Editor’s note: The following poem was written and submitted by Erwin Curry, former Carter County resident.

It was everything to me:

A delight of discovery,

A sign of seasons turning,

A source of entertainment,

A refuge from sadness,

A solitude for thought.

Boxelder Creek, my dependable Boxelder.

Cottontails, beaver, rattlesnakes,

Mink tracks, deer tracks - raccoons.

Tall cottonwoods, fluff afloat,

Magpies in the morning.

Licorice smell from the wild.

Boxelder, my dependable Boxelder.

Life can be chaotic.

My first eighteen years seemed to be.

Boxelder - with open water in winter - the b...