Oceans and bays are too big
One gets lost in their might.
Lakes and streams are too small,
But a river is just right.
Figuring that it would be a good travel-related book to consume while traveling, I read Charles
Kuralt’s autobiography A Life on the Road while on my recent river cruise. (Kuralt was the CBS newsman who did his On The Road features for many years and created the Sunday Morning T-V show now hosted by Charles Osgood. For more info (click here.)
I was pleasantly surprised that Kuralt included a chapter on his experiences with rivers and how rivers are an important part of our country’s development. For instance he relayed this account of how Lewis and Clarke traveled westward on the Missouri River and named the forks of the river as they came upon them.
“In this way, those great trout streams, the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin, got their names in honor of the President, Secretary of State and Secretary of Treasury. President Jefferson remarked dryly, “You went fairly far west before you found one to name for me.” Then when the Jefferson forked, they named the three branches for the shining attributes of the President – Philosophy, Philanthropy and Wisdom. (But those names were too much for the rough trappers and prospectors who followed. Those rivers now are called Beaverhead, Ruby and Big Hole, though the intention of Lewis and Clark to honor their fellow Virginian’s sagacity is preserved in the names of two cow towns on the Big Hole River – Wise River and Wisdom. I wonder how many people who pass thru Wisdom, Montana are aware that it is Thomas Jefferson’s wisdom that is commemorated there.)
Kuralt included several other river-related stories and summarized his river discussion by concluding that “America is a great story and there is a river on every page of it.” Given that St. Mary’s County has 4 rivers, we are well aware of how much a river runs thru and has shaped all of us. Touché Charles.