McRat
New member
While hiking up any mountian, I sometimes wonder about the people who had climbed it before. While on Mt. Cardigan I've noticed this carving, and always wondered what sort of man E.A. Kimball was.
carving http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?image=eakimball4pe.jpg
Not to condone defacing the granite, but after long enough, even this defacement becomes part of the character.
It's 1858, not long after the 1855 fire that denuded the summit to bare rock, a Mexican war veteran and newspaper editor had reached a fantastic view. No doubt someone had climbed the peak after the fire and reported the wonderful views, but Edgar was finally seeing for himself.
He sits down with chisel and hammer, and neatly engraves his name and the year. The former printer even takes the time to carve in a serif font.
Whether he seeking adventure, fame or solitude, we'll never know. He left his mark and moved on. Others would arrive and some would copy his carving, most chose not to deface the mountain, and some wondered what became of these people.
As E.A. Kimball sat on the mountain admiring his handiwork, he was happily unaware that in five years he would have survived leading a bloody charge at Antietam only to be shot dead in an altercation with a union general over right of way.
Detail of this incident - http://www.us-civilwar.com/kimball.html
Biography - http://aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=445
Photo - http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cwpb/06700/06749v.jpg
Moral of the story - this is what karma does to you when you're the sort of person who goes around carving graffiti everywhere.
carving http://img388.imageshack.us/my.php?image=eakimball4pe.jpg
Not to condone defacing the granite, but after long enough, even this defacement becomes part of the character.
It's 1858, not long after the 1855 fire that denuded the summit to bare rock, a Mexican war veteran and newspaper editor had reached a fantastic view. No doubt someone had climbed the peak after the fire and reported the wonderful views, but Edgar was finally seeing for himself.
He sits down with chisel and hammer, and neatly engraves his name and the year. The former printer even takes the time to carve in a serif font.
Whether he seeking adventure, fame or solitude, we'll never know. He left his mark and moved on. Others would arrive and some would copy his carving, most chose not to deface the mountain, and some wondered what became of these people.
As E.A. Kimball sat on the mountain admiring his handiwork, he was happily unaware that in five years he would have survived leading a bloody charge at Antietam only to be shot dead in an altercation with a union general over right of way.
Detail of this incident - http://www.us-civilwar.com/kimball.html
Biography - http://aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=445
Photo - http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cwpb/06700/06749v.jpg
Moral of the story - this is what karma does to you when you're the sort of person who goes around carving graffiti everywhere.
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