Mrs. Young and I recently visited The Hugh Glass monument area near the forks of the Grand River in South Dakota. I am enclosing three color prints and also seven reprints of negatives made in 1923, and I shall relate more after a few words about ourselves. You may remember having seen some of the 1923 snaps at Mrs. Winkelman's the evening of Dec. 7, 1961. She ^later had some copies made of them and 1923 news clippings for the State Historical Society.
You probably recall that we were the newlyweds at the Hugh Glass event in 1923. After moving to Lincoln that same summer I taught was a high school teacher in Lincoln schools for forty years, and retired last June. We are now are traveling to the Pacific Northwest, and I am writing this in a motel in Rawlins. We were too rushed a last The rush of details before leaving Lincoln presented left no time for letter writing. We plan to cover all of the western states and visit many people and places before returning to Lincoln by next June. The Grand River trip was an "appetizer", and it included North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. We enjoyed the North Dakota badlands, the Mandan Villages (replicas) and many other historic places. It was our first return to the Grand River area since 1923. The 1923 experience is fondly remembered and also the several times we have had the pleasure of meeting you in Lincoln, among the most pleasant was the delightful evening spent with you at Mrs. Winkelman's home after the ceremony in the Nebraska State House on December 7, 1961. The next day I had the honor and pleasure of introducing you to several hundred fortunate pupils and
Lincoln High School pupils and faculty members at a special assembly. The young people and faculty had a most enjoyable and memorable experience when you thrilled them with your poems. We and many others have enjoyed your T.V. interviews over Channel 12, too, and we hope to see ^and hear more.
On our recent trip to the Grand River we located found, after inquiry at the Shadehill Post Office, a new marker placed in 1964 by the The South Dakota State Historical Society and other organizations. It is in an attractive setting of petrified wood and is situated in suitable parking area just adjacent to a maintained local road. One of the enclosed snapshot color prints shows its inscription with difficulty we spotted with binoculars the old 1923 marker about 3/4 mile to the north and a few very near to the lapping waters rods from edge of the huge resevoir formed by the great dam below the Forks. We managed to find a faint trail for our Rambler Wagon and soon pulled up to the old marker. We eagerly searched the almost barren earth for signs of 1923 Model T tracks, and found some.
The bronze plate has been stolen, but the concrete is intact and has few weather checks. The view has changed since 1923 because of the large scale earth-moving for the dam, the inundation and the rapid erosion. may eventually destroy the supporting bluff wall. The entire area is dotted with the usual lake recreation facilities, but the old monument remains isolated and few people will see it. Without its bronze plate nothing indicates its meaning, and the new marker makes no reference to it. There are a few local people who know about it, but we found some who thought it had been removed or destroyed.
We were surprised ^to find Mr. Otto Weinkauf, who whose land provided the site for the 1923 marker, still active and healthy, living in Lemmon. He will His 90th birthday falls on April 14th, 1965. Just a very few years ago he remarried after his first wife died. He is still full of memories of 1923, and is interested in all things and persons relating to the markers and their preservation. We concur with him that a suitable plate with the original inscription should replace the one vandalized or stolen, and that the original marker monument should be preserved where it is if possible. Though he is Mrs. Young joins me in expressing our fondness admiration for you and your splendid works, and we hope these snapshots and this letter may give you some pleasure. We enjoyed the recent account in the Omaha World-Herald of your return trip to Bancroft and the Dana College program. My parents were Nebraska Territorial pioneers not far from Golden Springs. My eldest sister was graduated from the Dakota City High School when Charles Culler was there, having stayed with her aunt Addie Young Lesher and her husband Rev. Martin Lesher. Later I knew and admired him Mr. Culler in Lincoln. Our home is near the Charles Culler Junior High School. at 5835 Vine St. If you should care to communicate with us we are o before next June mail would be forwarded to us from our home address.
Julius D. Young
