Bob Eckstein and His World's Greatest Bookstores

Thanks to a birthday gift from my daughter, Lily, I am in the universe of Bob Eckstein’s paintings of the world’s greatest bookstores.

Lily gave me a set of postcards with 50 of Eckstein’s bookstore paintings. I am not sure if you will notice this but Eckstein’s painting of 192 Books in Manhattan, above, has a feel similar to that - - but brighter - - in Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.

The set has the bonus of including two sets of cards. A person could mail cards from one set and use the others as keepsakes, desk/wall art or bookmarks.

My wife Dorothy, Lily and I got another bonus from the postcards. On my birthday, we looked at all the postcards and shared our own anecdotes, as individuals and family, about time we have spent in bookstores.

Of the 50 painting on the postcards, 45 appeared in Eckstein’s 2016 book, Footnotes* from the World’s Greatest Bookstores. Tied to the asterisk is the phrase “True Tales and Last Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Booklovers.” Eckstein added paintings of five other bookstores to the postcard set.

Footnotes includes paintings of 75 bookstores. The book has an appealing accompanying text, opening with a Foreword by Garrison Keillor and an Introduction by the author.

Of the 75 bookstores, 72 get two pages each. On the left page is the bookstore's name, location, dates of operation and a brief history. On the right page is Eckstein’s painting of the bookstore with one or more hand-lettered anecdotes.

The Strand Bookstore, New York, New York

Because of their importance, Eckstein devotes four pages each to Shakespeare and Company in Paris, Barbara’s Books in Chicago and Gotham Book Mart in Manhattan.

The back of each postcard has the bookstore name, location and dates of operation. On the front of the card is the painting without the anecdotes.

Except for six stores, including Gotham Book Mart, all the bookstores in the book are open; no closed stores are included in the postcard set.

Bookhampton, Main Street, East Hampton, New York

In his Introduction, Eckstein states he started with a list of over 150 bookstores and chose 75. The selections, he wrote, are “based on recommendations, word of mouth, social history and contributions to the locale.” Near the Introduction’s end, he observes, “While I was unable to include every great shop in this volume - - my apologies to those I did not get to yet - - I’d like to think this book is about all bookstores.”

Book Court, Brooklyn, New York

Eckstein also wrote “there had to be a good story,” from a reliable source, about each store. He started with over 300 stories and quotes, not including “the hundreds of ‘shop cat’ stories,” stories about cats in bookstores, he heard. In a recent e-mail conversation, Eckstein recalled, The bulk of the work on this book was “tracking down and finding amazing stories . . . I used a third of the stories I reported.”

The most frequent story Eckstein heard was about someone proposing marriage in a store - - and some of these newlyweds had the reception at the store.

One of my favorite stories includes the late William Safire and John K. King Used and Rare Books. While browsing, Safire lost track of time and realized he would miss a radio interview. “We had to rush him uptown, running through red lights, just to get him to the gig,” recalls owner John King. “Luckily,” King said, “we were driving an old police car.”

When William Faulkner finished his first novel, he told Sherwood Anderson and that author walked away. Later, Faulkner met Mrs. Anderson while out walking. She said her husband “would make a trade with you. If he does not have to read your manuscript, he will tell his publisher to accept it.”

Regrettably I do not have space to share Eckstein’s anecdotes about Anne Rice’s arrival at a bookstore or Dave Barry’s unsettling book signing. In addition to this book and postcard set,

Eckstein’s website proclaims that he is the “world’s leading snowman expert.” His research on this subject led to the recently published, The Illustrated History of the Snowman. He has drawn illustrations and cartoons for National Lampoon, Mad, The New York Times and The New Yorker. His work at The New Yorker helped him prepare his 2019 book, Everyone’s A Critic: The Ultimate Cartoon Book by the World’s Greatest Cartoonists.

Bob Eckstein

This portfolio of bookstore paintings originated when Eckstein painted some of the most beautiful bookstores in New York City for The New Yorker’s website. Within hours of the piece appearing in The New Yorker, Eckstein’s agent called and told him that Penguin Random House had offered a book deal for a worldwide portfolio. Eckstein recalls that he “was excited and grateful but at that time I was unaware how big a project it would become.” “Slowly as I meet dozens and dozens of bookstore owners,” he continued, “did my impressions of this business unfold.”

The paintings in this book look as if they have been done in oils, acrylics or watercolors. But Eckstein explained, “I use a computer painting software and a drawing tablet.” Although the paintings have an on the street feel, Eckstein said, “Just a handful were done plein air and those were done at the project’s beginning - - before I realized the scope of the job.”

McNally Jackson Bookstore, New York, New York

When Eckstein started this project, he approached it as an artist. “By the time I was half way through the assignment,” he said, “I became very emotionally invested in the plight of independent bookstore owners.” He has become preoccupied with raising awareness for bookstore owners by writing Op Eds about them and appearing on radio and podcasts to explain the importance of these beloved institutions. “I call them,” he concluded, “Main Street’s intellectual hubs.”

Eckstein does not have a bookstore sequel in the works. “If there was more public demand for one," he is “ready with 75 bookstore stories and paintings to share in a sequel.” “I have instead moved on,” he said “and worked on other books, including a thank you to bookstores for supporting my bookstores book, called The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons By The World’s Greatest Cartoonists.”

The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, California

Bob’s postcard set, Footnotes and his other books are available at independent bookstores and at his website.  This website also includes a link to Bob's free newsletter, which includes cartoons and stories.

Musso and Frank Grill Centennial: An Appreciation

Musso and Frank Grill, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood, is turning 100 this September 27th.

Over the last 100 years, the restaurant has seen more adventures and plot surprises than fit in a short blog post. Please take time to visit the Musso and Frank website . It has a delightful history of the place; in the “press” section of the website are great articles and radio clips.

When our daughter Lily was attending college in Los Angeles, Dorothy and I wanted to learn more about southern California. To paraphrase the Randy Newman song, we already knew that we loved LA. We had impressions of the place from watching TV shows such as The Closer and reading authors such as Joan Didion and Raymond Chandler.

During a visit to see Lily, we went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In the gift shop we found Borislav Stanic’s Los Angeles Attractions, an informative guidebook with appealing

writing, lots of color photos and great maps.

In his section on Hollywood, Stanic describes Musso and Frank, which regulars call “Musso’s.” It lists some of the restaurant’s classic menu items, a photograph of the restaurant facade and references to famous writers.

After reading about the menu and seeing the facade, we were reminded of a favorite Albany restaurant, the Larkin. The idea that this was a writer’s eatery, a West Coast version of the Algonquin Round Table, was also appealing.

We had to go. And we have gone - - three times so far!

Our favorite meal at Musso and Frank is lunch. Whether we drive or take the subway and Metrolink, we can enjoy the service, the meal and the restaurant ambiance and be on the way home before the insanity of the evening commute.

This is one of two large dining rooms in Musso''s and
our favorite place to have lunch.
Photograph courtesy of Tina Whatcott-Escheverria

With 200 items on the menu, there is something for everyone. Vegetarians have found a good lunch at the place, although I am not sure if they have vegan items on the menu.

The restaurant has daily specials which have been on offer for decades: Tuesday is corned beef and cabbage; Wednesday is sauerbraten and potato pancakes; Thursday is homemade chicken pot pie; Friday is bouillabaisse Marseillaise; Saturday is braised short ribs with vegetables; and Sunday is duck confit. Another Musso’s specialty is flannel cakes, described on the menu as “lighter and sweeter than a pancake yet not as delicate as a crepe, truly an original.”

So far, we end up at Musso’s on Thursdays. While homemade chicken pot pie has potential, it’s never been a favorite. So, I order the Musso’s Burger, which is consistently excellent!

Although we were attracted to Musso’s by tales of writers and movie stars, we have decided the restaurant’s real stars are the waiters, bartenders, busboys and maitre d’s. When we lunched at Musso’s last October, our waiter, Boris, explained the restaurant hires waiters to be full time waiters - - rather than people seeking employment while waiting for another career. Boris and his colleagues know the menu and bar offerings forwards and backwards.

Musso and Frank owners and staff. 
Photograph courtesy of Tina Whatcott-Escheverria

They are very welcoming to new customers. They also know what their regular customers like for food, seating and level of attention.

Our standard cocktail at Musso’s? A Tanqueray martini. The bartenders make it perfectly dry. We order it with a twist but if you like olives, you can get one with olives of just the right size.

The Musso's martini.
Photograph courtesy of  Tina Whatcott-Escheverria

Musso’s is also a place to see and reconnect with friends. My friend Jim Burns once met a friend he had not seen in years at Musso’s. The friend was in town pitching a movie idea and, as Jim concluded, “it made perfect sense that we’d meet in front of a Hollywood mecca!”

Regarding old-school and new-school celebrities and authors: the Musso’s website or Michael Callahan’s April, 2016 Los Angeles magazine article “Don’t Change Anything” also on the website are full of many great stories, too many to share here.

The quote which I think best captures Musso’s decisions to stay the same and change and its star-studded pedigree came from Bobby Caravella, Musso’s assistant general manager. In the main dining room is a mural that may depict a hunting scene, but it’s so faded no one is sure. Callahan writes that when asked why it was not restored, Caravella said, “Because it’s painted with Humphrey Bogart’s cigarette smoke.”  

Happy 100 years, Musso’s!

At 11:00 AM on Friday September 27, 2019, a star-shaped “Hollywood Award of Excellence,” the first ever, will be awarded to Musso’s and unveiled outside the restaurant. The star will be in the sidewalk near the stars in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This event is open to the public.

A Peachy Blog Post

Photograph courtesy of the
Ohio Department of Agriculture 

Right now, peaches from local orchards are a must-eat food treat.

From California’s Central Valley, up the coast into Washington, across the Great Lakes and throughout New York and New England, it’s now relatively easy to find a peach that is ripening naturally. This is in delicious contrast to those months when retailers set out peaches that are hard, sour and green - - and then rot in seemingly hours or minutes.

Of local peaches, Mark Gade, at Gade Farm Store near our home, said, “There is nothing like the taste of a fresh peach in season.” Mark gets local peaches from Klein’s Kill Fruit Farms in southern Columbia County, in the Hudson valley.

Peaches at Gade Farm

 At one point while researching this post, I thought a fun opening sentence might be,  "Peaches are the greatest Chinese food in America that is hiding in plain sight." According to Cornell’s CooperativeExtension website, peach cultivation “began in China as early as 2000 B.C.” Traders brought peaches to Europe. European settlers brought peaches to the Americas, where, the website continues, “peach cultivation thrived on the east coast.” “By the mid-1700s,” the website concludes, “peaches were so plentiful in the United States that botanists thought of them as native fruits.”

Worldatlas, an online atlas, shows that China is the world’s largest peach producer, growing over 14.2 million tons of them in 2017. Spain was the second most prolific peach producer that year, growing nearly 1.8 million tons. The United States follows China, Spain, Italy and Greece with a nationwide crop of over 750,000 tons.

The ton is a major measure of peach output. This is paradoxical.

Eating a peach is such an individual, intimate experience. Each has a snowflake-like individuality in its coloring. Even two ripe peaches can taste just a little differently or have a slightly different firmness or juiciness. A “ton” is an industrial measure, more appropriate to cars or steel mills.

These two peaches weigh one pound.  If a ton is
2,000 pounds, how many of this size peach are in a ton?

But by what Bertie Wooster might call their peachiness, peaches subvert this measure. Bill Shane, a Michigan State University researcher and peach specialist, advises “there is not a firm number for how many peaches are in a ton. The number varies based on size and size varies by peach variety, crop load, time of year and growing conditions.”

Summer peaches from local orchards have an intense flavor. At the same time, their fruit and flesh are more delicate than apples or oranges.

The delicateness of a peach suggests that special growing conditions are required so that you can bite into a perfect peach on a warm summer day.

Photo courtesy of Jim Bittner

I assumed orchard fruits required river valleys or large lakes like the Great Lakes or Finger Lakes to buffer temperatures. But when Steve Lyle from the California Department of Food and Agriculture sent me information on where peaches are grown in California, I saw that much of the Golden State’s peach production came from the landlocked Central Valley where freezing temperatures are rare,

Thanks to Jim Bittner of Bittner Singer Orchards in Niagara County, New York, Bill Shane and my friend Bob LaRoche, I now better understand the delicate, balanced dance required to put that marvelous peach into your hands this month. In an email, Jim wrote, “Peaches cannot be grown where temperatures get below zero degrees Fahrenheit very often.” “Temperatures of 5 below,” he continued “will start killing next year’s flower buds; temperatures of 15 below will kill the tree.” Jim’s orchards, he writes, “are protected by open water all winter” on Lake Ontario.

Peach trees in bloom at Bittner-Singer Orchards. 
Photo courtesy of Jim Bittner

Although peaches cannot stand extreme cold, they need cool temperatures. Bill explained that peaches need “chill hours,” days during the winter months when air temperatures range from 34 to 42 degrees, to bloom properly. A Michigan peach, depending on the variety, needs about 700 or more chill hours. Bill said that southern peach growers use peach varieties that require fewer chill hours or use varieties requiring more chill hours if local climate permits. There is some controversy about whether varieties needing fewer chill hours taste as good as those with a longer chill time.

“Air drainage,” can allow people to grow peaches in cooler regions, away from large water bodies because - - at least on still nights - - warmer air is at the top of hills. Bob explained that air drainage is key to peach production in southern states. Bill said that in Michigan, it is possible to grow peaches in the vicinity of Grand Rapids, many miles from Lake Michigan, because air drainage provides good growing conditions on ridges, the so-called Peach Ridge growing area.

Once an orchardist determines if the temperatures are right , that peach is still not in your hands. Bob grows peaches in Maine; if frost comes too early or before harvest, he loses the crop.

My friend Joe Freda lives in the southern Catskills and wrote the following about another peach growing peril:

“We had a bumper crop this year. The peaches were so sweet we had them every morning for breakfast. In previous years the squirrels and crows got them before we did. This year we took pre-emptive action: started harvesting as soon as they looked good, at the end of July. We’ve been so pleased with them. Elise (Joe’s wife) was eager to harvest the rest of them, and I’d been waiting for the last full-growth day. A risk, a game of poker with the crows. Elise ate the last harvested peach for breakfast this morning, and asked me to go get the rest.

“As I walked up to the orchard, I could hear crows laughing at me: “Haw! Haw! Haw!” And when I got to the peach trees, there wasn’t a single fruit left! Those little suckers got me again, and they broke a couple of limbs in the process. Oh well, crows gotta live, too. And if they can dine on peaches as sweet as these, I’m sure we’ll be in competition for quite some time.

Marc Fuchs, a professor at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in New York’s Finger Lakes, advises that, in addition to Niagara County and other counties on Lake Ontario, Columbia, Dutchess and Suffolk Counties are big peach producing counties. For as long as possible, I plan to chase fresh local peaches - - before the frost lowers the boom.

You're right!  It's not a peach.
But this sunflower was so beautiful
I had to share it.

A Garden Interlude

My next post was intended  to be an appreciation of local

peaches, but the research is going slowly.  Until it's

finished, here's a gardening update.

After a late, wet and cold spring, a bout of seasonal

allergies, and three weeks away in July because

of medical issues, the garden is shaping up!

My fellow gardeners have had their triumphs and setbacks.
Some had corn that did not mature, or things that
did not grow because of the wet and cold.

But lots of things are finally starting to ripen.

So far, we have picked and enjoyed more sweet corn

than the five, misshapen ears which grew last year. 

Two people in the Guilderland Community Garden have

gigantically tall corn stalks and I hope to meet them and

learn their recipe for success.

This ear of corn looked better in the camera view finder
than it did in the above photograph
But it tasted pretty good in the end

In the early 1980’s, Hurley’s tavern in downtown Albany

served delicious chicken wings and a wide assortment of

beverages.  One of our favorite past-times was to order

wings and small, “pony” bottles of Rolling Rock.  

Each bottle of Rolling Rock has a “33” on the back of the

bottle, representing the number of words in product’s slogan. 

“33” is also a symbol used by journalists to signal to printers

that an article has ended.  

After picking plum tomatoes for two days, I was reminded of

both of these facts when I learned that I had picked “33”

tomatoes.  More green tomatoes are on the vine. I hope the

“33” in the number I picked does not mean the tomato sauce

I made will taste like beer - - or the tomato harvest is over.

33 plum tomatoes

I pulled these carrots in early July. 
From the size of the carrot tops , I thought the carrots were larger. 

One of my favorite crops  is carrots. When I was growing

up in Bloomington, Indiana, my mother encouraged the family

to plant radishes and carrots.  The radishes always worked

well, perhaps because they could fill out at a shallow depth

in the ground and the carrots did not work well. 

It’s been nice to finally succeed with a favorite vegetable.

I like a variety called Scarlet Nantes.  The first year in the

garden, I tried a variety called Danvers.  Although friends do

well with Danvers, mine were woody and not as tasty as

the Scarlet Nantes.

This year, the weeds overwhelmed the carrots and fewer

came up.  But the ones that did were longer and wider

than in previous years.  

I pulled these carrots in early August.
What a difference a month makes!

During our first year in the Guilderland Community Garden,

I planted pumpkins.  Our garden there is 25 by 33 feet and it

seemed to have more than enough room for pumpkins.

But by July that year, the pumpkin vines overran everything. 

We have planted pumpkins in the backyard ever since.  

Last week, three green pumpkins started filling out.  Now,

we are in a mad race between the pumpkins ripening and

assorted animals who want to eat the vines and the fruit. 

Last night, something got the smallest of the three. 

Let's hope the feasting ends there.

As of mid-August, more corn, carrots and tomatoes remain

to be picked.  And waiting in the wings are cauliflower,

Brussels sprouts, broccoli, fennel, peppers, eggplant and beets.

I hope that you are having gardening success too!

Seeing Things: Elephants, San Francisco Subway Cars and Upstate New York

In Oh Albany!, William Kennedy describes an "elephant crisis" in 1950's downtown Albany.

I thought Oh Albany! had a story about an intoxicated Times-Union reporter telling his newsroom colleagues he saw elephants on Broadway and having his announcement dismissed as a hallucination.  When someone went downstairs, there were elephants - - walking from a railroad siding to the circus.

When I returned to the book, I found the elephants, but not the reporter.

In the 1950's, before construction of a riverfront Interstate paved over most railroad tracks, the Ringling Brothers circus unloaded on sidings in downtown Albany.  

Before one circus, Kennedy wrote, "the elephants got loose and wandered around Downtown." "An intrepid Times-Union photographer," Kennedy continued, "snapped them on their spree."  Imagine, being an office worker and coming out of your building to see elephants at large.  

The paper ran a publicity photo of elephants the day before.  When Barney Fowler, the city editor, asked news editor Ed Nowinski to run the "spectacular photos" of the elephants on the loose, Nowinski did not run them, saying "We had elephants yesterday."

On a recent afternoon, driving on Route 20 in suburban Guilderland, NY,  I was reminded of Kennedy's elephants. 

The Sunday evening before the afternoon, my wife Dorothy and I watched an episode of Michael Portillo's Great American Railway Journey, on  WMHT, our local PBS station.  In this episode, Mr. Portillo was riding a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train from downtown San Francisco to a stop near University of California - - Berkeley.  

The BART system is one of several wonderful rail-based transit systems in San Francisco.  It allows a hassle-free trip from the region's airports to downtown and its trains are pleasant to ride.

Given how integral BART is to the Bay Area and given how I had seen one of its trains on television the night before, you can imagine my surprise and amazement when I saw a BART coach on a flatbed truck, driving west on Route 20!  It was such a surprise that I half expected to see elephants next. 

After seeing the car, I contacted BART and spoke to Jim Allison, the agency's Media Relations Manager.  Jim told me that BART "has contracted with Bombardier Transportation to build 775 new cars to replace our aging rolling stock."  "These new cars," he continued, "are called 'The Fleet of the Future.'"

A BART car being loaded on a flatbed truck in Plattsburgh, NY.
Photograph courtesy of M. Roberts

When Jim and I spoke, Bombardier was building the cars at its plant in Plattsburgh, New York, near the Canadian border.  A few days later, Maryanne Roberts, Bombardier Transportation's Spokesperson, advised me that Bombardier is moving its assembly line for The Fleet of the Future to Pittsburg, California over the next several months.  However, Bombardier will continue to undertake rail work for other customers in Plattsburgh.

A week after seeing the BART car on Route 20, I saw another truck carrying a BART car, ready to make the turn onto Route 20.  Then, yesterday, I saw a flatbed with a BART car - - this time traveling east!

This is not the first time I have seen rail cars from elsewhere in the neighborhood.  My fishing friend, the late Bryce Butler, loved to fish the West Branch of the Delaware River and the ride there included Route 20 and Interstate 88.  

One one trip with Bryce, I saw a flatbed trailer in a safety parking area with a New York City subway car on it.  On another trip, I looked out the passenger window and saw a Canadian Pacific (CP) freight train, hurtling south on the right of way of the former Delaware and Hudson Railroad  In the middle of this train was a consist of Amtrak's new Acela electric locomotives and coaches.  Perhaps Bombardier was moving them to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor with the freight cars as protection on the way to Amtrak's busy Northeast Corridor.

Seeing three San Francisco-area subway in upstate New York is a marvelous, magical sight.  It's also a reminder that even on what a person thinks is the most routine of drives that something new and wonderful may be coming around the next corner.

Unexpected sights such as elephants on Broadway, a BART coach in upstate New York, or large dinosaurs along "The 10" in Cabezon, California are gifts to lift people from the drudgery of travel.  I hope that you have a magic moment of this sort - - with no traffic safety problems  - - sometime soon.

[Thanks to Paul Grondahl and William Kennedy for squaring away my imperfect memory of elephants and Albany!]

New Wild and Scenic River Stamps

Recently, at the Guilderland, New York Post Office the staff told

me about  a wonderful new pane of commemoratives, celebrating

the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers program.  

Ever since I can remember, I have loved rivers.  Some of them

have been working rivers, others have been wild and scenic.

My father used to read to me about the New York Central’s

passenger trains rushing down the east side of the Hudson River

on the way to Grand Central Terminal.  We lived for several

years on Grand Island, New York, with the Niagara River

flowing inexorably towards Niagara Falls. And I’ve enjoyed

fishing and boating on countless rivers ever since.

The Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers system includes river

segments with outstanding fish and wildlife, geology, recreation,

cultural or historical values. They flow freely through natural

settings without man-made alterations.   

According to Marti Johnson at the U.S. Postal Service,

“Some 200 river segments — 13,000 miles of approximately

3 million U.S. river-miles — are in the Wild and Scenic Rivers

System, launched in 1968.”

“With this pane of twelve stamps,” Johnson continued, “the

U.S. Postal Service honors these American treasures, represented

in a portfolio of exquisite river photographs.”  The photographs

in this series were taken by Michael Medford, Tim Palmer and

Bob Wick.

The Postal Service chose Wild and Scenic Rivers from across the

United States and from Alaska. The rivers and photographers

are listed on the Postal Service's website and the stamps may be

purchased there if they are not available at a local post office.

After using up an entire pane of the stamps, I became curious

about what it was like to  photograph a river. 

When I asked Marti about this, she introduced me to Bob Wick,

a photographer and Wilderness Program Manager at the Federal

Bureau of Land Management.  Three of Bob’s photographs are

in this pane: Steelhead Falls on the Deschutes River in Oregon,

the White Cliffs on the Missouri River in Montana and an early

morning view of the Clarion River in central Pennsylvania.

Bob shared great anecdotes about nature photography generally

and the photographs he contributed to this stamp series.  

His most important photographic secret weapon “is a loud

alarm clock. “ Bob scouts locations during the day and 

photographs “before dawn and again in the evening to

capture the golden light.”

“Rivers in canyons,” he continued,  “are a bit tricky; if

they run north and south, one side of the canyon will be

in shadow in morning/evening.  I usually look for stretches

that run east-west and use a sun angle table to determine when

and where the sun will rise and set.”  

Here are some specific observations Bob shared about each of

his three photographs:

“In situations like the Deschutes River at Steelhead Falls, I had

no choice about picking an angle of light. I just made sure

I was out early in the morning when most of the canyon and the

entire falls would be in the shadows so the light would be even. 

This also allowed me to take a very slow exposure on a tripod

(about 2 seconds) so that the moving water has that

blurred, silky moving look.”

Another bonus of photographing rivers early in the morning or

towards evening is that fog and mist are often present and, Bob

observes, this gives “the image more interest .”   The mist adds

realism, as many river lovers have been on the water at a time

when the mist is rising. 

There’s a trick in the Clarion River photograph.  The reds in the

trees may cause the viewer to think this photograph is an autumn

view.  However, Bob revealed, “The shot is actually a cool spring

morning -- everyone thinks it’s fall but the red is from early buds

on the trees.”  

“This photo of the Upper Missouri,” Bob said,  “is quite orange;

there were fires burning in Western Montana at the time and they

created a haze.”  “By taking the image looking towards the sun

(compared to having the sun behind me),” he continued, “I was

able to maximize the diffraction of light through the haze.”

“The Upper Missouri River,” Bob said, “is one of my favorite

river segments.  There are several stretches that you can float in a

three to four-day canoe trip where the canyon is entirely roadless.” 

“Lewis and Clark wrote about the White Cliffs in their journals

and it is easy to become immersed in the landscapes they

experienced, since the corridor is undeveloped.  The big

difference is that they were working their way upriver

while most people today float downriver with the currents!  

“Their voyage of discovery also led to the designation of the

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, which overlays the

wild and scenic river designation on this part of their route.  

“About 50 miles from the White Cliff,  at a place called Cow

Creek, the Nez Perce Tribe crossed the Missouri just 70 years

after the Lewis and Clark expedition as they fled from the

pursuing US Cavalry. They made a fateful decision to stop and

rest after crossing, which led to their capture and surrender north

of the River.  

“This area truly represents an amazing slice of US history with

ambitious western expansion side by side with Native American

loss and sorrow.”

The Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers program has inspired many

states to create their own programs to protect rivers that are

considered wild, scenic or recreationally significant.  Finding

these programs is a hit or miss proposition. On some state

websites the program is easy to find. On others, it’s not.  

There's many ways to enjoy America's rivers, from putting

one of these stamps on a letter to a wilderness whitewater

trip. However you experience rivers, I hope you can

get out there and enjoy them soon!