"They Call The Wind Maria" from Dr. Marian Mustoe

"Paint Your Wagon" Movie Site

They Call The Wind Maria from Dr. Marian Mustoe on Vimeo.
Maria.....or Mariah....The song from the film "Paint Your Wagon" filmed in Baker County Oregon, is the aural backdrop for these images compiled from the Elkhorns and Blues to the blue water sea wall of the Pacific coast along the Oregon and Lewis and Clark Trail.

On 26 March 1806 Meriwether Lewis states in his log "The wind blew so hard this morning that we delayed until 8 A.M." Numerous times they, like the pioneers who followed, would encounter and chronicle this persistent force that native groups had describe with a variety of terms that alluded to its speed, its direction and even its temperament.

The Oregon Trail is mostly gone these days, paved over by roads and "all that we call the progress of civilization". Ezra Meeker's attempt to preserve and idolize this veritable human scratch of endeavor left on the lithosphere is well understood. However, with or without congressional appropriations, there is one thing of the trail that remains as fresh today as it was in the days of the birth of the legend of the Thunderbird.

Bring Martha S. Reed into the present, who wrote in her diary, as her family worked their way up the Blue Mountains along the trail....in 1852....
"Saw 3 graves today,....weather cool and 'tremendous' windy".....and she would not doubt, except in some cases recognize much of the landscape along that route of human toil. But one thing she would recognize... that hasn't changed one aeolian iota.....she would recognize it's wind.

Maria is one of my favorite songs. I hope you enjoy my rendition of it on my 12 string guitar(s) and through the magic of my Tascam porta-studio.....at the same digital time... my trusty old saw. Thank you for listening.
Paint Your Wagon Lee Marvin Oregon Oregon Trail Gold Rush Mariah Maria Northeast Oregon Baker City La Grande Eastern Oregon University Geography time lapse
Photography: Panasonic TM300 and Sanyo Xacti HD