Chapter 15

We ... I ... didn’t start at the Wolf Creek Road bridge. The creek is shallow from the bridge downstream to the old ford ... all but the far bank isn’t a foot deep. The water is clear. There is a nice pebble bottom. It was there I used to go to skip rocks.

Almost skipped a perfect Pelican Lake atlatl point ... and let me tell you ... finding out what I had in my hand was a chore. Research at the library in Ranchester was over before it started. Sheridan County Public had a donated lithic collection on display in the lobby. There was the exact same point in the case as the one I wore on a chain around my neck. It had the probability of being between eight thousand and twenty-four hundred years old ... or so the words on the display read. Pelican Lake Complex, transitional point. Between thrusting spear and bow and arrow.

I started just below that flat ... near where Little Wolf Creek crossed the trail to the school bus.

I wanna tell you ... the reason that old ford crossing was where it is, is because there’s a flat bedrock ledge there. By the first snow I had an area from that ledge to the sweep of the first bend five feet deep and no end in sight.

Somehow, I got sidetracked from panning for gold to improving water flow ... and I don’t understand ... but I wasn’t bored.

The quality and variety of stone that I was pulling up off the bottom ... yellow and orange quartzite boulders the size of my torso were undermined by the suction nozzle of the six inch Keene and rolled into the cavity ... until I realized that I could rig a crane and remove them. And learning how to operate the crane I find and restore to running condition would keep the doldrums away.

I didn’t need much ... enough reach to keep whatever vehicle it was mounted on far enough away from the creek bank ... falling into the creek would not be good.

What I found was ... or must have been ... the first metal tube skyhook ever built. And that sucker was BUILT. Drill casing is thick, heavy and sized so that smaller sized pipe fits inside inside the larger. Two and seven eights fits inside three and a half. 3 and 1/2 fits inside four and half. Four and a half slip fits in seven. seven fits inside nine and five eighths. 9 5/8ths fits in eleven and seven eighths.

2 and 7/8ths isn’t very long... 15 feet and it’s solid. The rest are hollow and slip fit. They need to be greased regularly ... and this one wasn’t. I found it sitting outside in a rainstorm. There was an old four cylinder to run the hydraulics. Surprise me ... the Clark forklift four cylinder started ... in the rain.

“If it’s working you get a working reach of seventy five feet,” said the eminently reasonable salesman.

“I’ll bet ... but right now scrap steel is selling for a buck a ton delivered to the railhead. A dollar a ton won’t pay for fuel to say nothing about truckers wages. It’s sitting here because you can’t sell it. I’ll buy it for scrap and take my chances. Fourteen thousand pounds. Seven tons. Seven bucks ... off the lot.” Off the lot meant he had to load it.

He looked at the Peterbuilt and lowboy rumbling at the gate, looked at me, a recently 19 year old, and a girl to boot ... who ... I will admit ... looked a little ditzy.

The boss shouted out the open window, “Take it ... see if she wants anything else.”

“Bet the boss was referring to the belt driven Colchester’s and that Krupp.” I said, “A Swiss Aciera F11? Tooling? Yes. Load ‘em on. Nothing actually broken. Don’t exceed thirty tons. I have weigh stations.”

After stopping at the cabin on the way south, I still had miles to go ... unless. Don’t even mention it, you’ll be disappointed. Nothing for it ... I called the Guard.

The Guard had a big complex just south of the college. Something that big just had to have something inside.

“National Guard.”

“What do you guys do?” I asked.

“We’re in transition. From Tanks to Mobile Artillery.”

“May I visit?”

“Sure, come on out. You know where we are?”

“Yeah ... I’m a college student.”

I drove the jeep ... it might snow any second.

The gate was open so I drove in, parked in the slot labeled VISITOR at the building labeled Headquarters and strolled inside.