Lonesome Lake was inspired by the story of Ralph Edwards, who almost single-handedly saved a species of trumpeter swans in the Bella Coola region on the west coast of Canada. The swans were on the verge of North American extinction due to over-hunting. Settling in an isolated region by a small lake that he named Lonesome Lake, he and his family provided much-needed grain and corn for a flock of refugee swans, up to 12-tons annually, which had to be boated or carried in by horseback. The lake’s remoteness offered the swans safety from hunting, but at the cost of starvation during severe weather. During one particularly cold winter, Ralph Edwards packed 100-pound sacks of grain over a 75-mile mountain trail so that the swans wouldn’t starve to death. In 1972, he received the Order of Canada for his conservation efforts. The above photo shows his granddaughter feeding the swans.
Lonesome Lake was originally commissioned by Continuum Ensemble as part of the larger performance-installation “Singing the Earth.” Here it is performed by Cheryl Duvall at the Crossing Borders concert in Toronto at Heliconian Hall, March 27th, 2015. Recorded by Alison Gray.
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