Originally published on hintofriches.com (Aug 22, 2021)
My Part of The River is the title of Chapter 12 in Charles E. Brooks’ book, The Living River (1979). It’s a detailed account of that part of the Madison in Yellowstone Park.
(Like Forrest Fenn, Brooks referred to it simply as Yellowstone Park, rather than Yellowstone National Park.)
In a previous story, I posted excerpts from this chapter that describe Nine Mile Hole. But that’s only part of the story.
If you allow yourself to consider that the first two clues in Forrest’s poem direct us to Madison Junction and Madison Canyon, and that the home of Brown is a fishing hole somewhere on “that part of the Madison in Yellowstone Park,” then the rest of the poem reduces to figuring out specifically which fishing hole along this stretch of river is the important one.
Given that challenge, does it not behoove you to find out everything you can about this river section?
I hereby submit that nobody has ever written a more thorough and detailed description of this river section than the one provided by Brooks in My Part of the River. From Madison Junction through Elk Meadows and Big Bend, to the Talus Slide, Nine Mile Hole, and the marsh above Seven Mile Bridge, Brooks meticulously describes current speeds, stream bottoms, aquatic plants and insects that characterize this section of the world’s largest chalk stream, before turning his attention to flies and techniques that can be used to successfully fish these waters.
From Seven Mile Run and Grasshopper Bank, through Long Riffle and Cable Car Run, he continues to catalog the fishing conditions, adding accounts of the nearby landscape and animals that also play an integral role in the angler’s experience. From there, Brooks moves on to the Barns Holes in incredible detail, followed by the Greeny Deep, Willow Run, and Beaver Meadows. At every step, he infuses stories from personal experience, offering insight into his passion as an angler and his love for this remarkable place, finishing up at Baker’s Hole.
If you don’t care much about Forrest Fenn, then don’t read this chapter. If you have no interest in the place that held his heart, the place that he was in love with, or the place that he was umbilically attached to, then save yourself the time and effort required to read and appreciate it. If you don’t believe that Forrest loved nature, and fishing, and the solitude that it afforded, then move on to whatever tickles your fancy. Scores of social media sources stand ready to provide you with Fenn fodder in more digestible morsels, if that be your prime concern.
If, on the other hand, you care about the aforementioned things, then you owe it to yourself to read My Part of the River.
If you want a better chance at identifying the home of Brown, you’ll need an intimate knowledge of this stretch of the Madison.
You can download a PDF of the full chapter here:
