When the Light Fell All Around Him

Lewis and Clark Caverns are located within the rugged limestone shoulders and elbows of the mountains above the Jefferson River in what is known as “Gold West Country” in Montana.  The caverns fill the inside of the mountains like intestines and stomachs inside a cow.  The caves are teeming with unearthly formations.

Access to the caverns (for tourists) was initially fashioned by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the CCC as part of the New Deal.  The CCC was a broad-based work relief program that provided manual labor jobs on conservation projects or projects to develop natural resources for public access.  In 1941, the caverns became Montana’s first State Park.

Somewhere at about the time the caverns were being developed by the Conservation Corps, a man ventured inside the caves all alone.  Deep inside the mountain, his lantern failed.

There is something to be said for light.  Sunflowers certainly enjoy it.  Light makes removing a sliver from your palm with a needle a far more pleasurable experience than possible without light.  The Mona Lisa is better in light.  And—while all creatures are clearly able adapt to blindness, which is a kind of darkness by default—suddenly being plunged into total darkness is another sort of beast entirely.

The man in the cave went a little berserk at first.  For a while he groped and shuffled and felt his way about the formations, utterly panicked, but mindful of the holes and cliffs inside the mountains.  He yelled out.  He listened to the water slowly dripping into formations.  He imagined ten-thousand years forming an inch of new stone.  He imagined arms reaching for him in the black.  Voices.

Nearly three days after the man’s lantern went black; men came at him with light dancing all around them.  At first the light hurt his eyes and seemed to be running in circles.  But he was excited about the light and the thought of going home.  And he was so very happy to be standing there when the light fell all around him. 

He did not realize for several minutes that he was not actually standing there…but was, in fact, lying on his back.

Photo: Trademark Electic

--Mitchell Hegman

A quick cavern tour:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YABvdloUdqc

New Definition: Investments

For the purposes of the rest of my life, the term “investments” shall include tea cups, 18 year old Glenlivet Scotch, and small kittens.  Investments shall exclude any monies related to banking or the stock market.

From now on, I am investing in happiness.

--Mitchell Hegman

 

Hot Pot

The picture I posted today is one I took about seven years ago at a hot pot in Yellowstone Park.  I like the photograph for the odd colors and almost startling contrast.  To add to the abstract quality of the photograph, I framed a tight shot of only the edge of the pot; which provides no meaningful reference for the subject.  This photograph is a companion to the two photographs that I posted on June 29, 2012—captured in the same area, though many years apart.

--Mitchell Hegman

Choices: A Small Test

Given a choice between the two figures above, which do you feel best describes your emotional state right now?

1.      ____ Figure #1

2.      ____ Figure #2

Which figure best illustrates the present state of the nation?

1.      ____ Figure #1

2.      ____ Figure #2

Which figure best illustrates our collective future, as you see it?

1.      ____ Figure #1

2.      ____ Figure #2

Did you make the same choice for all three of the previous questions?

1.      ____ Yes

2.      ____ No

--Mitchell Hegman

Possible Headline: Montana Winter Murders a Small Plant from the Arctic Circle

Trees will not grow in the Arctic Region.  The winters are much too long and the short summers see temperatures that only rarely climb to 50° F.  Trees require a few days above 50° in order to complete their growing cycles.  Plants native to the arctic tend to be modest in size and have learned to thrive with shallow root systems that cling to the barest of soils (often layered above permafrost).  Yet, for all of their hardiness, most plants from the Arctic would not survive a single turn of the four seasons in Montana.

Many would not even survive the winter here.

The weather here in Montana is much too fickle for most plants.  Mind you, the season-to-season changes in climate are not the problem.  The trouble for most plants arises from the minute to minute alterations.  Here in the “Chinook Belt” of Montana, the weather is particularly fickle.  We have recoded some of the wildest temperature fluctuations on the planet.

I live on the eastern front of the Northern Rockies.  During the winter we are often overrun by what we call the Arctic Express.  An express will shove bitter cold impulses all the way from the Arctic Region down along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and into Montana.  These fronts often bring temperatures below -20°F.  Sometimes the sub-zero temperatures will remain trapped in the mountain valleys for days on end—even as warmer air slips directly over top.

Weirdly enough, these bitter cold impulses might be followed immediately by a Chinook.  Native Americans called Chinooks “snow eaters.”  I have, on occasion, scuttled off to bed on a sub-zero and snowbound winter night only to awaken to water pouring down my rain gutters and temperatures warm enough for a short-sleeve game of golf—almost as if summer dropped out of the sky during the night.  Winter temperatures may suddenly hoist into the upper-sixties.  A whole foot of snow might vanish in a few hours during a Chinook event.  For a day or two in January or February everyone in Montana might be wearing shorts and hosting outdoor barbeques!  Chinooks, however, are typically accompanied by strong winds.

Chinooks are created by warm Pacific fronts interacting with mountain ranges.  They are most prevalent in Southern Alberta, Canada and here in Montana where the Rocky Mountains meet the Northern Plains.  According to Wikipedia the most dramatic rise in temperature recorded during a Chinook occurred in Loma, Montana in January 15 of 1972.  The temperature purportedly rose from -54° to 48°F in a matter of 24 hours.  Though I am always doubtful of the veracity of Wikipedia facts, I have seen temperature changes very near that dramatic during Chinooks.  Sometimes, we call a prolonged Chinook “false summer.”  These are the sort of events that would fool an Arctic plant into awakening—only to be killed when winter abruptly returns.

We are known for crazy weather.

Below are a few examples of Montana weather extremes I gathered from the National Weather Service:

·         The lowest temperature ever recorded in the lower United States was recoded at Roger’s Pass (about 20 miles, as the crow flies, from my house).  On January 20, 1954, the temperature plummeted to -70° F.

·         Montana has recorded the widest range in temperatures of all 50 states—a high of 117°F at Medicine Range in 1937 and the low at Roger’s Pass in 1954—a range of 187°.

·         In January of 1916, an Arctic front overran Browning, Montana and forced the temperature from 44°F down to -56°F in 24 hours.  This 100 degree swing is the most dramatic 24-hour swing ever (officially) recorded in the United States.

·         January 11, 1980.  The temperature recorded at Great Falls International Airport rose from -32°F to 15°F in only seven minutes as a Chinook front invaded the area.  This 47 degree change in only seven minutes stands as the most rapid temperature change recorded in the United States.

Here in Montana, we have the same joke as everyone: “If you don’t like the weather…stick around for five minutes…it will change.  The difference is we have many records to prove it.

--Mitchell Hegman

I Have Learned, Part II

Do not judge.

How do you know that the lifelong dream of that man was not to be forty-two, single, and residing in a thirty-year-old mobile home with a dozen threadbare tires thrown atop the roof to hold down the tin when the wind blows?

--Mitchell Hegman

I Have Learned, Part I

Over the years I have learned that people are not all alike.  We each have distinct dreams and differing views on what constitute success.  More importantly, we should not judge the seeming failure or success of others based upon our own definitions, which may be either narrow or thoughtless.

Here is a true story for illustration.  

Many years ago (while attending college) my brother-in-law took a job delivering flowers for a local flower shop.  The shop employed two people for flower deliveries.  As time went on, my brother-in-law came to know the other deliveryman pretty well.  The other man was a bit older and very gregarious.  Eventually, the man told my brother-in-law that he was a mathematician by trade.

My brother in law had trouble hiding his shock.  “If you are a mathematician, why on earth are you delivering flowers?”

The deliveryman answered without hesitation.  “Oh, that’s easy!  Most people don’t care about mathematicians.  I was unhappy.  But now, every day and everywhere I go, I make other people happy.  People smile when they open the door and find me there with flowers.  This is the best job in the world!”     

--Mitchell Hegman