The Family Rifle
Remington called it “The Gamemaster.” Serial number 260,000, one of more than a million made between 1952 and 1982. We met on the beach. I was doing turtle work for the DNR, she was on vacation. I was registered with the Feds with authority to possess and transport...
Panther: The Comeback Cat
“If called by a panther, don’t anther,” said Ogden Nash, and wildlife professionals are heeding his advice…for better or worse. Randolph County, Missouri. Farm country. November 2012. 2:00 a.m. A no-nonsense, kick-ass, bread baking, stew...
Roosevelt and the Rough Riders
Roosevelt’s cowboy cavalry, the Rough Riders, and their victory at the Battle of San Juan Hill made Roosevelt the most famous man in America in 1898. Back East, Theodore Roosevelt co-chaired a commission to beautify Niagara Falls and rooted out corruption from...
A Man In Full: Roosevelt’s Early Years
Young Theodore Roosevelt wasn’t exactly the strong, confident leader of American history that we know today. Like many of us, Little Teedy started small. Young Theodore Roosevelt, or “Little Teedy,” was a sickly child and the doctors didn’t offer...
Life Among Serpents
There’s nothing like a snake to make a man sit up and pay attention.
Dowsing, Ducks, Dynamite and Damnation
I felt the shockwave through my feet before I heard the thunderclap explosion. Mud flew, water ran and two days later, I had a new pond. Brothers and Sisters, I am a water witch. Water witching, dousing, doodle-bugging— call it what you will, finding unseen things...
A Gift of Water and Wind
Three-fifths of the world is water and the wind courses over all of it. So when Pappy gave me that 10-foot bateau, he gave me the world. The first swell smacked the port quarter, sent green water clean over the wheelhouse. Aboard Maggie C, a 26-foot Maine Lobsterman,...
Ghost Light on the Land’s End Road
I was suddenly awash in pale blue phosphorescence and I briefly reckoned poor ventilated Private Quigley had his chilly arms around me! Right turn at Frogmore, south down a dozen miles of two-lane island blacktop, through woods and swamps and fields, to old Fort...