Kettle Falls

The photo shows fishing at Kettle Falls, before Grand Coulee Dam was built (1940) and Roosevelt Lake filled up. Kettle Falls fell over 50 feet in a series of rapids and cascades. Salmon had to pause. There is no longer a salmon run past the dam.

Thanks to the fishing, it was a gathering spot, a place sacred to the natives for whom it provided food for body and soul.

What makes a place sacred for you?

I need a place that is both beautiful in some way, and infused with memory and history. It doesn't all have to be my history, but I need to know some of the story.

I need to get to know the place over the seasons. Such a designation for me doesn't come easily or quickly. It has to become so over time.

Maybe it's like the clearing in the Quebec forest where I collected my wits after the group I was guiding was difficult. Maybe it's like the cabin in the Newfoundland boreal forest where we lived full time for 14 months. Our story of that place makes it memorable. How many of us these days can tell the story of living in a place accessible only by cross country ski or snowmobile for months at a time? Where the moose regularly came through the yard, or would have if it weren't for the dog guarding the area. Where the cats stalked the "bunnies" (snowshoe hares)--and were successful occasionally.

What does make a place sacred for you?