By Eilene Lyon Late last year I shared with you the story of Ann Jenkins Ransom, who was William C. Ransom’s first wife. He had five wives and an unknown number of affairs. He did not always bother with the nicety of divorcing one wife before marrying another. The wives are well-documented except Number Four.... Continue Reading →
From the Vault: Sailboat
By Eilene Lyon My first venture on any sailing vessel was a Windjammer cruise in the British Virgin Islands in 1986. I’d dreamed of sailing ever since reading the book Dove by Robin Lee Graham, the true story of a 16-year-old boy sailing solo around the world. His journey began in California in 1965, and... Continue Reading →
Artful Durango: River Trail 1
By Eilene Lyon As you’ve seen from previous posts, Durango has a lively arts scene, and public art is a big part of that. Durango is also a river city and over the four decades I’ve lived here, this feature has become less of an industrial wasteland and more dominated by parks and a trail... Continue Reading →
A Bates Family Mystery
By Eilene Lyon Found Photo Project #12 I was surprised to find it’s been a year since I last posted a found photo project. This one’s a three-fer: two success stories and one enigma, all from a local antique mart. The two largest portraits, which have been successfully reunited with family, are both from New... Continue Reading →
The Death of Christmas Cards?
By Eilene Lyon Did you receive a big haul of cards this holiday season? Yeah, me neither. Of the seven cards gracing our windowsill, only two are from family. The remainder came from organizations we’ve donated to, or companies we’ve done business with. How many cards did I send, you ask? Well, just five, it... Continue Reading →
The Skywatchers
By Eilene Lyon Last month I captured a fleeting phenomenon in the sky south of my house, seen in the header image: altostratus undulatus clouds. Trigger daily dose of awe! While I adore observing unusual cloud formations—mammatus, lenticular, mackerel—for our ancestors, watching the sky served an important function: weather forecasting. Whereas we now have weather... Continue Reading →
Ann’s Adventures—Part 3
By Eilene Lyon Part 1 Part 2 1857–1863 Ann’s brother, Billy Jenkins, left San Francisco in the spring of 1857 to rejoin his daughter, Lizzie, and his parents in Jay County, Indiana. He purchased his parents’ farm and they all lived together there. Billy spent a year learning new skills at the Indiana School for... Continue Reading →
From the Vault: First Record
By Eilene Lyon Very few possessions followed me through all my many moves. Music, to me, is life. If it didn’t exist, I’d have to invent it! That would be a sorry scrap, for sure. It’s a rare day when I put a disk on a turntable. But there are those times when it’s a... Continue Reading →
Ann’s Adventures—Part 2
By Eilene Lyon Part 1 1855–1856 Ann and William Ransom, with their two daughters and Billy Jenkins, took a boat north across the San Francisco Bay to the city, where they could catch the steamer going up the San Joaquin River to Stockton. The steamer wound its way through the head-high tule reeds in the... Continue Reading →