WF Wolverine Pitchfork Tee

A quest for a Wolverine Farm flag design led us to local artist Erin Parrot and her amazing style, and along the way we ran into a line from Thoreau, from one of the letters in the book Letters to a Spiritual Seeker, and our motto “Ride a Mountain Instead of a Horse” was born. Printed locally by Go West. Limited edition.

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We borrow our motto “Pro Equo Montem Equita” from a letter Henry Thoreau wrote to one of his admirers, Harrison Blake, on November 16, 1857. Our motto means “Ride a Mountain Instead of a Horse” and, while we have nothing against horses, we certainly have something for mountains—call it love, call it awe, call it worship, we hear the mountains calling our names, over and over again.    

The motto is adapted from this passage: 

I keep a mountain anchored off eastward a little way, which I ascend in my dreams both awake and asleep. Its broad base spreads over a village or two, which does not know it; neither does it know them, nor do I when I ascend it. I can see its general outline as plainly now in my mind as that of Wachusett. I do not invent in the least, but state exactly what I see. I find that I go up it when I am light-footed and earnest. It ever smokes like an altar with its sacrifice. I am not aware that a single villager frequents it or knows of it. I keep this mountain to ride instead of a horse.

—Henry Thoreau,

Letters to a Spiritual Seeker