The Burning Season

 

I recently read a new release entitled The Burning Season, by Caroline Starr Rose, and wow! If every fourth grade classroom in New Mexico doesn't stock this book, they're missing out. 

 The Burning Season is an emotionally charged, free verse, middle grade novel. The words are spare, the text short, making it an ideal high-low book that will be accessible to all readers. And while it may be an easy read, it is an impactful one with plenty of emotional weight and heart-pounding action.

The Burning Season is about Opal Gloria Halloway, who wishes she didn’t have to follow in her grandmother and mother’s footsteps and become a fire lookout on Wolf Mountain in New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness. The three live in a single room at the top of a fire tower and are responsible for spotting smoke. Problem is, since her father died in a fire before she was born, the twelve-year-old is and has always been deathly afraid of fire. 

Opal wishes she could live in Silver  City, the town that's closest to where she lives. There, she could  attend seventh grade, and join FFA and other after school activities with kids her own age. Out at the lookout, she feels isolated and alone.

One day, when her Mom had made the long trek to town for supplies and her Gran is off somewhere,  Opal spots a spiral of smoke moving up the mountainside. She’ll have to gather her courage as she heads into the woods, beyond Wolf Ridge’s old blackened burn scar, to face down a fire on her own. Can she be brave enough when it really counts?

This is a beautiful book, and so current now, when much of the western half of the United States is facing threats from wildfires. I highly recommend it. 

What is Hadrian's Wall?

Hadrian's Wall is a stone wall that spans the English countryside and (basically) separates England from

Scotland. Beginning in the east on the River Tyne, it stretches all the way to the Solway Firth in the west, a distance of 80 Roman miles, or nearly 73 modern miles. Hadrian's Wall served as the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in Britain, but it was not the limit of Roman influence.

Romans first arrived in Britain in 55 B.C., when Julius Caesar landed two legions on the coast of Kent. He returned the following years with 800 ships, five legions and 2,000 cavalry. This time, he managed to force the British warlord Cassivellaunus to pay tribute to Rome and he set up a client king named Mandubracius, of the Trinovante Tribe. Caesar included accounts of both invasions in Commentarii de Bello Gallico, or his Commentary on the Gallic Wars. This text contains the earliest surviving significant eyewitness descriptions of the island's people, culture and geography.

The true conquest of Britain began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius. By AD 87, most of what we now call England, Cornwall and Wales was under Roman control. In the north, a Roman road known as the Stanegate marked the northern boundary of the Empire. Stanegate, which means "stone road" in a Northumbrian dialect, is not the original, Roman name of the road, which has been lost to history.

The road is believed to have been built under Governor of Agricola, from 77 to 85 AD, during the reigns of the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. Along the Stanegate, forts, including Vindolanda (Chesterholm) were spaced at one-day marching intervals, or 14 Roman and 13 modern miles. Corstopitum (Corbridge) and Luguvalium (Carlisle), guarded important river crossings.

Something happened in 119 AD that challenged Rome's authority over her northern border. Although information is scant and sketchy, it appears that a local rebellion led to the deployment of Legio VI Victrix to assist in suppressing the resistance.Soon after, Legio VI Victrix replaced the Legio IX Hispana in their quarters at Eboracum (York). No one knows what happened to the IX, but a vague correspondence between an ancient historian named Fronto and emperor Marcus Aurelius describes the strength of the Celtic forces and how many Roman soldiers lost their lives, and may refer to something that happened during this period. The Ninth Legion disappears from the historic record about this time, but whether they were annihilated in a battle with a British tribe or transferred out of Britain is a mystery. In the 1800s,German historian Theodor Mommsen theorized that the Celts in northern England, particularly the Brigantes, caused the demise of the Ninth . In her bestselling novel, The Eagle of the Ninth, British author Rosemary Sutcliff suggested that the Ninth fell victim to the wilderness and native hostility beyond Hadrian’s Wall. I read this historical novel when I was in the 4th grade and credit it with my love both for historical fiction and for Iron Age Britain.

Whatever happened, British Governor Quintus Falco invited the Emperor Hadrian to visit Britain, in 122 and that led to the building of the wall about a mile north of the Stanegate that bears Hadrian's name. Perhaps Hadrian's Wall was built so that there would be no more disasters like the one that might have befallen the Ninth Legion. Perhaps the wall is just a massive monument to the power of Rome. Whatever it was intended to be, it is an impressive architectural feat. 

The wall spans the width of northern England. It served both as a defensive fortification and as a customs facility, regulating trade and travel between the Roman provinces and the outlying areas. Gates we now call milecastles, since they were spaced about a Roman mile apart, contained garrisons that housed a few dozen men. In between each pair of milecastles were two towers, also staffed by soldiers on patrol along the wall.

The wall took six years to construct. The wall was not the same consistency throughout. In the west, the wall was 11 feet high, 20 feet wide, and made mainly of turf. In the east, the wall was 15 feet high, 10 feet wide, and made of stone. The construction of the wall was not a "one and done" prospect, and there is evidence in the stonework that the wall's configuration, including that of the milecastles and watchtowers along it, were often reconfigured. Some historians believe that the wall had crenelations along it. Others believe the walkway was exposed. There is also some evidence that the wall was whitewashed. What a statement a long, white ribbon of stone would have made as it wound itself through the hills!

The Wall was not built by slaves or by local people, but by the army. Keeping soldiers busy with building and road projects was one of the ways Rome kept its soldiers strong, healthy, and out of trouble.  Legio II Augusta, Legio VI Victrix, and Legio XX Valeria Victrix left many inscriptions along the wall,  demonstrating which sections they had worked on. Each legion consisted of about 5,000  infantrymen. There is evidence that auxiliary units – the other main branch of the provincial army – and even sailors from the Roman British fleet helped on some portions of the wall. While they built the wall, the Legions did not occupy it. Once they had finished construction, Legio II Augusta moved to their base at Isca Augusta (modern Caerleon), Legio VI Victrix to its base at Eboracum (York), and Legio XX Valeria Victrix to Camulodunum (Colchester), leaving maintenance and garrisoning of the wall to the auxiliary forces.About 10,000 soldiers filled the 14 forts along the wall, including cavalry units of 1,000 troops stationed at either end.

The western and eastern portions of the wall have largely disappeared over time, with many of their stones being pilfered for medieval and modern building and road projects. Although the road projects have been covered in asphalt and cannot be seen, there are many houses and churches along the wall that have stones whose inscriptions show they were clearly once part of the wall. Much of the center portion of the wall, which runs through wilder and less populated land, still stands. 

The wall and its milecastles and watchtowers does not stand alone. A large earthen rampart-and-ditch combination called the Vallum runs south of the Wall. This earthwork had a ditch that was 20 feet across and 15 feet deep. Archaeologists are still not certain what the purpose of the Vallum was, but it might have been the southern boundary of a military zone that included the Wall and the series of defensive ditches and berms on the northern side of the wall.

Hadrian's Wall was not the limit of Roman influence in Britain. When Hadrian died in AD 138, his successor, Antoninus Pius moved the frontier north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus and built a new, turf wall. Later, four advance forts, each holding a 1,000-strong mixed regiment of infantry and cavalry, an irregular unit, and scouts were built north of the Wall. Hadrian's Wall continued to be occupied by the Romans for nearly 300 years, and the remains continue to awe visitors. 

More on Medallion Trees

 A couple of years ago I wrote about Medallion Trees in the Sandia Mountains. Last week, I went on a hike on which I came across four more medallions. 

Medallion trees have an aluminum or brass or steel washer attached to them. These medallions are about 1½ to 2 inches in diameter and cover a hole where a core sample was taken. The core sample helped determine the germination date, or GD of the tree. Whoever took the sample then found an historic event that corresponded with that date and stamped in on the medallion. Some of the medallions include other information, including the type of tree.  No one knows who created the medallion trees, or if they do, they aren't sharing that information. There are at least 84 medallion trees in the Sandias, although the numbering on some of the medallions suggest that there used to be over 100.

The hike I was on went along a trail that is sometimes called the North Faulty Trail and sometimes called the Mystery Trail. Like the medallions, no one knows who blazed this trail that begins near the Doc Long Picnic area and goes all the way to Sandia Man Cave. The trail is well traveled and well cared for despite the fact that the Forest Service does not recognize it or maintain it. It is one of the more level of the trails in the Sandias, which made it a good one to pick while I trained to walk along Hadrian's Wall, and event I've planned for June 2025. 

The first tree I came across was the Grimms Fairy Tales Tree. Marked as #126, this ponderosa pine had a germination date of 1812. The tree is named for the publication of Grimm's Fairy Tales, a book of German folktales compiled by Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) Grimm, two academic brothers who collected stories from the people. Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White are all part of this collection. 

A little father along the path I came to a tree with a medallion that identified it as the Edward VI King of

England Tree. The medallion on this pinyon pine included no additional information, but a website says that this is tree #43 and the medallion was places in 1999, so I wonder if this is a replacement medallion. The website also had a GD of circa 1556.  Edward VI was the only surviving son of Henry VIII. Born to Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward became King of England and Ireland on 28 January 1547, when he was only nine years old. The first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant, he died in 1553. 

The Edward VI tree was a little bit off the trail, down a rather steep slope that was covered with dangerous stones that could roll away underfoot. The difficulty of the short walk is what prevented me from getting a good picture of the medallion that was on the Bloody Mary Tree. This pinyon pine was just a stone throw's away. This tree, marked as #44, also has data that was put on the tree in 1999. Also known as Mary I or Mary Tudor, she was the half sister of Edward VI, so it is fitting that their trees stand close to each other. Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558, she tried to bring Great Britain back into the Catholic fold. 

The final tree I saw on my hike was the Anne Boleyn Beheaded Tree. This tree has a GD or somewhere around ~1536,  and is tree #99. Anne Boleyn was the second wife of Henry VIII, and the mother of Queen Elizabeth. She was beheaded in 1536, after which Henry married Jane Seymour. 

If you only knew about these trees, you might assume that most are tied in with British history. This isn't really the case.

Who created the medallion trees is a mystery. So is who created the North Faulty Trail. While I may not know who these intrepid and interesting people are, I am grateful for the work they have done in the Sandia Mountains, for they've made the world a more interesting place in which to roam.