More from Barry McCain on faeries. I look forward his posts, and I like the way he introduces the idea of faeries and faerie lore: After talking about the immigration of Ulster Scots to America in the 18th century, he says, “Some of the Faeries from Ireland followed these people to the Colonies. From the…
Solutrean Hypothesis
Here’s an argument against the Solutrean Hypothesis. I’ve been meaning to look for something like this. The Solutrean Hypothesis is that one wave of prehistoric migration to the Americas came from Europe, the people perhaps traveling in boats along a northern “coast” of sea ice. I like the idea. The experts do not. It’s one…
Ruth Luce
Ruth (Grant) Luce was always one of my heroes. She was born in Maine the year before the American Revolution. She came west with the Mormons when she was 72 and lived another 12 years after that. She died at the age of 84, having been a pioneer of Nauvoo, Salt Lake City, and Ogden….
Romanticizing Cowboys
In the 1880s, “America was no more impressed by a cowboy than by a railroad employee or a shopkeeper,” according to Lynn Jacobs. That will come as a surprise to almost everyone I know, because cowboys are the embodiment of our regional heritage and culture. But that all comes from Teddy Roosevelt’s deep-seated insecurity about…
Scotland’s regional DNA
I’m still getting used to the new-ish research that shows ancient European populations were largely replaced by later invasions, but the most recent invasions (like the Anglo-Saxons in England) didn’t really replace the local population like we always thought they did. It takes a degree of mental agility to keep up. Now there’s some DNA…