Wild West

Beloved mythology of the US, the Wild West period is more fiction than truth. It's a story of conquest and survival, promise and disappointment, creation and destruction, and always clashes between differing cultures and species. As David Murdoch said, "No other nation has taken a time and place from its past and produced a construct of the imagination equal to America’s creation of the West."1

All of that is controversial and complex, continually researched, updated and disputed. But there is one perspective that all agree on: the west in its pristine and wild state was bountiful and beautiful. And happily there are parts of it that remain unchanged to this day.

As AtoZ Challenge draws to a close I'd like to share with you some pictures of that still "wild west". I have visited these sites but without a camera, so I rely on Getty Images and the professionals to capture them for you. They bring wonderful memories to life for me and probably for some of you. If you have not stood in these places perhaps you will be inspired to take "the trip of a lifetime".

Bryce Canyon

Monument Valley

Colorado in Spring Bloom

Great Sand Dunes of Colorado

Rocky Mountains and River in Montana

1 From Wikipedia:  Murdoch, David (2001). The American West: The Invention of a Myth. University of Nevada Press. p. vii.ISBN 978-0874173697. 

Northville, My Home Town

This village of 2,500 people in sourthwest Michigan is located in huge Wayne County which also contains Detroit. Northville's first "land patent" is dated in 1823, placing it 30 miles from Detroit - a journey of three days. Now it takes a half hour for my son to drive from his Northville bakery to suppliers in Detroit.

Great Harvest Bakery Northville, my son's busines.

I moved here 3 years ago after 10 years of visiting from my home in Ohio. I could not resist the double lure of the town's old-fashioned charm and my growing family, so I found an 1893 house just ten minutes' walk from my son's bakery in the tiny "down-town".

Northville is in the northwest corner of Wayne County, the largest in Michigan. It covers 614 square miles, 2/3 the size of Luxembourg at 998 square miles. (It is larger than six other European countries including Vatican City.) It holds several townships, each containing other suburbs, as well as Detroit Metro Airport which covers 11 square miles according to the 2010 census - likely more today. 

For some wonderful tours of Detroit and the area click here: Video Tours  And for more personal views of Wayne County and some current issues you can visit another of my blogs: Mary in Michigan

To whet your appetite, here are some great stills:        

                                             

                      Part of Detroit's Reality Today: Ambassador Bridge to Canada       

            

          

International Freedom Festival, June 2008

I did not realize when I came to live here that my two feet would would be firmly planted in different eras, with 200 years between! Our news contains a jumble of information about Detroit's looming bankruptcy and related lack of public services, the auto industry's resurgence, third-world conditions in the "inner city", and exciting programs of the arts and culture. Not to mention weekly community events from concerts to marches to races, all usually with fireworks over the river.

It's a fascinating place to live, in the middle of "the action" yet as far from it as one can get. For details and pictures of some of it I invite you to visit my personal journal at MARY in Michigan.