Thoreau+in+East+Dubuque

  ** Thoreau in East Dubuque ** ** Original Author: Joe Brorby, A&S195 SP10 ** ** Revision Author:  **   In Robert Straker’s essay, “Thoreau’s Journey to Minnesota,” he writes that “in the spring of 1861, Thoreau’s physician advised him for the sake of his health to take a long journey-to the West Indies, to the south of France, or to the Mississippi Valler. Because he feared the muggy heat of the Caribbean and felt that he could not afford the trip abroad, and perhaps because of his deep interest in American fauna and flora, he decided to go to Minnesota” (Straker).  This is the trip that ultimately led Thoreau through East Dubuque. According to another source, “Thoreau on Galena,” Thoreau left Massachusetts for his Minnesota journey on May 11, 1861 and arrived in Dunleith (East Dubuque) in Late May (Galena). It is stated that an additional reason behind Thoreau’s decision to make the Minnesota journey, as opposed to France or the Caribbean, is because “Thoreau had never been to the West and could document the quickly changing frontier” (Galena). Thoreau seemed to be intrigued by discovery and exploration. In a journal he made during his trip West, Thoreau wrote that:  Most of us are still related to our native fields as the navigator to undiscovered islands in the sea. We can any autumn discover a new fruit there--which will surprise us by its beauty or sweetness. So long as I saw one or 2 kinds of berries, in my walks whose names I did not know, the proportion of the unknown seemed indefinitely if not {infinitely} great;...(ucsb.edu, 2)  An entry from the same journal with similar meaning reads:  The tropical fruits are for those who dwell within the tropics—Their fairest & sweetest parts cannot be exported nor imported—Brought here they chiefly concern those whose walks are through the marketplace—It is not the orange of Cuba—but the checkerberry of the neighboring pasture that most delights the eye & the palate of the child—It is not the foreignness nor size or nutritive qualities of a fruit that determine its absolute value. It is not those far-fettched fruits which the speculator imports that concern us chiefly—but rather those which you have fetched yourself in your basket from some far hill or swamp, journeying all the long afternoon;...(ucsb.edu, 3-4) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Thoreau wrote many recordings of the landscape and things he found interesting on his trip West. According to Benjamin Sanborn, in his book, “the first and last journeys of Thoreau,” on May 23 Thoreau noted in his journal from his trip West; the greatest rolling prairie without trees is just beyond Winnedbago. The last forty miles of the northwest of Illinois quite hilly. The Mississippi causes backwater in the Galena River for eight miles back...The water is high now; the thing woods flooded, with open water behind. See the marsh pink and apples on a flowered, apple-like tree...through Illinois which may be the Pyrus coronaria;...//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-style: normal;">(Sanborn, 23) // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-style: normal;"> //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-style: normal;">Thoreau was traveling through Northern Illinois when he made that journal entry. A critique of that journal entry by Thoreau explains that the mentioned plant, “Pyrus coronaria,” is known today as, “ //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|//Malus coronaria//] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">, Sweet Crabapple” (Galena). The source also explains that the plant mentioned by Thoreau is non-existent in the area where he recorded seeing it, and it is possible that he had mistaken the species of the plant he saw. The source says that “it is more likely the apple-like tree Thoreau saw was //<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-style: normal;"> [|Malus ioensis] ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-style: normal;">, //Prairie Crabapple” (Galena). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">When Thoreau was in northern Illinois he recorded that “there [was] only one boat up daily from Dunleith by this line – in no case allowed to stop on its way” (Sanford, 23). Another source points out that that was “Thoreau’s final journal inclusion before he sees the Mississippi River” (Galena). Thoreau’s trip through East Dubuque also brings about the first time he ever sees the Mississippi river in his life-time. He was very impressed with it, and many of his recordings are in relation to the River. The book, // Familiar Letters from Henry David Thoreau //, shows that sometime during his trip around East Dubuque, Thoreau wrote, “The grand feature hereabouts is, of course, the Mississippi River,” and that “too much can hardly be said of its grandeur, and of the beauty of this portion of it” (Familiar Letters, 447). Then, explaining his amazement of the size and length of the Mississippi Thoreau says, “it flows from the pine to the palm” (Familiar Letters, 447). Something else Thoreau wrote about the River is that, “The Missippi above the St. Croix emphatically deserves the name it has aquired, which originally implied ‘Clear River’” (Sanborn, 72). Another interesting thing Thoreau recorded about the Mississippi reads, “this is eminently the river of Minnesota and it is of incalculable value to her...it flows through a very fertile country, destined to be famous for its wheat” (Familiar Letters, 448). Sanborn provides another entry of Thoreau’s where he mentions the wheat in this land again: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The distances on the prairie are deceptive: a stack of wheat-straw looks like a hill in the horizon, a quarter or half-mile off, - it stands out bold and high. Small houses, without barns, surrounded and overshadowed by great stacks of wheat-straw. The inhabitants remind me of mice nesting in a wheat-stack, which is their wealth. Women are working in the fields quite commonly. The fences are of narrow boards; the towns are...stations on a railroad;...(Sanborn, 23) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A source analyzes this recording by Thoreau. The source explains that “his decription of the wheat stacks come into perspective when he writes: mice nesting in a wheat stack – midst their wealth” (Galena). This is a significant quote because, as the source points out, wheat was expensive at this time and “these towns that he passed, as it were stations on a railroad, leads” the source to think of similar areas (Galena). And finally the source brings up the possibility that the small houses – without barns could have been Thoreau’s “description of miner’s cottages” (Galena). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">According to Straker, “The Journey did not take long, lasting only from may 11 to July 10” (Straker). The month of May is when spent time in and around Dubuque and when he recorded the entries in this essay. Though it is a neat fact to think that some of Thoreau’s last days were spent near the Q.C. area, the trip through Dubuque was a part of Thoreau’s last journey. As one source points out, Thoreau arrived back in “Concord, MA.on July 10, 1961” and he “was never able to fully recover and died less than a year later on May 6, 1862” (Galena). Also interesting is that “a book about this western journey was unfinished but the journal writings remain” (Galena). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Other Interesting Facts ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">According to information provided by the website Thoreau’sJourneyWest.com, “Thoreau and Mann used a combination of railroads and steamboats during their Journey West” (Thoreau’s Journey). And on their way to the West they went from Massachusetts, to New York, to Ontario, to Michigan, and to Illinois. While in the Midwest they traveled through the Mississippi River, Minnesota, Minnesota River, and back to the Mississippi River. On the way back from their journey Thoreau and Mann went through Wisconsin, to the Lakes, to Ontario, to New York, to Vermont, to Massachusetts (Thoreau’s Journey). The actual website provides links for each of those locations names, that if clicked on show a detailed schedule of the times of day and cities they traveled through. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">On his journey through Illinois, Thoreau traveled with a man named Horace Mann, Jr. When Horace was young, his family “moved...just a few blocks away from the Thoreau house” (Thoreau’s Journey). While growing up Horace was very interested in exploration and “He was an avid reader and an amateur scientist” (Thoreau’s Journey). Since he lived in Concord by Thoreau where his family had moved, he began to explore and learn “firsthand” from Thoreau (Thoreau’s Journey). It is said that Mann would bring Thoreau dead animal skeletons and other things for them to study. Horace Mann was able to go on the journey west with Thoreau when two other men turned had turned down invitations. (Thoreau’s Journey). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Works Cited ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Familiar Letters of Henry David Thoreau. Edited by F. J. Sanborn. Boston and New York. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. The Riverside Press, Cambridge. 1895. Google Books. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Sanborn, Franklin B. The First and Last Journeys of Thoreau: Lately Discovered Among his Unpublished Journals and Manuscripts. Google Books. [] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Straker, Robert L. “Thoreau’s Journey to Minnesota.” Memoranda and Documents. The New England Quarterly, Inc. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Thoreau’s Journey West.com. “Thoreau’s Journey West:’ The Men.” Corrine H. Smith. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">http://www.thoreausjourneywest.com/men.htm <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Thoreau’s Journey West.com. “Thoreau’s ‘Journey West:’ The Route.” Corrine H. Smith. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">http://www.thoreausjourneywest.com/route1.htm <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“Thoreau in Galena.” PrairieWorks.com. Published by Corey Ritterbusch. February 15, 2010. 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