Pt. 15

The great sandstone pillar rose from the rivers flood plain to a height of roughly one hundred and fifty feet and encompassed an area of approximately one acre. It was formed sixty five million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period. It was a time when Hadrosaurs grazed along the shores of the great inland sea and Pterosaurs flapped noisely through the skies on wings of skin membrane. Tyrannosaurus stalked three horned Triceratop and Ankylosaurus among the jumbled sandstone blocks and conifers that encircled its base. In the dense undergrowth and foliage along the broad river to the north were Iquanadons and Thescelosaurus. It was a warm world of spectacular lush forests and diverse life forms. These primordial beasts were unaware that a seven mile wide space rock weighing trillions of tons was hurtling towards their world at a speed of 45,000 miles per hour. The rock impacted the earth more than two thousand miles to the south of the great sandstone tower. It created a massive crater over ninety miles wide and twelve miles deep sending shockwaves that rippled across the entire planet. The impact caused a devastating megatsunami three hundred feet tall which destroyed thousands of miles of coastal ecosystems. The shockwaves triggered massive volcanic eruptions across the globe whose fiery lava scorched vast areas and which belched poisonous sulfurous gases and black smoke into the clear blue sky. Within a short time a thick cloud of choking hot dust and ash enveloped the entire earth blocking light from the sun for the next ten years or more. Debris from the impact was blasted out of the atmosphere. The particles rained down from the sky glowing with an incandescent heat that created massive forest fires and destruction. It was a global apocalyptic inferno. Within just a matter of hours, the majority of life forms on the planet were dead. It was an event colloquially called "the Great Dying". It is the Earth's most severe known extinction event. It affected all life on Earth, and is estimated to have killed about 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species living at the time. No class of life was spared from the devastation. Trees, plants, lizards, proto-mammals, insects, fish, mollusks, and microbes -- all were nearly wiped out. Roughly 9 in 10 marine species and 7 in 10 land species vanished. Life on our planet almost came to an end. But the great sandstone tower remained.

He carved his name into the soft sandstone of the great pillar using a steel twenty penny nail and a jack knife. It was the twenty fifth of July, 1806. He named the stone formation Pompeys Pillar after the nickname that he had given to the infant son of his Shoshone interpreter Ts'kaka'wea. She would carry the infant on a willow cradle or beir on her back for the first six months of the expedition. The expedition would last for more than two years. When she was only eleven the young girl had been captured by a Hidatsa raiding party near the headwaters of the Missouri. She was later bought by a French Canadian fur trader from Boucherville Quebec. He had been stabbed with a butcher knife by the mother of a girl that he had attempted to rape. Ts'kaka'wea became his second wife. They would live in a village named Metaharta on the mouth of the Knife River more than five hundred miles from her home. It was recorded that he was a man of "no particular merit" but he would be useful as an interpreter of the tongue of the Hidatsa. In the end he would outlive most of the men who took part in the great expedition. He later worked on diplomatic errands during the War of 1812 and was arrested by the Mexicans in 1815 for invasion of their territory. The man's name was Toussaint Charbonneau.

The small town of Charbonneau was named after this fur trader from Boucherville. Charbonneau became a ghost town when the Post Office closed in 1960. Like so many other small towns in that country, it was built alongside the iron tracks of the Great Northern Railway. The Great Northern was the only successful privately funded railroad that spanned the continent. It ran from St. Paul Minnesota to Seattle Washington and transported the millions of bushels of wheat that sprouted in this flat treeless land. In the 1930's the prices that small farmers received for their produce plummeted. Thousands of families lost their small farms. Advancements in machinery now made it possible for one man to do the same amount of work that before took twenty. Droves of people left and moved to cities. Many of the small towns that sprouted along the Great Northern railway were abandoned and became ghost towns. Charbonneau became one of them.

"Yeah that's true...there's not much left of Charbonneau these days" he acknowledged. "My wife's family lived there for a lot of years and my mother-in-law still lives in a little place just east of town. My wife went to stay with her for a few days. That was about three weeks ago just before the "storm" hit. She was due to have our first kid about a week ago. I know she made it there alright...we talked on the phone...said she had a surprise for me "... he told the old man. They both took a hearty sip of the dark foamy beer. The old man's face grew serious as he wiped foam from his mustache with the back of his hand. "I see" he pondered. "Son, think about this..by the time you get there riden yer little old pony, you'll be a daddy...if ya ain't one already. You need some way to get there a little quicker" he nodded. "Yeah, that would be nice...but there isn't a car or truck around that runs...most caught fire from whatever the heck happened a few weeks ago. That old horse is the best that I've got...we'll make it somehow" he said determinedly. "Oh I know you'll make it son..that's for sure..not a doubt in my mind"...the old man encouraged. "Would ya like another homemade?..it's on special"...he grinned. "Don't mind if I do!..it's very good"..Van replied. The old man tottered off to the kitchen and in a short while came back and set the two foamy beers on the table. "Met a Finnlander long time ago on a drillin rig over around Glasgow. He was the one who give me the recipe". He leaned closer and in mock mysteriousness said, "The secrets in the hops....Cascade"..he winked. Van smiled at his humor. "Is that what you worked at most of your life?...on drilling rigs?" " Well, I was employed quite often by them outfits searchin for that Texas Tea. I worked for them and mines and oh...so many other outfits that needed to know about dirt and rocks and such things. Ya see, when I come back from Japan, I went down to Grand Forks and got me an education in geology. I was always fascinated that so many secrets to the past are right there for us to find...right under our feet...ya just need a good pick and a shovel to get to them"!..he laughed. "I'll tell ya an interestin story...bout twenty some years ago I was comin home from Sturgis...went down there for a long Fourth of July weekend..well I was minding my own business at the Caboose in Whitewood when I get a call from a buddy of mine from Marmarth...he said "ya gotta get up here and see this...you won't believe it". So I made my way up there that Sunday afternoon...turns out some kid found some dinosaur bones on his family's ranch. Heck the place was swarmin with people..National Geographic..Smithsonian.. some guy from England..you name it..It was a big deal..turns out it was what they call a hadrosaur...even had some skin and muscle left on it...had a mouth like a duck and ate grass and leaves and such...they called it the "cow of the cretacious"..walked this here rock more than sixty five million years ago. Well it was one of the most memorable things that I've ever seen. I'll tell ya son..there's been a lot more that's gone on here than what your...what did you say the name a those people was who ya got tangled up with"? "They're called "The Inheritors of the Promise"..Van replied. "Yeah..The Inheritors"..the old man chuckled. "Well things been goin on around here a lot longer than what your "Inheritors" might tell ya"...he nodded knowingly. They sat in silence for a while thinking about what had been said and enjoying the cool tranquilizing glass of beer. After a while the old man offered, "Son, I got a big ol porterhouse in my fridge back there..I could fix it up with some taters and carrots if ya like. It's getting kinda late..why don't ya bunk here tonight and get a good night's rest. I've been thinkin about your situation with your wife down in Charbonneau and I think I got a good idea.

...to be continued..