MATTHEW THURBER/ MRS WILLIAM HORSLEY
MRS WILLIAM HORSLEY
In 1877 a chunk of Hematite, bright red in color, was found on the shore of what would some day be known as Lummi Island in Puget Sound of Washington State. Suspected at first to be ambergris ejected from a sperm whale, the object was used as a chopping stump by the Lummi Indians who also broke up frozen fish carcasses against it. The chunk later was suspected of bringing misfortune to the tribe as in subsequent years their numbers were reduced by raiding parties of Haida. The Hematite glob was passed along to the whites who settled on Lummi as a curse, disguised as a gift, when they made their soft land grab starting in the 1870s and its effects were felt quickly. The Lummi Indians snickered to hear stories as various calamities befell the white pioneers. A bald eagle carried off young Beulah Beech. As the bird’s talons sunk into the infant, she was carried away from the earth and tears fell from her eyes which had seen so little of life, but now saw her family’s cabin shrink into a scrap of wood, the sheep become tiny bits of fluff, and the smoke puff from her mother’s rifle as she made a desparate shot at the 15-foot wingspan eagle that bore her baby away. This event foretold the modelling and miniaturization aspect that would be so relevant to the future Mrs William Horsley.
MRS WILLIAM HORSLEY continued
As the eagle disappeared over Lummi Mountain, Wilhemina Beech dropped to her knees and was so overcome by grief that she turned into a rock. When Malvern Beech returned from his 3-day canoe trip to Victoria, he found his family gone. Confused, with no witnesses to the event, he went on a bender, drinking and playing gin rummy with Putty Nose and Peanut Head in their shack in Legoe Bay. When he sobered up, he found that he had lost the Hematite chunk, known as “Big Red” as his last bid in the card game to the local pastor, who had it fashioned into a pulpit.
The Episcopal church on Lummi became afflicted by the bad luck of the chunk. After a church potluck (The custom adapted from the native Potlatch), all members of the congregation came down with food poisoning.
The sounds of retching carried over the hills of Lummi that evening of July 4, 1901, replacing the sound of fireworks. Some vomited until they died of blood loss, while others simply convulsed until the strains rattled their bodies apart.
The next day the community was in shock. Searching for a scapegoat, with none able or willing to point a finger at Alvina Tuft’s salmon fricassee or Jemima Turtle’s crab salad, they came to blame the chunk of Hematite which they now called a “Hell Rock”. It took a train of ten horses and five mules to haul the cube up to the top of Encouragement Falls, over which it was dropped in the hopes it would be dashed to bits. The metallic stone did not break, but sunk from view under the cataract.
Over the next 100 years the Hematite hell rock was forgotten as the waterfall slowly eroded it away. While skinny dipping in the pond adjacent to the falls, Sid Norway saw underwater a strange shape like a 3-dimensional cube. He dragged it out of the water. Norway was an amateur puppeteer and the Hematite became the structure of his puppet rig for the performance of Punch and Judy shows throughout the Pacific Northwest. But the curse was still upon the rock, and all his shows ended in financial disaster.
The final transfer of the rock came to cartoonist MT Shelves, purchased the puppet rig at Norway’s retirement sale. Shelves initially also used the structure only as a proscenium stage. One night in a dream, the figure of Punch appeared before the cartoonist and revealed the history of the cursed piece of Hematite, which was revealed to be a piece of the planet Mars, rich in crimson-colored Iron Oxide, that had fallen to Earth. The only way to lift the curse was to use the remaining structure of the chunk as a studio to tell the true story of Mars. Adopting the name of an nearly anonymous cinematic presence (wife) from the silent film era, the Hematite became Feminized in order to give birth to this and other burgeoning narratives. The name it chose for itself was Mrs William Horsley.
In 1877 a chunk of Hematite, bright red in color, was found on the shore of what would some day be known as Lummi Island in Puget Sound of Washington State. Suspected at first to be ambergris ejected from a sperm whale, the object was used as a chopping stump by the Lummi Indians who also broke up frozen fish carcasses against it. The chunk later was suspected of bringing misfortune to the tribe as in subsequent years their numbers were reduced by raiding parties of Haida. The Hematite glob was passed along to the whites who settled on Lummi as a curse, disguised as a gift, when they made their soft land grab starting in the 1870s and its effects were felt quickly. The Lummi Indians snickered to hear stories as various calamities befell the white pioneers. A bald eagle carried off young Beulah Beech. As the bird’s talons sunk into the infant, she was carried away from the earth and tears fell from her eyes which had seen so little of life, but now saw her family’s cabin shrink into a scrap of wood, the sheep become tiny bits of fluff, and the smoke puff from her mother’s rifle as she made a desparate shot at the 15-foot wingspan eagle that bore her baby away. This event foretold the modelling and miniaturization aspect that would be so relevant to the future Mrs William Horsley.
MRS WILLIAM HORSLEY continued
As the eagle disappeared over Lummi Mountain, Wilhemina Beech dropped to her knees and was so overcome by grief that she turned into a rock. When Malvern Beech returned from his 3-day canoe trip to Victoria, he found his family gone. Confused, with no witnesses to the event, he went on a bender, drinking and playing gin rummy with Putty Nose and Peanut Head in their shack in Legoe Bay. When he sobered up, he found that he had lost the Hematite chunk, known as “Big Red” as his last bid in the card game to the local pastor, who had it fashioned into a pulpit.
The Episcopal church on Lummi became afflicted by the bad luck of the chunk. After a church potluck (The custom adapted from the native Potlatch), all members of the congregation came down with food poisoning.
The sounds of retching carried over the hills of Lummi that evening of July 4, 1901, replacing the sound of fireworks. Some vomited until they died of blood loss, while others simply convulsed until the strains rattled their bodies apart.
The next day the community was in shock. Searching for a scapegoat, with none able or willing to point a finger at Alvina Tuft’s salmon fricassee or Jemima Turtle’s crab salad, they came to blame the chunk of Hematite which they now called a “Hell Rock”. It took a train of ten horses and five mules to haul the cube up to the top of Encouragement Falls, over which it was dropped in the hopes it would be dashed to bits. The metallic stone did not break, but sunk from view under the cataract.
Over the next 100 years the Hematite hell rock was forgotten as the waterfall slowly eroded it away. While skinny dipping in the pond adjacent to the falls, Sid Norway saw underwater a strange shape like a 3-dimensional cube. He dragged it out of the water. Norway was an amateur puppeteer and the Hematite became the structure of his puppet rig for the performance of Punch and Judy shows throughout the Pacific Northwest. But the curse was still upon the rock, and all his shows ended in financial disaster.
The final transfer of the rock came to cartoonist MT Shelves, purchased the puppet rig at Norway’s retirement sale. Shelves initially also used the structure only as a proscenium stage. One night in a dream, the figure of Punch appeared before the cartoonist and revealed the history of the cursed piece of Hematite, which was revealed to be a piece of the planet Mars, rich in crimson-colored Iron Oxide, that had fallen to Earth. The only way to lift the curse was to use the remaining structure of the chunk as a studio to tell the true story of Mars. Adopting the name of an nearly anonymous cinematic presence (wife) from the silent film era, the Hematite became Feminized in order to give birth to this and other burgeoning narratives. The name it chose for itself was Mrs William Horsley.