Do you value historic preservation?

I sure do. I like reading up on the local history of every town I have inhabited. I like finding out a city or village's origins and backstory. Some restaurants or museums will show photographs of images captured in time of that town.

I live in the west, and it's actually very fascinating to see what my home town looked like as a wild western style movie.

Sometimes you can recognize it, sometimes you can't. It's amazing to see what these towns looked like before they were built; seeing the roads made of mud and dirt, and people had to keep dry by walking on boardwalks. Even the natural landscape is different. I frequently visited a town that was named Klamath Falls. but the falls the town was named after was all dammed up. But the falls can be found in historic photos. Even the buildings 100 or more years ago looked prettier. Some are still standing to this day, but a lot of them, including a spectacular clock tower, were demolished to give way to uglier soulless buildings that were popular in the 1960s.

There is a pioneer graveyard a few blocks from my home. It is really cool and I walk there every day for exercise. I love the look of these old hand carved graves; they are so much spookier than the modern laser etched ones. Sadly, a few decades ago, some fuckheads smashed more than half of them with sledge hammers. There were some grave stones of real Oregon trail pioneers too. One grave said "Killed by Indians" and another said "Killed by a Grizzly bear"

I know of some rocks on an island out in a lake where there are some petroglyphs that nobody seems to know about. I'm not even sure if the survivors of tribe knows about them. I hope these rock paintings remain undisturbed, and last another 100+ years before nature completely rinses them away. Because there are people out there, who chip and chisel away at native american rock paintings. I don't know why the fuck they do that. Because even if they managed to break every piece off, take them home, and reassemble the petroglyph, it's going to look unauthentic and shitty. Even if you break one piece off as a souvenir, it will look insignificant without the rest of the painting.

I wish more effort was taken to protect and preserve history. And I'm sad to say that it is going to take a lot more than changing laws and being tougher on vandalism to stop it.

 

Greatly. Not much I like more than getting into how people lived and in what environment they lived in back in other eras. And what they tried to leave behind!

 

Yes.

I'm not big on world history and certainly can't explain how George Washington defeated the Nazis to end the Korean War, but I really like local history for a lot of the same reasons you mentioned.

 

Yes and I'm a genealogy buff so they go hand and hand.

 

Yes and I cant understand This statue removing thing that's been going on lately
The pyramids were said to be built by slaves so we should knock them down as well ??

 

We recently removed a wall and discovered a row of 6 bakers ovens (similar to the picture) that were used to bake bread locally from 1884 to 1930.

 

i value not loosing the opportunity to see how people furst figured out how to do things that are still useful and sometimes needed.
i think it can be overdone, but more often the opposite is the case.
also why throw away anything if there's still some use left in it. any use at all.

there's more value then just this is how people did things.

which doesn't mean we shouldn't do things in better ways if we have them.
sometimes you don't though, and knowledge is useful.

 

well i can't understand putting up statues of humans in the furst place at all. the pyramids aren't shaped like any particular persons face in real life that i know of.
statues of humans are just ugly and mess up the natural scenery.

 

Yes and thankfully live in a region where historical preservation is a priority for the most part. Although occassionally I do find out that where a modern monstrosity now stands, a historical building once was. Breaks my little ol' heart to think about what could have been if only it was preserved

 

Yes. Family history is my hobby, and I regret that so many of the old buildings were destroyed before I was able to see and photograph them.

 

Yeah, part of my job is salvaging old wood from buildings and barns. I've taken down 4 old dairy barns from the early 20th century. It's sad the old barns are being taken down, but at least the wood doesn't go into the landfill. I also live along of the original Oregon trail that the early settlers took. There are monuments where Indian battles took place.

 

(One of my ancestors died on the Oregon trail--Boone Hays.) Lots of old business buildings and old homes in my small hometown of Lemoore,Cal. My gramma was born a few miles south of there in 1884. I don't like to see old barns degrade and lean and eventually fall down. I've seen them in Oregon and California.

 

I understand why people want the Confederate statues removed. They say it's honoring people who were invovled in slave holding and disenfranchising of African-American people. In part this is true. The people who put these statues up were trying to hold onto the idea of the Old South, which was built on the backs of slaves. But, in fact, the entire nation was financially enriched by slavery. There are statues in this country, memorials to men (mostly) who've done egregious acts, such as sterilizing and butchering men and women of color as practice to do similar operations on white patients or because the black men or women were considered feeble minded or promiscuous. However, if we pulled down all the statues of all the Confederates and slave holders, Jefferson and Washington would need to be pulled down too. Mount Rushmore would be half erased. I see leaving these statues in place as touchstones for a continuing, deep discussion of who helped build our nation, African slaves, who was hounded, killed and disenfranchised after the Civil War by the KKK and lynchings and lack of voting rights and education, and who disproportionately still suffer in this country. Removing those statues doesn't tear down racism. Talking about the roots of racism and opening hearts and minds does. And additionally, changing attitudes and developing compassion and tolerance for those who suffer and those who do not understand the source of such suffering, is key.

 

Love these Barncaster guitars built with 100 year old wood !
Barncaster - Simple aging and finish project

 

That's awesome. In many ways wood gets better with age.

 

Wow, it's beautiful. They don't make building like that anymore.

 

I gained an appreciation for history from growing up visiting Charleston so often. No other US city does historical preservation as well as Charleston.

This is supposedly the oldest house in Charleston



And some more Charleston houses (pictures dont really do them justice)