Wildfires Blaze a New Appreciation

Since I was a young child, I've vacationed regularly in Colorado. I grew up with Smokey the Bear admonishing that only I can prevent forest fires.

I never took that message lightly. When our family tent-camped throughout Colorado in the '60s, we always took special care with our campfires and paid close attention to the daily fire danger ratings. But, admittedly, after seeing Smokey all those years, the message became like white noise.

My husband and I recently made a much-needed, but short, vacation to Colorado. We took a nice day trip up the Cache la Poudre Canyon west of Fort Collins.

The first thing we noticed was the toll the 2012 drought has taken on the river. While the water flowed swift and strong, in most areas, the banks of the river had expanded noticeably. We could walk further out on the rocks than when we were there two years ago. A black sandy bank was significantly wider than when we last visited.

We weren't too far into the canyon before we started to see signs of the Cache la Poudre Wilderness area fire that had occurred here in June. Most of the fire, known as the High Park fire, occurred within the designated wilderness area, burning more than 80,000 acres before it was 100 percent contained.

You can read more about the High Park fire at Project Wilderness 150 and see an eerie and unsettling photo of the fire taken from the air at night.

The fire, which is thought to have been started by lightning, did reach some areas outside of the designated wilderness, such as this spot near a campground in the Roosevelt National Forest.

Fire can be unpredictable, seeming to have no reason to burn some trees in a stand and jump across others. In numerous spots along the canyon, a couple of charred trees stood surrounded by stately green specimens.

Seeing the devastation is sobering. At the same time, forests generally benefit from occasional low-intensity fires, that clear out much of the dead timber and vegetation, making way for new growth.

The Cache la Poudre canyon now is strewn with signs ranging from handmade gems such as "If you love the Cache la Poudre, thank a firefighter" to the national forest's standard signs such as the one seen above.

Today, I take those messages more seriously than I have since I was a young child who genuinely took Smokey's words to heart.

A Postscript:

Driving any one of the gorgeous river canyons of Colorado never fails to deliver Christmas-morning style surprises and delights.

Roaring water, towering canyon walls, proud pines, quaking aspens, the occasional deer or elk . . . 

And, 'round any curve in the road, those gifts of nature share the gifts spawned by Americans' love of this beautiful, wild, and occasionally treacherous landscape. I'm talking about the wonderful cache of vintage and classic motels and cabins our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents built along the streams and mountainsides in a paradise they clearly loved.

Many of those wonderfully kitschy structures continue to host family gatherings today, as they did in the early days of the previous century. Others, like the Kinikinik Store and cabins shown above stand as a salute to a bygone era even as their owners have gone fishin.'

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

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Your Sunday Best at A Rural Journal
Sunny Simple Sunday

Got My Kicks on Route 66

Old Route 66 seems to hold such fascination for many Americans. For some it's about the memory of the vintage television show. For others, it's nostalgia for personal experiences along the famous route. For still others, it's about hanging on to an icon that represents a simpler, more innocent, but adventurous time in our country.

I had a chance to hitch a ride with a long-time family friend to Arizona to visit my sister and my dad. Along the way, we passed through Tucumcari, New Mexico, where I noticed the vintage-style banners promoting the historic Route 66. As was so common in the heyday of Route 66, we took a detour.

To my delight, the strip of the old highway still hosts a few of the classic motels of the day. Several of the kitschy signs remain stalwart in their original spots even though the structures they proudly promote are now piles of rubble or are gone completely.

A few of the classic motels remain open for business, such as the Blue Swallow, the Historic Route 66 and the Palomino. 

The Old School Garage is a snapshot of another day, another time along the memorable highway.

Our travels that day were 15 hours of straight drive time across parts of five states. Glad we had the opportunity to get our kicks--if only for a short spell--along Route 66.


Make it a great day!

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Swept Away--The Artful Broom

The instant I entered the Broom Factory at the Wyoming Territorial Prison, I was swept away. By the color and texture contained in this wonderfully restored space. By the patterns and placement of the beautiful broom-making materials. By the earthy, sweet aroma of the magnificent broom corn. And by the ethereal light that streamed through the windows.

As part of the rehabilitation process at the territorial prison, inmates were employed at various tasks. In 1892, they began construction of the the broom factory adjacent to the prison. The structure was restored to its original state in 2009 and showcases the antique equipment prisoners used to make brooms, which were sold as a means to generate income for the prison.

When the factory was at full production in 1900, inmates were producing up to 720 brooms a day. They were sold and shipped throughout the United States and Japan. Today, trained volunteers produce the brooms in the same style as those created by inmates nearly 120 years ago.



Bales of broom corn were brought in from southeast Nebraska. What a pretty pattern!

Clouds of wispy materials hang from the ceiling.

  

Inmates artfully made brooms of many shapes, sizes and colors.

 

Each broom bore (and still does today) a label with one of these three original Victorian-era designs. The labels are as beautiful as the brooms.

After seeing this wonderfully restored facility and learning the story of these simple works of art, I know I'll never look at my old-fashioned broom in the same way again.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Time Travel Thursday

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense



Butch Cassidy Slept Here

Are you the spontaneous type or, when you travel, do you have a need to plan nearly every minute of your trip? Personally, I like to go with the flow, but during our years of traveling with children, I was forced to do more planning than comes naturally to me. Now that we're empty nesters, though, travel is more to my liking--a bit more free flowing.

On our recent trip to northern Colorado, my husband and I, on a whim, drove north an hour to Laramie, Wyoming. After a great lunch at a fun establishment across  from the University of Wyoming campus, we spent an entire afternoon engrossed in the story of the Wyoming Territorial Prison.

The Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historical Site is exceptional, as is the self-guided tour, which features a small number of the male and female prisoners who were incarcerated at the prison during its 30 years of operation. Built in 1873, it continued to operate as a penitentiary until 1903.

Records indicate that about 1,000 men and 12 women were incarcerated here. Among the most famous outlaws was Butch Cassidy, who served 18 months for stealing horses. He was released early for good behavior. Apparently, the worst was yet to come.

This camera photographed Butch Cassidy.

Prisoners often were transported to the prison in a horse-drawn wagon. They began their prison stay in the processing room, where they were photographed (a sample of a prisoner number is on the chair) and given a uniform. As you can see, the prison stripes were real. And, wool for year-round wear!



Two separate wings, north and south, contained 42 cellblocks each, with 14 cells on each of three levels. The guards also had quarters in the prison structure, on the second level.

Over the years, male prisoners were employed in many types of endeavors including laundry, cutting ice from the nearby Laramie River to sell to local businesses, digging clay that was used in brick making and quarrying stone to be used as building material. They also did leather work, bread baking, candle making, shoe repair, taxidermy and some incredibly detailed and beautiful furniture carving. But, the rate of prisoner escape, much of which occurred during these activities, was a whopping 25 percent!

The prison was surrounded

by a 14-foot fence with guard towers

 in the four corners.

Prisoners ate well, unless they were in solitary, they received medical and dental care on site when needed and the male inmates exercised during manual labor. Females prisoners were segregated from the males and, in general, were confined to their cell block, participating in only minor activities such as mending uniforms.

The prison kitchen

View of the back of the prison

from the window of the original kitchen.

On-site dental chair & equipment

After Wyoming became a state and the prison was closed, it was used as a stock farm and experimental station for the University of Wyoming for many years.

I hope you enjoyed this brief history and these photos, which give a small glimpse into life at the Wyoming Territorial Prison. The restoration of this facility is remarkable, the tour information is compelling to the point of being gripping. But, beyond that, I found the building itself and the prison artifacts to be a beautiful, if not somber, form of art in their own right. I'll leave you with the following photographs--small teasers of a couple of future posts also inspired by this remarkable historic site.

Linking to:

Anything Goes

Rook No. 17

Time Travel Thursday