This was the place where the old Wagon Trail was supposed to cross the road. The word "Gap" on a map has a certain attraction. Some government agency had done a good job with a plaque. But that was it -- there was no other signage. It is possible to learn to like that. Of course it means that you are not quite sure where you are going. I biked in the direction that the plaque suggested. Maybe.
Without any signs spilling out the answer, all I could do was look at the land. I was trapped between two high ridges, both of which went north/south -- bad luck for the pioneers who were headed west.
But the geography was so lucky. There really was a smooth, gentle, green gap through the ridge -- almost like a swale. Their stock animals could graze through the gap. A trickle of water flowed.
This is not tourist scenery. You can only appreciate its "beauty" when you are struggling to cross the land under your own (or an animal's) power, and when you are looking for grass for your horses and livestock, and looking for some water to make some soup at night. That is a radical idea in the modern urbanized world: living off the land instead of just gawking at it, as pretty scenery.
I turned the corner and saw this old cabin. Must have been an old ranch house -- but what was it doing on BLM land? Maybe it was built before the BLM was created.
Behind the main house there were a couple secondary buildings, including one that took care of the 'usual necessities.'
For some reason I studied the details of the log cabin and wondered about what I could do if I had to survive back then, and couldn't just buy something.
Think about the Wyoming wind in winter. This wouldn't be much of a shelter unless you could fill in the gaps. Wouldn't mud just flake off when it dried?
From here on another trail stretched into in an infinity of sagebrush. It seemed like a good place to turn around. On the way back I saw something that always suckers me in: a lone animal on a ridgeline.
Too bad the camera only has a 4X optical zoom. Antelopes usually travel in herds of about a dozen. But there are always solo bachelors. There is something lethally glamorous about animals on a ridgeline.
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| Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" |
Comments
As for filling in the log gaps. A good clay with some straw (i.e. adobe) would hold up quite well if maintained. Obviously, this cabin has not been maintained.
Was there a spring or other water source nearby?
Maybe it was a private homestead, but things are so decayed now, you can't tell. I didn't see a well or spring.
I wonder if abandoned homesteads revert to public land?