Pottawatomie Creek -- Nothing To Do With the Bakken

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything that would interest anyone reading this blog except me.

I ran across this little blurb:

Breitling O&G has spud the Breitling-Magnolia #1, the first of 2 wells in its Breitling-Magnolia prospect in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma.

The Pottawatomie Massacre took place in Kansas, not Oklahoma, but it was interesting to see a similarly named site in Oklahoma.  Some say the Pottawatomie Massacre was the true beginning of the US Civil War.

Until yesterday I had never heard of Pottawatomie Creek. I had heard of John Brown but barely remembered the story or the significance. I was certainly not taught how heinous the murders were. But for the past two weeks I have been reading a wonderful biography of the Concord literary figures in the mid-1800's: R. W. Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and, bless her heart, Margaret Fuller; and, now I have a much better understanding of this event. American Bloomsbury is authored by Susan Cheever.

Interestingly enough, the biography has made me re-think the origins and reasons for the US Civil War. In addition, it turns out Louisa May Alcott had no desire to write children's books.