"He glides over ancient fire pits, skillfully chipped stone tools and weapons, fragments of ancient pottery and the leftovers of thousands of fossilized dinners...[t]he boy finds no signpost, no plaque, to describe the significance of the buried treasure beneath his feet" (Goyette 3).
After reading this all I could think to myself was how wasteful it is that all too often natural and historical gems go not only untouched but sometimes even unnoticed even once they have been uncovered. The more I think about it the more I realize how truly shameful it is to allow such historic beauty go amiss.
As I continued my reading I found myself drawn to the following passage:
"Woolly mammoths, mastodons, lions, sabre-toothed cats, musk ox, camels, bison, ground sloths and wolves wandered through the new river valley and its ravines" (7).
It honestly surprises me, perhaps I am just highlighting my naivete, that these ancient animals once walked and ruled the plains of what we now know as Edmonton mainly because I cannot say I ever really think about Edmonton from an archaeological or anthropological point of view.
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I must say, Laura, that the part about sabre-toothed cats in the river valley shocked me as well! I think it's because all we do is read about stuff like that in history textbooks, but those books don't tell you where they actually lived. It never occurred to me that they might have lived in my backyard at some point. Also because the river valley just seems so tame...a nice place to go for a walk in the summer, and it's surprising to think about the fact that these prehistoric animals used to occupy the same space. I can't wait to bust out that little ditty when I'm teaching social studies someday!
ReplyDeleteHarvey Wright said: "A small village on good land next to a river is a good idea; but when the village grows into a city and paves over the good land, it becomes a bad idea."
ReplyDeleteMaybe cities aren't so great after all.