In 2020 at the start of the pandemic, my husband and I bought a small apricot orchard in The Dalles, Oregon. In those early days, I spent hours hiking up and down the hillside and looking out over the Columbia River at the Columbia Hills. The view is breathtaking. I found myself drawn to the vastness of the scrub-covered hills and open sky. One afternoon, I drove across the bridge and up a long gravel road where I discovered The Dalles Mountain Ranch – a parcel of land that includes several rustic buildings from the late 1800’s.
I felt at home.
What if this was my ancestral home?
While my childhood was spent in the suburbs of Detroit and my ancestors didn’t immigrate from Poland until the early 1900s, I decided to write a story that could be true set on a sheep ranch the late 1800s on the expansive brown hills and basalt cliffs that line the Columbia River Gorge. I am working from a place of curiosity and respect — for my family lineage, the people of this place, and this beautiful land.
This is my imagined inheritance.
Lisa Orkisz Scardina 