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"From maple syrup and agricultural production beginning in the late 1700’s to the lumber and coal industries of the 19th and 20th centuries to the current day Marcellus Shale play, the extraction of the Susquehanna's natural resources has provided revenue to fuel both the earliest years of this new nation and, on a much larger scale, the Industrial Revolution that catapulted its growth into the present.
From the Journals of the Officers and Soldiers of Sullivan’s Campaign in 1779 to James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales to Robert Foster’s Tioga Waltz and Camptown Races to Sheshequin’s Julia H. Kinney Scott’s heartfelt odes to the Susquehanna, those past experiences spanning centuries can still be re-lived today through their words, poetry, and music.
Unless you have paddled the Susquehanna for thousands of miles and in every season, or travelled its highways and unpaved rural roads for more than half a century, or broken bread with those who live along the way...you cannot adequately begin to grasp the essence of what once was, what has been lost over the past three centuries, and what we can learn from all of their successes and failures." -
DJW on 12/24/2024
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The passages above are from a letter I wrote in support of an environmental issue a few months ago. The last paragraph - in whole or in part - should provide anyone with the perfect context for my epitaph, and "you cannot adequately begin to grasp..." is a blatantly intentional understatement. It was my way of saying "you may be clueless".
And now, I'm witnessing the prelude to the next great rape of our nation's natural resources...and that is what I believe to my very core.
So much for a quiet retirement...
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