Under President T Roosevelt, an old homesteader broke ground up above the Missouri River, south of what is now Washburn. He tilled the ground, collecting rocks, raising a crop, building a barn, establishing his herd of cattle. The rocks he collected, he added to the barn for his living quarters. He lived there all his life. Never married. Never had a family. He died there, and it remains as it was when he died.
I love this old barn. It speaks of so much hard work and of a time when North Dakota was established as solid, hardworking people in a solid hardworking state. The barn is falling in. It won’t last much longer. I shoot it often. On this date, January 19, I was passing by and was drawn in to the driveway, walking through snow where no one had walked for a while, I recorded it once again.