Sam Smith, 1964 - There are several places in this world that I own. Not because I paid cash for them, nor because I can produce any deed to support my claim. I own these places because when I go to them no one is there. No one seems to want them. So, until another makes a claim, they are mine.
Someone
has made a claim on one of my places. I only went there once, but I immediately
decided that it would be mine. Now I must give it up, and I'm a little sorry.
Hurricane Island lies close to the Vinalhaven, the large island that guards the
entrance to Maine's Penobscot Bay. It once had a small village and a quarry.
But when I visited the island, it was empty. I climbed to the highest point of
the island and, from that massive, moss-coated rock, stood a long time looking
between the islands that line Hurricane Sound to the sea beyond that changed
its color as it reflected the slowly descending rays of the sun.
Below,
and it seemed very far below, lay the little 40' cutter on which I had sailed
to this place. I stared down the sheer face of the rock. The drop, as close as
I could figure it, was a hundred feet almost straight down, until it met with
the soft mattress laid by years of falling softwood needles, twigs, and loose
bark. I would, perhaps, someday build a house here. In fact, the house was
partially constructed. The rock face was as sturdy a wall as one could desire.
The ground was as comfortable as the most expensive rug. Three more walls, one
of them with a huge window from which to look down the sound, a roof, and the
house would be complete.
I
returned to the boat and told the others I wished to spend the night here. They
shrugged; I gathered up my sleeping bag and returned ashore. There was much to
see on my new property and little time,
for we were sailing on the next morning. I walked over the land making a mental
list of my assets.
I
slept on top of the rock that night, making a soft bed out of pine remnants on
which to place my sleeping bag. The next morning, I awoke damp and a little
cold, but very much awake. The sun had passed to the other side of the island
during the night and now it was rising to my left as I looked toward the sound.
I walked down to the rocks from which the water was slowly receding as it did
twice each day, dropping 9 feet then returning to the same place. The boat was
near. I returned to it. We set sail, floated down the sound, then, with the
sun, moved slowly to the west.
That
was nearly ten years ago. I never had a chance to return to Hurricane Island. I
sometimes felt guilty, being an absentee landlord, but I felt sure the island
was safe. Then, recently, I read a brief announcement somewhere : "Outward
Bound, a system of survival schools which originated in Great Britain, will be
doing preliminary work on a new school to be established on Hurricane Island.”
Another
claim had been made. I had no receipt, no deed, to show that it was still my
island. Hurricane Island could no longer be one of my places. Now it belonged
to others. I’m a little sorry, but also happy, for it would be selfish to
prevent others from gazing down the sound or tracing to its source the thin
rivulet I had found. The new owners sounded like good people, people who would
understand the reason for the island, people who would tend it, perhaps, far
better than I. I have other places, but Hurricane Island was one of my
favorites.