The rest of the story … The legend of “Falling Rock”

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Thanks to a quick e-mail from my dear Uncle, Big Chief Art, who originally told the story of Falling Rock to my father, I now present to you…. the rest of the story.

I think it goes something like this:

Many years ago the chief of a powerful Indian tribe that dwelled high in the mountains had a gorgeous daughter who was of marriageable age.  Two handsome braves, Big Bear and Falling Rock,  were in love with her and were pressing their suit.

The chief announced that he would grant his daughter to the brave who could win a competition for her hand.  Each brave would go into the wilderness of the mountains for five days.  At the end of that time the one who demonstrated he could best provide for the young Indian maiden would win her.

At the end of five days Big Bear reappeared.  He was laden with five young deer, butchered and ready for roasting; seven wild boars ready for the smokehouse; 93 quail and 76 wild turkeys, all plucked and seasoned. He brought back bushels of wild rice, huckleberries, sweet cherries, pears, apples in five varieties.  He had 14 sacks full of Chinook salmon, cutthroat trout, small mouth bass, sturgeon (complete with their roe), striped bass and mountain perch.  He had somehow found time to harvest wild wheat, thresh it, refine it and bake it into a dozen loaves of sourdough Indian bread, three dozen cinnamon rolls (with raisins he made from dried wild grapes). He had found a stand of wild maize and from it made four pans of cornbread, sweetened with the sap of a sweet maple tree.   And finally, he produced eight liters of Cabernet wine, created from the wild grapes he found growing on the sunny, west-facing slopes of a peak the tribe called Mount Beneficent.

Well, the old chief was stunned at the bounty Big Bear displayed. His daughter was, of course, also pleased. But they were troubled. Where was Falling Rock?  They knew in their hearts that Falling Rock was every bit as resourceful as Big Bear.  And the girl — if truth be told — secretly preferred Falling Rock.

They waited. They waited some more.  Days went by. Still more days. Big Bear was getting a little impatient.  The girl was betraying her dismay.  But a deal was a deal.  So the chief reluctantly — because he was an ethical man and didn’t wish to be seen as unfair — granted his approval for Big Bear to marry his daughter.

And so they did. 

But the mystery of the missing brave continues:  to this very day, you can still find signs along the roads in the Sierra Nevada, urging us to “Watch for Falling Rock.”

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Tags: Idaho, Legends, Nevada, Rocks, stories