The Story Behind the Wagon Train Picture

I recently shared this photo as part of the piece I wrote in honor of my mother’s birthday. This is the story behind an epic picture from my childhood, taken on the Fort Seward Wagon Train in 1981.

This my favorite picture of my mother & myself. Rarely did an image so capture our natures — and our differences.

I remember this moment so clearly: I am a belligerent child, angry that I have been drug to the plains of North Dakota to participate in a re-enactment wagon train which was a weeklong exercise of misery in the form of sunburns, bug bites, r…