Voices from the past--- Petroglyphs along the Columbia that are figured to be about 350 years old, although the drawings resemble others that are about a thousand years old. Other evidence suggests that people have been living in the area for about 10 thousand years.

 

Windmill...

 Yes, it was turning...

What's your hurry? Come sit with us for a while...

 

An old Chevy that got more colorful with age...

 

Loving caress...

 

Even on the dry side, there's plenty to drink along the banks of 15 Mile Creek....

 

Still some color on this old barn with a stone foundation...

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No school today...

 

Gone fishin'... Native American fishing platforms on the Deschutes River, near Sherar's Bridge. They've been fishing here for a thousand years.

 

Forgotten...

 

The railroads and the river--- They are still vital to the dry side.

 

Things just seem a lot brighter...

 

Lonely outpost...

 

Even here, one can feel the presence of people who worked very hard to make a life for themselves...

 

It's not a mine, it doesn't seem to be a drain-- It's a bit mysterious...

 

Peaceful, very peaceful...

 

The steam tractor pulled it, the wheels turned the mechanisms, the wheat went through the thresher...

 

Is it safe?

 

Time...

 

Mt. Hood!

 

Mt. Adams!

 

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It got them where they were going...

 

From the Oregon side, looking north to the higher hills of Washington. The Columbia River is in front of those darkened hills. Mt. Adams looms at the far left with Mt. Rainier just visible to its right. And on the far right the giant wind farm in the Goodnoe Hills. And the land goes on forever...

 

All used up...

 

Shhhh--- Just a quiet place to sit for a while, and tell yourself that it will all be OK...

 

The bridge to... someplace...

 

Just across the road from the Eight Mile School is the Eight Mile Cemetery. It gets very little maintenance, but somehow I think there's always some of that same feeling of sunshine and belonging that seems to inhabit the school. There is no feeling of sadness here. Most of stones are from the 1800's.

 

The abandoned Eight Mile School-- Where the sun always shines on the memory of decades of children learning, singing, and laughing.

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So much to see in the Goodnoe Hills of Washington--- The wheat has been harvested. The old abandoned Goodnoe School still stands watch. Cattle are grazing in the mid-distance on the left. The Columbia RIver is more than a thousand feet below. The hills rise again on the Oregon side and are festooned with wind turbines. And land goes on forever.

 

From the early 1900s, a symbol of power on the front of a Case tractor-- steam power!