“If I was a young man, just preparing to begin the world I know of no country where I would rather find my habitation than in some part of [the west].” GW
June 11, 2009 or June 11, 1773?
The General’s quote for the title of this article shows his avid belief that America’s future was located in the west. “Washington correctly grasped that western migration would be the central theme of American History for the next century (Ellis, His Excellency).” Last week I migrated to some of America’s most famous western areas.
On June 11, 2009 I was crossing Togwotee Pass in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains that leads to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park. The temperature was 32 degrees and it was snowing! It looked like a winter wonderland instead of summer! I could not help but think what Washington would think of snow in June. I knew in my next Blog I would compare that date with one of his many diary entries in which he gave the weather for a typical warm, humid Virginia day. As I was perusing the George Washington’s Diaries An Abridgment (Dorothy Twohig, Editor) imagine my surprise when I found his entry for June 11, 1773:
“Cloudy & exceeding Cold Wind fresh from the No. West, & Snowing.”
Wow! The editor also added the information below in order to confirm his journal account:
“A memorandum in the Fairfax County Order Book for 1772-74 reads: ‘be it remembered that on the eleventh day of June one thousand seven hundred and seventy three It rain’ed Hail’d snow’d and was very cold.’”
So I guess both the General and I know what is like to experience a summer snow!
My journey continued through Yellowstone and the Teton National Parks. Both are famous for their scenery and I was especially moved by all the beautiful waterfalls. I thought immediately of the General’s vision for the Potomac. “During his youth Washington had wandered the Potomac to its headwaters and had gone on over the mountains to where other waterways flowed downward to the Ohio River system. If the rivers were to be made navigable to high points that could be joined by a short wagon road, the trade of the West would be induced to move along the Potomac. At the fall line, where ocean navigation ceased, all goods would be transshipped from canal boats to larger vessels. The community at the fall line was Alexandria, Mount Vernon’s near neighbor. Alexandria would become (as New York was actually to do with the opening of the Erie Canal) the metropolis of the US. Washington knew locks would be needed to get around the falls (Flexner, Washington The Indispensable Man, p. 196). When Washington helped establish the Potomac Company for the above said purpose, he actively explored the waterway by canoe with the other directors. He wrote much in his diary about the Great Falls, the Seneca Falls (rapids) and the Shenandoah Falls. The General wrote that the Falls are of “sufficient depth for good navigation; and as formidable as I had conceived them to be. . .the principal difficulties lye in rocks which occasion a crooked passage(GW Diaries An Abridgement-August 3, 1785, Dorothy Twohig, Editor)”. Although the Potomac Project was never the success Washington envisioned, his attempt to economically unite some of the states opened the door to a later meeting—the Constitutional Convention! As I viewed the torrents of water from the Rocky Mountain snow-melt, I believe Washington would not have been able to build a navigable waterway on those rapids/falls either! The General would have loved the wild, natural beauty of Jackson Hole and Yellowstone—just like I did!
June 16th, 2009 at 11:35 am
How cool! We could have used some of that mid-summer snow here yesterday. The summer heat feels like it has finally moved in. Those are great pictures! I'm glad to hear that you had a nice vacation.