Deer Creek Film & the January Circle

We’re approaching mid-January, the time of year when the Following Deer Creek (FDC) Project first came into being (2017).  Like the Earth circling around the Sun and the planetary water cycle, we’ve completed a journey.

I set out to tell the story of the Deer Creek watershed from its tectonic and cultural origins to the people and animals who live in it today. Working backward, I posted blog articles as I researched in preparation to compile the film.

Aerial Views & History
of the Deer Creek Watershed:
Journey from Headwaters to Confluence 
a thirty-minute fly-over film

In early January of 2021, the film was complete. Like the FDC blog posts, it’s a birds-eye view of the watershed that hints at depths.

I smile when I think back to the initial idea seed. Of course, there is no one story, there are more than can ever be told.

FDC and the Aerial Views film is a decent outline, but it also illustrates how much more remains for investigation and study.

I hope this journey inspires yours!

 

 

 

 

Bald Eagle – Symbolic Feet Fighting Food Thief

How the Bald Eagle Became the Symbol of the United States 

In 1776, members of the Continental Congress passed a resolution saying the new nation needed a formal seal for official documents.

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson comprised the first committee who would work on it.

Secretary of the Continental Congress, Charles Thompson designed the United States Great Seal in 1782. It symbolizes strength, unity, and independence.

Bald Eagle Habitat

According to iNaturalist, there have been four Bald Eagle sightings in the Deer Creek watershed so far this year – mostly concentrated around Lake Wildwood. I was excited to see one flying down the canyon near Newtown this spring, but with no camera in hand, I could only squeal with glee!

This raptor’s habitat includes all of North America, some parts of northern Mexico, and Canada. They prefer large lakes and rivers with plenty of fish and tall trees. Some populations are year-round residents along both coasts, along the Mississippi River, in the Rockey Mountains, and in Alaska. Other bird populations are migratory.

Characteristics

  • large predatory and scavenging birds
  • adult plumage – white head and tail feathers – appears between 4 to 5 years of age
  • females are larger than males
  • feet are adapted to snatching fish out of water
  • beaks are adapted to ripping flesh
  • food storage in crop – after a gorge, birds can go one to two weeks without eating
  • weights between 8 to 14 pounds
  • has a wingspan between 6.5 to 8 feet
  • fierce ‘expression’ is caused by a bony forehead ridge that protects eyes from branches and prey struggles
Eagles have multiple eyelids. The top one blinks up. The inner one – nictitating membrane – sweeps across. Eagle tears protect against saltwater, destroys bacteria, and prevent infections.

Behavior

  • juvenile birds give way to their elders
  • parents don’t mediate sibling rivalry
  • feet have a ratcheting mechanism that allows them to clamp onto prey

Hunting

Bald Eagles can travel 40 miles per hour in flight and 100 miles per hour in a dive! They have excellent eyesight, It is said that they have the ability to spot prey up to two miles away.

Diet

  • salmon and other fish
  • coots and other small birds
  • rodents
  • they’ll also steal carrion from other animals

Feet Fighting

Bald eagles use their best weapons to ward off attacks and fight for territory – their feet!

Late winter, during the time they’re getting preparing to mate, is when most of the territorial disputes occur. As habitat loss increases, territorial fighting increases in intensity.

 

Life Span

Twenty-eight years in the wild, 30 years in captivity.

Reproduction

Both males and females participate in sitting on eggs and parenting. A pair, while separating outside mating season, will come together year after year to mate and reproduce.

If one of the pair dies, the survivor will look for a new mate at the beginning of the next mating season.

Beeding season is between January through August.

Platform nests – aeries – are constructed at the tops of trees. They’re about 6’x6′ and can weigh over a ton! Eagle pairs will often return to their nest site.

A clutch consists of two to three eggs. Incubation is approximately one month.

After chicks have hatched, experienced parents ball their feet when entering the nest so as not to injure young with their talons.

Threats

  • habitat loss from road and housing developments
  • cars
  • mercury and other heavy metals
  • pesticides (DDT used for mosquito abatement)

Conservation Success Story

Bald eagles were the first animal to be placed on the endangered species list in the late 1960s. At that time, there were only 30 nesting pairs left in northern California. It was discovered that DDT caused thin eggshells. It was banned in 1972.

With conservation and management efforts, eagle populations recovered. The animal was removed from the endangered list in 2007.

Bald Eagles are still protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

 

 

click on image to purchase or see more Life on the Creek art.
click on image to purchase or see more Life on the Creek art.

If you liked this article, you may also like Mountain Lion – Fragmented Power Pouncer

Resources:

California Department of Fish and Wildlife – Bald Eagles in California
Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Bald Eagle
National Museum of American Diplomacy – Great Seal of the United States
National Wildlife Federation – Bald Eagle
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service – National Bald Eagle Management Guidelines
USGS – Todd Katzner, Supervisory Research Wildlife Biologist
Wikipedia – Eagle Eye
Wikipedia – Great Seal of the United States

 

 

Jennie Carter’s Thoughts & Words from Nevada City 1867-1874 [video]

Jennie Carter was an articulate social critic who wrote from her home in Nevada City during the mid-1860s through the 1870s.

Excerpts from Jennie Carter’s essays are dramatized in the following historical video short.

 

Grass Valley Daily Union, June 9, 1865, | Advertisement for Grass Valley & Nevada City Stage Line mentioning Johnny Royce.

 

If you enjoyed this post check out;


Jennie Carter’s Nevada County Setting 1860s, 2nd Marriage & Obituary
Jennie Carter’s Pre-Civil War, Civil War & Reconstruction-era 1846-1870
Jennie Carter Book Review
Jennie Carter – Filming Behind-the-Scenes & Creative Partners
Nineteenth-Century Creole Snacks & Jennie Carter (Shared Tastes recipe blog)

 

Resources:

Jennie Carter: A Black Journalist of the Early West edited by Eric Gardner, Copyright © 2007 published by University Press of Mississippi

ACLU – Celebrate Women’s Sufferage but Don’t Whitewash the Movement’s Racism

American Historical Association – *LARGE* educator resource list addressing Confederate Monument Debate

BlackPast.org

California Press Foundation Hall of Fame – Philip Alexander Bell, The Elevator (San Francisco) Editor

Media Museum of Northern California – Philip Alexander Bell, The Elevator (San Francisco) Editor

National Geographic TV – America Inside Out with Katie Couric – season one – Confederate statue removal  

The New Republic – California’s Forgotten Confederate History

Wikipedia – Jennie Carter

click image to purchase or view more Life on the Creek art

 

“Let our greatest efforts be made to educate our children, instead of accumulating treasures
for them to squander, after we have passed away.” Semper Fidelis, 1868

 

Jennie Carter’s Nevada County Setting 1860s, 2nd Marriage & Obituary

Jennie and her first husband, Mr. Correll (a Campbellite minister), moved from New Orleans to Grass Valley around 1860.

While Jennie was living in Nevada County, newspaper advertisements promoted

  • rubber clothing
  • the Glenbrook Race Track
  • ice dealers
  • fireproof bricks
  • Grass Valley’s installation of sewer lines
  • Alonzo Delano was selling fire and life insurance, and
  • A.A. Sargent promoted his law practice and was involved with running for office.

Frequent articles complained about the Chinese, Indian, and Negro.

Childhood deaths were frequently published in death notices.

The Many Names of Jennie Carter

A challenge of piecing together details from Jennie’s life is the various names she went by through two marriages and the variety of pen names she used as a writer.

Possible given name

Mary Jane (no known maiden name)

Married Names

Mary Jane Correll | Mrs. Correll
Jennie Carter | Mrs. D.D. Carter

Pen Names

Ann J. Trask
Semper Fidelis

 

Below are samples of newspaper articles that Jennie may have read while she was living in Grass Valley and Nevada City.

 

The Nevada Democrat
Saturday, October 19, 1861

The Nevada Democrat, Saturday, October 19, 1861

 

Grass Valley Daily Union

In the aftermath of the Civil War, much political and public churn was happening.

At one point in Nevada County, it was decided that southern supporters would not be allowed to vote in upcoming elections.

“Elder L. J. Correll” (Jennie’s first husband) is listed in regular advertisements in the Grass Valley Daily Union

The Christian Church the Corrells belonged to was built on “the east side of Church Street,
between Neal and Walsh Streets in 1859 (for $3,000).  It was destroyed by fire in 1869.”
– History of Nevada County 1880

March 14th, 1865 – Mrs. Correll (Jennie) is elected Vice President to the Grass Valley Christian Commission.

Grass Valley Daily Union – March 14, 1865

According to Byrne’s Directory of Grass Valley Township, the Corrells lived on School Street.

 

Also in the March 14th, 1865 Grass Valley Daily Union issue:

What is To Be Done With The Negro?

Our enemies say it will be a woful day for the negros when emancipation is “forced upon them.” Why is it not for the Indians, also? Can we not as safely and judiciously establish Negro Agencies as we can Indian Agencies? Yes, and with vastly more benefit to all concerned, because of the negro’s docility.

Is not the negro as justly entitled to his liberty as the Indian? And are they not as much entitled to our protection as the Indians? Why, then, become alarmed about the fate of the negro? What is the cause of this morbid sympathy? Simply this: to invent some pretext to prey upon the minds of the ignorant and credulous, and prejudice them against the progressive steps taken by our Government to eradicate this war, and secure a more perfect establishment of equal rights to the people who constitute the Government.

What shall be done for the free negroes? We answer let them work and maintain themselves, let them cultivate the rice fields, after the manner prescribed already by Gen. Sherman, and, if necessary, let agencies be established for giving proper direction to their labors.

June 1865

August 1865

 

A newspaper archive search (1965) motivated by a desire to find the cause of death of Jennie’s first husband did not yield definitive results. However; the following article was published on August 16th, the day before his last appearance in the paper. It may never be known if the two are related.

August 16, 1865

August 17th, 1865 is the final newspaper advertisement showing Elder Correll officiating.

Jennie Carter Poem published in The Elevator (1867)

The Lonely Grave

Why did they lay him to rest

Where human feet seldom tread?

Wild flowers bloom over his breast,

Too gaudy, alas, for the dead.

Tall pines sighing over the dust

Of one once loved and caressed.

The wild beasts are treading above

The heart a mother has pressed.

Birds singing and flying around

With notes all attuned for joy.

Little they heed him sleeping here,

Some mother’s own darling boy.

Oh! ’tis a weird lonely spot,

Away from all human strife;

The sleeper he heedeth not,

Nor careth for things of life.

 

August 29, 1866

Jennie’s marriage to Dennis Drummond Carter

 

Eric Gardner, editor of the Jennie Carter book, believes the connection between Jennie and The Elevator (San Francisco) came about through a relationship between Dennis and Phillip Bell, its publisher.
Click here to view Jennie’s work published in The Elevator 1867-1874.

 

Jennie Carter’s headstone in Pine Grove Cemetery, Nevada City

The Daily Transcript (Nevada City)
Friday, August 12, 1881

The Daily Transcript (Nevada City), August 12, 1881

 

“When I die, I hope no one will eulogize me, but simply say Mrs. Trask has gone to sleep. That will be the truth.”
– Jennie Carter writing under the pen name Ann J. Trask, December 1867

 

 

 

click on image to purchase or view more Life on the Creek art

“A good laugh is better than drugs from apothecaries.”  – Jennie Carter, 1867

If you enjoyed this post, check out

Jennie Carter’s Thoughts & Words from Nevada City 1867 – 1874 (video)
Jennie Carter’s Pre-Civil War, Civil War & Reconstruction-era 1846-1870
Jennie Carter Book Review
Jennie Carter – Filming Behind-the-Scenes & Creative Partners
Nineteenth-Century Creole Snacks & Jennie Carter (Shared Tastes recipe blog)

 

Additional Grass Valley Daily Union Articles:

Opposition to 15th Amendment – Grass Valley Union – June 23, 1865

Poor White Trash, Negros & Voting  – Grass Valley Union – August 12, 1865

 

Resources:

American Historical Association – *LARGE* educator resource list addressing Confederate Monument Debate

Jennie Carter: A Black Journalist of the Early West edited by Eric Gardner, Copyright © 2007 published by University Press of Mississippi

National Geographic TV – America Inside Out with Katie Couric – season one – Confederate statue removal

Nevada County Historical Society | African American Pioneers of Nevada County

The New Republic – California’s Forgotten Confederate History

 

 

 

 

 

Jennie Carter Book Review

Jennie Carter was a free black woman who moved from New Orleans to Grass Valley around 1860.

Between 1867 to 1874 she wrote essays, from her Nevada City home, that were published in The Elevator, a San Francisco black newspaper.

When Carter first began writing for The Elevator, her intention was to publish material for young readers. “Children, you hear a great deal said about color by those around you, see attention given white persons by your friends that is wholly unmerited, while those of darker skin are treated with cool neglect. Such are wrong, and that you may avoid like mistakes I write this for you to read. Let your motto be, civility to all, servility to none. Those reminders of bondage we must get out of the way as soon as possible; and while we would treat all with respect, we should not talk about color, light and dark, black and white.”

It wasn’t long before her writing was composed for a general audience. Carter’s essays provide a detailed and lively peek into Nevada County life—after the Civil War—when black men were working to establish voting rights, (white) women’s suffrage was in its infancy, the Central Pacific Railroad was under construction, and resentment against Chinese immigrants was building.

Since Carter wrote under several pen names—Ann J. Trask and Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful)—her body of work was lost until 2007, when a historical researcher discovered their connection and put the pieces together.

“She was a skilled cultural critic and as such her observations about race and racism, discrimination, and a host of social issues have important ramifications for today,” comments Eric Gardner, editor of Jennie Carter, A Black Journalist of the Early West.

The Jennie Carter book should be on recommended reading lists for every nineteenth-century history class in Nevada County (California).

FDC Editor Notes:

I discovered this book in a reference on a Wiki page. Exciting! Connecting with Jennie’s words, I felt a sense of admiration and deep respect for this intelligent, spiritual woman who bravely spoke universal truths that would go unrecognized for at least a century or more.

As I read, my ears were tuned for the echos of Jennie’s voice. When she described drinking water out of Deer Creek, Carter’s inclusion in the Deer Creek Project went from vague imaginings to composing detailed plans for a script, actress, locations, and props. 

Equally engaging are Gardner’s footnotes and commentary. It’s like a book within a book that includes a code-breaker for every reference and antiquated expression. The research, alone, requires its own focused read. 

How fortunate we (as readers and history buffs) are to have this thoughtful and carefully composed work available in one volume!

 

click on image to order or view more Life on the Creek art

“Oh, that we might awake to the importance of a thorough, universal education.” – Jennie Carter, 1867

 

To learn more about Jennie Carter, check out these posts;

Jennie Carter’s Thoughts & Words from Nevada City 1867 – 1874 (video)
Jennie Carter’s Nevada County Setting 1860s, 2nd Marriage & Obituary
Jennie Carter’s Pre-Civil War, Civil War & Reconstruction-era 1846-1870
Jennie Carter – Filming Behind-the-Scenes & Creative Partners


Resources:

American Historical Association – *LARGE* educator resource list addressing Confederate Monument Debate

BlackPast.org

New Books in History with Marshall Poe Audio: Interview with author Eric Gardner (20:59)

Jennie Carter: A Black Journalist of the Early West edited by Eric Gardner, Copyright © 2007 published by University Press of Mississippi

 

 

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