To the Library and Beyond Prairie Community Library, Inc. – Your nonprofit, all volunteer source! Check it out!! Watch Prairie Community Library Facebook page for information to win a 1000-piece Christmas-Advent-emporium puzzle (Google “Facebook Prairie Community Library Cottonwood Idaho”). Joan has reviewed the 1969 book, The Last Of the Mountain Men, by Harold Peterson. Mr. Peterson wrote this story about Sylvan Hart, nicknamed “Buckskin Bill,” who chose to live for many years in the backcountry of Idaho on the Salmon River near Mackay Bar. He owned a 0.4-acre lot on the river, next to the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. “Bill” lived there alone for 40 years and gained a reputation as an old-time “Mountain Man.” Many tourists and others on raft-floating trips stopped and visited him. He was mostly self-sufficient with hunting and fishing and his large garden. He made his own tools, his dishes and kitchen utensils, and many knives and guns, as well as his buckskin clothes and crazy-looking bearskin hat. Sylvan was unique and thrived in solitary life, although he enjoyed some of his visitors. The photos taken by the author give a clear view of Bill’s operations. The nearest civilization was many miles away in Dixie, Idaho, over the rough gravel road to Mackay Bar. Buckskin Bill died in 1980 and was buried on his property. Many of his possessions have been donated to the Idaho Historical Society in Boise, and to St. Gertrude’s Museum in Cottonwood. Pat G. recommends books by Steven Bly, The Doctor Totes a Six-Gun by Terrell L. Bowers, Jinxed by Carol Higgins Clark, Smugglers’ Road by Hal G. Evarts, Must Love Dogs by Karen Fox, Jackman’s Wolf & The Glory Trail by Ray Hogan, Vet In Harness & Cat Stories by James Herriot, Lost Under a Ladder, Bite the Biscuit, and Knock On Wood by Linda O. Johnston, Stone Of the Sun by Shirley-Raye Redmond, Maria Takes a Fancy by Margaret Pitcairn Strachan, and The Trouble With Tuck by Theodore Taylor. Readers will be happy to learn that this column is getting better. It will probably have a different name. Soon – very soon – Joan and Frances will be authoring these articles, and you are sure to enjoy the change. November is National Life Writing Month & National Novel Writing Month. Thursday 4 December is “Full Cold Moon.” The volunteers who manage and operate Prairie Community Library seek partners and projects that complement our mission and purpose. Send your volunteer message to cottonwoodlib@gmail.com. “Volunteer! It’s the right thing to do!” Please recommend improvements to the Library’s direction, priorities and customer service. Thank you all! | COTTONWOOD
|