History – Page 5 – Richard Rathe's Reflections

Lake Powell & Beyond 2020

Six Night Lake Powell Trip (Click Map to Enlarge)

It had been ten years since I last visited Lake Powell. This year I went with my college friend Al and his partner Marian. [Full Gallery] Not having our own boat, we decided to rent a houseboat from the Bullfrog Marina. This turned out to be a great idea! With a few exceptions it was clean and well maintained (certain lights and the gas grill did not work). The main problem was how late in the day we got started (nominal “check in” time is 10am, we did not leave until after 3pm). For various reasons the day we left was very crowded (COVID19, low water facilitating small boat campers, last big week-end of the summer, etc.)

In the few hours we had on the first day we headed north to Forgotten Canyon. It was packed with small boats and large groups of people camped on the beaches exposed by the low water level. We retreated and found a small anchorage on a large bend near a side canyon (which we explored by kayak first thing the next day).

Alcove with 100 Foot Dry Waterfall Above

On Day 2 we moved back up the canyon so we could be closer to activities on land. [We were treated both nights to inappropriate music, bad karaoke and loud boat engines. I put in my earbuds and listened to Earth Spirit by R. Carlos Nakai (Native American flute) while sleeping out under the stars.]

That evening (after most of the day’s heat was gone) we made the first of two visits to the eight hundred year old Defiance House Ruins. These are very well stabilized and open to the public. (Kudos to the Park Service!) The first thing you notice are the large petroglyphs on the canyon wall. There is no ambiguity as to their meaning… three warriors with shields and weapons.

The site consists of two major rooms with doors facing in opposite directions. The largest is approximately 8-10 feet on a side. There is a patio beyond the structure with a vertical entrance to the Kiva. (Large Panorama)

Defiance House and Kiva Entrance (Click to Enlarge)

Kiva Ceiling with 800 Year Old Soot from Campfires

We returned the next day (Day 3) and I took some additional 360° panoramas.

We then proceeded about two miles up the canyon. We saw many interesting things including ravens, flowers being pollenated (or eaten?) by large black hornets with orange wings, and what I think were three-toed dinosaur tracks!

The day was very hot so we took a siesta near a grove of small oak trees before we headed back to the boat. In spite of my best efforts I got dehydrated. The temp was in the low 90s with very low humidity. It just sucked the water out of me!

On Day 4 we left that area to do more exploring. We ended up in Lake Canyon (which apparently is a very hard place to find anchorage with higher water). It was less crowded and the people were more considerate, which was a plus. We again used our inflatable kayak to explore a side canyon in the late afternoon.

On Day 5 we headed up the main canyon in what turned out to be a delightful wet-boot hike. It was very pleasant to have running water available at all times!

There were lots of trees and flowers in bloom. We saw several critters including a toad (red-spotted?) and a bat (dead?). We also passed a small ruins high on the canyon wall.

On Day 6 we again picked up our anchors and moved to Iceberg Canyon with its cyclopean rock walls—Truly Magnificent! Here we finally found some real solitude in our own little side canyon where we swam and relaxed.

We took out the kayak and explored the three arms of the upper canyon. We had to maneuver around hundreds of dead trees protruding from the low water.

The south arm has a rockfall that created a separate small lake. Compare with these photos [1] [2] I took in 2010 to see how much lower the water is.

The next day we headed back to Bullfrog and civilization. Click on the video below for clips from each canyon we visited.

See the Full Gallery for more photos of petroglyphs, HDR photos, and panoramas–including my lightening tour of nearby parks Goblin Valley, Capital Reef, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Bryce Canyon. I concluded by crossing the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam (which creates Lake Powell!).

Picket Wire Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite

On my trip west this year I made sure I had time to visit this unique area. The Dinosaur Tracks are located within and along side the Purgatoire River with the Comanche National Grassland. [Gallery]

The area is located 35 miles south of La Junta, CO off the lightly maintained County Road 25 (upper left in the map above). The last few miles are on a primitive forest service road that ends at the Withers Canyon Trailhead and Campground (four sites with fire grates and a pit toilet).

The first portion of the 5.2 mile trail goes down a steep “stairway” to the canyon floor. I had to walk my bike most of the way but it’s not far. After that it flattens out into an easy path through grassland and cottonwood trees along the Purgatoire River.

There are a few ups and downs where the river crowds the canyon side.

About half-way to the tracks I came upon the Dolores Mission from the 1870s to 1890s.

The small cemetery includes several well preserved headstones (mostly of children).

After another easy 1.5 mile cycle I was at the tracksite proper. There is a parking area for off-road vehicles and a pit toilet. There are several interpretive signs.

Someone obviously had a sense of humor…

The tracks are on both banks and in the river bed itself. The water was low so I was able to access most of the site however dirt, sand, mud, and debris covered a portion.

Two Parallel Sauropod (Herbivore) Trackways

To give a sense of how complex the site is I’ve borrowed part of this illustration from an excellent write-up I found online. [A Dash with the Dinosaurs Field Trip Guidebook (October 2000) compiled by Matthew Morgan for the Colorado Geologcial Survey]

There are more of my track photos in the gallery.

I was alone for the entire day but I did encounter a few critters along the way.

My cycle back was idyllic! Speeding along with the warm sun at my back and a cool breeze on my face.

Did I mention the “stairway” back up to the trailhead?

I hadn’t expected there to be designated campsites at the trailhead, but I decided to stay instead of driving back to civilization in the dark. It was a nice, quiet and beautiful night!

Patent Medicines in the Age Before Scientific Pharmaceuticals

My Wife’s Grandfather worked as a chemist for The Tilden Company in Upstate New York during the early 1900s. As a result we came into possession of his “Recipe Book” for the plethora of nostrums and remedies he helped create. Some of the ingredients are still sold today under various brand names. Some are humorous, others are forgotten, while still others are downright dangerous. The following installments are my exploration of this unique window into the medical past. [Note: We donated the actual book to the historical section of the National Library of Medicine.]

The Tilden Company (circa 1930) source: NLHS

The book is mostly a unordered compilation of the labels that appeared on the various products they sold. There are a limited number of handwritten notes as well. Here is the full first page.

The words “Poison”, “Opium” and “Strychnine” sort of jump off the page. Let’s look a bit closer a the bottom/center item.

Good for What Ails You

Note the alcohol component of 12-17%. This would presumably “fortify” the patient. Alcohol was a common primary ingredient or base for many daily tonics. I wonder why?

Let’s start with Maltopepsine. This appears to be a Tilden brand concoction of digestive enzymes and acids. A search yielded nothing current about it, but plenty of very old medical journals mention it. Here is a full page ad from the 1895 Journal of Materia Medica.

The rationalization for it being a “very perfect substitute” for missing (?) body fluids and relying on “the indubitable testimony” of a few “reliable” physicians is quaint but hardly evidence-based as they claim.

Moving on to the other ingredients, supplemental Iron (in alcohol of course!) may still be used as a tonic in some quarters. No big surprise there but it does have GI effects, mostly constipation.

Quinine (of gin & tonic fame) is next. During my early career it was given to patients with leg cramps. Apparently it helped because there was a hue and cry when it was taken off the market in the 2000s because it’s also known to cause bleeding and arrhythmias. It is still used to prevent and even treat malaria.

Finally there’s Strychnine!! Extracted from the plant Strychnos nux-vomica it is a central nervous stimulant, anti-emetic, and at higher doses a deadly poison. According to the ad the elixir was used by pregnant women and infants. Yikes!

Most of these patent medicines had multiple active ingredients (the “shotgun approach“) and were used to treat broad groups of symptoms and/or diseases. From the physician’s standpoint this made diagnosis and therapeutic decisions rather simple.

“Cerebral Sedative”

Now let’s consider the two labels marked “Poison” near the top. I’ll note here that these are the only oral medication labels in the collection thus marked.

Of course we start off with Alcohol 20%. Add a little Opium resin and you have a Tincture (one or more substances dissolved in alcohol). This is better known as Laudanum of novel and movie fame. The “40 M” may refer to molar concentration (?), but I can’t pin this down.

Chloral Hydrate is a potent sedative that was in common use until the past few decades. It may be the original date rape drug referred to as “slipping someone a Mickey” (a frequent plot element in old movies). It was commonly used to treat psychiatric patients and children. It is no longer available in the US.

Potassium Bromide is a sedative and anticonvulsant that is no longer used in human medicine. Gelsemium is a native plant containing alkaloids related to strychnine.

Units of Measure

The labels make reference to units of measure that are mostly gone, and in some cases obscure:

M – molar concentration??
m – ?? short for minim?
grs (grain) – 1/7000th of a pound (this is where we get the odd size of a standard aspirin tablet (5 grains = 325mg)
minim – 1/480th of a fluid ounce
dram – short for drachm, 60 grains or one eighth of an ounce, or 60 minims or one eighth of a fluid ounce

Haimased

Next we’ll consider the simpler concoction “Haimased” that was prescribed for high blood pressure. It has just two ingredients: Alcohol (no surprise there!) and Sodium Thiocyanate.

Here is a description (ad?) from an Ohio medical publication:

Lower blood pressure effectively…safely, with this time-tested Sodium Thiocyanate formula. The proved clinical record of Haimased for 27 years and more than 1,500,000 prescriptions shows this to be the therapy of choice over the newer, potentially more toxic Hexamethonium-veratrum-rauwolfia preparations.
Bulletin of the Mahoning County Medical Society (1962)

Sodium Thiocyanate was first used to treat hypertension around 1900. It was apparently effective and safe enough for the time. It is however unpredictable and potentially toxic and was taken off the market except as a treatment for cyanide poisoning.

End of Third Installment, More to Come!