Sidetracked Charley

US 64 Going West   I have done a lot of blogs about the road to Raton. It is a lonely stretch of straight road shadows parts of the Santa Fe Trail. Wagon trains passed this way using the volcanic peaks as landmarks. I find it haunted not necessarily by ghosts of those who must have died between St. Joseph, Missouri and Santa Fe but haunted by the spirit of determination it took to load all their worldly goods and head into the unknown where few had passed, and even less had sent post cards to say they made it. There is no rush hour on this highway across the short grass prairie. But traffic on this particular day in the midst of the pandemic felt less than normal. Colfax county residents are finding other ways to deal with official business than go to the county seat in Raton. Raton is not in the center of the county by a long shot. But because it was at one time when such decisions were made the biggest population center. That is rapidly being challenged with the demise of mining....

Old Friends I have long known that photographers are only truly happy with a camera in their hands. And paradise may be having a photographer buddy to share fstops with. I say maybe because there are photographers and there are photographers. We don't all want to capture the same subjects. Or talk about the same things while scouring the landscape outside the car looking for the next object of attraction. And there is nothing more awful than being in a vehicle driven by a non-photographer unless you forced yourself to leave your camera at home. Better to travel with just your camera. But the last three days have been awesome with my photographer friend from the east coast visiting. Since her last visit I have been cataloging old trucks to share. And yesterday we hit the truck trail. Some were old friends of mine. And some I had saved for her visit. International at Eagle Nest And some were eureka moments while looking for buffalo and antelope or discussing the nex...

Dawson, New Mexico was a company town. And after the two mine disasters in 1913 and 1923 the company buried the 263 of the 1913 disaster, and the 123 of the 1923 collapse in the company cemetery with cast iron markers in white. Most were Italian or Greek and their extended families were in the old country. They came here seeking a new beginning. And ended up with a small plot and a white cross. There was a world wide depression in the 1980's and in the first decade of the 1900's immigration from Europe increased from 3.5 to 9 million. Many were pulled here by contract labor agreements offered by recruiting agents, known as padrones to Italian and Greek laborers. Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks, Bohemians, and Italians flocked to the coal mines or steel mills, Greeks preferred the textile mills, Russian and Polish Jews worked the needle trades or pushcart markets of New York. Railroad companies advertised the availability of free or cheap farmland overseas in pamphlets distrib...