Tag Archives: history

Mind Boggling

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One definition.

Today, while sitting at my desk in an RV parked in the middle of Central Washington State farmland, I watched a live, full-color feed from outer space on my phone of the historic docking of a privately developed commercial spacecraft to the multi-government built International Space Station. Here’s a screen capture from my phone:

Dragon Docks with ISS

I am old enough to remember when the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon. It was 1969 and I was almost 8 years old. (Aw, come on, don’t do the math.) My mother made us stay up to watch it on the family TV — a big TV console that stood on the floor and required you to get up to change the channels because there was no remote control. The picture we saw of that historic moment looked like this:

Apollo 11 First Step

Do I even need to point out that my phone has more computing power than NASA had when it launched Apollo 11?

We’ve come a long, long way.

I call that mind-boggling.

The Old Gold Dredge in Buckhorn Wash

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The story I heard with yesterday’s photo.

I heard the story years ago.

A gold miner had built a dam in Buckhorn Creek, north of Phoenix, east of Wickenburg. He’d put a boat on the resulting body of water to dredge for gold. But a heavy rain caused the dam to fail. The water emptied southeast down the creek, taking the boat with it. It was soon stuck in the sand down the dry wash.

Location of DredgeAnd there it remains.

We flew over it yesterday in Don’s helicopter. I’d shown it to him a while back while flying out in that area and he’d tried to relocate it several times since then. Yesterday, I found it for him again and he marked it with his GPS. I shot this photo.

Buckhorn Dredge

Doesn’t look much like a boat, does it? Vandals have been at it rather violently, it seems. And I’m sure more than a few minor floods helped the decay. When I first saw it, it looked like the image about a third of the way down this page, which was dated 2003. You can see an even later photo near the bottom of this page.

I don’t know if the story I heard is true. And I don’t know when all this happened. I’d love to know more about it, so if you have any ideas or links to additional resources, please share them in this post’s comments.

It’s a good example, however, of some of the really weird things we fly over out in the Arizona desert.

A Real, Old-Fashioned Payphone

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Yes, these still exist.

A Real Phone Booth

A real phone booth. You can find this in the main post office on 2nd Street in Walla Walla, WA.

In this day and age when everyone has a cell phone — including kids — the payphone is dying part of our culture. Recently, I got into a discussion about payphones with one of my Twitter friends, @Jen4Web. I started photographing the real ones I saw. I knew there was a good one at the Walla Walla Post Office, where I’d be going in a few days, and told her about it. On Wednesday, I snapped a shot with my BlackBerry and put it on TwitPic.

That got @StuartOswald interested. Apparently, he’s involved with a Web site called Payphone Org UK that shares photos of payphones. He asked for the phone number of the one I photographed. I promised to get it and a better shot. That’s what this post is all about.

I went back to the Post Office to take a few better photos of the phone booth and get its phone number: (509) 525 – 9958. I also took a shot of the post office from the outside. You can see the best of these photos here.

Payphone Close Up

A closeup of the phone booth.

The phone booth you see here is one like I remember from when I was a kid. It’s a wooden booth with a sliding panel door, light, and fan. There’s a shelf under the phone and a shelf to sit on. There’s even a phone book. The only thing different is the phone — this one is modern; when I was a kid, phone booths like this still had dial phones.

The phone booth is in the outer lobby, adjacent to the post office boxes in the Main Post Office on 2nd Street in Walla Walla, WA. Don’t let the name of the town fool you — Walla Walla is a great little town with a vibrant Main Street (actually named Main Street). There are shops and restaurants, and enough wine tasting that you don’t need to get into your car and drive. The town is surrounded by vineyards and wheat fields. It’s located in southeastern Washington state, south of the picturesque Palouse area and north of Pendleton of blanket fame.

Walla Walla Post Office
The main Post Office in Walla Walla, WA as seen from 2nd Street.

If you’re ever in Walla Walla, stop by and visit this piece of history. Tell you kids about it.