Finding Freedom in the Parting of the WaysMain MenuThe Parting of the WaysIntroductionPaths by Julie ShaferJulie Shafer essayDiverging Paths Audio GalleryDenise Johnson Interviews Julie Shafer Pt. 1Works CitedInformation pageBiographiesInformation pageGratitudeAcknowledgementsDenise M. Johnson4ac969f411f8ab69a8061d019e5b50c846dc43d8
Haoot
1media/julieshafer_untitledroadwithpowerlines_2018.jpg2020-05-06T00:49:06+00:00Denise M. Johnson4ac969f411f8ab69a8061d019e5b50c846dc43d83378Julie Shafer essayplain2020-05-09T21:23:12+00:00Denise M. Johnson4ac969f411f8ab69a8061d019e5b50c846dc43d8I couldn’t get Shaw’s answer about the trails out of my mind. Of course, animals made the first trails-it makes so much sense once you hear someone else say it. He mentioned that these trails may have been here for thousands of years, and it got me wondering how long animals had been making trails. Robert Moor says in his essay "The First Organisms to Blaze Trails" that the first animal trails were established 565 million years ago. The new species was a ghastly looking thing, a webbed, cupped hand reaching up from a slender stalk, as if waiting to trap a passing foot. Picture a jellyfish the size and shape of a small wineglass. "It has a stem, which is similar to the stem of a glass, and then a bowl at the top. And that bowl is a sheet of muscle," Matthews explains. Liu named it Haootia quadriformis, drawing from the language of the island’s indigenous inhabitants, the Beothuk. Haoot means, simply, “demon.” (It's now called Haootia quadriformis: “Haoot” is a word used by the Beothuk, the aboriginal people of Newfoundland, for demon.)
This map of overland trails across the North American continent is based on an 1846 map published by the United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Public Roads.
This page has paths:
1media/julieshafer_untitledroadwithpowerlines_2018.jpgmedia/Screen Shot 2020-04-14 at 5.55.19 PM.png2020-05-06T00:20:30+00:00Denise M. Johnson4ac969f411f8ab69a8061d019e5b50c846dc43d8Paths by Julie ShaferDenise M. Johnson7Julie Shafer essayplain119442020-05-12T00:37:53+00:00Denise M. Johnson4ac969f411f8ab69a8061d019e5b50c846dc43d8
1media/overlandtrailsintheus_thumb.gif2020-05-07T18:10:08+00:00Overland Trails in the U.S.1Mapmedia/overlandtrailsintheus.gifplain2020-05-07T18:10:08+00:00