Alcove Spring

There isn't too much on Alcove Springs online yet, except where it's mentioned in just about every account of the ill-fated Donner party. I'm collecting resources, so let me know if you have anything. I'm helping a niece with a research project and started to get interested. It has an undiscovered feel to it, though it was one of the first and most popular stops along the Oregon Trail.

When I was growing up nearby, the spring was private property, and so not many people actually saw it. That helped preserve the site. The associations with cannibalism and doom likewise didn't appeal to many (not to mention band of agnostic vigilantes rumored to protect the site), but as several pioneers noted in their logs, it might be one of the most romantic spots in the country, and it feels unspoiled.




Don't know why blogger want's to rotate the ancient graffiti. Ironic that preserving graffiti is important to maintaining the spot, but the name was carved by one of America's most famous cannibals.


Been thinking about the bittersweet my niece found on the trail. There was no vine in sight and I looked, and the stuff brings a good price at farmer's markets... so I'm thinking somebody inappropriately harvested it and dropped a twig on the way out.

I love this place, but don't want it to get more famous.

essay writing

Daily Writing tips, a writing instruction and learning blog, has a useful post on essay writing. The link also has links to instructions on writing student essays, literary essays and perhaps other types of essays. The problem most students have is that they haven't read many essays before.

They also mention the 5-paragraph essay(click for wikipedia explanation). The grad students at KU back in the day much maligned the 5 paragraph essay for being too formulaic and ...lame. But it's a legitimate form of organization - just not a form students use often in my classes. I have no prejudice against it. I'm reminded of a favorite quote, "when the only tool you have is a hammer - everything looks like a nail." Most comp 1 instructors assume students know the 5 paragraph essay form, but maybe we shouldn't assume.

Outside of formal class/ student assignments -most people don't write essays often; HOWEVER, the essay form is alive and well . I'm reading (OK - listening to the audio book - an authentic form of reading IMHO) a collection of essays by Malcolm Gladwell called What the Dog Saw. Of it, the New York Times book review says

Have you ever wondered why there are so many kinds of mustard but only one kind of ketchup? Or what Cézanne did before painting his first significant works in his 50s? Have you hungered for the story behind the Veg-O-Matic, star of the frenetic late-night TV ads? Or wanted to know where Led Zeppelin got the riff in “Whole Lotta Love”?

Gladwell tracks it down - does the research - and writes essays about it. See press release here, see Amazon to buy here, or check out the audio book from Billington Library here on JCCC campus.

He shows how essays can be surprisingly engaging.

To recap: reading essays may be the best preparation to writing good essays.

Don't forget about your textbook as a source of interesting essays. The Norton Field Guide has some fun stuff.