A Walk in the Old West

GCH Glenamadda Starkeeper Liberty (© Pat Murkland)

Miss Liberty is a dual citizen.

She was born in Canada but was born on our U.S. Independence Day, July 4.

This year she'll be 3 years old, and in honor of her birthday, we traveled together back in time.

We went to the Old West.

(© Pat Murkland)

This is Gilman Historic Ranch & Wagon Museum in Banning.

James Gilman came here in 1869 and began running cattle, along with a stagecoach stop.

Later the family harvested apricots, peaches and other crops, and was especially famous for olives. Their ranch is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Since the 1970s, it's been a historic park that showcases California ranch life in the 1800s.

Unfortunately, recent budget cuts have severely limited its public access, starting today, July 1.

So, the other day Liberty and I took a walk in the Old West, a farewell for now.

We walked on the Bradshaw Trail together.

Walking on the Bradshaw Trail (© Pat Murkland)

I closed my eyes and imagined the dust and noise of arriving coaches at the Gilman Station.

Stagecoaches, freight wagons and prospectors traveled this old route from Los Angeles to the Arizona gold fields in the 1860s.

Overland Stagecoach used in Southern CA (© Pat Murkland)

We passed the ruins of the oldest permanent, non-Indian structure in the Banning area, the Jose Pope adobe building from 1854.

But before then, Native Americans lived near the spring here, and throughout San Gorgonio Pass. Archaeologists found a Native American hearth and other artifacts under the adobe ruins.

And although the stagecoaches are most famous for traveling this road, they were not the first travelers.

Imagine!

Here is the terrain that travelers saw in the Pass:

White sage blooms in foothills (© Pat Murkland)

We are thankful that we still see this beauty, Liberty and I, when we travel back to 2011. Happy birthday, sweetie!

It's monumental

The bronze dog on the Irish brigade monument at Gettysburg National Military Park is one of the most famous Irish Wolfhound statues. 

Esteemed longtime breeder Elizabeth C. Murphy's archival site celebrates these places in Dublin where wolfhounds can be found: 

With angels atop The O'Connell Monument 

Mourning a lost friend, Mt. Jerome Cemetery

With heroic figures atop the Post Office Building

On top of the former Parliament House, Dame Street.

For closer views of these monumental wolfhounds, visit the Irish Wolfhound Archives.

Thigh of hare, foot of cat

Stories and art of medieval European hunts feature greyhounds of all sizes, including very large hounds described as "rough-coated greyhounds."

The 1300s definitive guide to hunting, Livre de Chasse by Gaston Phoebus, shows different kinds of hunting dogs: 

Note the large "rough-coated greyhound," top left, and compare with the smaller greyhounds, at center.

Livre de Chasse and another Middle Ages work, Le Roman de déduis, describe the ideal hunting greyhound: 

"Muzzle of wolf, haunch of lion, neck of swan ... eye of sparrowhawk, ear of snake ...

"He had a shoulder like the roe's;

His flank was like the woodland doe's;

Loin of stag; tail of rat;

Thigh of hare and foot of cat."

(From The Art of Medieval Hunting: The Hound and the Hawk, 2003, Castle Books, copyright John Cummins)

Compare with the American Kennel Club breed standard for the Irish Wolfhound which emphasizes that Wolfhounds are a "rough-coated greyhound-like breed." And it's only about 700 years later!