Earth, Air, Water, Light

by C L Lassila

  Earth, Air, Water, Light

  by

  C. L. Lassila

  Dedicated to my father from whom I inherited my love for nature.

  He gave us the paradise that we know as Klondike.

  Earth, Air, Water, Light

  By

  C L Lassila

  Copyright © 2012 by C L Lassila

  Nature is most beautiful when least touched by the hand of man.

  PROLOGUE

  The story of the place began long before the first now faded mark was made on the first page of the first of the many journals that documented the story of the family’s history there. Its story is the shared story of all natural places before the arrival of European settlers. It is a story whose rhythms move in harmony with the forces of the natural world; the movement of day into night, night into day, the change of the seasons, birth and death, the dance of predator and prey, germination and decomposition.

  The land was formed by the shifting of tectonic plates. Its face was carved by the movement of glaciers and the rise and fall of water; burnt and renewed by lightning and wildfire and shaped by the activity of the beaver. Christened Keweenaw by the Ojibway, it was a peninsula on a peninsula, a narrow finger of land surrounded on three sides by the greatest of the great lakes. Located on Michigan’s northern-most frontier, this was a land of vast forests and fierce winters; a place filled with the mysteries of a world that lay beyond human understanding. This was a land where, at times, the night sky came alive with vibrant colors. It was a land whose song was that of the eagle and the owl and the wolf, and the whisper of the wind in the tall pines.

  The people who lived there before the arrival of the white settlers had the wisdom to cherish the natural world. Their impact was gentle. They took no more than they needed for their survival and they knew the importance of not disrupting the balance of that world on which they knew their continued existence depended. They practiced a belief system that held sacred all of the wonders around them. It was a belief system that held reverence and respect for the natural world and spoke to their place in it, not separated from it. Theirs was not a religion that elevated them above the natural world. Their religion held the truth about man's place in nature. They knew that human beings were indeed a part of nature, interconnected with the flora and fauna surrounding them.

  When Adelaide Rose first landed on its shore Keweenaw remained largely unmolested by human hands, it was still a place of perfection not yet impacted by the greed of man. Sadly this would soon change. The Europeans would come to take what was in abundance there: the timber, the furs and the copper, and the land itself.

  Chapter 1

  The first leather bound sketchbook was slipped into the hands of Adelaide Rose by her father as she stood next to her husband waiting to board the ship that would take her away from everything that she had ever known. It was the most beautiful thing that she had ever owned. She stood frozen brushing her fingertips across the cool, smooth, leather cover. She knew that it was an extravagance that her family most likely could not afford. Adelaide clutched it close to her body as she turned to her parents to say goodbye. Her mother looked at Adelaide, tears welling up in her eyes. She handed her daughter a parcel containing the drawing implements that would complement the leather bound journal.

  “Fill it with beautiful pictures to show me one day,” her father said.

  Adelaide's mother took her only child into her arms.

  “Be safe and have happiness,” her mother said.

  Adelaide felt her husband’s hand on her back, guiding her toward the boat. She held the book tightly in her arms, the way that she wanted to hold on to her parents. By giving the sketchbook to her, they were acknowledging who she was. Now she was leaving, with the possibility that she would never see them again.

  Yet she boarded the boat with her husband who was almost a stranger to her. She had been married to Jonas Rose for very short time. And now he would be the only familiar thing in her life as she moved forward into a world unknown to her, on a journey that would take her across an ocean and into the wilderness.

  Adelaide's parents had all but given up on her marrying. She was a beautiful but not very personable girl, with a high intellect and willful personality. When they heard that the son of a local family was seeking a wife before he left to seek his fortune abroad, they saw an opportunity. The match was made. Adelaide, well aware of the economic hardship an unmarried daughter was to her parents, agreed to this union of convenience. At twenty years of age she wed the twenty five year old Jonas and less than two months later found herself boarding a ship bound for North America. Jonas was a good man; hard-working, of average looks, with a gift for gab and a gregarious nature. Adelaide found herself slowly growing more accustomed to his company although she had not yet come to love him.

  The journey from Cornwall to North America would be a long one. Adelaide often found herself with the sketchbook on her lap, the pencil in her hand, but she would close the book without making a mark on the first unblemished page. The book, leather bound and pristine, was far too precious to be marred by her scribbling, she thought.

  Chapter 2

  While Jonas easily made friends at all points along the voyage, Adelaide had little interest in the other passengers. It was not long before she was feeling quite homesick. Jonas amused himself with gambling, songs, shared stories and the occasional wrestling match. These activities held little interest for her. Her most pleasurable times were spent on deck observing the sky, the colors of the ocean and the patterns of the waves. Occasionally a seabird would be spotted or a pod of dolphins, swimming and leaping, observed. For the first time, free from the daily activities that had occupied her hours back home, Adelaide found herself noticing the natural world around her.

  After landing in New York City and continuing on further west, Adelaide began to see, for the first time in her life, glimpses of places that could be described as wilderness. As they moved between settled places, through areas left largely untouched, she began to feel less homesick. She began to see how the designs of man lacked the beauty that could be found in nature.

  It was while traveling on the lower Great Lakes that Jonas decided that he would not join his uncle in Wisconsin. He heard tales of new copper discoveries in lands farther north on Lake Superior. Being young and with no children yet to support he thought that he would have more of an opportunity to make a success of himself if he brought his mining experience to a place at the start of developing its mining industry.

  From the beginning of their trip Jonas had adopted a paternalistic attitude toward Adelaide which had continued with them across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City, and now had stayed with them down the length of the Erie Canal to Detroit. No doubt it was simply a matter of his protecting her. He had told her father that he would keep her safe and Jonas took that commitment to heart. Throughout their travels, the number of men present had far exceeded that of women, and often those men had the appearance of ruffians.

  It was in Detroit that Jonas’ paternalism first became unwelcome by Adelaide. The two found themselves waiting a fortnight for passage on further north, up Lake Huron. Rather than taking a room at a boarding house, Jonas had accepted an offer of room and board in the private home of a man named Edwin Sire, an individual whom Jonas had met while traveling on the Erie Canal. The gentleman, who was much older than Jonas, had taken an extreme liking to the young man, seeing in Jonas his own early desire to make something of himself. Mr. Sire and his wife had emigrated from England to New England some years ago and then on to Detroit where Mr. Sire had been quite successful in business. He and his wife were both proper Methodists. As Mr. Sire was both English and Methodist, Jonas felt quite at ease ac
cepting their invitation. The Sire residence provided the most comfortable accommodations that Adelaide and Jonas had found themselves in since leaving home. For the ten days that were spent at the Sire's, Jonas felt relief to, at last, have his bride in a place where he felt that she would be safe while he was out arranging the next leg of their journey.

  Adelaide was left in the company of Mrs. Sire, whom she found to be a rather stern woman and a quite pious Methodist. Mrs. Sire insisted that she and Adelaide spend some part of each day reading the Bible together as she was concerned that this poor girl’s soul would be corrupted should she venture into the wilderness. She insisted that the young Roses accompany her and her husband to church and evening prayer meetings. Adelaide, like Jonas, had been raised Methodist, but she had always found going to church more of a boring ritual than a soul saving spiritual event. In fact her parents had, long before her departure, stopped forcing their headstrong daughter to attend church services with them, finding it easier to not debate her argument that her soul was her own to do with as she pleased.

  It was on the sixth day of their stay with the Sires that Jonas made the announcement that due to the wildness of the place to which they were heading it was best that Adelaide remain behind in Detroit and that the Sires had graciously offered, in fact insisted, that Adelaide continue to reside with them. Adelaide had, up to this point, patiently endured Jonas’ paternalistic behavior, but the thought of remaining behind with the Sires and enduring a life of church services, prayer meetings and Bible reading was more than she was willing to allow, especially when Jonas was off having adventures.

  She waited until she and Jonas retired to bed to bring up her objections to his plan. She knew how to arouse Jonas. Sexual relations were a part of married life that came easily to her. Standing next to the bed, she slipped her night gown off over her head. Totally naked, she climbed into bed and lay down beside her husband. Initially he tried to stop her, afraid that the Sires would hear their lovemaking, but Adelaide persisted.

  She whispered in his ear as she placed his hand on her breast, “But Jonas, we’re married.”

  Her hand brushed down his stomach and closed around his erect penis. Unable to resist his wife’s advances, Jonas rolled over onto his wife.

  As he slid into her she sighed, “I am going north with you.”

  For the first time since their journey began Jonas stopped feeling like her father. He allowed himself to, once again, feel like her husband. The next day Jonas bought passage for both of them on a boat bound for Lake Superior.

  And so, two weeks later, Adelaide found herself sitting on the shores of the St. Mary's River where she opened her sketchbook and began to draw for the first time since leaving England.

  Chapter 3

  Upon arriving in Sault Saint Marie, the Roses found themselves once again waiting for transportation further north. As one week turned into two and still without passage by boat to Copper Island, Jonas moved them into a small house on the edge of town and began taking work where he could find it. Adelaide, at first, busied herself with the duties of housekeeping but soon grew tired of it. She had a desire to go out and explore the forest and river that could be seen from their small yard. She began to venture out after finishing what she considered to be her daily chores and soon discovered the impracticality of women's clothing for moving through the bush.

  The goings-on in town did not hold her interest but she could sit for hours and watch the activity of the birds that she found down by the river. She would find a spot where she could sit comfortably and have a good vantage point of the river, its shores and the nearby wetland. Each day held the discovery of a species of bird that she had never seen before or a particular behavior new to her. Adelaide became enchanted by the natural world that was around her. She first begun to notice, after their departure from New York City, the sharp contrast between the beauty of the wild places that they passed through, those places not yet impacted by the presence of human habitation, and the ugliness that she found in the places where people had settled. Prior to her arrival in North America, Adelaide had never given thought to the effect that human habitation had on nature. Now she was alarmed by it. In the places where people had settled the variety of wild plants and animals was reduced drastically, and the larger the settlement, the less room there was for anything else besides people.

  She was happy to discover that she did not have to venture far from town to find areas that still appeared to be largely unaffected by the presence of people nearby. She would walk until trees hid the town from view, happy to be in this different world. Adelaide did not concern herself with whether or not her behavior was deemed appropriate for a young woman. It was appropriate for her. She soon found that wearing Jonas’ pants, although they were quite loose on her, much better suited her venturing out of town than the cumbersome dresses that were the style of the day for young women. She would change into his clothes, slip her sketchbook and pencils into a fishing satchel and slip away into what she felt was her world.

  Soon she had a favorite spot on the river. It was at the edge of the wetlands on a hill overlooking the fast-moving water. It was a place colored by shades of green, more shades of green than she knew existed, and perfumed with the scent of wildflowers. The music of the place was a chorus of river, wind and the songs of birds. Each day she would pick out a certain plant or bird and spend her afternoon attempting to create an accurate representation of it in her book. There were days when her sketchbook remained unopened at her side, days when she was just an observer, caught up in the activity of the various birds and insects going about their lives around her.

  Without the use of a watch, at first there were days when she lost track of time and arrived back at the cabin with barely enough time to change back into her dress and begin preparing dinner for Jonas. But soon she learned to judge the time by the placement of the sun in the sky. On cloudy days determining the time proved to be more difficult. Some days she was delighted to find a covered basket holding their dinner sitting on the porch when she arrived home. The basket carrying dinner was a gift from Mrs. Lessing. Mr. Lessing worked with Jonas and his wife contributed Adelaide's behavior to the inexperience of a new bride. She took pity on Jonas, whom she knew to be a hard worker and who deserved a good meal at the end of the day.

  Jonas would arrive home with information on the status of transportation to Copper Harbor and stories about the happenings in town. Adelaide would show him the sketches that she had done that day and tell him about the plants and animals that she had seen but could not yet name. On most nights Jonas would have with him a newspaper from the previous day, passed on to him after being read by Mr. Lessing. They would read the stories of drownings and accidents, business announcements, deaths, births and marriages. The local paper held stories about the lives of people in the area. A special treat would be a newspaper from Detroit which held stories from the much larger world. Sometimes the articles would be weeks old but interesting to Adelaide and Jonas nonetheless.

  Sunday was the day that Adelaide forced herself to be sociable. If it were her choice, church services would be abandoned altogether. But Jonas felt the need to go. It was shared religious beliefs and common work that largely bound the community together. Adelaide was well aware of the fact that her personality tended toward unconventionality and she was grateful that Jonas was accepting of most of her peculiarities. But she knew the importance of compromise in marriage and she did not want to put Jonas in the position of explaining why a married man was attending church alone. So on Sunday morning she accompanied Jonas to church services and then on to the following breakfast for the congregation. Sunday afternoon was spent in the company of Mr. and Mrs. Lessing, and whomever else they may have invited to lunch. The men sat and talked while the women busied themselves in the kitchen. Later they all would work off the large meal by taking a walk through town. On Sundays Adelaide got enough of human company to last her through the next week. She was grateful when the we
ek moved into Monday and she could get back to her beloved outdoors.

  After four weeks in Sault St. Marie, Jonas heard about a boat that was arriving from Copper Harbor. The boat was scheduled to be in town for a very short period of time before making a return trip to the north. He was hopeful that he and his wife would finally be off to their final destination.

  The day before the boat was due to arrive was hellishly hot. A strong wind was blowing from the south but it did little to lessen the discomfort of the day. The scorching heat was accompanied be high humidity creating oppressive conditions. Adelaide knew that it would be impossible to sketch that afternoon. It would be a battle to hold the paper down. But she was drawn to the idea of the river and the thought of wading knee deep in the cool, running water. She ventured off and made her way along her usual route, at times being pushed sideways by strong gusts of wind. As she approached the river she noticed a group of five Indians making their way along the riverbank. It was not unusual for her to see Indians on her afternoon outings. Jonas had told her the history of the area so she knew that it was an important place to them. She admired the way that they carried themselves, with such pride. Almost every reference that she had heard from the town’s people in regard to the natives had been disparaging. The prejudice that the white settles bore toward the Indians was palpable. Many wished that the Indians were not there at all, when it was the white people who were the intruders. They felt no guilt about forcing the Indians from the land that they had occupied for hundreds of years. The Christian settlers told themselves that they had a divine right to the land; the divine right to pillage and plunder the land for their own personal profit. Adelaide knew that for many of the settlers, the only value to be found in nature was how much money could be made from it. She also knew that they would take and take until there was no more left for the taking.