Celebrating American Pioneer Spirit

                              I would never have made a good Pioneer.  I’m grateful others did.

               An adventuresome, tough-minded spirit was required to leave even the most primitive of homes to traverse the Smokey Mountains, across the Appalachians into Kentucky, Tennessee, and points west. Being invited to drop-out of Girl Scouts would disqualify me as a candidate for Pioneer-Settler.
               The Mighty Mississippi offered another hurdle, and beyond that, the Ozarks, or further north, the expanse of the Great Plains. Think of Laura Ingles’ family as they farmed north into southeastern Dakota territory, that account I read through memoir in the “Little House” books.  Movies such as "Dances with Wolves" starring Kevin Costner portrayed a classic depiction at that incredible time in history. I can experience through imagination, but my desire to participate is nil.

             The Badlands, “badder” then than now due to centuries of wind and water erosion, appeared like a foreign spectacle. 

Crossing the expanse of forbidding and treacherously rugged terrain, nothingness and barren mountain ranges, imagine the settlers astonishment as they encountered the Rocky Mountains. A  pass through the Rockies allowed a push to the Pacific, with pioneers gazing upon forests thick and primeval, and rivers plunging into cascading waterfalls.

Our country's glorious landscape  was fearsome when the country was in its infancy.  Add to that, the hostility settlers encountered in pursuit of land and the defiant reluctance of the Native Americans to relinquish what was theirs by heritage wrote a difficult and sad chapter of history.
               Wealthy easterners ultimately flocked by automobile to experience the American West. Many men came West in search of jobs or wealth through gold mining.  Artists, architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, and entrepreneurs opened the West as President Teddy Roosevelt challenged Americans to preserve and conserve the natural beauty that is America.  

Grand and colossal exclamations in artistry were created to mimic the American spirit.

The movie depicting a search for connections, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was filmed at Devils Tower in eastern Wyoming. Richard Dryfuss and Stephen Spielberg thrilled patrons with an unusual encounter, a lava rock formation created not by a volcanic eruption, but by erosion wearing away the soil to reveal the stone. Native American legends regarding its formation underscore the spirituality of the Natives.  The land is formidable in Wyoming, with beauty in rare forms creating a perimeter from Devils Tower to Cody, Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains into Yellowstone area.  South through the Tetons and across the forests into the Hole let me know the extremes of the area. Prior to leaving the eastern area of Wyoming, I recognized Sundance, WY, home to multiple stars of the current era, including Robert Redford. My interest was for the beauty of the land and landowner.


                I’ve not seen all areas of the USA, but what landscapes I have gazed upon swell my heart with inspired joy.  Amazed at the diversity of our USA’s landforms and agriculture, I thank God for this country, and for my ability to see it and celebrate its beauty. Textbooks, family photos, slide shows, and Facebook photo albums cannot clearly share what the mind’s eye can behold.