God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

  I first heard about John and Annie Bidwell in a book called Under God's Spell: Frontier Evangelists 1772-1915   by Cathy Luchetti , 1989. It’s written from the diaries of Catholic and Protestant missionaries, both men and women, in the 1800’s. Annie’s story is taken from her own writings. She was born in 1841, related to some of the elite that helped found our nation. Her great grandfather was the surveyor who laid out Washington in 1790. As she grew, her contemporary social circle was full of influential leaders. She married John Bidwell, who went west without her to acquire a 22,000 acre ranch and build a lovely two story mansion, which is now a historical museum. Her piano was shipped around the horn of Africa. My son Ben had the privilege of playing a few cords on it, with permission of the tour guide, when he was young and his lessons were still fresh. The ranch had been the hunting ground for a band of about 250 Chilcat Indians who gathered acorns among the oaken...