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Forrest Allen walks out of one of his storage sheds, a former barrack. (Click on photos to enlarge)

The people sharing their stories with us become more interesting every day, at least to me. Before I arrived, Sharon met and interviewed some of the folks and has excitedly told me how wonderful these homesteaders are. On the main road to Powell lives 94 year-old Forrest Allen, who lives on the original homestead plot his family settled. He lived in a former barracks, but it burned down one day before the county got a fire truck. Neighbors tried to put out the fire with water from the irrigation ditches, to no avail. Forrest has three more half barracks on his land, all used for storage or workshops. They have corrugated steel siding over the exterior, but all have the original rough wood interiors and open ceilings. Cane in hand, he walked us around the various structures, a light rain turning into a brief downpour. Forrest took refuge in a three-sided structure that was once a barrack until the rain stopped. After an hour of hearing Forrest’s stories and photographing him, we had to leave for another appointment. I told Sharon we could make the whole book out of what I shot this morning.

Evaleen George and another loaf of freshly baked bread.

And that was before we tasted Evaleen George’s bread. The spry 91 year-old still lives in the barrack her family got as homesteaders in 1947. She went into detail about the original dimensions of the building, where the interior walls were built as they turned it into their home and the additions they made. Many mementoes line her walls including an ink drawing by a daughter of Heart Mountain, dishes and stained glass of her beloved birds and large photographs of extremely large George family reunions involving hundreds of people. As I was photographing her by a set of pictures on a wall, a buzzer went off occasionaly. After a while, she got up and went into the kitchen and began taking loaves of baked bread from the oven. Seven loaves in all emerged. She cut two slices off one loaf, buttered them and offered us the pieces. Amazing. Evaleen said she can’t eat the bread from stores, so she makes bread about every six weeks and freezes the loaves.

Evaleen’s birds hanging in a kitchen window, framed by beautiful lace.

In the afternoon we were interviewed by Ilene Olson at the Powell Tribune newspaper for an article about the project. Even the weather was interesting. On the way home we drove through a heavy thunderstorm, then heavy hail. A stretch of Highway 14A had so much hail/slush on the road that cars slowed down. It looked like an inch or two of snow.

Hail piles up on Route 14A on the way back to Cody.

Sunrise. (Click on photos to enlarge)

The weather forecast for the next week here in Cody calls for on and off showers, thunderstorms with occasional sun, not optimum conditions for photographing the barracks. I woke at 6:00 am this morning and saw the sky was clear, even saw a pink glow to the east. So I dressed and drove out to the barracks north of Cody. The rising sun lit one end of the barracks and Heart Mountain in the distance, unifying the two elements. A barbed wire fence surrounding the meadow framed the picture. I experimented with various lenses and angles and hope you don’t mind if you see more of this same barrack as I try to get the best light on it.

Our destination today was Shell, about 70 miles east of Cody. We met Heart Mountain Interpretive Center executive director Brian Liesinger and facilities manager Kim Barhuag a few miles out of the town at the Iowa University Geology Field Station. A barrack that was used as a dormitory was being donated to the Center. The plan is to move it by truck to the Interpretive Center site in Powell, at the exact location where a barrack stood when the camp was in operation. It’s a tremendous task for the museum and they hope to complete the move in time for the annual pilgrimage in mid-August.

Brian Liesinger photographs the barrack.

We drove up and saw a full, 120 foot long barrack situated between large piles of dirt and near the completed construction of new dormitories. It’s striking to see the full length of one up close and then you realize several families were crammed into this modest space. The structure had been covered with wood shingles and various layers of tar paper were added to the roof, but the basic frame, walls and windows were in place. Only part of the interior had the sparse look with exposed studs and open lattice of wood supports under the roof. But you felt the history of the building all around. Brian looked at the hardwood floor and said this was probably an administration building since the living quarters barracks had cheaper floors with gaps between the wood.

Dolan Scheron on his farm.

Brian and Kim interviewed the neighbor, Dolan Scheron, who lived there when the barracks arrived on the adjacent property. He wasn’t a homesteader, so unfortunately he won’t be in the book, though Sharon and I really hope to find a way since he has a great smile and look at those Caterpillar suspenders!

The cut on the floor between sections of the barrack.

One thing we wondered was how did they move a 120 foot long building? Well, turns out they didn’t, the barracks were literally cut in half or thirds, depending on how long the moving truck was (60 feet or 40 feet). (Most homesteaders used a hand saw, apparently you ask and they answer, “It took about two days.”) And between two of the ‘rooms’ in this barrack you could see the floor was cut in two. We hope to return to Wyoming to see the barrack being moved back to its home.

Ruth and Jane in front of a house made from a barrack that their family lived in.

We immersed ourselves in homesteading today, stopping first at the Homestead Museum in Powell, then getting a tour of barracks turned into homes from the Blackburn sisters, Ruth and Jane. The two lively woman are daughters of the well-known Blackburn family who were one of the first to homestead in the Heart Mountain area. You’ll not find a more knowledgeable and outspoken pair to guide you around Cody.

Meeting at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center we head west to the mountain and on to L13H, Lane 13H, where we have been driving the past few days. The sisters pointed out several outbuildings and houses that were barracks. They generally knew the current occupants and definitely knew who the original homesteaders were.

Then Jane exclaimed, “Here we are at the Blackburn homestead!” Sharon pulls the car into a driveway in front of an off-white wood house with a small wood log fence and a large motor home parked off to the side. This was a half barrack with very few modifications. A small mud room was added on to one side, horizontal siding was attached to the exterior, modern shingles and a satellite tv antenna were on the roof. A utility pole rises up from a front corner of the house, a huge mail box inexplicably placed about 10 feet off the ground.

The family actually lived about 20 yards to the side of this house in different barrack at the time they settled there. They clearly remembered living on the rough land after moving from Kansas. Jane boldly poked around the property, the current owners not home at the time. The original windows could be seen on the back side of the house. They were pleased to have their photo taken in front of the house, easily embracing each other in a sign of sisterly love.

The ditch rider’s home, a former barrack, with a view.

Jane directed Sharon to drive down a narrow dirt road paralleling a water canal, passing the “Private Road” sign. We encountered a woman from the Heart Mountain Irrigation District, Jane quickly talked us pass and we drove up to the ditch rider’s house. We learn a ditch rider manages the water as it flows through the canals to farms. One lives in a former barrack with a pretty spectacular view of Heart Mountain.

Back at the interpretive center, another quest. My friend Jon Funabiki said his parents and older brother are pictured in a display and with help I find a large color photograph of Mason and Grace Funabiki with their first son Guy, born May 10, 1943 in the camp.

Mason and Grace Funabiki with newborn son Guy in display at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.

Earlier in the day Sharon introduced met to Rowene Weems, the director of the Homesteader Museum. The passionate woman showed us displays of the Shoshone Project, a huge irrigation plan started in 1907 with the Heart Mountain district being implemented in 1946, this was what led to the barracks being sold to homesteaders. Many photos from the 1940’s show barracks being moved and placed on farmers’ land.

Until this trip, Heart Mountain meant one thing to me- the internment camp and the Japanese American story. I realize now Heart Mountain means many things to different people in this region, all linked to the distinctive mountain always on the horizon.

Verne Solberg poses in his house.

We approached information overload today after seeing a T-Bird collection, a post office, an outhouse, heard about chocolate made from honey, ate New Mexican green chile and wondered if homesteading really meant homesteading.

The day started out at Verne Solberg’s house on Road 20, a few miles from the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. The 96-year-old was one of the original homesteaders in area. He’s quite sharp and has a good memory for how his house was built out of barrack sections. It’s composed of a half barrack, which he then added on rooms, a fireplace and various features over the years. Most of the work he did himself. Another half barrack was turned into a guest house. And another section about 40 feet long on Verne’s property turns out to be the Heart Mountain camp post office, still with the half-door and sliding wood half door at the customer counter. Interior walls and a wood ceiling painted white are still intact. The original door and windows grace the structure. He’s not sure how he acquired the post office. An outhouse made of salvaged pieces of wood planks from a barrack sat near a storage shed. Toilet seats over holes cut in a bench provided some comfort. Without plumbing, the homesteaders all had to construct outhouses.

Verne’s outhouse, made from salvaged barracks wood and a door.

Carla shows us the post office building.

Carla Solberg, (used to be married to Verne’s son and now divorced, but still is Verne’s caregiver), opened up a huge metal shed to show us his Thunderbird car collection. Most are early 60’s models and he also has a vintage Ford, a boat and late model Lincoln.

Up the road we stop to photograph Suzanne Rankin’s house, two barrack sections fused in a t-shape and greatly modified.

Then Carla treats us to lunch at Noon Break, a semi-permanent food truck on the road to Powell, run by Suzanne and husband Steve. Turns out Steve makes some of the best green chile (probably the only green chile) in the Big Horn Basin.

The Noon Break restaurant, situated next to Re Cycle, a motorcycle shop.

At Northwest College in Powell we meet with four really fascinating history department professors who have various knowledge of Wyoming and Heart Mountain history and a very intense interest in the Japanese American experience. We find out that if homesteaders paid the Bureau of Reclamation, who administered the Heart Mountain region homesteading program, for the land, then technically the people weren’t homesteaders. At least according to the Homesteading Act of 1862. Sharon said no one in the interviews has mentioned paying for the land, and most of the people were pretty poor so they probably couldn’t afford to. Anyway, everyone thinks of themselves as homesteaders.

More importantly, we got recommendations for two places to get Wyoming chocolate- Lovell and Meeteetse. One has chocolate made from honey and the other various flavored truffles. I forgot which town had which, but we are going to both to see some barracks and will make side trips to the shops.

The Heart Mountain Honor Roll, facing its namesake mountain. Constructed in 1944, the list names over 750 men and women who served in the U.S. armed forces even as their families continued to be incarcerated behind barbed wire. The monument was renovated by the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. The back of the honor roll seen here resembles the wall of a barrack.  (Click on photos to enlarge)

I’m in Cody, Wyoming for the next two and a half weeks working on a book project with writer Sharon Yamato. We’re researching and interviewing former homesteaders who live in homes that were barracks at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II. Sharon got a grant through the Preservation of Japanese American Confinement Sites program administered by the National Park Service to fund our travels, production of a book and a film. So far we’ve seen many examples of former barracks on farms and ranches near Cody. We hope to get out and photograph them. I’ll be updating the blog either daily or almost daily.

After the camps began to close in 1945, the Bureau of Reclamation implemented the Homesteading Act of 1862, settling farmers on tracts in the vast areas of the west. Homesteaders had to be veterans and familiar with farming. Roughly built wooden barracks 120 feet long that housed several Japanese American families in Heart Mountain were sold to the homesteaders for $1.00. Many of the barracks were turned into homes. Our goal is to try and find these homesteaders and the former barracks they live in.

First stop Monday morning was the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, an excellent museum and gallery that tells the story of the WWII confinement site. It’s located just off Rt. 14A, on the site of the original camp, 13 miles from Cody and 11 miles from the town of Powell. The depth and amount of information is really astounding, covering pre-war attitudes to current day pilgrimages to this and other camps. The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation built and operates this incredible place.

The exterior of the interpretive center has three long buildings created to look like the tar papered barracks. Reflected in the window of one of the buildings is Heart Mountain.

A display of photography in the camp with a large photo of the Heart Mountain Camera Club.

Sharon has been here a week, so she drove me around to show me possible barracks that ended up as homes or outbuildings. We saw a section of one that seems to be used to house sheep. We got directions to a fully intact barrack north of Cody that Sharon had seen a few days ago. Turning down a road we saw a full barrack in what appeared to be a meadow, a giant cottonwood tree beside it, mountains in the distance. The scene seemed to place the barrack in the context of the surrounding environment, under a majestic tree. While far removed from the original camp site, it seemed not out of place in the meadow. The windows were boarded up but even from the road you could see flecks of tarpaper on the roof, the texture of weathered wood shining in the late afternoon sun.

The barrack and cottonwood tree.

Special champagne at the eclipse night dinner (Click on photos to enlarge)

Our two plane-loads of travelers flew back to Oslo from Longyearbyen today, leaving the polar community behind. As we walked out to the plane in late morning, the sun struggled to shine through a thin cloud layer, reminding everyone how fortunate we were that eclipse day was so clear. It was nice to get to know a few of my fellow eclipse watchers and hope to keep in touch with some of them.

Yesterday was more relaxing, I didn’t have any ‘extra’ activities planned. After spending too much time updating various pictures and responding to messages, I took a walk through the town to shop. Taking a walk can be somewhat of an ordeal. Since it was still about 5 deg. F you have to put on most of the layers to keep from freezing. The good thing is there is not much traffic and not many people actually walking around. I stopped first at the post office, hearing there were special eclipse stamps. They also had a very nice first day issue envelope with a 20.3.2015 postmark (in the European style, 20 March 2015). I bought some of those and a sheet of the eclipse stamps, plus a small polar bear sign zipper pull, which was cleverly on a rack next to the check out in order to relieve unsuspecting tourists of their kroner.

Next went to the 78 degree Tax Free shop to get some very nice t-shirts. They were out of the large size, but the medium fit fine. I got a few post cards and returned to the post office since they had nicer cards. The nearby Kulturhuset has a café, I ordered tea and wrote postcards. In the afternoon I wanted to get a bit more exercise, so I went back out mainly to mail the postcards and ended up taking some photos of the town and the continuing amazing light on the mountains. For dinner a group of us were on the tour schedule for a “wilderness dinner”, which consisted of going to the Camp Barentz for ox soup, sitting at one of the large huts around a wood fire. Which wasn’t bad, I stayed for some aurora viewing and saw Tony Hoffman for only the second time during the trip. It began to cloud up after 10m, so I took a bus back to the hotel in order to pack for our departure.

In all it was an exhilarating and special trip, not really relaxing but filled with great activities. The eclipse was memorable and 12 hours later we had spectacular aurora. I still have loads of photos to edit through and process and am looking forward to that. I’ll keep everyone updated on the latest postings. Thanks for reading the blog! I’ll post a few random shots, including yet another of amazing light on the landscape. Perhaps I’ll do a series on the Svalbard light.   

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Eclipse stamps and first day issue envelopes

Dog sledding through the Advent valley

NY friends Tony Hoffman, Eileen Renda and me just before the eclipse started

Jim Owen driving while I sit as passenger on our dog sled adventure

March 20 aurora over Longyearbyen

(Click on the photos to enlarge. Highly recommended.)

It’s hard to say anything could be better than a total eclipse, but last night came close. Finally saw some aurora borealis late last night on the 3^rd night of trying to see them (it?). To say it was spectacular is vastly understating the experience. I’m sure it was the most exciting thing I’ve seen since the eclipse 12 hours earlier. The viewing is about 6 miles outside of Longyearbyen in the Advent Valley at Camp Barentz, named after Willem Barents, the ‘official’ discoverer of Spitsbergen, which is the island we are on. We are close to the dog sled compound and the eclipse viewing site. There are some quaint huts used for dinning and entertaining, and I think our dinner is there tonight.

Leaving the Friday night dinner at the Kulturhuset, the local culture house, to get on the buses back to the hotel so we could catch another bus to Camp Barentz, we looked up and saw a green shimmering streak through the sky. It was an aurora streamer. It was pretty bright to be seen under the glare of the building lights and I was hoping there would be more later. The sky was super clear and it was nice to see stars out. Jupiter was moderately high in the south. Even at 10:30pm there was a slight glow on the horizon from the sun, which never dips very low at this time of the year.

            They build a fire inside the huts at Camp Barentz and serve coffee and tea. It’s generally very crowded and humid, so I stay outside looking at the sky and trying to stay warm. After 11pm there was a faint glow of green in the south, and vertical shafts of light grew from the horizon. You expect some sort of sound to happen, but the lights are just solar plasma ejected from the sun and interacting with the earth’s magnetic field. And there was lots of interaction last night. Suddenly the green lights grew up until they were high in the sky and formed the shape of a curtain, waving. Light would appear in the south-east or south-west, but mostly towards the south. Several curtains would appear and disappear eliciting oohhs and aahs from the crowd. It was astonishing to see how transparent they looked and almost solid at the same time. Bright stars and Jupiter could be seen through them. The aurora crept higher in the sky until there was a burst of light directly above us. A woman shouted, “Mum, look above you!” We all craned our necks to see, the width of the aurora past our peripheral vision. I tiled the camera back to try and keep up with the lights. For a second I debated changing to the fisheye lens which would have taken in the whole sky, and taken a lot of time to do in the cold. But I stuck with the super wide angle lens, and kept shooting the dancing lights. This seemed like the grand finale for the evening. About 12:30am our polar bear guard said the bus waiting would be the last back to the hotels. By then the sky had quieted down and the group was buzzing with excitement over what we saw.

A ‘curtain’ shape

One of the more impressive shapes

Directly overhead, 12:14:56 am

12:15:08 am

12:15:20 am

Totality (Click on photos to enlarge)

Today we had a spring equinox total eclipse in the polar region. Just an amazing sight, hard to describe it. For an hour the moon slowly moved over the sun during the partial phase. You could tell when totality was near, the light level dropped and we saw shadow bands on the flat snow. The bands are caused by atmospheric disturbances and are similar to the waves of light at the bottom of a pool. There is “second contact” when the moon is almost covering the sun and you see a bright flare at the side of the sun. Then it was total. It was a surreal sight, like seeing a black sun surrounded by darkness. I was surprised how dark it got, like a dim twilight. I couldn’t see the camera settings at first and it stayed in this darkness for over 2 minutes. People cheered, but most seemed in awe of the sight. The man next to me said he could see how ancient people could be completely frightened by the sight. Weather was perfect, bright, sunny, no clouds. But very cold. -17 C in the morning, which is 1.4 deg F. I think it didn’t get much warmer even around noon. Hope I can see another one. (Click on photos to enlarge).

Seconds before totality.

The scene in Longyearbyen.

“Third contact”, when the moon begins to uncover the sun.

2 degrees F, waiting for the start.

On the dog sled (Click on photos to enlarge)

Today I went dog sledding, one of the optional activities that Travel Quest set up for the tour group. About 30 of us went by bus to Green Dog, a sledding company outside of Longyearbyen. It was slightly crazy but a very wild ride. The dogs pull a sled with a passenger and a driver. I paired up with Jim Owen, who is also in the Spitsbergen Hotel. I ‘drove’ first, which consists of standing on the back of the sled, always holding on and braking when you go too fast. We had 6 dogs pulling us and there were about 15 sleds in all weaving our way through a magnificent valley.

The amazing light

The sun was bright and actually warm, though I think it was 5-7 degrees this morning. The light right now seems to be great all the time, all day, probably because the sun doesn’t rise much over the horizon. So it’s perpetually almost sundown or sunrise, the perfect time of day see the landscape. I’ll post another snowy picture, hope this doesn’t bore anyone. The slight variations in the white snow are amazing to look at.

Northernmost sushi

While shooting some feature pictures for Agence France-Presse (AFP), the people I used to work for full time, I came across this humorous advertisement. Longyearbyen is the northernmost permanent settlement, so everything here is the most northern. Now off to more aurora viewing, hope it will be clear tonight. Then the eclipse tomorrow!

Wednesday:  Arrived at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, the permanent settlement that is farthest north on the earth. 78 degrees, 15 minutes north latitude. It’s a nice town, very orderly with colorful houses. Flying over northern Norway we saw this white landscape of snow and ice that made amazing abstract images. I’ll post one shot here, but I’ll have to look through them and maybe post more. The sun was out for a short time as we flew north, but was cloudy as we approached Longyearbyen.

(Click on images to enlarge)

Almost lunarscape of northern Norway

The tour group has us fully occupied, we could sign up for optional excursions, I signed up for 3 extra aurora viewing nights and a dog sled ride. Included was a ‘sightseeing’ tour of Longyearbyen, which I went on immediately after arriving at the hotel. Among other things, we saw the Svalbard Global Seed Vault which has stored most of the world’s major collection of seeds. They chose Svalbard since they could dig the vault into the permafrost, and it’s at a high enough altitude to protect from rising sea levels. If the power fails, the permafrost will keep the vault cold. We could only see the outside entrance, which looks like an alien ship stuck in the side of this mountain.

Seed Vault

We saw the ‘polar bear sign’ which the guide said was the only traffic sign in the world with a black background, to show off the polar bear. Beyond this sign you have to be armed to protect against the bears. They have me scheduled for the dog sled ride at 9am, so I’ll continue tomorrow.