A slightly interesting bit of name gamery going on in the case of the California teenager (Hannah Anderson) found this week in Idaho, recovered unharmed after her abductor James DiMaggio was shot and killed.
The area: Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Indeed.
Weird thing is this obscure area of the country was in the news a few months ago. A Twin Falls (Twin Peaks) animal shelter counts 34 dogs missing in February and March in the area an hour or so south of where DiMaggio, Joltin' James, took his victim. All of the dogs vanished without a trace.
The area: Magic Valley.
On March 12th, the body of a German Shepherd was found covered in a purple sheet, its head smashed to bits with a lump of concrete found at the scene. The possibility of ritual killing and/or animal sacrifice was entertained. This was in a place called Devil's Corral....
All Dogs Go to Hell.
Apparently, there's some doubt as to whether the number of missing dogs is in fact higher than the amount of missing dogs in previous years.
Still, we loves us them evocative names and when I saw the report about Anderson, the missing dogs immediately came to mind because well, usually all we hear about Idaho involves potatoes and survivalists.
Still, this is pure Baader-Meinhof. Reminds me of a paragraph in the article I wrote about in my last post:
One way to illustrate this [the filter theory of selective attention] to yourself is to experiment with a magical technique described by William S. Burroughs called, “Walking on Color.” Pick a color and take a walk in an area that is familiar to you, choosing to only allow objects of that color to draw your attention. You will quickly find yourself noticing things you’ve never paid attention to before. Those things were always there, but your consciousness was editing them out, because it deemed them unimportant.
A few words by Burroughs himself can be found here.
But wait, what the hell, DiMaggio was killed 18 years to the day that his father, James Sr., committed suicide, not long after he'd held another girl, also 16, hostage. Twin falls....
In another odd but as of yet inconclusive tidbit:
The riders who spotted Hannah with DiMaggio earlier in the week said she appeared healthy and safe at the time, leading Sheriff Gore to conclude: 'As far as we know, it didn't appear she was being held against her will.'
The area has also been rife with alleged cattle mutilations. Since the 70's, a biggish wave has hit the state every 5 or 6 years. To the south-east of Magic Valley, 30 cattle were mutilated in 1989-90. In 2007, two bulls had their sexual organs removed. This was a bit farther north, in Clark County. (source)
A string of mutilations and shootings took place in 2010 on the other end of the valley in Gem County.
In any event, there's been no more news about the dogs since March.
BTW, Anderson is a name meaning son of Andrew, a name derived from the Greek for "man". Son of Man? Baader-Meinhof nourishes my own suffering little girl/Jesus narrative.
This is a bit about how I interpret the "news" and construct poetic narratives out of random facts (alleged).
That is some rugged and remote territory. Along with the Bitterroot Mountains, it holds, supposedly, the last places in the lower 48 where no human has ever stepped foot.
ReplyDeleteProbably just the stuff of legends, but seems totally believable to me given the lack of roads and even foot paths; the sheet oomph straight-up-ness of the mountains which seem to wall off massive areas (seriously, check out a typographical map--it's crazy); and the strange lack of tourism in Idaho (which outta be full of people interested in, say, Glacier, but it's not).
I've never been to that part of the US. Well, not entirely true, I made it as far as Salt Lake City for a wedding--the non-Mormon one that was just for us gentiles, the real one was in the Temple so we couldn't go! Damn city. I actually couldn't get beer in one or two markets. Anyway, you've been to Idaho?
DeleteI suppose the qualities you speak of is why the place is so favored by white supremacists and survivalists. Much to native Idoahans chagrin I imagine.
Did you know that Neo-Nazi guy at Stetson, Frank Anderson, he talked of Idaho as a kind of last refuge. I was arguing with him about racism or race war or some such, from my left-wing stance of the period, and he joked that it was ok that I disagreed with him, they'd still let me into Idaho when the blacks came to lynch me. Strange dude.