Idaho Adventure: Hemingway’s Silver Creek Preserve

[By James Richards, Fort Worth, Texas]  On our recent Mountain West road trip, we found and hiked the Silver Creek Preserve near Ketchum, Idaho to see the unspoiled landscape and to locate a Hemingway monument there.  We were told that if we wanted to see and understand Hemingway’s Idaho, don’t follow the tourists to Ketchum or Sun Valley.  Go to Silver Creek, which is virtually unchanged since the Nobel Prize-winning author hunted and fished there with his sons.   We parked along a dirt road in the preserve, and noticed the Bald Eagle overhead–a very good sign.  We hiked along the creek through grasses still wet with morning dew, and found open water with a view to the mountains beyond.  The air was cold and crisp, and the early morning sunlight gave everything a golden glow.  There we found the monument, and the perfect moment.   The sketch didn’t take long, and Patti took some photos to capture the memory.

Hemingway at Silver Creek.

The elegant stone monument at the site is unobtrusive.  The timeless biblical quote,  which opens Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, is perfectly fitting.

Your humble correspondent at work.

In process…the snow-capped mountains in the distance appeared closer that they look in the photo.

Hemingway, Bobbi Powell and actor Gary Cooper (a Hemingway buddy) standing at virtually the same spot that the sketch captures.

Our Silver Creek memory, with the Bald Eagle keeping watch.