March 21, 2005

To J. Dickinson.

You carved your name into the stone walls of the Giant City at Giant City State Park. Only that year did it become an Illinois state park, in what was not yet the Shawnee National Forest. So it seems that you were seeking some kind of fame or renown. Your name is larger and deeper than other other name carved there, even more than the names of the Civil War soldiers hiding in the bluffs there. I could not help but notice, and I suppose I am not alone in the three-quarters of a century that have passed since the carving of your name into the sandstone. Here is some fame for you via a medium you could never have imagined, to people who might never stand in the seemingly perpetual shade of the bluffs that comprise the Giant City.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice. That was like unexpectedly hearing a recitation of Whitman.

Pragmatik said...

Thanks, that means a lot:)

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. J. Dickinson... J. Dickinson. I think that's my great, great grandfather! Not really.