Personalities related to Richard Clow – Lucia Shepardson, Author

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Richard H. McBee Jr.

Personalities related to Richard Clow - Lucia Shepardson, Author

Lucia Shepardson was one of Richard Clow’s nieces. She is shown in a photo with the aging Richard Clow about 1920 when they travelled together through the Black Hills.
Lucia was an amateur entomologist and in 1914 wrote a brief book (see photo) called “The Butterfly Trees.” The books was revised and republished in 1939 in Monterey, California through Herald Printers and Publishers. She documents a different Monarch Butterfly migration than that described in Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Flight Behavior.”
Lucia’s migration was believed to begin in British Columbia and migrate down the Pacific coast. The migration is documented as passing through a gap in the Siskiyou mountains in late September, taking two the three days to pass that point. Then they continue on down the California coast reaching Pacific Grove and Monterey Bay in mid-October. Here they overwinter, literally coating the trees in some places.
Lucia points out that the butterflies can miss a year, either not arriving, or abandoning the coast due to human disruptions. This means that none of their offspring has been to the Monterey Peninsula, yet following the break of a year, they still return to that same section of the coast. She concludes that this phenomenon is still a mystery to man, and shows another of the wonders of nature and instinct.