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February 19, 2008
Small epiphanies
I went for a walk on my lunch break today, and along the way I had two small epiphanies.
American history, and especially the history of the west, is such a blink, a nothing, it's been so brief. I crossed a bridge from the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver, a historical site where early settlers once lived. A hundred and fifty years ago Fort Vancouver was the American frontier. My great-grandmother was alive a hundred and twenty years ago. I met her, I remember her, and she knew people who lived in an era when rugged white settlers defended forts against the people who had always lived on this land. I am only two degrees of separation from frontier days, when everything was trees. Tall green trees blanketed the land, tall logs formed fort walls and barracks and homes. Trees. I could see it all from a tall overpass over a busy highway in one of the fastest growing towns in the west, with cars whizzing near, chain restaurants and vinyl-walled houses close by.
It's amazing what can be accomplished with vision, will power, and an entrepreneurial spirit. Vancouver, Washington, is an accomplishment, but I don't just mean Vancouver. I don't just the settlement of the west, but smaller and bigger accomplishments. The land bridge from the river to the fort was a dream four years ago. Somebody thought, "Let's commemorate Lewis and Clark's voyage west, let's see if we can recruit Maya Lin to help," and instead of just thinking it that somebody started a foundation, raised the money, lobbied the powerful, and now there's a multi-million-dollar bridge. It really does commemorate the history. It's beautiful. I could hear the cars, I knew the vinyl and the highway and the fast food were all near by, but all I could see was the river, the trees, the mountains and the fort.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at February 19, 2008 09:05 PM