From Voyageurs National Park on FB: Called “Catamaran” by locals, Bert Upton is among the strangest of historical characters on area waters. He lived in a hut built over a dug-out at Squirrel Narrows. Found frozen to death in the 1930s by Kettle Falls pioneer Oliver Knox; Upton was perched lifeless in the snow just a half-mile from his home. Shunning civilization, Upton defined the word hermit. First spotted rowing his crude log raft on Namakan, no one knows how he got there. Upton’s accent implied an English heritage but any personal inquiries brought a stony silence. Some suspected him a man fleeing the law; others saw a bizarre outcast; everyone knew he was peculiar. Just five feet tall and wildly unkempt, Catamaran wore hacked-off pants and walked barefoot with a stick. Winter demanded shoes but no socks, a cast-off Mackinaw, and a trailing cap made from the leg of old underwear. He was oddly religious, and suspicious of being poisoned. Surviving on snared rabbits and fish, he ofte...
Fake news used to be so much more entertaining
ReplyDeleteJoshua Blackketter back in my day we had real fake news! People marrying bigfoot and Nostradamus going to Atlantis!
ReplyDeleteDan D Celebrities having Mothman's children! Exposes on which politicians were lizard men!
ReplyDeleteTell me you have a complete Bat Boy fine china set.
ReplyDeleteWhen national publications mention North Dakota, North Dakotans exploit the hell out of it. Starkweather is about 30 miles from my hometown. Some old root cellar had a pentagram spraypainted on the wall, and the rest is Weekly World News history.
ReplyDeleteStarkweather is an amazing place name.
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