Slice of History

When I photographed the old buildings below, I felt like I was photographing a slice of history – the history of the area that I now call home.

Days Gone By

The barn reminds me of what life in the country may have been like in days gone by.  The rustic wood, corrals for horses or cattle, dirt roads providing paths to town, and the wide open expanse of one’s land.  This sense of yesterday is enhanced by the handwritten ledger in the background – perhaps one kept by the rancher, or perhaps kept by a shopkeeper in town.  Life, I feel, in those days was simple, yet complex, easy and hard, all at the same time.

Old Homestead

When I saw this homestead, I couldn’t help but imagine what life was like when this was a new building.  Could this have been one of the first homesteads in this area, before the town it’s now a part of existed?  The area where the town exists was first settled in 1887, and many of the homesteaders were cattle ranchers.  I imagine what it must have been like to look out the windows and see cattle grazing.  In the background, you can see the remains of an old windmill, used to draw up water from underground.  Some handwritten notes were added to hint at the records kept of the operation of the ranch, and also letters to family back east.

On the Plains

When people think of life in the Old West, most of them think of cowboys wandering thru the mountains, on rough terrain, and perhaps through forests in the mountains.  However, some of the west is made up of plains before one reaches the foothills of the mountains.  And, many of those who settled on these plains became cattle ranchers.  There isn’t enough rainfall throughout the year to have managed to grow crops, but cattle were more adaptable to the lack of rain that often makes up the weather here.  This may have been someone’s home, or it may have been a cabin built to house the ranch hands as they worked to move the cattle from season to season.  Whatever its story, you can almost feel the history in its walls.

Enjoy!

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