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“Shooting the Rapids” by Canadian artist Frances Anne Hopkins, 1879. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada. FOR MILLENNIA, THE METHYE PORTAGE CROSSED THE HEIGHT OF LAND THAT SEPARATES THE WATERS OF HUDSON’S BAY FROM THE vast, impossibly remote wilderness of the Mackenzie River drainage. The path was a thoroughfare for native . . . → Read More: Kennicott’s goose The pursuit of elk in the high West leads to some exceptional places at exceptional moments. There is an esthetic to the hunt that has to be lived to be appreciated. Photo by Chris Madson, copyright 2018, all rights reserved. RAY FISCHER HAS BEEN A HUNTER EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR IN KANSAS SINCE . . . → Read More: Never too old Boy on farmstead, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936. Arthur Rothstein. THERE’S A POEM THAT’S HAUNTED ME MUCH OF MY ADULT LIFE. Many years ago, my mother sent me a fragment of it— just five or six lines— that she’d found in a magazine somewhere. I kept the clipping on . . . → Read More: The American dream Snow goose migration in central Nebraska. Copy right 2017, Chris Madson, all rights reserved. THE WIND PAUSED FOR TEN MINUTES OR SO— AN UNUSUAL PHENOMENON ON THE HIGH PLAINS— WAVERED, THEN swung into the north. We’d enjoyed three days of spring, but at the foot of the Rockies in the first . . . → Read More: Tides
A mule deer hunter on Wyoming’s Beaver Rim. Copyright 2017, Chris Madson, all rights reserved. I COME BACK TO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN: “A thing is right when it tends toward the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise”[i]— the . . . → Read More: Aldo Leopold and the ethics of hunting Upland bird cover at sunset in western Nebraska. Copyright 2018, Chris Madson, all rights reserved. WE CLOSED THE SEASON YESTERDAY, FREYA THE BRITTANY AND I, PASSING THE LAST HOURS IN A LONG WALK OVER THE HILL TO A PLACE I CALL “THE SECRET SPOT” because the best cover is out of sight from . . . → Read More: Meditation at the end of the season The dust storms of the Dirty Thirties are returning to the high plains of America’s heartland. This storm ripped across eastern Colorado and northwestern Kansas in March of 2014. Photo copyright 2014, Chris Madson, all rights reserved. AS THE DISCUSSION OVER CLIMATE CHANGE— OR DEBATE OR DONNYBROOK, HOWEVER YOU PREFER TO THINK OF . . . → Read More: The year of climate in review Flick doing what he did best, on an Iowa rooster. (Photo by Chris Madson, copyright 2019). This afternoon, Flick joined his predecessors on the other side. The spirit was willing, but his hips finally gave out. As I mourn his passing, I remember the companions who came before him. They were far better . . . → Read More: The bell
AS I’VE RUN OUT MY STRING OF YEARS, I’VE DEVELOPED A DEEPENING APPRECIATION FOR THE efforts of the people who fought the fight for the land long before we did. There’s an epigram that’s made the rounds for years. It’s been attributed to Mark Twain, although no one seems to . . . → Read More: Crying in the wilderness Portrait of John James Audubon by John Syme, painted in 1826 when Audubon was touring the United Kingdom to raise money and find a printer for his Birds of North America. ON THE AFTERNOON OF DECEMBER 21, 1826, forty-one-year-old John Audubon looked out on the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland, from his . . . → Read More: Audubon the hunter |
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