Door Archives - Bliss Photographics

Wyoming Wind on Ice

Good New Years Morning to all. Welcome 2020. It’s going to be an interesting year.

On this wonderful morning I noticed the breeze here had left some physical evidence of it’s direction and magnitude. The sunrise off frame was hard to ignore but I got distracted. The rustic nature of this metal building was hard to ignore in this light. The winds the day before while the sun was warming the ice on the roof. Icicles grow when the air is cold but the roof is warm either from within or from without. I can see clearly that the wind was not only steady but quite cold. The sun at 4000 feet is still amazingly strong even in mid-winter. Day time melting or even “Sublimation” (your google word of the day) occurs. These sun induced phase changes from snow in an of themselves will ablate the snow cover significantly during just a short time.

The old building tells many stories. Several generations of additions/ are apparent. The weather has taken it’s toll on the windows. It’s a good thing on a ranch to have a few extra gates sitting around. Many things have been stored within this shelter on the prairie. This abandoned building stands alone against the elements certainly here in the borderlands of Wyoming/Montana. 4000 foot in elevation, NO trees around it, nothing to block the winds across the plains. Who knows what this building has seen. No one is telling. 🤔

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Title: Wyoming Wind on Ice

True Story about the Junior Wood Stove Door:

Found out near by a 1930’s Remote Backcountry Homestead located on my place. This cast iron Junior Stove Door (wood probably as coal is a bit south and wasn’t free). The 1920’s issue “Junior” was found in an over bank “trash” dump from that old Homestead which inevitably is over the lip of a nearby gully. The original stove probably rusted out or cracked from overheating but this door survived. Nothing but steel and glass out there as MOST of the wood from that place has rotted over the 80 intervening years but there are nails and pitfalls to watch out for. Dangerous place to walk about I think.

The Homestead was abandoned after the father died of an acute appendix. He was unable to get out to medical help due to winter in the 1930’s. I met one local Women (a daughter of that man) that grew up out there in the Late 1920’s and early 30’s. Little House on the Prairie was a castle compared to this log structure these guys built. The woman fed this stove door more than a few times as an adolescent, bare footed in the summer, dirt floor in the kitchen with a goat hanging inside the door. (I’ve seen the photo and have a copy but don’t own it, the family does). I’m sure this Junior Stove Door was just inside the log cabin door. Piles of wood waiting their turn for the flame.

Background in the Back Country:

This I met that daughter as a “getting” elderly woman of then in her 80’s. She several times brought her extended family out to the site to see humble beginnings. I managed to navigate them out there (way out there lol).

The problem with going there were the many problems for big SUV’s. . Getting a group of 15 people that far in to sage and past a few deep gullies is always an interesting task for the new off road drivers of their ‘SUV” that has never been “off pavement”. Going off gravel, off two tracks through the open prairie is always fun to initiate new drivers lolol.

Someone close to her contacted me when she was in Hospice. We made a bouquet and tray with artifacts from the homestead she grew up on. A ford emblem from a ford truck, a bit of running board made the “plaque portion. Wildflowers decorated the 1930’s patina’d mason jar included on the small “tray”. I wasn’t there when she got it. 😔 That little family in the Borderlands of Wyoming/Montana lives on as one of it’s matriarchs closes her circle of life. There are a LOT of stories like that but have been lost in the shadows of time.

2×3 landscape aspect Make a cool wall hanger for someone named Junior lolol.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

True Story about the Junior Wood Stove Door.