Thanksgiving in Port Aransas, Texas 2008 included my family sharing copies of On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story and recalling our youthful days at La Charrette where our family once raised thousands of turkeys, chickens plus cattle and hogs. We gave thanks for everything unique to our shared lives from those days on our Charrette Creek, Warren County, Missouri farm forward. Multiple gifts were exchanded among family members.

My sisters (shown above, l - r) Virginia, Dorothy and Helen visited for five days, later joined by my son Scott and his family for Turkey Day celebrations. We walked the beaches, toured the area and reminisced late into the night sipping coffee from commerative La Charrette Village mugs. Conservations featured swapping family stories, books and pictures mingled with real and gag gifts.

Once again and predictably on this grand American holiday, ‘Thanks & Giving’ were combined with birds… both Walkinshaw’s endangered cranes and warblers plus the celebrated American turkey.

“Whoopers are stars of birding festival” proclaims the 2008-09 Visitors Guide published by the South Jetty newspaper of Port Aransas, Texas. Their November, 2008 Visitors Guide explains that thousands of nature and bird lovers will flock to the 13th Annual Celebration of Whooping Cranes and Other Birds February 26 to March 1, 2009. Early registration begins December 1, 2008 with the $20.00 fee entitling one to special discounts throughout the weekend program.

Port Aransas South Jetty

Whooping Crane topics will be presented at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute. Ann Vaughn, Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce leader, will present each speaker with a copy of On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Live Story. Lowell M. Schake, the book’s author, will introduce his newest volume between the presentations of two prominant Whooping Cranes experts; Tom Stein of the Aransas Refuge and George Archibald of the International Crane Foundation. Throughout the four-day event Schake will be in a booth with Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) personnel. AMIGO, friends of ANWR will sell copies there with all proceeds going to the ‘Friends’ group to support their nature preservation work. Schake welcomes the opportunity to sign copies.

Whooping cranes may be see at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge at Austwell, about 45 miles north of Port Aransas, or by taking a tour boat provided as part of Celebration activities. Almost 300 Whoopers are expected to winter at Aransas Refuge this year, an amazing new record number!!

REGISTER EARLY by by clicking here!! Proceed to the second page for the role of On the Wings of Cranes.

Larry Walkinshaw is shown above about the time he became a Boy Scout Leader in 1930. For forty years Dr. Walkinshaw, a Battle Creek, Michigan dentist, led young men in scouting in various capacities. Soon the popular Scoutmaster of Troop 29 of the Nottawa Trails Council had over 70 scouts participating. The Tice boys were among them.

Seventy-seven years later I met them at the Michigan Audubon Society’s CraneFest Fund raising event on October 10, 2008. Paul Tice, his wife, Doris, myself and Wayne Tice were there as shown above. Another former Boy Scout, Lynn Junkett, all from nearby Battle Creek, attended as well. These, and many other scouts, had all birded with Walkinshaw. Wayne Tice was with Larry when he recorded Michigan Sandhill Crane Nest No. 1 where all modern-day crane saving efforts began on that eventful day of May 31, 1931. These events are chronicled in detail on page 25 in On the Wings of Cranes. It was here Larry said, “I had a site of cranes that completely changed his life.” It also affected his scouts to say nothing of crane populations worldwide.

Wayne, 91 years and going strong, sent me Christmas greetings in 2008. “Sure glad we made Lowell’s book review.” He continued, “‘Doc’ was a great inspiration to me.”

During the 1970s and 1980s, these former Troop 29 members joined others to stage reunions for their Scoutmaster, always highlighted with more praise and gifts. One elegant painting of Florida Sandhills now graces the home of his Walkinshaw’s daughter.

Be a hero. Plan a plesant surprise for your birding friends. Provide them a copy of On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story. Save ‘double’ shipping cost by sending them directly to your friends. Not only will they have a great read but you’ll be shopping smart in our tight economy! After ordering, tell them something special will soon arrive on the wings of cranes. Available in either paperback or hard copy.

Click below on the hot spot to BUY NOW.

"BUY NOW"

Any history buffs for friends? Lowell Schake’s La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, Zebulon Pike - offers readers “A delicately crafted absorbing account of an American past seldom encountered in conventional history… meticulously researched,” according to Kirkus Discoveries. Others think the same attributes apply On the Wings of Cranes.

To purchase this STAR volume reissued by the publisher in 2006, click on BEST of AMERICAN FRONTIER HISTORY

The above volumes represent my two latest books fourteen years into retirement. My first post-retirement volume is free. This extensive Schake family history and genealogy, The Schakes of La Charette is posted on the Internet and recommended as a ‘Must read’ by Missouri geneagologists.

Click on READ for FREE to enjoy Germanic history, Missouri frontier life and genealogy galore. The geneanology of about 15,000 entries spans from the 1100s to the present and is on file at the Family History Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. Should you discover a need for assistance with your genealogy involving these families from Lippe-Detmold that came to Warren County, Charrette Township, Missouri, let me know. I have several valuable reference books that have benefitted many others.

To find more on these three topics, proceed down the ‘Books’ menu of these Web Pages to entries of May 2, 2006 for La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, Zebulon Pike - and to April 18, 2006 for The Schakes of La Charette. Considering all the varied publishing options employed - hard copy, paperback, electronic with reissued volumes - eight ISBN book codes appear.

Genre: Nonfiction/Biography/Autobiography/History/American/Ethnohistory/Genealogy

Other menu alternatives within these Web Pages include the ‘Press Room’, ‘Reviews and Praise’, an ‘Events Archives’, and of course the all purpose ‘Blog’. Pages sometimes appear under more than one catagory as the topic dictates.

Search. Study. Enjoy. Leave a comment or two. Its been my pleasure sharing these thoughts and experiences. Thanks for the opportunity!

Today the female Kirtland’s Warbler named ‘Sexy’, weighing in at about 1/2 ounce, may be regarded as the species saving matriarch. Her story unfolds in dreamy romantic fashion. She, like all lady Kirtland’s, did not sing. But each spring and fall she migrated from her exclusive Michigan nesting grounds to winter somewhere in the Bahamas. She acqiured her formal name - 61-24179 - on June 22, 1970. That’s when Larry Walkinshaw banded her. Sexy and Company appeared in print in Bird Watcher’s Digest in 1979, a reprint of the original appearing in the Jack-Pine Warbler the year before.

Banding Kirtland’s and other species offered opportunity to study family lineages, just as we chronicle our genealogies. Walkinshaw was able to capture and identify enough of them to document three generations before concluding work on them in 1983. He was then eighty-years old.

‘Sexy’ was part of the Kirtland’s population when only 167 pairs remained. During this lowest ebb in Kirtland’s numbers, Walkinshaw was the only one officials would allow banding them. Since ‘Sexy’ and her daughters, even a few granddaghters, produced almost twice as many fledglings each of eight seasons as her contemporaries, their impact upon recovery was profound. This becomes especially vivid upon considering the compounding affects as if approaching exponential population increase of her linage.

CORPUS CHRISTI’S'S FEATHERED CAP

Living in this “Birdiest” of regions not only offers much daily satisfaction, but enhances my appreciation for those who worked to understand - and salvage - the natural world. Without their assistance, my family and friends could not enjoy the many birds gliding over the sand dunes at sunrise. The once threatened Brown Pelicans proceed in ‘V’ formed squadrons starting the day. My mid-day beauty takes flight as Roseate Spoonbills appear. Once they were the assigned species to be rescue by Robert Porter Allen before he and Larry Walkinshaw studied the Whooping Cranes, America’s Symbol of Conservation. Together they searched Canada and studied at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas to save those majestic icons. Across the day Humming Birds, Grackles, Doves and Laughing Gulls cheerfully fill the air. Yet the signature songs of Whistling Duicks at dusk seem special when orchestrated by rapid wing beats in yet another ‘V’ formation taking them somewhere. Where? Why? What’s their hurry?

Walkinshaw always claimed their were “Human stories to be told…” if we could understand bird behavior.

The news release of November 3, 2008 proceeds:
The Northwest Brach Public Library’s Clif Moss Nature Education Center invites birders of all levels of interest to a series of programs focusing on the newly released book, On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story. The first program will be held at 2p.m. Saturday, November 15, 2008 at the library.

Dr. Larry Walkinshaw, who died in 1993 at the age of 88, was one of the nation’s leading authorities on a number of bird species, including Whooping Cranes and Sandhill Cranes. Among other things, he was involved in the recovery efforts of the Whooping Crane population, which winters in South Texas each year at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

The discussion of the book will be led by its author, Lowell M. Schake, son-in-law of Walkinshaw. Schake is a retired professor who now lives in Port Aransas. The topic of the first program will be: Overview of Walkinshaw’s Life Accomplishments. What Motivated Him and Why?

In addition to the November 15th program, Schake will lead other discussion at 2 p.m. Saturday, December 13, 2008 and at 3 p.m. Saturday, January 10, 2009. The Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi will have copies of On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story available for purchase at the library for $24.95. The Proceeds will be used to support local birding and conservation activities.

Contact: Lynda Whitton, Northwest Branch Library 361-241-9329.
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The Northwest Branch Public Library of Corpus Christi premiers as the city’s ‘birding library’ in the “Birdiest City in America”. The ornithological honor represents a three-year running record of 241 or more species spotted and verified by local birders, mostly representing local Audubon Outdoor Club and Coastal Bend Audubon members.

“The library wishes to encourage youthful participation in birding and nature in general,” Head Librarian Lynda Whitton told me in April, 2008. Fourteen children and their families completed a birding class sponsored by the library in July. The five-week Saturday series that commenced at 5 p.m. at the library located at 3202 McKinzie Road in Corpus Christi included field-trips to nearby Tule Lake to assit in identification of bird calls and other details of avain life history.

The current series of monthly educational programs evolved from my previous contacts with the General City Librarian for Corpus Christi, Texas. Herb Canales introduced me to his ‘Friends of the Library’ group to stag a signing event for my La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American West in 2003. By 2005 it was reissued by publisher iUniverse, Inc., by then taking on a life of its own.

In July 2008, I met Herb in the parking lot of his Flour Bluff branch library. “Hey, you’re the book guy” was his attempt to grasp my name. We visited about the upcoming release of On the Wings of Cranes and my desire to establish another signing event. One thing led to another and soon Herb had provided the necessary contacts to establish the upcoming November-December-January series of programs. Herb also aided my introduction to local Corpus Christi Caller-Times bird columnist Phyllis Yochem. Her “Rave Review’ was previously featured in this blog series.

Not only do I owe Herb “Thanks” for that much appreciated assistance, but for all the diligent work completed over the last ten-years by his staff. Those at his Main downtown library, as well as at Flour Bluff, processed at least a thousand request of mine - interlibrary loans, routine retrievals, reorderings, and obtaining rare or difficult to locate volumes.

Perhaps we can all extend “Thanks” by attending the many excellent birding programs offered by my local Corpus Christi libraries.

Larry Walkinshaw studied endangered Kirtland’s Warblers since 1931, the same year that Greater Sandhill Cranes joined his birding agenda. His infatuation with them was as intense as for cranes. Some of his mystique toward Kirtland’s probably resided in his being the first to band one. And as with cranes, no one else could find their nests as readily as he. Once Roger Tory Petrson came to Michigan looking for them, but without succes. Peterson wrote Larry, “Next time I try to find Kirtland’s Warblers, I am going to get in touch with you…” Larry discovered over 340 Kirland’s nests by 1988.

Another Kirtland’s ‘first’ for Walkinshaw involved the male pictured above, the first one found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near Gwinn of Marquette County in 1983 . Only a few Kirtland’s had moved away from Lower Michigan as their population began to expand. Walkinshaw found this one within five minutes. “He sang all day, 6, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6 times per minute, stopping periodically to get some larvae. His territory was about 358 ft. long and 250 ft. wide. He had several favorite singing branches” on jack pine trees according to Larry’s notes of infinate detail.

Interestingly, only male Kirtland’s Warblers sing their highly distinctive song. So distinctive in fact that hearing them, even without visual conformation, was employed by Harold Mayfield, Walkinshaw, and others to document about 300 surviving pairs in 1974… their lowest ebb. These and a myrid of other adventures in Michigan and in the Bahamas - the Kirtland’s winter home - led Walkinshaw to publish two definitive volumes on them. The one pictured below, published in 1983, was followed by “Nest Observations of the Kirtland’s Warbler - A Half Century Quest” appearing in 1988. Both chronicle species saving events.

The picture shown with the Kirtland’s Warbler discussion at Wikipedia is one of Walkinshaw’s - although not acknowledged as such. To access this Kirtland’s life cycle and recovery program discussion click HERE.

Shown above is Dr. Lawrence H. ‘Larry’ Walkinshaw (1904-1993) when searching the Kirtland’s Warbler nesting grounds associated with the Mack Lake burn of 1980, Crawford County, Michigan. Nonetheless, neither the exact location of the amateur Michigan birder when this portrait was taken nor its phototographer are known with certainty. During this interval Walkinshaw was asked to contribute to a research project funded by the USFWS and administered by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources to help salvage another endangered species. The author was told by Kirtland’s Warbler experts that he was the only one who could find their nests with any regularity.

Phyllis Yochem concluded her review On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story saying the book exposed “one of the heros of American ornithology”. Certainly she was correct but if Larry Walkinshaw had heard or read such laudable praise he would downplay it in the extreme. Walkinshaw was a very reserve and unpretentious individual… perhaps even to a fault.

So much so that his modesty even became a motivating factor in the origins of his biography. Everyone in the Walkinshaw family knew how hard he worked, how he loved birding, traveling to study them in the wilds of nature and the long hours devoted to recording field notes, and writing. What we did not know was the eventual impact of it all. Did his sacrificing actually make a difference? That’s why Wendy, my wife - Walkinshaw’s daughter - asked that his biography be compiled.

Discovering for the first time the full reality of his species conservation successes places his family in Yochem’s camp…he really was one of the heros of American ornithology. Better than that however, the cranes and warblers he worked to save offer living testiment well beyond any other acclaim.

You can never really judge a book by its cover… or can you?

The origin of the ‘Cover Story’ and its message both followed what I had researched, written and later submitted for publication. What followed could only have been the work of serendipity.

Its composite picture was, at least to me, something of an accident. When I submitted the manuscript for publication only the picture of cranes flying across the face of the moon was to appear on the cover. Michael Boyce, Resident Manager of Michigan Audubon Society’s Baker Sanctuary had only recently photographed them. When Wendy, my wife - Larry Walkinshaw’s daughter, and I visited there in August 2007, Mike graciously offered it to us for the cover. Walkinshaw’s portriat beneath the cranes is the work of celebrated LIFE photojournalist Alfred Eisendstadt when assigned to Larry during week-long studies of Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska in the 1950s. It was submitted to iUniverse the publisher as the book’s Frontiespiece.

Unbeknown to me the iUniverse, Inc. graphic artists thought otherwise. They combined the two images to creat the stunning one appearing on the front cover (more subdued here than in actuality). Little did they know the interwinning of aesthetic beauty and history they had created!

The essence of this is its poignancy. For years, Walkinshaw led the charge as Chairman of Michigan Audubon Society’s Crane Sanctuary Committee leading to establishment of Baker Sanctuary in 1941. At that time it represented the world’s first and only sanctuary devoted exclusively to saving cranes. During the 1930s Walkinshaw and Aldo Leopold, the preeminant academic conservationist with the University of Wisconsin, Madison, thought fewer than 40 pairs of Greater Sandhill Cranes nested in the United States. Once there were thousands. After Larry published The Sandhill Cranes in 1949 and Cranes of the World in 1973, everyone knew he had established the foundation upon which all future crane research and salvation would reside. Thus Baker Sanctuary… within walking distance of Larry’s boyhood home, where he first sighted Sandhills and encountered their first nest providing him inspiration … represents the very genesis of all worldwide crane recovery - for Larry and for cranes.

Today, thousands of crane lovers flock to Baker Sanctuary each October when attending CraneFest. Thanks to the foresight and actions of Larry Walkinshaw they sometimes see as many as 8,500 roosting Sandhills in a single day… a new Michigan record.

Restoring the World’s crane populations… It all started at Baker Sanctuary. As noted on the front cover, the return of the cranes is “the wildlife equivalent of putting a man on the moon“, according to John Christian, USFWS, 2003.

Everyone knows you can’t judge a book by its cover… or can you now that you know the rest of the ‘Cover Story’? To proceed with rest of Larry Walkinshaw’s improbable Life Story,, obtain a copy and probe beyond its cover.

Copies available across the Internet, call the publisher at 1-800-288-4677 or purchase several from your favorite conservation organizations: International Crane Foundation; World Birding Center; Aransas National Wildlife Refuge; Corpus Christi Audubon Outdoor Club; Michigan Audubon Society; The Port Aransas South Jetty newspaper among many other commercial outlets.

Every afternoon of Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12, 2008, thousands of Sandhill Cranes displayed their majestic calls, dances and flights into Baker Sanctuary. When Larry Walkinshaw discovered their first nest there in 1931, fewer than twenty nested east of the Mississippi River. Once there had been thousands. Baker Sanctuary, the first sanctuary in the world devoted to protection cranes, was founded in 1941. Walkinshaw led the effort as Chairman of the Michigan Audubon Society Crane Sanctuaty Committee. Typical of Walkinshaw’s birding protocol, friends assisted the amatuer Michigan birder at every turn along the way.

On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story was featured here as it was at four previous events over as many days. Appropriately, this was the book’s showcase presentation to the public. The book’s author and editor (shown above) were there joined by the public to honor their father-in-law and father 77-years after he began his study of Greater Sandhill Cranes. Other family members present (but not shown) were J. R. ‘Jim’ Walkinshaw’s wife, Jan, their son Alan, and his son Jimmy. Schake, the author, is shown holding a copy of the newly released book.

Each day, about equal numbers of people and cranes arrived. About 5,000 was the estimate. Mingled among the book signing activities appeared members of Larry Walkinshaw’s ‘extended’ birding family. They offered many memorable experiences and many new insights into his life. Mark Weldon of Fort Wayne, Indiana came with an especially poignant picture of Larry measuring Sandhill Crane Nest Number 307. Mark took the picture on May 6, 1980 as they worked the Michigan and Indiania marshes. Their friendship spanned decades as Larry eventually logged over 600 nests of these elusive creatrures. The picture showed Larry with his pants legs rolled up, stretching a tape measue, while admiring the nest’s two eggs.

A PreFest Fundraising Dinner was held on the evening before CraneFest. Before then Olivet College (where Larry attended for two years), the Kiwanis Club of Battle Creek, and the Battle Creek’s Brigham Audubon all hosted programs. Schake presesnt an overview of the On the Wings of Cranes with a superb power point presentation developed by Baker Sanctuary Manager, Mike Boyce.

The entire Walkinshaw family expresses their gratitude for this warm welcome in recognition of an exceptional Michigan ornithologist.

As the book claims in its Introduction, “Birding is its theme; Inspiration its message”.

Captive nesting Whooper ‘Jo’ shown with Walkinshaw’s daughter Wendy Ann in 1950. The entire Walkinshaw family, along with Robert Porter Allen, studied two nesting pair at Aransas Refuge in 1949 and 1950.

My latest copy of the Port Aransas South Jetty reported that the first Whooping Crane arrived at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on October 20, 2008, that according to USFWS Whooping Crane coordinator Tom Stein. More are expected soon, concluded Klein who was instrumental in providing me access to the Refuge archives when researching On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story. When Larry Walkinshaw initiated their salvation in 1937, only 13 Whooping Cranes remained in the wild.

Today, around 250 arrive at Aransas from Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada each fall, thanks to a half a century and more of struggling by a handful of concerned individuals like Robert Porter Allen, Walter ‘Bud’ Tholen, J. J. Pratt, Walkinshaw and others. Walkinshaw, Tholen and Allen first became so-called Whooper Pen Pals, then attempted to locate their Canadian nesting grounds in 1947 and 1948. Later they became founding members of the Whooping Crane Conservation Association, the first association devoted exclusively to saving a single species from extinction.

The South Jetty is soon to carrying copies of On the Wings of Cranes in their office at 141 W. Colter, Port A, Texas. Drop by or call 361-749-5137 to place your order.

On January 24, 2009, a day-long program will be hosted at Aransas Refuge near Austwell, Texas featuring On The Wings of Cranes. Friends of Aransas & Matagorda Island National Refuges of Austwell will offer copies for sale. Those buying a book from them helps to support activities important to programs held at the Refuge. Arrange to attend, purchase several copies… the beautiful book makes a great gift. Both the ‘Friends’ and the Refuge staff may be contacted at 361-286-3559.

Book signing starts at 9:00AM and runs until 3:00PM with a noon break. Over the noon hour, I will make a power-point presentation in the Refuge Conference room and share salient experiences when researching for the book. Join us, bring friends and family. The Whoopers are staging a magnificant comeback! Be there! The Refuge is a wonderfully unique wilderness area that offers everyone an opportunity to see the best of nature first hand.

Don’t forget to stop by and see the Whoopers from the tower at the Refuge. Wendy Ann Walkinshaw Schake, my wife of almost fifty years, will try to join us too. She remembers being at Aransas Refuge with her mother Clara, brother Jim, and her dad, Larry. They all stayed in one of the little white cabins immediately north of the Refuge at Hopper’s Landing. See you at Aransas.

14th Annual CraneFest kicks off this weekend in Belleview

This special article by reporter Chris Killian announced CraneFest on Monday, October 6, 2008. Killian relates the details of our interview and upcoming crane festivities.

BELLEVUE - When a baby bird hatches, it latches on to the first thing it sees.

Larry Walkinshaw had a similar experience nearly 80 years ago.

While hiking through some wilderness areas in 1931, Walkinshaw came upon a pair of cranes and their nest. What he saw and experienced there changed him forever, said Lowell Schake, Walkinshaw’s son-in-law and author of a newly released book, “On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story.”

“The cranes he saw started scolding him for finding their nest,” Schake said from his home near Corpus Christi, Texas. “And at that moment, Walkinshaw was imprinted by cranes forever. The sight of them completely changed his life.”

Walkinshaw, who practiced dentistry in Battle Creek for decades, died in 1993 at the age of 88, but not before he became the world’s foremost finder of bird’s nests and traveling the world to document all 15 crane species, Schake said.

Walkinshaw was also a leader in the push for formation of the Baker Sanctuary in Bellevue, located in northern Calhoun County. The sanctuary is now one of the most populated sandhill crane destinations in the country.

Those who are enamored by cranes, or just curious about these creatures, will have a chance to see them up close October 11 and 12 at the 14th Annual Michigan Audubon Society’s CraneFest at the Battle Creek Kiwanis Youth Area, next to the Baker Sanctuary.

The majestic birds can reach 4 to 5 feet tall, with a wingspan of nearly 7 feet.

In the 1940s, DDT and other chemicals cut hard into the sandhill crane population in Michigan, with only 17 pairs documented in the state [by Walkinshaw in the mid-1930s] at that time, said Wendy Tatar of the Michigan Audubon Society.

Now, thanks to conservation and educational efforts, the population has soared to never before seen heights, with 16, 707 pairs documemted in the state and 8,528 pairs seen at Baker Sanctuary in November 2007 — a new record for cranes at one location.

The cranes gather at the location due to the high amounts of food — mostly frogs — that are located there, as well as the copious amounts of shelter present. The sanctuary serves as a kind of pit stop where the birds fatten and nest before migrating south for the winter.

People are taken aback by the cranes distinctive call, as well as their ability to fly extraordinairly high, Tater said. She said the Michigan Audubon Society is expecting nearly 5,000 people to attend the weekend event.

Schake, a retired Aniimal-Food science professor, will be at Baker Sanctuary October 7 to 11. He said he is hoping for a large turnout for the festival and that people who attend capture some of the same feelings for cranes that Walkinshaw did so many years ago.

“He saw extraordinary beauty in cranes,” he said of Walkinshaw. “They are truly remarkable birds.”
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Previous to CraneFest a Prefest dinner was held at 6:30 PM, Friday October 10 at Convis Township Hall. The event featured Lowell Schake’s discussion on his book, “On the Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story.”
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Hit www.cranefest.org for related events and opportunities.

The Michigan Audubon Society’s Baker Sanctuary near Bellevue will be the public’s introduction to On The Wings of Cranes: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story. The October 10, 11 and 12, 2008 events feature the book along with thousands of Greater Sandhill Cranes roosting there. Proceed to http://www.cranefest.org/prefest.html for some of the details. The general public is invited to enjoy this spectacle as well as the works of many naturalists, artists and authors. The story behind the origin of this event is poignant.
All of Larry Walkinshaw’s ancestors were Michigan pioneers who settled around the ‘Big Marsh’. Three generations later Larry was born and grew-up within walking distance of this marsh of some 500 acres. By age 5 or 6 his interest in birds aroused him, at thirteen he first saw Greater Sandhill Cranes glid overhead as he worked in a nearby corn field. Then, shortly after he became an Honors graduate from the University Michigan School Denistry at age 25, he saw another Sandhill family. But in 1931 he discovered a nesting pair of Sandhills that, as he said “completely changed his life.”
What changed?
Walkinshaw and Aldo Leopold declared the cranes endangered. They thought fewer than 40 pair nested in the US where once thousands had lived. Larry led the cause for the Michigan Audubon Society to establish Baker Sanctuary in 1941, a k a the ‘Big Marsh’, as the World’s first sanctuary devoted to cranes. Subsquently he published the life histories on all the crane families in the world leading to his becoming The Father of International Crane Research and ‘the model life history scholar for Cranes, warblers and sparrows’! His 40 years of serving nearby Battle Creek as a dentist allowed him to finance his compulsion that led to him having done more for longer than any to save endangered Greater Sandhil Cranes of the east, the Whooping Cranes as America’s symbols of conservation and Michigan’s unique Kirtland’s Warblers.

ON THE WINGS OF CRANES: Larry Walkinshaw’s Life Story is scheduled for release by publisher iUniverse, Inc. of NY in September 2008. In April 2006, I predicted its appearance this year under the title of Larry: Amateur Birdman of the World. Actually, several titles were considered including Dear Walkinshaw, each with various subtitles.

ON THE WINGS OF CRANES was selected as the most descriptive and inviting title to recognize an amateur Michigan birder now known as the “Father of International Crane Research”. The 350-some page volume includes unique features along with 22 never before published plates. All of Walkinshaw’s 400 published works are chronicled along with access to his banding recorders on over 40, 000 birds. Most importantly, perhaps, “At last, the true story of Larry’s contributions to… the recovery of the Whooping Crane is exposed,” according to past Whooping Crane Conservation Association President and Operation Migration Board Member, Walter Sturgeon of Spring Hope, NC.

Over a half-century span Walkinshaw contributed more, and for longer than anyone, to the salvation of three endangered species - Whooping Cranes, Greater Sandhill Cranes and Kirtland’s Warblers. Acknowledged as “The Model” bird life history scholar for his studies on cranes, warblers and sparrows, Walkinshaw is hearlded as perhaps the world’s greatest finder of bird nests ever.

Signing and presentation events are being scheduled. Contact Dr. Lowell M. Schake, the author, at wschake1@centurytel.net or call 361-749-2315.

Book Details:

An ornithological biography published by iUniverse, Inc. NY 2008 as ISBN 978-0-595-48497 (pkb), $24.95 and as ISBN 978-0-595-71999 (cloth) $34.95. Available through local Barnes & Noble, at Amazon.com, various wholesalers or call the publisher at 1-800-288-4677 to place orders.

Key Words:

Ornithology; Amateur Birding; Species Saving; Conservation; Naturalist; Cranes; Warblers; Sparrows

Lowell M. Schake, Ph.D., is the book’s author.

The Author

From the August 31, 2006 column “Do You Remember” in the Warren County Record appeared with events of 100-years ago: “Mrs. Adolph Schake and her son left Thuesday morning for Cleveland, Ohio, on a visit with relatives.”

Undoubtedly this was the first out-of-state trip for my grandmother. Baptized at the bier of her father; soon her mother died resulting in her being reared as an orphan by an uncle whose surname was Ritter. As a very young girl she was a ‘live-in maid’ for the Kurt Schake family of my great grandfather. She and Adolph eventually married in middle age and rear their family of five. The relatives they visited in Cleveland were half-brothers to Kurt. He and those two brothers all came to America from Lippe in the 1850s.

To learn more about how these German families lived both in Germany and on the Missouri frontier proceed to my electronic book at http://www.rootsweb.com/~mowarren/schake/intro.html    

Lorna Hainesworth of Randallstown, Maryland e-mailed me earlier in the week asking this question. Likely many other guests will also be asking the same question as the Lewis and Clark reinactors arrive September 20, 2006 to participate in local celebrations.  

I directed Lorna to page 161 of La Charrette where old La Charrette Village is superimposed upon present-day Marthasville, Missouri. Today nothing remains of the old village site. It once represented 4,100 feet of river-creek frontage which itself has migrated over the past 200 years. As visitors look south from Marthasville, and east and west, all the farmland which comes into view once was part of La Charrette Village. There were no ‘city limits’ as today, just a cluster of cabins along the interface of of Charrtte Creek and the Missouri River as part of their large farms. When crossing Highway 47 and 94 or the popular Katy Trail, all are crossing over old village property… but not exactly where their cabins once stood. 

Just as for the celebrations there in 2004, it appears as if many from across the nation will ask, “Where was the old village?” Shout for joy as you celebrate their frontier spirit!

La Charrette A History of the Village Gateway to the American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark * Daniel Boone * Zebulon Pike has gained another notable distinction with its approval by the National Park Service for two of their interpretative centers in and around St. Louis, Missouri. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis at http://www.nps.gov/jeff/ and the Camp River Dubois site of Hartford, Illinois from where The Corps of Discovery started their westward journay at http://www.campdubois.com/ will both offer La Charrette at their interpretative center bookstores.  

These sites represent two of the 385 National Park System centers across the nation. ”I am excited about this decision allowing interested parties visiting these sights to acquire this detailed history of this frontier village from where Lewis and Clark departed civilization. They will discover a missing-link in our national heritage revealed by its rich history,” stated author Lowell M. Schake upon learning of the decision on August 21, 2006. He added, “The review process leading to approval took well over six-months.”

“Paddling Back on Lewis & Clark Path” was a headline in a recent Warren County Record article. “We are part of something on a national scale” said Al Puknat, one of three local re-enactors planning to come down the Missouri this September to arrive at La Charrette on September 20, just as did the Corps of Discovery 200 years ago. Puknat is joined by Darrell Dinger and Joe Tesson in this adventure. The three local men, as members of the St. Charles Corps of Discovery, have worked diligently for 10 years on plans and construction of a beautiful 20-foot, 41-inch cedar boat to be employed for the occassion. 

Join in the excitement! Be at the La Charrette village site, near present day Marthasville, Missouri, for their arrival this September. 

August 3, 2006. The Warren County Record announced plans of the Marthasville Lewis and Clark Committee to establish a 5-foot red granite monument in Marthasville’s Wessel Park with a La Charrette plaque. The plaque is a much larger and more detailed rendition of the one shown on the back cover of La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway To The American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark * Daniel Boone * Zebulon Pike reissued earlier this year.

The plaque’s placement in Wessel Park will highlight the La Charrette Village vertical log cabin erected there since May 2003 for the bicentennial arrival of Lewis and Clark at the long lost village. September 20, 2006 marks the bicentennial return of The Corps of Discovery to civilization at La Charrette Village.

Retired fireman Bob Daus of nearby Dutzow (once the home of early German settler Gottfried Duden) was commissioned to create the work of art. The 25-pound bronze sculptor of his Liberty Artworks, Inc. www.libertyartworks.com will aid in my objective to return ‘life’ the village. Committee Chairman, Connie Tesson said, “It will be here hundreds of years after we are gone. Its a beautiful thing.” Local historian and friend, Mr. Ralph Gregory provided the inscription for the monument. Local business woman Ann Jenkins designed the plaque’s artwork.

Congratulations to everyone who helped make this a reality! Join the celebrations in Marthasville September 20 by “Shouting for joy” as the the explorers return to the frontier of the Louisiana Purchase.   

Likely enough, there must be millions of reasons for our fascination with western lore. Some may identify with the great western migration, others with trail drives, ranching, horses, or even pickup trucks. Even our youthful fascinations with Cowboy and Indian movies, novels and comic books embellish the image. Even so, newly disclosed secrets unbeknown but to a few privileged historians offer new details about how all this really began. Disguised as secrets for a very long time, these old sequestered events are intimately associated with a National Bicentennial Celebration of a U.S. military expedition out of Missouri led by a man known as The Lost Pathfinder by one biographer.  Indeed these are very old secrets, even predating the Louisiana Purchase. What were these secrets, and why so long in revealing the roots of western migration, cowboys and our interest in such?

  ……………

The preceeding paragraph appears in  the August 2006 issue of ROUNDUP MAGAZINE, Volume XIII, Number 6: 14-17 as my introduction to an article extracted from La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark * Daniel Boone * Zebulon Pike that was reissued earlier this year. Obtain a copy of ROUNDUP MAGAZINE for ‘Rest of the Story’. Their homepage is http://www.westernwriters.org and subscribe for only $30 per year. Back issues cost $5.00 each, if available. ROUNDUP MAGAZINE is a forum for Western literature sponsored by Western Writers of America, Inc. 

Happy reading as you explore the American West!  

From page coded as 4C 34.1 more is revealed on “Indian” Phillips, trusted friend of Daniel Boone and acquaintence of Anthony Palmer the Hatter.

“Indian Phillips (ilegible word, perhaps ‘purchased’) well, he was a tall spare made man; think he was a French man who had an Osage Squaw for a wife and lived in Charette village, that was a French and Indian village of some 10 or 12 families, don’t recolect any of their given names, there was Busby - Sharterow [Chartran], Lozie and they had Spanish grants acording to their families; they all sold out to Flanders Callaway or the Lammes, the son-in-law of Callaway, and Flanders Callaway was the father of Sgt. James Callaway. The village was at the mouth of Charette Creek in the Mo. Bottom. Phillips and all the rest went up the Mo. River - that was the last I known of them. Phillips once made an arrangement with my sister-in-law to go hunting by moonlight….???…sister told him “no” ” as the story was related to Draper. 

“Pierre Pallardie is probably the oldest nativeborn citizen of St. Charles county. He was born in 1800, and has lived continuously in the city and county ever since… In his boyhood days that locality (St. Charles County, eventual home to La Charrette Village) abounded in deer, wild turkeys, and other game, and a man could kill all he wanted, and more too, without exhausting the supply. After he began housekeeping he frequently had as many as two hundred smoked venison hams ahead of his immediate wants, and often fed them to hogs in order to get them out of the way. The howl of the wolf broke the stillness of the woods at night, and sheep-raising was a precarious business. They also had black-tailed elk and a few bear. Their plows in those day were made entirely of wood, and the only vehicle which approximated a wagon was the French charrette, a two-wheeled concern, with no tires on the wheels…”

This passage comes from page 181 of the 1876 book of Bryan and Rose, A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri. called to my attention by Cathie Schoppenhorst of Marthasville, Missouri. On page 16 of La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American Frontier, I explain how the name origin of La Charrette Vilage likely came about involving both the two wheel French cart, described above, and Joseph Chorette. This highly descriptive passage not only characterized the Missouri frontier, but also illustrated how scattered fragments of La Charrette Village history were flung about over a wide range of literature. 

As early as Pierre Pallardie was born on this exciting frontier, it was still known as the District of St. Charles in 1800, not St. Charles County.

Anthony Palmer taught school at La Charrette. This first school on the Missouri Frontier of the Louisiana Purchase opened its doors in early 1807 when he was engaged as a ’subscription’ teacher. What follows gives more details from page 70 of the Draper files about another of those who would have known Charles ‘Indian’ Phillips… probably hunted together. The passage proceeds:

“He was a Virginian, of rather genteel appearence, a hatter by trade,was employed by Col. Boone, who had a shop for him, & for several years made up his furs into hats, & part of the time taught school, at Femme Osage, & also at Charette. Was there many years; from Mrs. Craig’s early recollection till she was nearly grown. Don’t know what became of him. He used somestimes to go out with Col. Boone on some of his short hunts. Discovering some slight dereliction in him, Boone chided him in this way: “Anthony, I said that I would kill the first honest hatter I ever came across; but you need not be afraid - you are not the man.” ”

By the way…the student teacher ratio at La Charrette school was 15 to 1!  Palmer also seved under Captain James Callaway, grandson of Boone and son of Flanders Callaway, as a ranger during War of 1812, later as sheriff of the St. Charles County. He married Hester Ayers, daughter of Ebenezer Ayers. 

Lee Kirk of OZARKs  Magazine has offered these words of praise for La Charrette.

After Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out to explore the West, St. Charles wasn’t the last European settlement that they saw. A few miles up the Missouri River, they stopped off at La Charrette, a small village of French mountain men, Indians, Creoles, African-American slaves, and tough American pioneers, including the Boone family. 

Lowell Schake, who grew up in Charrette Township in Warren County, Missouri, spent years researching the long-gone settlement he had heard about in his childhood. The result is a fascinating story of a short-lived community that played an important role, however briefly, in America’s surge westward. Along with the story of the village, Schake’s text digresses to explain cultural and social habits of the people and the times, further enriching the volume for the reader. 

Equally as interesting as the story of La Charrette village is the story of Schake’s meticulous research. A retired university professor of animal science who has published hundreds of technical papers, he is careful to explain every step of the way where he gathered his data and why his research led him to the conclusions he drew. There is further information in extensive footnotes.

Proceed to OZARKS Magazine’s Web Page at http://www.ozarksmagazine.com/index.html?b=25 for more about this publication and other reviews.  Subscribe to OZARKS Magazine!

Indian Phillips, a Shawnee, was a favorite companion of Boones. The Draper file indicates that Boone “… could speak and understand the Shawnee language sufficiently for the purposes of ordinary conversation: The squaws appeared shy, & wouldn’t talk; they are generally less talkative with the whites than the men. Boone visited them at their settlement in Missouri, & these friendly visits were interchanged several times”.

Other passages indicate that Phillips could speak English at least equal to that of Boone’s capacity for Shawnee.

But by 1813 Boone, son-in-law Flanders Callaway and his black slaves of La Charrette left the village in pirogues to escape the Shawnee who were threatening. “…several of these pirogues were leashed together; & several ran on a Sawyer descending the Missouri, & all the goods were lost. The whites & blacks on board were saved, clinging to the wreck till they were rescued. Thus Col. Boone lost all his books & papers, which were on board.”

Continuing:  ” The most of the white people went down by land - Col. Boone, Callaway’s, Lemme’s [Lammes], the families of David Bryan & his brother, and the two Ramsey famalies, were among the number. James Boone (son of Nathan B.) & sister Delinda were at the time at Charrette going to school.”  

The two Ramsey families represented one of those that were massacred by Indians in 1815. American frontier life at La Charrette… and the complexities of the Boone-Phillips relationship.  

Friend Cathie Schoppenhorst of Marthasville, Missouri sent me copies of Stephen Hempstead’s interview with Lyman Draper in 1814 when in Boone’s Lick Country, Missouri recalling Indian Phillips. As I compiled La Charrette it was not possible to include every detail on each topic or individual. Yet I became facinated with the elusive Phillips. I’ll be posting several items about him, when he and friend Daniel Boone roamed the environs shown on Margy Mile’s web page at http://www.mpcps.org/boone/missouri/marthasville/main.shtml  Here is the first installment:

Indian Phillips was a tall spare man - was at one time with the Shawnees; It was said he was with the Marauders who invester the Ohio River [about 1790] & decoyed boats ashore; it was said too, that he whipped Simon Kenton, when a pioneer in 1778 with the Shawnees with his ramrod, & in Missouri (probably when Kenton was in ‘Boone’ county) the whites would scare him by saying Kenton was coming to kill him. Don’t know what became of him. He was apparently 50 years old or more in 1814.  

Notes transcribed from page 130, under heading “Indian Phillips - Boone’s Lick Country - 1814.”

The Marthasville Record (now Warren County Record) publishes a folkish and interesting segment entitled “Do You Remember?” To check your memory bank subtitles are 25 Years Ago, 50 Years Ago and 100 Years Ago. In a 2004 issue appeared an item under the “100 Years Ago” subtitle which caught my attention. It follows:

“A ghost was reported seen on the Charrette bridge west of Marthasville recently. A good number of the young men in Charrette Bottom have not ventured to cross the bridge after dark since that time.”

I passed this location and crossed the bridge 1,000s of times. Charrette Bridge was on what had been Widow St. Franceway’s farm in 1804, and on the road home for me. Widow St. Franceway’s farm and my family Schake farm joined at about the location of Charrette bridge.

Ghost or not, the new modern bridge on State Highway 94 is located just a bit further east than was the older one.    

Were you aware that La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark * Daniel Boone * Zebulon Pike was also available as an e-book selection? Proceed to the iUniverse, Inc. bookstore at http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-80603-1 for details. Others sources also carry both the paperback and the e-book versions.

Presently, I am about mid-way through Nathaniel Philbrick’s phenomenal Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, 2006, ISBN0-670-03760-5 published by the Penguin Group, New York, where another story of an early North American village unfolds as never before told.

I am struck by two parallels between Philbrick’s new disclosures about the Pilgrims and their Native American neighbors and the citizens of La Charrette. In both instances Native Americans were confronted with both acceptance followed by exclusion from society. Even though these village histories were seperated by two centuries in time, their extended histories followed similiar paths. Eventually, it was the exclusion of Native Americans at Plymouth that set into motion their being pushed ever westward for successive centuries.

La Charrette Village citizens became home to those like Charles “Indian” Phillips as a displaced Shawnee, and many, many others coming from the east, a process initiated at Plymouth following King Philip’s War. If only the Pilgrims had been inclusive enough to do what the French Canadians did at La Charrette… American history, the plight of Native Americans, and the lives of ALL Americans might have been forever the benefactor. The process of intermarriage was so abundant at La Charrette that the two cultures co-existed on the very edge of the American frontier in apparent harmony. 

It is difficult to over emhasize how Civil Rights and Political Correctness might have differed from the present if more inclusiveness was contained in the hearts of those arriving on the Mayflower. They came to practice religious freedom but could not accepted that others might wish the same opportunity. For them to marry a heathen was unthinkable.

I suggest you read both the Mayflower and La Charrette to appreciate the extensive, perhaps profound, impact of these rambles.

Many people were delighted to learn about the tiny ‘almost forgotten’ Missouri River settlement called La Charrette…Where the West actually began. Books were sold, contacts established, while fifty or so authors shared experiences. While there I visited with those stopping by my popular display as the La Charrette banner fluttered in the background.

Met Patrica Adkins-Rochette, author of Bourland in North Texas and Indian Territory. She has done a magnificant compiling this historical documentary of two volumes. See her web page at www.BourlandCivilWar.com for details or e-mail Pattie at prochette@Juno.com 

DENTON RECORD-CHRONICLE

Local News
DENTON, RC.COM
07:11 AM CDT on Thursday, April 13, 2006
 
Reception, book signing scheduled at library
The Denton Public Library will host a reception and book signing for author Dr. Lowell M. Schake from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, April 23, at the Emily Fowler Central Library at 502 Oakland St.
His current book is La Char­rette: A History of The Village Gateway to the American Fron­tier, concerning the history of multicultural La Charrette Vill­age, America’s first westernmost village of the Louisiana Purchase.
For more information, call 940-349-8712.

April 11, 2006

Missing Link in History Featured

Denton, TX – The works of a Missouri-born author and retired professor will be featured in a local event on April 23, 2006. His book, La Charrette: A History of The Village Gateway to the American Frontier, is central to two ongoing national bicentennial celebrations, that of Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike’s. Never before has the history of multi-cultural La Charrette Village, America’s first westernmost village of the Louisiana Purchase, been revealed. “Both expeditions departed from La Charrette in 1804 and 1806, respectively,” said the author, Dr. Lowell M. Schake. “This September 20, Lewis and Clark re-enactors will return to the location where the village once stood to again ‘Shout for Joy’!”

The Denton Public Library will host a reception and book signing for the Port Aransas, TX author on Sunday, April 23 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., at the Emily Fowler Library at 502 Oakland. Schake explained, “that only seven families lived at La Charrette Village, yet they represented a virtual ‘Who’s Who’ of the American West with unique ties to Texas. Lewis and Clark wanted to train there, but the French denied them entry into the territory.”

As the last-known settlement west of the Missouri River, La Charrette played a pivotal role for travelers on their way to exploring the American frontier. It was there that they stopped to rest, to conduct their business, or to get maps and advice for their journey.

Schake’s book is also important to the study of diversity. As a settlement of French and German settlers, Black slaves and American Indians, La Charrette was an early experiment in multiculturalism. The rich multicultural history of this small Missouri town had languished in obscurity until this book was published. La Charrette offers a compelling look at the daily lives of frontier settlers—their hardships and their triumphs. For more information, contact the Emily Fowler Library at 940-349-8712.

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

La Charrette, the Missing Link in Frontier American History featured… Where the west ‘really’ began
The works of a Missouri born author and retired professor will be featured in three local events from April 22-26, 2006. His La Charrette: A History of The Village Gateway to the American Frontier Visited by Lewis and Clark * Zebulon Pike * Daniel Boone is central to two ongoing national bicentennial celebrations…that of Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike’s. Never before has the history of multi-cultural La Charrette Village, America’s first westernmost village of the Louisiana Purchase, been revealed. “Both expeditions departed from La Charrette in 1804 and 1806, respectively” according to the author, Dr. Lowell M. Schake. “This September 20, Lewis and Clark re-enactors will return to the location where the village once stood to again ‘Shout for Joy’!”