“Laying the Ridge Pole”

Thoughts of the upcoming fall hunting seasons filled the traditional woodsman’s head as the longest red-cedar pole dropped in place on the two tripods. In days to come, in story after story, the tiny lean-to shelter would be referred to as “the huckleberry swamp campsite” in the hunter’s journal. Old Northwest Territory, one hill east of the River Raisin’s headwaters, 1790.