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Mountain Creek Visitors

Watercolor 13-3/4 x 23”

Painting by Linda Young

It was time to finish up a few paintings that have been sitting in my workshop. They’ve been propped up, patiently waiting there for me to put the final touches on them. Today was the day for this one that represents things I have personally seen and done in my lifetime. I was once an outfitter who helped take hunters and fishermen into the mountains to experience the Wild, Wild West for themselves! Here’s my story:

Off in the distance the line cabin was the only place one could go to if caught out in bad weather and find shelter. Sometimes, the fog came down between the hills and into the meadows; the mornings were so wonderfully quiet and peaceful when that fog came in! It would become so thick you could hardly see the cabins, outbuildings and barns.

There were always fresh trout to be caught in the Mountain Rivers running through the pastures and into well-made beaver ponds. Many times they were the main course for the meal. Sometimes, fried trout were the only things we had to eat.

I had a beautiful bay mare that I trained to ride when she was three years old; she was an American Quarter Horse named Miss Windee Breeze. In this painting, she would be the one running toward the others, snorting, whinnying and bucking because she realized she wasn’t with the herd. Before I got Windee, another horse was a big sorrel named “King” which I used to ride in parades and into the mountains. At one point, there were 15 horses in our string. King is the one looking toward the elk.

In the distance a bull elk whistles to stake claim to his territory and cows. An elk’s whistle teeth are the only American Ivory in the United States. (So I was told)

Well, the horses, cabins and other material things are probably all long gone by now; it has been thirty years since I’ve been here. Yet, the memories will always be a part of me.