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!
