February: Washington, French Creek, Bison and well, maybe Onenge

Ever since Wojak Day on February 2, the weather has been snowy and very cold. This morning around 8 a.m. when the photo was taken, it was five below and wind chills for the rest of the day will be around ten below. Another good day for homemade, hot and spicy, venison chili.

Today the sun will shine now and then but the rest of the week will remain very cold and snowy.

If your not sure who or what is Wojak, read the post below Hey, Wojak.

The Garden

I guess the photo tells the story. The snow is deep and over my knees. The drifts are waist high. So much for the planned pruning on blueberry bushes and apple trees. Time to settle back and read some of the seed catalogs and make more plans for this springs garden.


February Notes

The Full Snow Moon was on Feb. 3 but of course it wasn't visible here because of falling snow. We do have the first Friday the 13th this month and of course Valentines Day on the 14th. Chinese New Year is Feb. 19. It will be the year 4713!
But perhaps the most significant day this month for northwestern Pennsylvania is Feb. 22, George Washington Day.

Pictured above is the statue of George Washington in Waterford, PA commemorating his arrival back in 1753. From the Fort LeBoeuf Historical  Society : "  Wanting to memorialize Washington's visit, the George Washington Monument was erected in 1922 by the citizens of Waterford, PA at a cost of $13,000. It was situated upon the site of the original Fort LeBoeuf, which was in the middle of High Street between the Eagle Hotel and the historic Judson House. The monument was moved in 1945 to the lot beside the Eagle Hotel. What makes this monument unique? This is the only statue of Washington wearing a British uniform in Pennsylvania."

An Important Visit on an Important Creek

Feb. 22nd is the day George Washington was born. Sure the stores in the malls and downtown's will all have big sales and such and American Flags will be everywhere celebrating our Founding Father and first US president. Certainly, there will be plenty of stories about "yeah, I chopped down the cherry tree."
But there are some more important and noteworthy events. Back in 1753. Washington was a British major in the Virginia militia. He was 21 years old. His commanding officer, Robert Dinnwiddie, sent Washington to ask the French to leave the area now known as northwestern Pennsylvania. The French had built numerous forts in the western regions from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed all the territory.
The English, however, claimed the land as theirs.
One major French Fort was located at Lake Erie, Fort Presque Isle and another inland from the lake at what is now called Waterford, Pennsylvania. It was called Fort LeBoeuf.
Washington began his journey in December, 1753. Weather wise it was a very dangerous time to be traveling through unmapped wilderness. Washington and his team were very lucky to survive.
The route chosen was to travel to Fort LeBoeuf up the Riviere aux Boeufs. The waterway was named so by the French because of the large and lumbering animal which reminded the French of beef cattle or boeufs. The animals, however, were native eastern bison, now extinct.
Washington, during the unsuccessful journey which eventually led to the French and Indian Wars, named the creek in a journal he kept, French Creek. Today, the creek is one of the most important environmental waterways in the nation (more on the importance in the next post).
But there were other names before the French dubbed it Riviere aux Boeufs.
From the History Dept. of Allegheny College : " Native Americans also had a name for the stream. What it was for the Allegewi is unknown to us today, and even the Seneca term is somewhat in doubt. Supposedly the Seneca name “In nungash” became corrupted into “Venango.” What did it mean? Cornplanter, the Seneca chief, implied that it referred to a portion or all of an indecent carving on a tree along the bank near a trail junction. The late Professor Frederick F. Seely of Allegheny College suggests the name came from the Seneca word for mink: Onenge. Most likely it came from the Delaware word for the same critter: Winingus. A tavern keeper in Wattsburg stated in 1845 that the meaning of Venango was “crooked,” which aptly describes French Creek."
(http://watershed.allegheny.edu/history)
To be continued next post.

And Just for the Heck of It

The story about Washington chopping down a tree and confessing to his father was in an early biography of Washington written by Parson Mason Locke Weems after Washington’s passing. Weems is known as a teller of tall tales, so most people today consider the tree tale a fable. But there were no known eyewitnesses either way. In other words, if Washington cut down the cherry tree in a forest, did it make a sound? (http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2013/02/10-cool-washington-facts-on-georges-real-birthday/)