Page 16 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2014Q2

Top left; The shape, color and valley, and frequently camps by his covered pickup also one of the friendliest animals one will ever en-
texture of this piece of grossular truck in remote areas. Ken is in contact with property counter.
garnet was collected by Ken owners to gain permission to cross or collect on pri- Ken wades into the middle and deepest parts of a
in a southern Oregon River. It vately owned land and on public property. This takes stream or river with a backpack and crow bar because
is now in the collection of Paul
Schmidt, Jr. It measure 5 inches him into areas where there are few facilities and oc- he knows that this is where many of the larger, excel-
high, 12 inches wide and 6 casional encounters with mountain lions, bears, and lent stones are found. He has a keen eye for spotting
inches deep. even people illegally growing marijuana. Ken always great stones while they are submerged and partially
Bottom; This limestone and travels to these locations with his most trusted com- buried in silt and gravel. Fortunately, Ken is strong
schist bird-shaped figure panion—Makenna. Makenna is an imposing 115 and can carry sixty to eighty pounds of stones in
stone was collected near pound (55 kilograms) Bernese Mountain dog with a his backpack while wading in rivers. On two occa-
Murphy in Northern California.
It measures 9 inches high, large head, square jaws, and a deep bark that will send sions he has rented a helicopter to reach remote high
11 inches wide, and 5 inches any lion, bear, and person quickly running in the op- mountain streams in search of new stone locations.
deep. Ken named this stone posite direction. Little do they know that Makenna is He has gained considerable fame among collectors
“Eagle.” for his new discoveries and for locating new remote
locations for collecting stones. His most popular new
discovery is the multicolored Trinity-River-system
stones composed of red jasper, serpentine, and jade
that are highly sought after by collectors. One of his
best Trinity River stone was presented as a gift to the
National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the U.S.
National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. Ken has
been very generous in donating valuable stones and
other collectible stones to institutions, clubs, and to
individual collectors. When he presents a lecture to
a club, he often brings several smaller stones as gifts
to attendees.
McLeod has introduced other types of North Amer-
ican stones to stone collectors and helped to introduce
other high quality stones that were first found by ear-
lier collectors. He was the first to find and introduce

14 | BCI | April/May/June 2014