Gateway to the West and not a conestoga in sight
But then, why would there be, it being 2021. And, since having been long ago flung wide open, the West is inclined for folks to just stay wherever they are that isn’t West.
How I roll in places where there is a marker of the past? I let the marker slip from my consciousness and transport myself to the sound of people and animals in a sea of Conestogas carrying people and goods across a vast territory. People mostly driven by winds of hope. Winds that drove many of those poor souls onto the rocks of fate.
Its easy to sit in an armchair of enlightened ignorance and judge the past and it’s people. History mostly happens as a result of ordinary folks just trying to make their way. And sometimes it’s made because a large group of people get worked up by a small group of assholes and follow those assholes into perdition. Such was the case of the confederacy. The assholes got off scot free in that sad instance. What is it about ordinary folk, that causes them to get snagged by an asshole into an asshole’s causes as they make their way through the branches of the tree of life? Unlikely that I will ever know.
The Conestoga Tribe, people on the move
Now these, the Conestoga people, a tribe unique? They weren’t greedy colonizers for the majority, though human predators did lurk among them as is always the case. They were farmers with families looking for a place in a world much harsher than one we can imagine from our armchair of ignorance. Courageous considering the chances that a person’s corpse was going to feed the buzzards. Or maybe that guy on that wagon over there in the case of a member of the Donner party.
Those folks had as good a chance of buying the farm out there as they did building one and prospering. Enough did though, given how many cities and how few first people villages there are out west of that there arch.
And so the arch
Returning to the Arch. I didn’t get to ride the elevator nor see the museum. But I did get to walk around it and look at the Conestoga people and their “Ships of the Rolling Plains” up in my head. Thanks God. Here’s some Pictures. Tomorrow Iam off to Cahokia. Can’t wait for those brain movies.
One Response
Great thoughts and great shots! You are always a master with your camera. Thanks for the share.