Re: A visit to the site of Big Horn Section House

Dave;
You might be right about that pot's use!

The entire reason I went to Bighorn Section House site was to recreate the famous William Henry Jackson photo taken in the mid-1880's of a train ascending the Whiplash (1882-1886 according to History Colorado's website that has rights to this photo):


Here's the same location on August 7, 2020:



Several differences are apparent in vegetation. The large Ponderosa Pine on the left side of the photo is the only Ponderosa Pine that definitely appears in both photos. Some of the Juniper and Pinyon Pines may also be the same trees. Grass is apparent in the Jackson photo, but it is almost non-existent in the modern photo. This was a result of overgrazing that reduced the grass cover and allowed sagebrush to replace it. The stone border marker is present in both photos in the lower left. I could find no evidence of the large dead pine tree next to the section house. There appears to be a faint trail heading towards the camera from the section house in the Jackson photo. It is not visible in the modern photo, but just left and behind my photo location you could still see a faint track going up the hill behind me to an old gate through the barb wire fence. Pretty amazing that about 138 years have elapsed between the two photos and trains still run here...