Wheeler Marker
HISTORIC WHEELER SURVEY MARKER
In 1869 the United States Army sent 1st Lieutenant George M Wheeler on a brief reconnaissance which later created the Country’s “Geographical Survey West of the One Hundredth Meridian”. This survey gave our Leaders the first accurate mapping of the Western half of the Country, collecting data of the natural history, geology, climate, weather and ethnology.
Note that the railroad officially opened in spring 1869 and this marker is right alongside the original Transcontinental route … long since abandoned.
Nearby is the latitude marker itself … 113W, just outside Kelton, UT.
Ten trains a day passed by here with towns and railroad facilities scattered along the way. Kelton was a transportation hub; not only a major town on the railroad, but the terminus of the freight road to the Boise Basin and Silver City diggings.
Today?
Faded remnants, salt brush, and a steady wind.
My Shannon died this morning.
Tomorrow it would have been 11 years that she’d been with us.
She was 4 months old when we got her.
Right now I am in a cloud, and broken.
I wrote this almost 5 years ago and Gerard published it:
The 25,000 Cookies of Shannon Sniper by ghostsniper
by Vanderleun on December 1, 2021
[Posted. DT]
My mom told it so perfectly many years ago when our cat died. We’d had her 16 years and having never deciding on a name she was forever “The Cat.” Mom said, “They call them animals but they are far better than people.”
Yep
Sorry to hear. I don’t care what others think, they’re family, not livestock.
Oh Ghost. I am so sorry. Losing a companion like Shannon is one of the hardest things we go through. I’ve been there too many times myself, with one more to go. I know there is nothing that anyone could say to ease your pain. But I think Shannon will live on in the beautiful stories you have told about her over the years.
ghost sniper, you have my heartfelt condolences.