PART 1 OF 2 - EARLY JANUARY 1918
ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Part 1 of 2 - Early January 1918 Lars Matt Olson with his goats in his Fox Island cabin. Kent photo. Since just before Christmas it has rained and melted all the snow. It is unseasonably warm, almost like autumn. Why are we staying up so late on December 31st, Rockie asks Olson and his father? What’s going to happen at one minute after midnight. The two men make up “all sort of yarns about explosions and rumblings” but Rockie won’t fall for their tall tales. “He might have said,” Kent jokes, “How can anything happen here where nothing ever comes from the sky except rain?” Olson joins Kent and Rockie on January 1st. They toast to the new year and relax a bit, but Kent gets right to work with his art. Olson expects more celebration. “Still,” Kent writes, “he understands pretty well the strange madness that possesses me, and is not at all unsympathetic. I explained to him on