Leaning on the Wind: Under the Spell of the Great Chinook

by Sid Marty

Sid Marty lives in Chinook Country - a vast land of mountain, foothills, prairie and sky - where the warm Pacific wind blows in a broad belt along the eastern slopes of the Rockies, turning winter temporarily into spring. Known to hurl box cars off their tracks and make trees grow parallel to the ground, the legendary chinook created the plains and gave rise to the cowboy life.
From his home at the foot of the Livingstone Range in southern Alberta near the border of Montana, Marty embarks on a search for the spirit of the land. His journey takes him into the past, from the prehistoric forces that shaped the mountains and the days of the great plains buffalo hunters to the early settlers who came in search of freedom. Along the way, he encounters a remarkable gallery of characters on both sides of the cowboy poets, rodeo riders, local oracles, old-time ranchers, native healers, encroaching capitalists. As the unpredictable chinook dances and rages, Marty weaves his own experiences into the life around him to create a richly entertaining portrait of the wild and not-so-wild west.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book is over 25 years old, the themes it treats are still timely, if not timeless. The author does a laudable job of creating a sense of place with the chinook wind of the title providing thematic unity. The area depicted is not terribly far as the crow flies from my residence in eastern Washington state, and the crisis of conscience created by the collision between consumer capitalism and environmental values (aka, the land ethic) is common to Canada and the United States. Before launching into such controversies though, the self-described curmudgeonly author paints a vibrant portrait of what it takes to live in such a place as the Palliser's Triangle area of southwestern Alberta in the lee of the Rocky Mountains. He teaches the reader about the rhythms, the threats, the rewards, and the people of the region, and a bit about his own family history. The book concludes with a wonderful chapter on his sweat lodge experience with native peoples from both sides of the international border, having detailed in preceding chapters his own heartbreak and need for healing after futile struggles with the forces of international petro-dollars and large-scale industrial development. In this summer of fiery apocalypse throughout western North America, the book stands as a noble testament to a way of life that is waning and an attitude that one can only hope will persist indefinitely, comforted, however grimly, by the certainty that, no matter what happens in the ensuing innings, nature bats last.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second Sid Marty book. You get to know a lot more about his full story in this one and its easy to get attached to him. He puts his family's history in the context of larger western US/Canada history which is pretty interesting. But its full of fun and entertaining storylines as well.