Photographic Scorn

Clutter of Civilization

&

Photography

            Enjoying photography, I have become the ban of  clutter that shows up on the landscape, from a growing demand for modern society.   There are the tall buildings reaching to the sky, wanting to be bigger and taller then the next.  Then there are the communication posts, stretching across the land.  Stings and strings of wires stretching from horizon to horizon.  Tall towers sending out signals across the land to be translated by little boxes. 

            People have placed demands, wanting all types of conveniences and man is trying to meet the wants of the people. 

            Taking pictures, sometimes this clutter gets in the way, other times it an effective part of the pic.   The tall building of the city skyline, with clouds tickling the roofs, the sun casting its glow over the shiny windows.  The tall building obstructing the view of the land, hiding the lake, the mountains, the ocean.  Out across the land, a forest of trees making a green carpet, to be smeared by a communication sticking out above the tree line. 

This had been a nice pastoral scene, but last year a wind farm was built on far ridge.  

            Electric poles stretched over the land, a line fading into infinity or a scar over the grasses.  The strait line of the railroad tracks with the poles of the telegraph shadowing the rails.  What had once been open land, is now land scattered with the marks of modern society. 

            It is very difficult any more to point the camera and click, without getting some kind of clutter in the background.       Yet there had been spots on high mountain, wide open plains or the rolling lands, where one could not be assaulted with clutter.  Even in the mountains, big towers mark the power grid marching over the hills.  Huge wind turbines are scattered over the land and plains.  The high tension lines march in single file criss-crossing the countryside.  It is almost impossible to escape the decorations of civilization.  With the newly introduced wind farms and solar plants it has even become more difficult to escape modern features of today. 

The Comm tower along with the windturbines mark the horizon.  

            I stand there, take what I think is a nice pastoral landscape, then opening up the digital image to see the background full of clutter.  Some folks would say, erase the clutter, but that is not me.  I have to adjust and use a different style and or accept the clutter as being a part of the landscape. 

Even the mini horses have a sub station for a back drop. 

Hidden gold treasure

Among the trees is where the spring is located.

The Lore

Of

Buried Gold

          As the legend goes, someplace near the ghost town of Clifford there is supposed to be buried gold. 

          It all begins in 1862 at Coon Springs in Eastern Colorado.  Coon springs was a stop along the Smoky Hill Trail.  Taking advantage of the springs and plentiful water an Army payroll detachment had stopped there. 

          Some outlaws jumped them and subdued the soldiers.  The outlaws got the payroll, reportedly over 100,000 dollars in gold. Mounting up the outlaws began their escape, heading out across the plains loaded down with the gold. 

          The outlaws did not do a very good job of tying up the soldiers for shortly after the thief’s had left, the soldiers were free and mounting their horses to give chase. Galloping across the prairie the soldiers were quickly gaining on the highwaymen. 

          Being loaded down with the gold the outlaws ducked into a gully.  They were going to bury the gold and return afterwards to retrieve their ill gotten gains.  Shortly after riding up out of the gully, the soldiers caught the bandits. 

          The bandits were taken to jail and sentenced to prison.  After their release, two of the outlaws were killed in gunfights and the third disappeared.

 There were stories of what happened to the gold and how the burial spots were marked.  With no more outlaws in the area, treasure hunters galore showed up to search for the buried gold.

There were never any reports of the gold being found but there were stories galore of finding marker stones.  These reports would fuel the gold fever even more.  Even today, there are folks that say the gold in still buried out there somewhere. 

Searching today is a problem, it is all private land and most folks in the area don’t like people roaming on their pastures.  That does not deter the treasure seekers.  They show up with their metal detectors and want to go hunting.