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Steve

Feb. 18, 1819-2019

At this point 200 years ago–in mid-February 1819–Nuttall was still at Arkansas Post, seeking a boat to take him upstream, up the Arkansas River (:100). In about a week he’ll depart, and, a little over two months later, on April…

Stories and the land

View across the Ouachita Mountains looking south

The poet Gary Snyder tells about a visit he made to Australia: “We were traveling by truck over dirt track west from Alice Springs in the company of a Pintubi elder named Jimmy Tjungurrayi. As we rolled along the dusty…

Venison and honey

By Jona Tucker On January 1st, 1819 Thomas Nuttall was just above present-day Memphis, proceeding slowly down the Mississippi River by boat. No mention of black-eyed peas, champagne, or even an expression of, “Happy New Year!” (When did that become…

Chickasaw Bluff, December 30, 1818

Greetings Nuttall-ites! Happy New Year! As our calendar turns in a couple of days to 2019, we enter the actual 200-year anniversary of Nuttall’s journey in the Arkansas territory. On this day, Dec. 30, 1818, Nuttall was still on the…

Nuttall at ONPS

Color portrait of Thomas Nuttall

              Jona Tucker will kick off 2019 with a presentation about Thomas Nuttall on January 3 in Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma Native Plant Society. Everyone is invited. The meeting will be held in…

Witness to a Changing West

By Jona Tucker Albert Bierstadt wasn’t born when Thomas Nuttall traveled into what became Arkansas and Oklahoma in 1819, but the Gilcrease Museum’s exhibition Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West currently on display in Tulsa (through February 10) is a great place…