A mysterious phrase, “The Shades of Death” is written by hand on a very old map from the 1700s that hangs in my office. It’s a large map, about three feet by two, and “The Shades of Death” covers about a thirty mile stretch in the South-central part of Pennsylvania.
For some time, I tried to find what it meant. Research showed that there were many areas in the Eastern United States known as “The Shades of Death”. The phrase was used to describe dense, deciduous forests in which the trees grew so huge that nothing grew under them. The forest canopy was so dense and uninterrupted that it was said: “A squirrel could cross from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River without touching the ground.”
In this “forest primeval”, there weren’t many things growing besides the biggest trees. They had grown so large that beneath them, there wasn’t enough light for much else to grow. The trees were huge, and few in number.
At one time, it is said, seven large, powerful families controlled all the economic activity in Rome. In the United States, ever-fewer, ever-bigger businesses and government agencies are taking over whole segments of the economy. Like the giant trees that caused “The Shades of Death” beneath them , these organizations put the rest of the economy in the shade, depriving the smaller businesses of the energy they need to grow, accelerating the divide between the very powerful and the rest of us.
On that large map of Pennsylvania is another mystery. At the point where the Susquehanna River flows into Pennsylvania, there is a notation “Spanish Fortifications, 1688”. No one who’s seen it has any idea what it means. But, it’s there.
