5/31/04 from Christina Barr
Greetings from fabulous North Dakota! I'm on the road - day 10 of a
month-long fieldwork adventure - interviewing poets who have been
involved with the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering over the years. I
rolled into Medora, ND, yesterday to catch the tail end of the Dakota
Cowboy Poetry Gathering, which was a wonderful event full of good poets
and good music.
This morning I drove out to Bill Lowman's stunningly
beautiful ranch just north of Sentinel Butte, ND. Bill and his family
run a cow/calf operation. I interviewed Bill at his house for a couple
of hours (poet Jess Goodwin joined us for a bit) and then we all piled
into Bill's tool truck for a tour of the ranch. Bill drove us out into
the Blackwater Canyon badlands that make up the bulk of his land. This
is rugged and beautiful country.
I'm well fed and ready to hit the road again; I'm off to Thunder Hawk, SD, to visit Elizabeth Ebert next.
