Meet Colorado’s own ‘Father Goose’ figure

Fort Collins, Colo., had its own “Father Goose” – Gurney Ivan Crawford (1903-84). He spent his entire career as a Colorado state wildlife conservation officer and successfully introduced Canada geese to this region of the Rocky Mountains.

 

Crawford once told a news reporter that he literally took the first brood of goslings under his wing in 1957, saying: “It’s what I live for – these birds.”

 

It’s quite a love story. Erin Udell, a reporter at the Fort Collins Coloradoan said that Jack Grieb, chief of the waterfowl division, came by the Crawford home one day with a clutch of goose eggs that he had collected in Denver, about 60 miles south of Fort Collins. He simply said: “Hatch ‘em, Gurney.”

 

“Crawford did just that, using his own Bantam hens as impromptu foster moms, as well as hot water bottles and incubators to warm and hatch the eggs,” Udell said. “When the eggs hatched, the hens got a big surprise in the fuzzy little goslings that emerged.”

At nine weeks old, the first group of Canada goslings were released at College Lake, about three miles from Colorado State University’s main campus in Fort Collins.

“Crawford continued to raise goslings in his home and built nesting structures that kept predators away from unhatched eggs,” Udell wrote.

“Known for their intelligence and strong family ties – geese mate for life and flocks stick together – the birds on College Lake got to know Crawford so well they could single out his truck as he drove up to see them,” Udell added.

“The project was a hit as the geese settled into the northern Front Range of the Rockies, which has the perfect combination of scattered ponds and reservoirs, agricultural crops like corn and grains, and fresh grass to feed on,” she said.

Dr. Jim Gammonley, who leads the avian research team for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told Udell that Colorado’s resident geese population has stabilized between 20,000 to 30,000, with several thousand of those making their home in Fort Collins and the surrounding area.”

The project was highly successful in boosting recreational opportunities like hunting and bird watching.

The new resident flock also attracted migratory Canada geese, using the Central Flyway between the Arctic and the American Southwest, to stop in Northern Colorado during the winter, when they would typically fly straight to New Mexico, Udell wrote.

Dr. Gammonley estimates that nowadays, 200,000 migratory Canada geese can be found statewide in Colorado during the winter season.

Sixty years ago, the human population of Fort Collins was about 25,000. The community has since mushroomed to about 172,000 people in 2026.

“With human population growth,” Dr. Gammonley said, “we began seeing more human-goose conflicts.”

Phil Bourjaily, a columnist with Field & Stream magazine, said the “hefty honkers” present some challenges. He notes that a goose can poop a pound a day.

Several years ago, Denver launched a goose-culling operation. It rounded up urban-dwelling geese and carried them off to a nearby meat processing plant. Protest rallies ensued, expressing horror. Signage claimed: “Goose Lives Matter.”

Bourjaily said that Vicki Vargas-Madrid, Denver’s current wildlife program manager, is a proponent of using “non-lethal methods to contain the flock.” 

One tool is the “Goosinator,” a remote-controlled fan boat painted like a bright orange shark. The contraption operates on lakes and ponds in a zigzag pattern to mimic a predator, triggering thousands of birds to take flight.

“The hope is the strategy will encourage the geese to migrate out of Denver,” Bourjaily said.

Meanwhile, Denver’s Canada geese protection society and city officials are hopeful that conversations for attaining a “sustainable, multi-species environment” will be productive.

‘Father Goose’ was a delightful cinematic comedy from 1964

Then there was “Father Goose,” a comedic Hollywood film distributed by Universal Pictures in 1964.

 

Actor Cary Grant, at age 60, played the lead character Walter Eckland, who was assigned the military code name “Father Goose” during World War II.

Eckland, a former college history professor-gone-rogue, was basically minding his own business and enjoying his new life as a South Pacific Ocean beach bum in 1942…until he gets bamboozled into serving on a secluded island as a “coast watcher” for the Royal Australian Navy.

Commander Frank Houghton (played by Trevor Howard) sweetened the pot for Eckland by having his sailors hide bottles of Scotch whisky in strategic locations on Matalava, one of the Banks Islands, located off the northeast coast of Australia.

For every confirmed sighting of Japanese fleet and aircraft movements that the ever-thirsty Eckland reported, Cmdr. Houghton revealed the location of another liquor bottle.

As “insurance,” Cmdr. Houghton “accidentally disabled” Eckland’s primary vessel, a customized 1929 Chris-Craft Commuter cabin cruiser named Catherine. 

Eckland was essentially marooned. His only viable “transportation” was a seven-foot dinghy with a putt-putt motor.

The action heats up when Eckland is forced to share his primitive island hut with a stranded party of eight – French school headmistress Catherine Frenau (played by Leslie Caron) and seven schoolgirls in her charge. 

 

One film critic remarked: “The proper Freneau and the disheveled Eckland fight like cats and dogs and, naturally, get married in the end. In other words, it’s the plot of a perfect Cary Grant movie.”

 

Eckland also evolves as a father figure for the seven girls, taking them under his wing, to protect them and care for them.

The comedic peak of “Father Goose” comes when Catherine is foraging for berries with one of the girls when she slips off a log and falls into some shallow water. She exclaims that something has bitten her, and they misidentify a partially submerged tree branch as a snake.

Upon returning to the hut, Catherine tells Walter what has happened. In turn, Walter contacts Cmdr. Houghton, who tells him there are three species of snake native to Matalava, and they are all lethal. 

Since nothing can be done, Frank advises Walter to keep Catherine “comfortable” until “the end comes.”

As such, Walter plies Catherine with the one thing of which he has plenty…booze. It also takes no time for the alcohol to loosen Catherine’s tongue and demeanor.

 

Catherine finally passes out, and they all believe she has died. One of the girls sets out to exact revenge on the supposed snake. 

She brings what was mistaken for a snake back to the hut. Now that they all know the “snake” is just a stick, Walter whips the blanket back he had placed over Catherine…to discover she is quite alive.

Entertainment beat writer Larry Fahey of Boston, Mass., a frequent contributor to The Rumpus, an online literary magazine based in Asheville, N.C., said: “Eckland was a slovenly, drunken misanthrope, but to Grant, it was the perfect role.”

In “Father Goose,” Grant thought he found the part that would enable him to earn the “ultimate badge of Hollywood club membership, an Academy Award (as best actor),” Fahey said.

For most of his acting career, Grant typically played the role of a handsome, sophisticated, suave, debonair leading man. He said: “After dressing so carefully for my films for so many years, I wanted to do the opposite” – stepping away from iconic suits and silk ties and relaxing, growing a scruffy beard and wearing jeans and rumpled shirts.

 

Grant was born as Archibald Alec Leach in Bristol, located on the River Avon in South West England. His parents were impoverished. He became attracted to the theater at a young age.

At 16, Archibald Leach was a stage performer with a troupe that toured the United States. He decided to put down roots in New York City. He was a trained stilt-walker and also made waves as a vaudeville performer.  

He arrived in Hollywood in the early 1930s, and Paramount Studios officials said Archibald Leach sounded too British.

The young actor selected the name of Cary Grant, because the initials “C.G.” had already proved very fortunate for a fellow named Clark Gable. 

During this 30-plus year career in film, Cary Grant appeared in 72 movies.

Grant was nominated twice for a “Best Actor” Oscar, in 1942 in “Penny Serenade” (shown above) and in 1945 in “None but the Lonely Heart” (shown below), but he came up short both times.

 

“Father Goose” did win an Academy Award in 1964, in the category of “Best Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen.” 

In his acceptance speech, screenwriter Peter Stone remarked: “Thank you to Cary Grant, who keeps winning these things for other people.” 

Now, we open the search to find ‘Father Goose’

Naturally, as a follow-up to the recent column about Mother Goose, inquiring minds want to know: “Was there a Father Goose?”

A Google search on the internet revealed three “Father Goose” matches. 

One is L. Frank Baum of Chittenango, N.Y. (near Syracuse), who lived from 1856-1919. He is best known as the author of the children’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” in 1900.

 

As a youth, Baum’s parents sent him to Peekskill (N.Y.) Military Academy, where he was “severely disciplined” as a teenager “for daydreaming.” His early interests were writing and performing in the theater.

 

In the early 1890s, he and his wife, Maud Gage Baum, were raising a family of four sons in Chicago, where Baum was toiling as a reporter at the Chicago Evening Post.

Prior to publishing his inaugural children’s book in 1897, Baum commented: “When I was young, I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now…my first book is written to amuse children…I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one’s heart and brings its own reward.”

 

That first book was titled “Mother Goose in Prose,” a collection of 22 Mother Goose nursery rhymes accompanied by short stories about the characters.

 

“Many of these nursery rhymes are complete tales in themselves, telling their story tersely but completely; there are others that are but bare suggestions, leaving the imagination to weave in the details of the story.”

One online educator commented: “Through Baum’s lens we learn: What was it with that horn in Little Boy Blue? How was it that Black Sheep’s wool made three bags full? Why did Mary’s contrariness make her garden grow…or otherwise? Why was Jack Horner sitting in his corner gouging himself on that pie?”

 In 1899, Baum partnered with illustrator W.W. Denslow of Philadelphia, Pa., to publish “Father Goose: His Book,” a collection of nonsense poetry. The book was a commercial success, becoming the best-selling children’s book of the year.

 

One literary critic said: “‘Father Goose: His Book” is a collection of humorous and whimsical poems. Father Goose is a jolly old man with a white beard and a love of wordplay. The poems are written in a playful and lighthearted style, with a focus on puns, nonsense words and silly rhymes. The illustrations by Denslow add to the whimsy of the book. Overall, ‘Father Goose…’ is a charming and entertaining collection of poetry that is sure to delight readers of all ages.”

 Here’s a bit of it:

 Did you ever see a rabbit climb a tree?

Did you ever see a lobster ride a flea?

Did you ever? No, you never!

For they simply couldn’t do it, don’t you see?

 

Have you seen little Sally

Dance the Ostrich Dance?

The dainty way she does it

Will surely you entrance.

 

With the left foot here

And the right foot there

And the ostrich feathers waving

In her golden hair.

Baum used some of his royalties from his “Father Goose” book to buy a vacation retreat on eastern shore of Lake Michigan in Macatawa, Mich. (near Holland). He named the multi-story Victorian as “The Sign of the Goose" cottage and decorated it with goose motifs.

 

For 11 summers, the Baum family took the steamship about 85 nautical miles from Chicago to Macatawa and reveled in the beauty of Lake Michigan shores, woods and dunes. Baum considered this area just “an Oz-like magical fairyland.”

FYI: Other “Father Goose” citations include a legendary film actor and a wildlife conservationist in Colorado.

Origin of Mother Goose baffles researchers

For centuries, the origin of Mother Goose has been an unsolved mystery. Much of the research by literary scholars suggests that a “French connection” is likely.

 

Perhaps the first Mother Goose was Bertha of Burgundy, who lived from 964-1010 and was the second wife of France’s King Robert II. She was acclaimed to be an exceptionally talented storyteller with a deformed foot. Her subjects lovingly referred to her as “Goose-footed Bertha.”

There is a possibility, though, that Mother Goose came along much later and was of English descent…a woman by the name of Elizabeth Foster Goose.

Born in 1665 in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Mass., Elizabeth Foster became the second wife of Isaac Goose, a wealthy Boston landowner. He was a widower with 10 children. The couple had six more children together.

Legend has it that Elizabeth relied heavily on her memory’s store of old nursery rhymes, fairy tales, stories and fables to keep her brood quiet and entertained. Bless her heart, dear thing.

A children’s book titled “Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose’s Melodies for Children” was reportedly published in 1719 by Thomas Fleet, a Boston printer and Elizabeth’s son-in-law. Unfortunately, no copy of the publication is known to have survived.

The pendulum of intrigue, however, swings back toward France with the revelation that French poet and storyteller Charles Perrault of Paris, published “Tales of My Mother Goose” in 1697, predating Fleet’s work by 22 years.

 

Perrault recited fairy tales to amuse his four children. Among his collection were versions of “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” “Puss in Boots” and “Bluebeard.” Perrault’s writings were translated into English in 1729 by British writer Robert Samber.

Another contributor to the legend of Mother Goose is John Newbery of Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire, England. He was the first to make children’s literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He is best known for the book “Mother Goose’s Melody; or, Sonnets for the Cradle,” published in 1765.

 

This publication solidified Mother Goose’s association with children’s poetry and nursery rhymes and solidified Newbery’s reputation as “The Father of Children’s Literature.”

(In 1922, the John Newbery Medal was created by the American Library Association in his honor; it is awarded annually to an author who makes the “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.”)

 

Efforts to pin down the identity of Mother Goose amount to a “wild goose chase,” commented Dr. Lorna Wallace of Stirling, Scotland, who is a regular contributor to Mental Floss.

 

She suggests we just accept that Mother Goose is a legendary figure who either resembles a grandmotherly character riding on a flying gander…or a big, cuddly goose wearing a bonnet.

 

(Mother Goose is not to be confused with “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs,” one of the most famous fables in the collection of about 700 writings attributed to the ancient Greek storyteller Aesop.)

 

Robert Ellis and James Coplestone of South Somerset in South West England are the sculptors.

 The classic fable is about a countryman and his wife who owned a magical goose that laid a glittering golden egg every day. Aside from considering themselves very fortunate to own such a rare bird, they also began to wonder just how much gold the goose might have stored inside it. 

In their greed, they ended up killing the poor bird and depriving themselves of their fortune.

The City of El Cajon, Calif., near San Diego, began celebrating the Christmas holidays with a Mother Goose Parade on the Sunday before Thanksgiving in 1947, featuring big balloons of prominent nursery rhyme characters.  

 

National Mother Goose Day was created in 1987 by the late Gloria T. Delamar of Pittsburgh, Pa., a Mother Goose scholar. She established the holiday on May 1 to coincide with the publication of her book, “Mother Goose; From Nursery to Literature,” and to encourage a deeper appreciation for classic nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

At least one Mother Goose entry has coastal relevance:

The man in the wilderness

Asked this of me,

How many strawberries

Grow in the sea?

I answered him

As I thought good,

As many red herrings

As swim in the wood.