GG and Grey Owl Travel the Globe
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Owner:
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GG+J
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Released:
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
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Origin:
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Canada
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Recently Spotted:
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In The Bug Stops Here: Canada's TB Graveyard
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I would like this coin to travel to many different caches in all parts of the world... but I would prefer that the caches are in natural, wooded areas. Please avoid placing this coin in urban caches. Any pictures that can be captured of the coin during it's travels, are greatly appreciated.
PLEASE DO NOT KEEP THIS COIN, BUT KEEP IT MOVING SO ALL MAY ENJOY IT.
Grey Owl was the name Archibald Belaney adopted when he took upon a First Nations identity as an adult. He was a writer and became one of Canada's first conservationists.
Archibald Stansfeld Belaney was born in September 1888 in Hastings, England, to a farmer family. His father wasted the family fortune in drinking. Some sources also suggest that his mother was only 13 years old when they were married. His parents separated in 1901, and his father left the country.
Belaney was raised by his grandmother and two maiden aunts. He expressed an interest in nature and American Indians at an early age. He went to Hastings Grammar School, and at the age of 16 – due to his aunts' urging – left to work for a timber yard. He was fired when he dropped a bomb down his employer's chimney.
In 1906 Belaney emigrated to Canada, ostensibly to study agriculture. After a brief time in Toronto, he moved to Temagami, Northern Ontario, and adopted an Indian identity and the name Grey Owl. He also married an Anishinaabe woman, Angele Egwuna. He worked as a fur trapper, wilderness guide and forest ranger. He explained that he was a child of a Scottish father and Apache mother and had emigrated from the US to join the Ojibwa.
During World War I, in 1915, Grey Owl joined the 13th Montreal Battalion of the Black Watch. His unit was shipped to France, where he served as a sniper. His compatriots treated him as an Indian and generally praised his conduct afterwards. He was wounded first in January 1916 and then again on April 24, 1916 with a shot through the foot. The wound contracted gangrene, and he was shipped to England for treatment.
Grey Owl was moved from one British infirmary to another for a full year while doctors tried in vain to restore his foot. He also met and briefly married childhood friend Constance Holmes. The marriage failed. He was shipped back to Canada in September 1917 and honorably discharged on November 30 with a disability pension.
In 1925 he met the Iroquois woman Gertrude Bernard (whom he later called Anahareo), who encouraged him to stop trapping and publish his writings about wilderness life. His writings attracted the attention of the Dominion Parks Service, and he began to work for them as a naturalist. In 1931 he and Anahareo moved briefly to a cabin in Riding Mountain National Park with their two pet beavers, Jellyroll and Rawhide. Next year they moved to near Ajawaan Lake in Prince Albert National Park.
In 1935 and 1937 he successfully toured England (including Hastings) in Ojibwa costume to promote his books and lecture about conservation. His aunts recognized him but remained silent until 1937. In his latter tour he also visited the court and met princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.
The tours fatigued him badly, and in 1938 he returned to Beaver Lodge, his cabin at Ajawaan Lake. Grey Owl died of pneumonia on April 13, 1938; he is buried near his cabin.
Tracking History (12012.5mi) View Map