Words for the Western Landscape
“Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape”: Bull Pen
By Jenny Shank, 11-26-10
In his introduction to Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, editor Barry Lopez writes, “The land beyond our towns, for many, has become a generalized landscape of hills and valleys, of beaches, rivers and monotonous deserts…almost without our knowing it, the particulars of these landscapes have slipped away from us.” Published this year in a paperback edition by Trinity University Press, Home Ground (480 pages, $19.95) seeks to preserve terms that describe the natural landscape by compiling definitions written by accomplished writers. Over the next several weeks, New West will feature excerpts from Home Ground. Today’s term is “bull pen,” as described by Larry Woiwode. Woiwode is an award-winning, North Dakota-based author of such books as What I’m Going to Do and Indian Affairs.
bull pen
Bull pen here is not the board-wall or chain-link arena where pitchers warm up, nor the stout enclosure near outbuildings where bulls are contained until the season to unleash them among heifers, but altitudinous meadows in the Rocky Mountains enclosed by the steep-walled surrounds of a higher range. The designation likely derives from the use to which they were originally put. The unscalable (to cattle) walls of mountain rock, with a single portal parted by nature or a watering stream, could be walled shut with boulders or deadfall, allowing bulls to be held in pasture until it came time to release them to a herd. Calf Pen Canyon, near Pine and Payson, Arizona, is named for just such a natural use. - Larry Woiwode
Excerpted with permission from Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, Trinity University Press. Available at booksellers everywhere.
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You do a great job on your reviews and comment on western literature, so thanks much. However, one mistake in the above description of Larry Wiowode. He's from North, not South, Dakota.
Seems like lots of folks get those states mixed up, but they are distinctive and have proud citizens who know the difference.
Cheers,
John
Thank you for your kind words--I feel like I don't deserve them! I fixed the mistake and I'm sorry to have made it. In my defense, I do know the right way to pronounce Pierre!