I am now posting a series of essays on Substack. Each will be described and liked below. Some will contain information I want to supplement or correct based on further study, others will simply be summaries of chapters to introduce the history to other readers.
Thomas Cole and the Oxbow
This essay explores Cole's motivations in painting the Oxbow. It corrects some statements I made regarding the influence of Basil Hall, who had written a disparaging book about America. I confess that I had been influenced by a paper by Oswaldo Rodrigues Roque which made a convincing, but largely circumstantial case for Cole being strongly motivated by wanting to respond to Hall's book. On further study, I think that Hall had little to no influence on Cole and write in this essay about what I think was his true motivation.
The Oxbow Crosses the River
This essay is largely a summary of the story of the flood of 1840 which cut the neck of the Oxbow Island, separating it from the town of Hadley and joining it to Northampton.
Deforestation in Thomas Cole's Oxbow
This essay explains the causes of the deforestation shown on the right side of Cole's painting. The beginning with colonial era farming, compounded by England's quest for potash, progressing to the needed for more lumber to support Jackson's westward expansion.
Lumber on the Oxbow: The Logs Stop Here
The story of how the Oxbow of Thomas Cole's painting became the terminus of the longest log drives in the United States
Pulp and Paper
The pulp mill on the Oxbow began as a side hustle for the sawmill to convert spruce scraps into cash. It led to the establishment of a wonderful community of Polish immigrants who came to work at the mill which has lasted into the present day. I describe the failure of the mill brought on by one of biggest stock frauds in American history, followed by the establishment of a cardboard factory to replace the old pulp mill. Future posts will focus on the community which has remained on the Island, including excerpts from our oral history project.
The Oxbow Community
The pulp mill attracted a group of mostly Polish immigrants who formed a close-knit community on the Island, protected by the Oxbow loop and the mill, accessible only by a dead end road with no through traffic. In this essay I introduce you to some of the community members with excerpts from a series of oral history interviews in which they describe their families coming to the Oxbow in the late 19th century. Future essays will talk about various aspects of life on the Oxbow Island.
Growing Up on the Oxbow
The physical isolation of the Oxbow Island made it an ideal environment to raise children. In this post you will hear from some of the residents of the Oxbow who grew up and then raised their own children on the Island.