First timer? In this formerly once-a-day blog (now pretty much an every-other-day blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.
Dan – After a southeastern USer (NC), let me take a diagonal all the way across the country to a northwest OSer . . . OR; 71/61; 4/10; 1; 151.0. Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to many small towns (including Juntura) and Burns, a somewhat larger town:
Here’s a broader view:
I landed in the watershed of Clear Ck (my 18th watershed name with “clear” in it; more specifically, my 10th “Clear Ck”); on to the Stinkingwater Ck (my 26th “Blank-Water” stream or river); on to the Malheur R (4th hit); to the Snake R (69th hit); to the Columbia (136th hit).
My “Blank-Water” names include Stillwater, Badwater, Clearwater, Runningwater, Sweetwater, Coldwater, Freshwater, Blackwater, Redwater, Bitterwater, Whitewater, Saltwater, Fallingwater, and, yes, Stinkingwater.
This area is very arid (averaging only something like 11 inches/year of rain). Any water that hangs around is like to stink a little . . .
Speaking of arid, check out my GE shot:
The word “hardscrabble” came into my head when I looked at this broader GE view:
Although this was my fourth landing in the Malheur R watershed, it’s my first since ALAD. Here’s a little history about the Malheur from Wiki:
The name of the river is derived from the French for “misfortune.” The name was attached to the river by French Canadian trappers. Their misfortune was that some beaver furs they had cached there were discovered and stolen by Indians.
[Seems like a pretty lame reason to burden an entire river with such a negative name, eh?]
The name first appears in the record in 1826 when Peter Skene Ogden, a fur trapper with the Hudson’s Bay Company, referred to it as “River au Malheur” and thereafter as “Unfortunate River.” The river lived up to its name a second time in 1845, when mountain man Stephen Meek, seeking a faster route along the Oregon Trail, led a migrant party up the river valley into the high desert along a route that has since become known as the Meek Cutoff. After leaving the river valley the party was unable to find a water supply and lost 23 people by the time they reached the Columbia River.
Here’s a shot of the Malheur in Harney County (the very county in which I landed):
So, Burns is the largest town in the area. From Wiki:
Burns was established in the early 1880s and incorporated upon Harney county’s creation in 1889. It was named for the Scottish poet Robert Burns by early settler and County Commissioner George McGowan.
So, what about Robert Burns? I must confess that my knowledge is minimal. I guess I knew he was a Scottish poet, but that’s about it. From Wiki:
Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English with a “light” Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.
He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement and after his death became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. A cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world, celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature.
In 2009 he was voted by the Scottish public as being the Greatest Scot, through a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.
His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and Scots Wha Hae [which, unspectacularly, means “Scots Who Have”] served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well-known across the world today include A Red, Red Rose; A Man’s A Man for A’ That; To a Louse; To a Mouse; The Battle of Sherramuir; Tam o’ Shanter, and Ae Fond Kiss.
There you have it. Did you know he wrote Auld Lang Syne? I didn’t. From Wiki:
“Auld Lang Syne” is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song. It is well known in many English-speaking (and other) countries and is often sung to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight. By extension, its use has also become common at funerals, graduations, and as a farewell or ending to other occasions.
The song’s Scots title may be translated into English literally as “old long since”, or more idiomatically, “long long ago,” “days gone by” or “old times”.
Consequently “For auld lang syne”, as it appears in the first line of the chorus, is loosely translated as “for (the sake of) old times”.
The other town that got top billing in this post is Juntura. What I found of interest is the Juntura Hot Spring. The existence of a hot spring is no big deal; there are hundreds of them throughout the west (and I have discussed many hot springs in this blog). However, it’s the location of this hot spring that really caught my attention. It’s on an island in the Malheur River! Here’s a GE shot – you can see the island with the hot spring out at the end of the big river meander:
Here’s a closeup, so you can see the actual hotspring:
As a geologist (and a geologist who specializes in groundwater at that), I am very aware that groundwater flows into streams and rivers (after all, that’s why streams keep on flowing for months and months even when it doesn’t rain much). My guess is that here near Juntura, groundwater passes near a geologic hot spot on its way to flowing up into the river. I guess that some of this water flows directly into the river, but the heat is quickly dissapated by the flow of all of the cold river water. But for a reason unknown to me, some of this upwelling water ends up in this little pond on this little island. Anyway, it’s very cool. (OK, OK, so it’s very warm . . .) It makes me think that there are probably many areas where warm groundwater discharges into rivers, but nobody knows, because it doesn’t warm the river enough for anyone to notice.
Here’s a picture of some guy enjoying a soothing soak:
Moving right along . . . Malheur Lake is shown near the southern edge of my landing map. It’s an internally-drained lake, fed primarily by the Donner Und Blizten River, which flows into it from the south. For those of you who, like me, don’t speak German, “Donner Und Blitzen” means “Thunder & Lightening!” All of these years with Rudolph’s buddies, and I never knew what that meant!
Anyway, I’ll close with this Michael Axel photograph (at leicaglow.com) of Malheur Lake:
That’ll do it. . .
KS
Greg
© 2010 A Landing A Day
A Landing a Day 