Dave Walks-As-Bear - Photo Facts

Walks-As-Bear.com Walks-As-Bear.com Walks-As-Bear.com Walks-As-Bear.com Walks-As-Bear.com Walks-As-Bear.com

The Yellow Dog River and its falls near Yellow Dog Point on Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

This is Tribal Policeman Ely Stone’s home. It’s where his cabin rests on the original treaty-deeded 40 acre plot beside a quiet lake. It’s a place of few people but rich in God’s other creations. A wild and thickly brushed area of tall timber, abundant fish and wildlife, not far from the ominous echo of the massive Lake Superior’s surf. Stone’s home today is about what it was like when his tribe wandered these forests as a free people. In The Murmurings, it’s here that Stone communes with the Great Good Spirit and… himself.

What the old mining town of Wiitikan, Michigan looked like before being reclaimed by the Pukaskwa.

Along the shores of Lake Superior, between Marquette and the Keweenaw Peninsula rests the traditional home of the Pukaskwa Indians. This was the original main village site of the Pukaskwa nation. In the early 1800s, the whites were flooding into Indian land everywhere. Like other tribes, the Pukaskwa to make do with this influx and deal with it as best they could. For agreeing to fight with the Americans against the British
in the War of 1812, each Pukaskwa family was given a forty acre tract of land. The United States also agreed take care of them… forever.

The Pukaskwa had to give up all of the other land that they then inhabited. So, the home village site was abandoned. After the war, many of the Pukaskwa were dead. Later, a Finnish man named Wiitikan started a mining operation here. The site was a mining town until the ore weaned out then it reverted back to the wilds. It remained that way until the Black River Band of the Pukaskwa Nation reclaimed their tribal home. They established their new reservation here and in... The Murmurings.

Downtown Escanaba, Michigan.

The Escanaba Marina

On the southern edge of the state’s Upper Peninsula sits the picturesque city of Escanaba. A town resting on the shores of Lake Michigan, it is rich in history, scenery and people. Folks of Finnish, Swedish and other mixed descents live here. All of them are proud to be called ‘Uppers’. Fishermen still ply the waters here to set their nets in the big lake. This is the scene of the Pukaskwa Nation’s boathouse from which Stone traveled back and forth to Muskrat Island. Indeed, Escanaba is a place where Ely Stone and others spent some time in… The Murmurings.



The Northrop F-89C Scorpion Jet Fighter
	With a crew of two, a top speed of 627 mph and armed with six 20mm cannon and various missiles, the Scorpion was the most advanced Jet Fighter/Interceptor in the world, in the early 1950's. In the initial days of the Cold War (the 1950's) intercontinental missiles weren't in play yet. So, US military doctrine dictated that an attack on the United States would most probably come via Russian bombers from the north. Thus, northern U.S. Air Force bases always had jet fighters ready to go...to intercept a Soviet enemy...on a second's notice. Though some actions in THE MURMURINGS in reference to this incident are fictionalized, it was, nonetheless, an aircraft just like this, with U.S. Air Force Lieutenants Felix Moncla and Robert Wilson aboard that mysteriously disappeared over Lake Superior or maybe...Lake Michigan?... on the night of November 23, 1953. To this day, no sign of these men or their aircraft has ever been seen. No wreckage, no parachutes, no bodies...nothing. 2003 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the ominous happening. But for these two men and their families, there probably is no "silver" lining to the cloud...that hangs over their vanishing.




The Boeing B-47E Strategic Bomber
	With a crew of three, armed with two .50 caliber machine guns in the tail and carrying a bomb load of 22,000 lbs, the B-47 was the U.S. Air Force's premier nuclear bomber of the early 1950's. This aircraft was stationed at Air force bases all over the northern U.S. and were ready to take off to fly over and bomb the Soviet Union, on a moment's notice. They routinely flew training missions that took their scenarios as close to the actual brink of nuclear war as was possible. It was these bombers, that the spy Albert Scheel was watching from Muskrat Island in THE MURMURINGS.



	RAH-66 COMANCHE ATTACK HELICOPTER PROTO-TYPE This bird is the most advanced of its kind in the world. Due to enter the U.S. Armed Forces inventory in 2007, she will pack a powerful wallop when deployed in combat. But she does exist, just as depicted in THE MURMURINGS.

To Acquire "The Murmurings"
just click on one of the links below: