winter hikers. How did we manage to get into this predicament? We found better paths farther up, after a bit of a climb out of the streambed. Was this an offshoot of  Trail 100?

We arrived back at the parking lot just at the same time as the kids did. They had been skiing just a bit farther up the mountain.

Where do your paths lead?

Find This Way Thursday here.