The Old Missouri Homestead

I do not know who lived here. Twenty-five years ago, when I was a college kid and had no idea I'd be living very close to this old place, I would hike around it, and sit in the woods, and wonder about the prior occupants.

At that time, there was still the remnants of the old house and you could find pieces of the family's pottery. Whenever I am in a place like this, where people have come and gone, I wonder what the dreams of these people were. Were they like me? Did they ever wonder if years after they were gone, would someone traipse across their land and wonder about them? Did they figure their mark on the land would be more permanent - the start of something big?

I left Missouri and went to Alaska and then Colorado with my wife. We had kids and built a life together and had some good adventures and plan to have more.

A dozen years ago, we moved into the home that my wife's parents had built as a vacation getaway. It is perhaps 250 yards from the place you see in the picture. We have to trespass a bit to get on the land, but it's pretty clear the people who own the land, whom we do not know, reciprocate regularly. Had someone told me 25 years ago that I'd be back in this area to live, I'd have said they were crazy! For the people who lived in this place...I admire you for your choice of a beautiful place to live. Thanks for leaving so many interesting things for me and my family to wonder about.

So, just like the long gone people who lived here, I have a bit of trouble seeing into my own future.  Just like the homesteaders, I concern myself enough with today.  I figure there will be plenty of fallen buildings I leave behind- I hope the ones that remain standing, our boys, that they are the real and lasting evidence of our existence.

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