Yesterday, Clyde told us this story about a photograph he’d seen in a book.
My extensive research* into the man in the song we know as Ol’ Blevins, is I am glad to relate, an actual historical figure, as I suspected. The tone of the song led my correctly to place him in the West, during that time when the Ol’ West was gone but a few cragged cowboys still hung around bars to tell their tales and panhandle for a few drinks, probably between 1890 and 920. And thus I found him and can tell you his full name. In 1917 in Oregon a man named Dinkler J. Blevins published and copyrighted a photograph claiming to show a miraculous appearance of the Madonna in the sky over a western landscape. Anyone who has spent an hour or two in the darkroom recognizes how it was done as a double exposure with the enlarger. Where he picked up the darkroom skills is anyone’s guess, but roving photographers were common and studios had sprung up everywhere by then. It is a rather cheesy and easy darkroom trick. No doubt he then traveled from bar to bar hawking these prints for drinks until he developed the slurred pattern of speech represented in the song.
* While waiting for my wife at the mall entrance to Barnes and Noble last night I picked up a book called “Ghost Photos” in the last chance 50% off last price rack.
Is there anything to this? Not yet. A real legend? Could be. But a ballad would help.
Of the characters who traveled o’er the dusty western plain
There was one who seemed unlikely as a candidate for fame.
With an understated wildness too submerged to ever tame.
A bespectacled sharpshooter. Dinkler Blevins was his name.He was focused. He was deadly. With an artists’ careful eye.
He had come from out of Oregon and if you asked him why,
He’d say “Looking to record phenomena up in the sky.”
If you questioned Dinkler Blevins any further, you might die.Every morning before sunrise he would head up out of town.
With a horse and wagon toting all that photo gear around.
He would go into the mountains where the spirit folk are found.
Dinkler Blevins would take pictures. Dinkler Blevins would come down.You would find him in a tavern every evening without fail.
Sitting quietly encrusted in the grime from off the trail
Staring upwards towards the ceiling. Holding close his mug of ale.
You could see that Dinkler Blevins turned a whiter shade of pale.He’d encountered things up there that no man living can describe
Had he found the holy grail, the missing link or the lost tribe?
Cowboys tried to loosen up his tongue with liquor as a bribe.
Dinkler Blevins sat as silent as the Sphinx as he’d imbibe.Then a saucy barmaid, Rhonda, took a fancy to this gent.
She would mock his blank façade and question how his holster bent.
She would bounce and flounce and flirt but never seemed to make a dent.
Though next morning Dinkler Blevins took her with him when he went.They were up there for a week or more behind the mountain’s shroud.
People gathered just to gossip. What a chatty, catty crowd.
When the couple came back down they were aglow and he was proud.
Dinkler Blevins said he’d seen the blessed virgin in a cloud.When the photograph was published, it was to a trumpet’s blare.
People rushed to see and touch and buy and talk and point and stare.
Though she looked a lot like Rhonda people didn’t seem to care.
Dinkler Blevins’ apparition – The Madonna of the Air.
This needs to be refined and could use another verse to put Dinkler J. Blevins on his barstool, talking. If you have any changes, additions or alternate versions, feel free.
In the meantime, who is your favorite western hero?
Trail Baboon 
Nice, Dale, indeed. Religion and sex have been mixed since the Garden of Eden. I love she liked how his holster was bent. It’s the artists of the Old West who have been ignored–until now.
Favorite hero–Mark Twain. He was an artist of the Old West. “Roughing IT” is an excellent book, shows a point of view of the times and people otherwise overlooked. Amazing life he lived out west, the place that really made him the genius he was.
Have fun with this one all–up to see my sister-in-law in Golden Valley.
LikeLike
Rise and Shine Blevinses:
My favorite western hero is Annie Oakley. I spent most of my early childhood during the 1950’s on my stick horse, wearing a red cowboy hat and toy six shooters, galloping around our tiny town on Annie Oakley business. At times I must have crossed over into truly believing I was Annie Oakley. As an adult, when I read her bios or the PBS special on her, I’m still impressed with her life.
Then there was Arthur Godfrey who was a broadcaster with a western themed show. I loved his TV show. When I was 4 years old my parents took me to a rodeo in Omaha where he performed with his horse (Goldie, I think). I ran to the front row and kept yelling, “Arthur, Arthur I love you” until my dad came to get me. The entire audience in our section was laughing … and Arthur never looked up. Now that is unrequited love.
I still want to know what a Dinkler is! Don’t know that I’ve ever heard the name before.
LikeLike
Dale, you’ve definitely scored a yippee-ti-ay with your ballad. Now we need a piece of head wear that kids across the Heartland in honor of Blevins.
LikeLike
People rushed to see and touch and buy and talk and point and stare.
nice…
LikeLike
She would bounce and flounce and flirt but never seemed to make a dent.
Though next morning Dinkler Blevins took her with him when he went.
even nicer…
LikeLike
Howdy Partners
As a boy I enjoyed the cowboy comics especially the Roy Rogers ones. Gene Audrey actually came to my home town to do a show, but the show was sold out by the time I could convince my parents that I should be taken to see the show. I also watched TV shows for kids such as Hop Along Cassidy and before that radio shows such as the Lone Ranger. Of course there were lots of cowboy movies and TV series like Gun Smoke. I especially liked the cards that were included in Nabisco Shreded Wheat that showed how to make your own Indian and Cowboy stuff such as how to build a teepee.
As an adult I discovered some writing about the west, and especially like Maria Sandoz who wrote about Sitting Bull and her father Old Jules. Other favorites are books by Willa Cather about early western pioneers and various books on the west by Fredrick Manfred. Let’s not forget our own Minnesota preformer of western material, Pop Wagner.
LikeLike
‘Old Jules’, that is a cool book… what a life he had.
I don’t know that I have any heroes; I remember ‘Bonanza’ more than ‘Gunsmoke’ or any of the other TV shows… and I always liked the character Hoss. And since the Dad was named ‘Ben’ I sort of kept my eye on him too… but Hoss; he was the cool one.
Fess Parker as Danial Boone…
Anyone remember a very brief show called ‘Dusty’s Trail’ that starred Gilligan; what’s his name?
I still have a toy holster that was wore out when I was a kid… can’t believe I was ever that small; the dang thing is only 12″ around. Always wanted cowboy boots when I was a kid; I only had one pair I think; or that I remember anyway… but I have some nice ones now and I like the way they make me walk….you gotta get that strut going just right Ma’am…
LikeLike
Never saw the show you mention, Ben, but Gilligan was played by Bob Denver (who also played Maynard G. Krebs on Dobie Gillis-what a strange show was that).
LikeLike
Oh yes; Bob Denver… could *not* remember that name. Thank you madislandgirl… I never have seen Dobie Gillis.
LikeLike
I always loved Bonanza. I still watch the reruns if I’m home sick and I can find one on cable. Now it seems so melodramatic, but when I was a kid it was always so NOBLE. My sister and I have a long standing “Schtick” about Bonanza. Did you ever notice that all those women They men fell in love with? They were doomed. If a Cartwright fell in love with a woman, she was a gonner. So my sister and I try to remember all the dire fates of these doomed loves:
Indian attack
Fatal illness
Stray bullets, or bullets meant for the Cartwright brother in the romance plot
Cattle/horse stampede
Jealous rogue ranch hand
Some time last winter I did see an episode in which the True Love lived through the plot, but she was really a connivin’ woman with a black heart who just loved Hoss for his money. She got run out of town.
LikeLike
I once saw a North Dakota brand inspector who had assisted a deputy sheriff bring someone from the hinterlands around Dickinson to the psychiatric unit where I worked. He was dressed in black and even had a gun in a holster. One of our social workers asked what he did and he said “well, Ma’am. I catch rustlers.” Cowboy hats are pretty common around here, and sometimes I see guys in the grocery store wearing spurs.
LikeLike
I’ve always loved Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. It’s mostly because I love the musical Calamity Jane (with Doris Day and Howard Keel). It’s not historically accurate at all, but the music is wonderful. I love Doris Day’s voice 🙂 My family and I took a trip out to the Black Hills of South Dakota last summer. It was wonderful! I’d never been that far west before. My brother and his wife had watched the HBO series, Deadwood, and really wanted to see the town, so we went, haha. That was probably one of my favorite places. Being able to see and learn about the history of the town, seeing Bill, Jane and Seth Bullock’s graves, was just cool (we were geocaching everywhere we went, as well, haha). Since then, I’ve watched the first season of Deadwood myself. It’s a very interesting show. I’m definitely going to have to watch the rest of it 🙂
LikeLike
My Great, great grandmother, Tobitha Klein Hess, knew Wild Bill in Mount Carroll Illinois where they grew up together. She played with his little sister alot, and the story goes he teased her unmercifully. The little sister and Tobitha once found a snake peaking through the log chinks of the cabin. They got a pair of scissors, waited for it to poke its head out again, and cut off its head!
LikeLike
That is so neat! I always have a hard time picturing them as real people, haha, but that just makes it easier 🙂 Thanks!
(I probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to cut the snake’s head off either, hahaha)
LikeLike
There used to be an all-women construction and contracting company in Mpls that operated under a name that was a take on “Calamity Jane” – when I was in jr. high it was a career goal to work for them. Alas, they closed the business before I could fulfill that dream.
LikeLike
Oh, I almost forgot- My paternal grandfather was in the US Army prior to WWI, and he was stationed out in Colorado when Buffalo Bill Cody died. Grandpa and his unit were used as an honor guard at the funeral and burial.
LikeLike
When I was a kid I read, re-read and ultimately memorized a big book about the Wild West, and before I was a teen I could quote grisly details about virtually all the gun battles and botched holdups. There were some interesting characters in those days: Bill Hickock was a good shot (almost none of the rest were), Butch Cassidy had a sense of honor, Cole Younger grew up to be eloquent and honorable, Buffalo Bill Cody invented the figure of the media star and Billy the Kid had a sense of style.
But heroes? Good lord, no! The outlaws were murdering thugs who whined for mercy when caught. Outlaws and lawmen alike shot enemies in the back. I loved the story about two outlaws who broke out of prison and then got so mad at each other they had a duel, stepping off to the count of five before turning to fire. One of them shot the other in the back on the third step because “I knew he was gonna turn and shoot me on four.” Sheriffs had the same morality as cattle rustlers and often accepted bribes from the powerful ranchers. Lawmen cheated at the same poker games and got diseases from the same whores as the “bad” guys. It was a dirty, grubby, violent time.
So my hero, chosen after a lot of frowning, is Bishop Henry Whipple who spent much of his life in Minnesota when this was frontier country. Bishop Whipple is one of the very few white men to have preached for tolerance and fair dealings with Indians. When 303 Sioux were set to be hanged for the 1862 uprising, Whipple (at great risk to himself) advocated for fairness and convinced Abe Lincoln to pardon 265. The Indians called him “Straight Tongue,” something they could have said of almost nobody else they ever dealt with.
LikeLike
There is a building at Concordia College in Moorhead named Bishop Whipple Hall. I never knew who he was. Thanks for the information, Steve.
LikeLike
Very good one… I agree with your choice. Bishop Whipple was big in the history of the City of Faribault, too. He worked with Alexander Faribault to begin fur trading with the Dakota prior to 1862.
LikeLike
Thanks for the new information, Lurkagette. Welcome!
I wonder anything in Minnesota is named for Bishop Whipple, or should be?
Whippleville, anyone?
LikeLike
Charmin Ultra Sensitive?
LikeLike
Steve,
I like this choice, too. Who knew? There had to be someone behind Lincoln’s decision, which has always been taught as a moderate, merciful response to the Indian Troubles. Now I know his name.
LikeLike
Nicely done Dale. Now if someone wrote a ballad about me…….on second thought dont.
LikeLike
But seriously, it was heartwarming to see that I was missed around here. I was gone at Camp Courage for the first week of July, with 3 ex girlfriends at said camp with two trying to get me back(now THATS ballad material right there). That week proved that I need a much larger dating pool, I have been playing gigs a lot all over, last night I was at Lumberjack Days in Stillwater with the Johnny Holm Band, which was a great show. It was in the park next to the river, and it was a nice community event. I got a nice percussion solo on Folsom Prison Blues. So it was nice to be there.
LikeLike
Thanks for the update, Aaron. Having a gig by the river on a summer night AND a percussion solo on Folsom Prison Blues sounds like a perfect way to spend the evening.
I’m impressed that 2 of 3 ex-girlfriends say “I want you back”.
That’s great advertising.
LikeLike
2 out of 3 cant be wrong!
LikeLike
Aaron – were you at the Camp Courage up north by Brainerd? My 13-yr old with autism was there last summer on a scholarship — such a great camp! What did you do while you were there? Are there different camp times for other special needs? My son just got done with a week at Camp Friendship in Annandale — also an awesome camp, but much, much closer.
It takes a very special person to work with special needs groups — good for you!
LikeLike
Oh – and my 15-yr old plays percussion at school and in a “garage band” with his buddies. I can hear him drumming away downstairs right now, as a matter of fact. Talented guy he is …
LikeLike
My favorite hero is a fictional one – Shane. Read the book as a kid, saw the movie later….loved both.
LikeLike
Linda — the movie is one of those iconic cultural artifacts that we all “have” to know if we are to understand the mythology of this country. In intelligence and distinctive appearance that movie was ahead of its times!
LikeLike
Wonderful story – I read it in 7th grade for a book report. It was one of the few book reports I put my heart and soul into. My teacher thought I should have whittled it down more . What a dorkoff.
LikeLike
My favorite Western (fiction) is “Unforgiven” with Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman. No one is the “good guy” in that one – which is part of why I like it.
“Real” western legends? I don’t really have a favorite. I have an old poster from the Montana Frank Show (“our own light plant!”) – the artwork is great, if horribly dated. A guy with all the traditional “cowboy” stuff on, on his horse (with one hoof raised) in the open, dry plains looking west. The sort of picture that makes you want to make up a story for him. Haven’t been able to find out much about the Montana Frank Show, but I’m sure it was a B or C-list version of Buffalo Bill and his ilk.
LikeLike
My first thought was, I’ve never really liked Westerns-but on second thought-
Laura Ingalls Wilder-fell in love with the whole idea on first reading in second grade. Been to DeSmet, Walnut Grove, Mansfield, Pepin and Burr Oak. Read a lot of later commentary stuff and still am not disillusioned, I think she was great.
Fiction-wise, I’d have to say Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck-nuf said) of The Big Valley. She ran that ranch and those sons of hers with grace and style. Always thought she and Lorne Greene would have made an awesome team and owned most of California.
LikeLike
Laura Ingalls Wilder became a part of our family when I was a child. My mom always loved those books and read them to us at a particularly difficult time in our family life. She always read Little House in the Big Woods, and Prairie to her 3rd graders every year.
Great choice.
LikeLike
I loved the Little House books when I was a kid — read them several times and saved the ones I owned for my own children to read. When my children came along, they didn’t like them at all, and then I tried to read them aloud to get the children interested in them and found I didn’t like them much anymore, either. Sad.
LikeLike
I remember reading all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was in 2nd and 3rd grade – including the ones at the time that seemed awfully boring (West from Home and On the Way Home – as I recall those were mostly letters). As a grown-up I visited the divit where the Ingalls sod house was by Plum Creek outside of Walnut Grove. Don’t know if it was acceptable (the creek runs through a farm), but I waded in Plum Creek and squished its muddy bottom between my toes.
LikeLike
And did you get leeches like Nellie Olson?
LikeLike
Nope – no leeches. Thank heavens.
LikeLike
I love True Grit’s heroes Rooster Cogburn and Mattie Ross. My favorite line of the movie is when outlaw Tom Chaney says, “Everything happens to me. Now I’m shot by a child.”
LikeLike
Riders of the Purple Sage is great, aside from the venemous anti-Morman rhetoric. The recent movie was great, too.
LikeLike
I think my original answer was not responsive to Dale’s question. I can’t choose any real old western figure I know, so I’ll go with a fine western movie that few Babooners (I’d guess) have seen. “One-Eyed Jacks” is the only movie Marlon Brando directed. He stars in it, mumbling his lines in a way that is odd and yet compelling. The camera just loves him. Brando plays an outlaw named Rio who is betrayed by his buddy and ends up spending years in a rathole of a Mexican prison. When he comes back for revenge on his old buddy he falls in love with that fellow’s daughter, which puts him in a dilemma: choose love or choose revenge? Typically (for Hollywood) he gets both.
The movie has good action, good dialogue, some remarkable scenery, and the superb acting of such old hands as Karl Malden, Slim Pickens and Katy Jurado.
So I’ll go with the figure of Rio, played by Marlon Brando when he had a waistline.
LikeLike
we’re watching “Dead Man” 1992 w/ Johnny Depp and a bunch of others i don’t watch or care to know (that sounds mean, but Iggy Pop vs Johnny Depp?? ‘nuf said). except very cool “Nobody” – the Indian that saves Johnny (well, i don’t know for sure – we’ll finish it tonight) and thinks that Johnny is THE William Blake the poet. i think i’d like the film even if JD weren’t in it. 🙂
LikeLike
Your ballad is wonderfully written and gave me the first smile I’ve had in days, Dale. Thanks!
My western hero is not a character from history, a book, a movie or radio. He is a figure from my own very real past. When I was about four, I went with my aunt and uncle to the Badlands of South Dakota. We stopped in a dime store/general store kind of place – the type with a soda fountain and a highly polished counter, as described in “Love in the Five and Dime.” My aunt bought me a big orange Crush. I turned from the counter with the soda to my lips and came face to face with a perfect little cowboy, just my age, with a red and white checked shirt, blue jeans, cowboy boots and a perfect cowboy hat. I stopped dead and poured my orange crush straight down the front of my pinafore. I’ll never forget him.
LikeLike
If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
LikeLike
And what did he do , pray tell????
LikeLike
I just got a post card advertising the entrepreneurial venture of a Blevins descendant in St. Jo, TX.
Davis and Blevins, The Main Street Gallery is hosting a Western Art Show featuring one of our favorite artists, Donna Howell-Sickles.
Now, I don’t know which Blevins is Davis’ partner or how she/he is related to Donna Howell-Sickles, but the art work in this small town gallery is impressive. [Wikipedia on St. Jo: “Saint Jo is a city in Montague County, Texas, United States. The population was 977 at the 2000 census.” That makes it sound like a north Texas version of Lake Wobegon.]
If anyone has a clue about which Blevins is involved in fine art, let us know.
LikeLike