Bighorn Basin Photographs

A farm building in the southern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming.

(click images to view larger)

I started this post a little over three years ago and never finished it after getting wrapped up with new (then) work responsibilities. Now retired, I'm cleaning up old blog drafts, and I enjoy these images enough to publish this without much text. For those who aren't familiar with the geography, the Bighorn Basin occupies a large area in north-central Wyoming between the Bighorn Mountains to its east and the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains and Yellowstone National Park to its west. The Owl Creek and Bridger Mountains wrap around the southern edge of the basin and the Pryor Mountains rise just over the Montana border to the north. The basin is sparsely populated and agricultural where there is water to irrigate and very dry elsewhere, occupied by sparse shrublands and a lot of saltbush. It's a beautiful place to explore.

Wyohistory.org has an excellent overview of the basin and its history that I won't paraphrase here. The photos in this post were collected during several excursions.

Grain elevator, Greybull.

Trees, Northern Bighorn Basin.

Gate. Greybull Livestock Auction.

Trailer with statues. Greybull.

Boulder, Red Gulch. Eastern Bighorn Basin.

Stop and Proceed.

Rags. Industrial area, Greybull.

Greybull Livestock Auction.

Chairs. Greybull Livestock Auction.

160-180 million year old dinosaur track, Red Gulch. Species unknown (Therapod?)

Chute, Greybull Livestock Auction

Chute, Greybull Livestock Auction

Greybull Livestock Auction.

Trees and wind leave their mark, Greybull Livestock Auction.

Badlands, Eastern Bighorn Basin.

Abandoned Places

Abandoned truck stop, Wyoming-Nebraska state line at Pine Bluffs.

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I've been trying to figure out what is appealing to me about shooting photographs of abandoned places.  Trying to make artful photographs is daunting these days because there are so many people producing high quality work of every subject under the sun, that it's impossible not to feel that you're just contributing to cliches, or reproducing what others have already done.  Abandoned farms, old industrial sites, rusting cars and trucks, farm equipment, windmills:  they've been worked over by photographers and painters.  But when I'm out exploring I photograph them anyway.  

What's the meaning of these images?  What am I trying to say with them?  I'm not sure yet, but here are a few ideas.  I'm not entirely satisfied with these explanations though.  What do you think?

First, I enjoy exploring abandoned sites much as I enjoy exploring canyons, other countries, Wyoming basins, sagebrush, shorelines, or any place where I don't know what I'll find.  There's  the anticipation of discovering something unexpected and beautiful or even interesting but ugly.    

Secondly, there are often arrangements of objects that are accidentally beautiful or emotional in places that people have left behind.  On a recent trip I explored an old trailer near an abandoned truck stop, and found a package of family photographs in the dust and debris.  Were they left on purpose?  By mistake?  An electric bill was addressed to a name that matched annotation on the backs of some of the photos, but when I found the person on facebook and sent them a message offering to mail them the old photos (I left them in the trailer but could retrieve them), I never heard back.  Was their time in that trailer something that they wanted to leave behind?  Or maybe they just don't look at the internet? 

I wonder if the children whose abandoned rooms contain old books and toys drive past these places as adults, and if they stop to have a look.

Truck trailers, abandoned truck stop.

A diner, abandoned truck stop, Pine Bluffs, Wyoming.

An adding machine.

Paper towel holder, abandoned diner.

The following are found photographs from an old trailer.  I encourage you to click on these and look at them at full size. 

      

Driving around

Abandoned trailer north of Laramie.

I've photographed around Laramie for so long that sometimes it's hard for me to get myself out to drive around with my camera, but whenever I do I have fun.  Last weekend I took a break from class preparation to head up to Bosler the back way--on a dirt road that parallels the highway.  It's a classic Laramie Basin drive with wide open grasslands split by the Laramie River and punctuated by a few ranches, some cows and antelope, and a few old trailers.  I've photographed some of this before of course, but every trip is a little different--sometimes because of different light and sometimes just because you're in a different mood.  

Fenceline, Laramie Basin.  I'll post just on fences soon.

Rabbitbrush and trailer, Laramie Basin

Abandoned trailer near Bosler

Trailer detail, Bosler

Abandoned trailer and prairie, Bosler

Old Trailer Homes

Trailer near Muddy Gap, Wyoming.  January 2010.

(click any photo to make bigger)

There's something appealing about abandoned trailers in remote places.  Maybe it's about wondering who would live in such a place and why.  I like what Wyoming weather does to human detritus after a decade or two, and trailers are particularly evocative of how temporary we are.

Trailer, Laramie Basin.  January 2010.

Trailer near Red Desert, Wyoming.  October 2011.

Trailer near Red Desert, Wyoming (same as above).  October 2011.