The Spokesrider

Myra alerted me to the news about the recent flooding in Vernon and Crawford Counties, Wisconsin. Soldiers Grove is one of the flooded places. I had ridden through Soldiers Grove on my tour of the Black Hawk War Zone in September 2004. It was on my way to Victory, where the Bad Axe massacre took [...]

It was while listening to Theodore Rosengarten’s book, “All God’s Dangers : The life of Nate Shaw” that I got the idea that we should go to Alabama to see the places he told about. Myra reminded me that I had never taken her to Florida. So I devised a trip plan that included Florida [...]

More from April 5, 2006. This is a bridge over Emuckfau creek, quite near my destination, Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. The actual village of Emuckfau was a few miles upstream, nearer to Zana (see the Google map below). General Andrew Jackson didn’t quite make it to Emuckfau, either, when he and his Tennesseans came [...]

This is the Wetumpka bridge over the Coosa River, facing east. Nate Shaw (Ned Cobb) had occasion to cross this bridge when he was in prison in the 1930s and 40s. At least, I presume this bridge is the same one. The photo is taken from the Wetumpka city side of the river. The far [...]

On my first ride to Bridgeton, Indiana, in September 2006, I rode in from the northeast. We had camped the night before at the Racoon Lake State Recreation Area. I wanted some photos to go with the story of Isaac McCoy’s Baptist Indian Mission here, from the late 18teens. I had little idea of what [...]

This is the bridge over the Auglaize River, on the southeast edge of Buckland, OH.    Fort Amanda is just a few miles to the north, along this same river.   But I haven’t been able to find any references to this section of the river having been a major transportation route at the time of [...]

Two small segments of treaty line roads are on either side of the Great Miami River. The small “horizontal” jog shown on the highway sign above is one of them. I was on the north side of the line. On the other side was land that the Shawnees and other Great Lakes Indians were forced to cede to the United States after the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.