And a Weekend Reflection from the Wayback Machine

Since I posted a SkyWtch Friday from India, I thought I would show how adventurous I really am and show you this reflection which I searched and found in my folder of pictures from Russia. I would have posted one that was actually from Siberia, but I didn't find a good reflection in the files. This is near St. Petersburg on the grounds of Catherine the Great's Summer Palace. (What it really means is that since I went to the Wild Horse Monument on Monday, I really haven't had time to take any pictures.) We went to Russia, to Siberia, to visit our son. We traveled from Siberia back to Moscow and St. Petersburg on the Transiberian Railway. This was in 1998,

James sponsors Weekend Reflections at Newtown Daily Photo.

ABC Wednesday--G is for...

G is for GUIDEBOOKS

These are the guidebooks we have purchased or checked out from the library in anticipation of travel this summer. (Plus one coffee table photologue.)

The Frommer's that we had for our Alaska trip last fall served us extremely well. We hope our new collection will give us the same quality of guidance.

Our trip will center on a guided hiking tour of the Scottish Highlands, and that is all we have booked so far. We are on the trail of the area where my father-in-law grew up, was raised by his Aunt Maggie. This picture of him as a youth was taken over 100 years ago.

He immigrated to the US sometime after 1906 and before 1920. (We have a postcard sent to him in Ross and Cromarty after the San Francisco earthquake and the incorporation papers for his business in San Francisco dated in 1920.)

We're ready and willing to entertain any guidance from UK residents or other travelers as to what we absolutely must do or see while we are there. There's no way that we will have enough time for everything.

This ABC entry is part of the sixth round of the meme, and my fifth. After all, the alphabet we always have with us. Visit the ABC link site here. and Denise Nesbitt, the founder of ABC Wednesday here.

Theres gotta be a--another--story

...but this time I leave you to speculate.

So, what is this boot doing on this fencepost in Imnaha, Oregon?

Just a little more about Imnaha:

*the population is 12. (About 180 if you count surrounding ranches.) (statistic is from 2003)

*Heather posted an alternative version of the bank robber story from my previous post as a comment there. Heather is an innkeeper in Joseph, and next time we visit the area, if we aren't pulling our tiny trailer, I think we will be visiting her. I am quite sure she will be able to fill in any other details, and invite her to add to anything further that I post about the area. Wallowa Valley residents are proud of the Valley and its history. (They even stop you on the street to tell you about it.)

*Imnaha has a community celebration the third Saturday of September and one of the big features is a bear and rattlesnake feast.

*The name Imnaha comes from combining the name of a chief from the area -- Imna -- and the added form -- ha -- which means rules here. So the meaning of the town's name is "place where Chief Imnah rules(ruled)".

Isn't that enough to answer the "You went where? Why?" question for any adventurer?

Just in case you thought this was an isolated boot--maybe lost and posted (yeah, dumb pun!) on the fence so its owner could reclaim it, all the fenceposts along this small property have boots.

You can see a couple of them here, though I could probably have gotten a better picture if I had tried harder. If you do a search for boots on fenceposts you will find lots of other instances of the practice--some extending for miles and miles--and some explanations I won't publish 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.