Basque Aspen Art of the Sierra Nevada

Description

This book offers a unique look at a little-known aspect of immigrant culture in California and Nevada during the first half of the twentieth century. The years 1920 to 1950 represented the high point of the sheep industry in the western U.S. The mountain meadows of the Sierra Nevada were an important source of summer forage, and Basque sheepherders, many recently arrived from the Pyrenees, were primarily responsible for tending the flocks. The shepherd's life among the aspen groves was isolated and solitary, and it led many herders to utilize the trees as a means of self-expression. Using simple tools such as pocket knives or nails, the herders turned to the white bark of the aspens. On this living canvas, they etched a remarkable series of carvings, recording everything from their own names to observations of the natural world around them, memories of the Basque Country, and not surprisingly, erotic fantasies. Over time, the living and perishable nature of the medium subtly altered the sheepherders work, and eventually doomed it. Most of the carvings are now lost.

A native of Virginia, Jean Moore Earl grew up in the foothills of the Appalachians as part of a family with deep roots in the folk traditions of the region. Her interest in the documentation and preservation of traditional folk arts, crafts, and culture was further developed while attending Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. It was while working as a community health nurse in Reno that she first became acquainted with Basque Culture, following home health visits to retired Basque sheepherders. Phillip I. Earl spent most of his life in Nevada. He received a master's degree in history from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1975. From 1975 to 1999, he served as Curator of History at the Nevada Historical Society before he became Curator Emeritus. Mr. Earl published extensively on Nevada and Western history for newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals, and he was the author of This Was Nevada (1986) and This Was Nevada, Vol. II: The Comstock (2000).