My Park Story: Lynn Rigney Schott

Lynn Rigney Schott

Poet, Teacher, and an Inspiration

Lynn Rigney Schott has lived in view of Lake Roosevelt for over 30 years. She has raised her family, gone through her teaching career, and retired by the waters near Kettle Falls. She continues to explore and write poetry about familiar places like Bradbury Beach, Rickey Point, Kettle Falls, and the stars above them all.

Lynn, posing for a photo at Mission Point on Lake Roosevelt.

NPS Photo

"When we first moved up to Kettle Falls, we lived right there on the south facing slope of that hill up there, overlooking the river. We lived in an old schoolhouse there on Flat Creek Road. And my desk looked out over the river, and the place was just right there, we could just walk down to the beach all the time.

That’s when I met my neighbor Edie Eckman, who had been born and raised around here and knew everything about the area, so just meeting her was an inspiration. She took us to the best huckleberry patches and mushroom areas. Overlooking this beautiful river was our introduction as we got to know the area better. We explored many beaches, nooks and crannies, and creeks and streams. It's just beautiful country. As our kids grew up, we were down at the beach much of the time in the summer just enjoying the water.

Even in the winter we come out here a lot, we just spend time by the water, we really do. It has become a huge cornerstone of our life up here, and we don’t call it the lake we still call it the river. Then we got involved with the Kettle Falls Historical Center and the history of the place.

It was a blessing, every bit of it, and it still is. These places are special, sacred, I don’t even know what else to say. They’re a huge part of my life now, and my family's life. All those important childhood memories are tied to this river."

Below is a sampling of Lynn's poetry, inspired by Lake Roosevelt.

Ricky Rapids

Here the river should always have a story to tell

of strong south winds, dark swells blooming among rocks,

pewter clouds hanging over the mountains

above whirlpools wild and silver as a miner’s dream.

Today, as the wind listens to its endless tale,

the boisterous voice of the river

is reduced to a small rhythm of sorrow,

a heart pulsing with a long-forgotten purpose

in waves that curl around a rubble of smooth stones.

Geese fly over on dark wings, shadows
drift and sail like the spirt of what is lost.

In the silent voice of deep water

lives the rushing voice of white water,

the dream voice of water on its way somewhere,

poised like rain ready to fall,

aimed like an arrow on a journey to the past.

NPS Photo

Lightning Tree, Sharpening Stone: Kettle Falls

“You talk to everything. Everything is alive.”

--Martin Louie, Sr., Sinixt

Snpaktsin, “Breaking of Dawn” 1906 – 2003

Once again, as we do every spring
we walk beyond the Mission to the cliff
that overlooks the flooded falls. We pass
the pine scorched by the breaking sky that carved
a blackened spiral in the trunk that burned
with twist of sinew only wood can bear.

We bear it all—all of us—this history borne
on water poured from glaciers to the sea,
the slashes and small hollows on the dark
stone—amphibolite that landed here one day,
a traveler in a star-crossed story, scarred
like language left for lost then surely found.

The eagle’s cry cuts sharply from the past,
Coyote leads the salmon home at last.