RIVER WALK, HILLSBOROUGH, NC: Reliving History at Occaneechi Village

Historic replica of Occaneechi Village, Hillsborough, NC

In late November, on a cool but bright fall day, we took a walk along the Eno River in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with our family. The Riverwalk path follows the river bank through the town park and links with other hiking trails. Not far from where we joined the trail near the Weaver Street Market we came upon Occaneechi Village, a historic replica of a native American village as it would have been in 1701.

Thatched dwelling.

At that time the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation lived on the land, growing food and hunting in the surrounding forest. The village was an important trade location where the Occaneechi people traded with Europeans as well as nearby tribes such as the Tuscarora. Many descendants of the Occaneechi tribe continue to live in Hillsborough.

Village surrounded by stockade of wooden posts.

Inside a stockade of wooden stakes are several thatched dwellings, open air shelters, places to build fires and prepare food, and other work areas.

Sample of caulking along the lower part of the stockade.

Openings between the wooden stakes could be filled with a lattice of sticks caulked with mud.

River Park path.

After exploring Occaneechi Village we continued walking along the paved path through River Park. 

Map of the Oxbow archeological site.

Signs further along the trail explained the historic significance of this location. Toward the end of our two mile walk we learned that archeological research of the ten-acre site within the oxbow bend of the Eno River has revealed that it was home to Occaneechi villages going back to 1000 A.D.

Footbridge across Eno River at Oxbow.

At the bridge near the oxbow, the trail veers away from the river bank and heads into the forest. We turned around here and headed back to our car. (A large parking garage is located near the trail head.) On our way back we passed a deer busy browsing, who paid little attention to us or other walkers.

Deer.

Occaneechi Village is located along the Riverwalk, within River Park, behind the Farmer’s Market Pavilion in Hillsborough. It is open 8am to 7pm. Hillsborough is about a half-hour drive from Chapel Hill, where our daughter and her family live.

A SUCCULENT TREASURE TROVE: The Ruth Bancroft Garden and Nursery, Walnut Creek, CA

Ruth Bancroft Garden, Walnut Grove, CA

Tucked inside a residential neighborhood, not far from a busy shopping mall, is a wonderful garden specializing in succulents, cacti, and other drought adapted plants. From tiny cacti with mini flowers to a giant Chilean wine palm, there are a host of plants from all over the world. 

The unique shapes and colors of the plants make them living sculptures.

The Ruth Bancroft Garden and Nursery in Walnut Creek, California, was created as a private garden by Ruth Bancroft in the 1960s to house her large collection of potted plants. The 3.5 acre property, including a pond and structures for shade loving plants, had once been part of the much larger family walnut farm. The garden is now open to the public and a project of the Garden Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving exceptional American gardens. Mrs. Bancroft passed away in 2017 at the age of 109, leaving her garden as a testament to her vision.

This tree had its own living Christmas decorations, appropriate for the season.

A few weeks ago in Mid-December (actually, on the day of the winter solstice) I visited the garden with my husband and daughter. After paying the fee at the entrance kiosk, we followed the network of flat gravel paths through the plantings, marveling all along the way at the variety of plants, colors, sizes and shapes, and the skillful way the plants complemented one another. We had picked up a guide at the kiosk which included a map and a key to the names of the major types of specimens. We also had the monthly guide to "What's in bloom" to help us identify the flowers of the season.

This tiny specimen was tucked between two boulders and several larger plants.

It was a bright but overcast day perfect for photography-- no harsh shadows and soft light to bring out the variety of colors and textures. Here are some of my favorites.

Agave. Like many agaves the leaves have embedded impressions on their surface. This is a result of the leaves unfurling from a central cone, and leaving behind toothy indentations on the adjacent leaves.

Agaves are succulents, like the majority of plants in the garden. Succulents survive drought by storing water in their thickened leaves, stems, trunks, or roots.

Aloe. Note the bee gathering nectar.

We saw many species of aloe--sprouting large spiky flowers of yellow and orange. Examples of Aloes native to Mexico, South Africa, Kenya and elsewhere around the world are found in the garden.

Koi pond.

At the center of the garden is a small koi pond and a bench for resting in the shade.

A mix of succulents and cacti form a living wall.

Along a wall at the end of the garden a mosaic of succulents filled cells in a vertical planter box, creating a living wall.

Planting inside shade house.

Inside the shade structure a close-up view makes it seem that the plants are at the bottom of an aquarium. There were no fish, but we did catch sight of  a hummingbird sipping nectar from one of the flowers.

Hummingbird inside shade structure.

Cactus spikes are an adaptation that help deflect sunlight and reduce surface temperature in hot summer months. 

At the end of our visit to the garden, we exited through the nursery, filled with potted plants ready to purchase and take home for your own succulent garden. We bought a tiny cactus which will take its place on my patio at home.

Mosaic wall at garden entrance; nursery on the right.

Ruth Bancroft Garden and Nursery

1552 Bancroft Road

Walnut Creek, CA 94598

Phone: 925-944-9352

The garden is open most days of the year except for major holidays. On the day of our visit almost no one else was there.

For more information check the garden website: www.ruthbancroftgarden.org

Winter rains turn these barrel cactus into plump spiky balls.

 

THREE HOURS IN OREGON CITY, OREGON: Guest Post by Caroline Hatton at The Intrepid Tourist

The Willamette Falls in Oregon City, Oregon.

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took these photos in Oregon City, Oregon, in November 2023.

Oregon City (red dot) and Portland (black dot), Oregon.

My husband’s French horn sounded stuffy and one of four valves clacked. So we took it to a respected French horn doctor, Kevin Blodget at Wally’s Music Shop in Oregon City. 

As a spot on the land, Oregon City is where the Willamette and Clackamas Rivers merge. As a spot in history, it was the end of the Oregon Trail, along which emigrants came in covered wagons from the Missouri River during the second half of the 1800s. On a map, Oregon City looks like an integral part of the urban amoeba stretching out from Portland.

Once the French horn was in Kevin’s expert hands for diagnosis, we went for a stroll along the nearby, paved, McLoughlin Promenade, on top of the volcanic basalt cliff that parallels the Willamette River. Soon we started seeing the horseshoe-shaped Willamette Falls (photo at the top of this post). They have long been a culturally important place for many Native American tribes. Today, both river banks downstream of the falls are crowded with huge, ugly, decrepit industrial buildings like I had only seen before in post-apocalyptic movies. This results from a history of hydroelectric power and paper production.

Back at the shop, Kevin reassured us that the horn’s rotors were aligned correctly and demonstrated how to use two different types of oil to lubricate the instrument’s plumbing. The horn sounded sufficiently decongested.

Mike's Drive-In, Oregon City, Oregon.

Before the afternoon drive home, I voted in favor of a quick, local-color lunch at Mike’s Drive-In, a couple of blocks away. Waiters no longer come to parked cars to take orders or serve food. Instead, scanning a QR code leads to ordering online and customers must go inside to pick up their food.

Mike's Drive-In, Oregon City, Oregon.

It was early for lunch and the restaurant was almost empty, so we decided to eat inside. No crowd meant no waiting for a table or food, no noise to interfere with quiet conversation, and a lower risk of assorted seasonal contagions. The menu included hamburgers and fried seafoods served in red plastic baskets, ice-cream, and 23 shake flavors. We asked what the most popular item was—fried pickles!—but couldn’t psych ourselves up to taste them. We had perfectly acceptable hamburgers and onion rings.

The Kaegi Pharmacy display at the Museum of the Oregon Territory.

After lunch, I wanted to see one more thing. It had to be the Museum of the OregonTerritory because it contains a historic pharmacy exhibit, something I can’t seem to pass up, due to some inexplicable fondness for old pharmacies. The display presents antiques from the Kaegi Pharmacy, founded in 1927 in nearby Wilsonville.

In the pharmacy display.

Of the hundreds of pharmaceutical jars, bottles, and vials, I took pictures of those that made me chuckle.

In the pharmacy display at the Museum of the Oregon Territory.

One bottle label identified the Kaegi Pharmacies, and a drawer was full of antique labels, similar to those in my parents’ 1960s pharmacy in Paris. Long before I was twelve, my mother had taught me how to apply the right amount of glue on the back of a label, how to center it between the two side seams of the glass bottles containing ethyl ether, or 70% ethyl alcohol, or glycerine, and how to make sure it was straight… if I didn’t want to have to soak it off and start over. She reluctantly approved my first batch despite the fact that no two labels were at the exact same height—but only after I argued that no customer would buy more than one bottle at a time, so why waste glue and labels? Later on, she showed me the preceding step: how to fill bottles, up to the (exact same) level (in all the bottles in every batch or else…).

In the pharmacy display at the Museum of the Oregon Territory.

My mother did know that nobody’s perfect and that it’s O.K. After all, when she was in Pharmacy School in 1940s French Indochina (now Vietnam), she famously could not detect the distinctive stench of Asafetida (also known as Devil’s Dung), the stinky gum from a plant’s roots and an herbal medicine used to treat asthma, cough, and, um… flatulence (farting). Yet my father fell in love with her anyway.

All text and photos, copyright Caroline Arnold. www.theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com

VALLEY FORGE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, PA: Honoring a Critical Moment in American History

Visitor Center, Valley Forge National Historical Park, PA. George Washington on his horse.

“On December 19, 1777, more than 12,000 soldiers and hundreds of civilians marched in Valley Forge. They began to build what would become the fourth largest city in America, with 1,500 log huts and two miles of fortifications. Lasting six months, the encampment was as diverse as any city. Residents were free and enslaved, wealthy and impoverished, speakers of several languages, and followers of several religions.”

Valley Forge, in the wooded hills and open fields a few miles west of the city of Philadelphia, is now a National Historical Park. On a beautiful fall day in October, I visited Valley Forge with my husband and daughter. I was reminded of what I had learned in school about the American War of Independence but discovered a lot more.

Map posted along trail.

We started at the Visitor Center where we got maps for our self-guided tour. The park comprises more than 400 acres and is crisscrossed by 35 miles of hiking and biking trails. One can also do an auto tour on the10-mile road through the park, with 9 stops along the way. Stop #5, on the opposite side of the park from the Visitor Center, is the house that was used as George Washington’s headquarters.

After looking at the displays in the Visitor Center, we climbed the stairs to the theater level where we watched an introductory film about the history of Valley Forge. In the film we saw re-enactors dramatizing the events of that cold, wet winter of 1777-1778 when the results of the war hung in the balance, as well as commentary about the events of that winter.

Replicas of log housing used by soldiers at Valley Forge.

Outside the theater we followed the Joseph Plumb Martin trail into the park to the site of Muhlenberg’s Brigade (Stop #2), where a series of log huts reproduced the living conditions the soldiers experienced that winter. Inside each hut were informational displays. 

A small fireplace was the only source of warmth inside the log shelters.

Our visit was on a pleasant fall day, but it is hard to imagine that the small huts would provide much comfort in the midst of winter.

Cannon mounted in redoubt, facing east toward Philadelphia.

Nearby a fortified defense called a redoubt was embedded at the top of a hill. Gaps in the earthen wall were provided for cannons. Sharp sticks protruding outward to deter attack. (Several other reconstructed redoubts are located throughout the park.)

Exterior of redoubt.

From the redoubt we followed a path back to our car parked near the Visitor Center and did the rest of our visit by road. 

Numerous markers along the road honored various military leaders and participants in the Revolutionary War.

National Historical Monument.

The largest monument in the park is the National Memorial Arch.

Fall leaves at Valley Forge.

In our morning’s visit to Valley Forge we did not have time to visit every monument or explore all the trails, but we got a good taste of the landscape that is the background for one of the most critical times in American history.

Valley Forge National Historical Park is located at 1400 North Outer Line Drive, King of Prussia, PA 19406. There is no entrance fee to visit the park.

For more information go to www.nps.gov/vafo

HAPPY NEW YEAR from THE INTREPID TOURIST

Doorway, Dublin, Ireland

January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways and symbol of the dualities of life--beginnings and endings, life and death, old and new. As we close the door of 2023 and open the door of 2024, I wish you all a very

HAPPY NEW YEAR

from THE INTREPID TOURIST 

And a healthy and productive year ahead!

Happy traveling in 2024!