Re: re-naming Dyke Marsh

Ellen Paul (epaul@dclink.com)
Mon, 28 Sep 1998 20:22:12 -0400 

Dear David,

Every March, when I am thoroughly fed up with the messy, gritty,
half-assed Washington winter, I re-read Halle's classic Spring in
Washington.  Or as Halle puts it, "All winter long the world lies
encased in its hard sheath.  Frost is fastened upoon the earth, the
trees are brittle shells, the river acquires a plating of ice.  Men
likewise button themselves up in thick clothing, hiding limbs and
torsos.  Woodchucks and chipmunks make their own graves and lie  in
them.  Everyting takes on an outward petrification [putrifiction, IMHO],
the earth and its creatures each dwelling in its own coffin.  You cannot
touch life anywhere, only its casing...The spring comes, the casing
melts off, and the living body of the earth is exposed to the sky for
anyone to see and touch.  Life slowly flushes and fills it."  It gives
me hope that this too, will pass, and makes me yearn for those gaudy
forsythia that I swear *I* will never plant.  

The book was first published in 1947.  In 1968, ANS sponsored its
republication through the Johns Hopkins University Press. Those of us
who take Shirley Briggs' and Kent Minichiello's ANS/USDA Conservation
Philosphy course will be forever in their debt for introducing us to
this book.

So, why add his name to Dyke Marsh?  Well, it would probably suit as
well to re-name Rock Creek Park, the Memorial Bridge, or the GW Parkway,
for these were all part of his daily, pre-work bicycle route.  But
somehow, it's the marsh that seems most suitable.  Halle wrote,"Winter
or summer, if you wish to match yourself against a wilderness, I can
recommend nothing better locally than the tidal marshes around Dyke, a
couple of miles below Alexandria.  [Is it possible that the name "Dyke
Marsh" isn't as old or as firmly established as previously asserted?]. 
I daresay the open marsh here, excluding the swampy woods that extend
up-and-down river from it, does not cover an area half so large as that
of the airport, which is a mile and a half in its greatest length, but
the difficulty of making your way through it gives it size enough.  At
low tide you may struggle step by step through marsh grasses that rise
to your shoulder, sinking at every few steps above your knees into some
unseen hole or into the smooth and treacherous ooze.  Only a determined
man can make his way across these marshes..."  

It's so hard to stop there.  All I can say is that I urge you to read
the book and I hope it is as wonderful for you as it has been for me. 
Halle died August 13.

By the way, TR Island was not always known as TR Island.  It was once
Anolastan Island. Surely we have not suffered for the change.

I think the critical difference between all the examples we have cited
is that none of the changes had anything to do with the folks for whom
the honorary re-namings occurred (except in the perverse case of the
winner of the Oscar for the-best-performance-as-a-president).  With
Halle, there is a direct and close nexus between the man and the place.

I'm sorry this has become so contentious and so matter-of-principle.  

And if the Dyke Marsh website doesn't have something about Louis Halle,
Jr., it should.  

Ellen Paul
epaul@dclink.com
chevy chase

mdosprey@ARI.Net wrote:
> 
> I'd like to second the sentiment implicit in Kurt Gaskill's post about
> Dyke Marsh, the NPS homepage for which is located at
> http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/dyke-marsh.htm
> 
> No doubt Louis Halle was a wonderful person, and made a valuable
> contribution to somethingorother in the Washington area.....but.....the
> re-naming of a place ought to have some connection and resonance among
> _many_ people and, with all due respect,  I've lived here for over 30
> years and never heard of the guy.
> 
> Let's recall that the Congressional rush to "Cape Kennedy" was
> eventually modulated into the "Kennedy Space Center" located at Cape
> Canaveral.  (One can only hope that this will eventually happen at the
> recently re-named "Enemy of the air traffic controllers and
> environmentalists Washington National Airport").
> 
> Friends of Dyke Marsh is at   http://www.dykemarsh.org/
> 
> David Strother
> Bethesda, Maryland
> dstrother@pop.dn.net

-- 
Ellen Paul           Chevy Chase,MD           mailto:epaul@dclink.com