north dakota ~

This is the earliest picture I have of Mabel. It's from a photocopy a relative made for me years ago. She was still living in Barton, North Dakota at the time. It always amazed me that a copy of the original never made its way to Washington when they moved west just after the turn of the century.

We went back to Barton, ND on a road trip a few years back. Grandma use to tell me that there wasn't anything left in Barton...she was right. Perfectly beautiful countryside with field after field of sunflowers. All the farming is done by big, big farmers now ~ no small farms left. We learned that much of the old homes, sod houses, and barns are gone too ~ taken down to make way for the huge farm equipment.
We walked the streets of the closed-up town of Barton. I snapped hundreds of photos, found my great-great-grandfather's 100-year-old gravemarker covered by a lilac bush behind the old church, and watched a black barn cat toss and torture a field mouse. It was a great time!
This picture represents what's left of the town ~ everything is all boarded up and locked down. Look close ~ there was a small surprise in the photo I didn't see until much later while looking at the photo when back at home.

...one of those sneaky North Dakotaian spiders made its way into the shot.