My mother was born in the state of Idaho and lived there for most of her life. Last year, I had the opportunity to experience the beauty of Idaho. My mother was recovering from cancer surgery, and I stayed with her for several months. I got to be her child again at the same time that I was like her parent. It was a chance to share life together. I got to see the Idaho she called home.
"Eternal Farm"
When I was young, we drove from our house in Arizona to Idaho every summer to visit my Grandma O'Brien in Nampa. Idaho memories are the taste of fresh corn and fruit picked directly from the tree. There were aunts and uncles and cousins to visit with. There was grandmother's house and garden, built by my grandfather who had died on a hunting expedition when my mother was twelve. And then there was my grandmother who had raised twelve children in this house.
Signpost at Silver City, ID
Idaho was farm country. The houses in Nampa were all handbuilt and custom, so very different from the suburban cookie-cutter houses of Arizona. At my Uncle Tommy's home, I learned what it was like to be licked by a cow and be zapped by an electrical fence. My cousin Larry taught me how to shoot a bow and told me and my brother how grandmother's house was haunted by Hairy Jake. My cousin Markie was our friend to play 'Rock'em, Sock'em Robots' and army with. There was the old victrola phonograph where I listened to Spike Jones on aged records.
"House on Yale Street"
As always, much changes with the passage of time. Idaho will always be a place in my heart where the past comes to life. The images I share here are timeless.
My mother passed away in May. However, she will always be with me in priceless memories.
"Snake River Sunset"
More Musings
"Forgotten Grave"
The graveyard at Silver City is on the hillside outside of this ghost town.
"November Skies"
Lake Lowell reservoir was just a few miles from my mother's house. As a child, she and her brothers and sisters would ride their bikes here to fish.
"Sun Down"
A field full of pumpkins, corn, and sunflowers - a harvest of fall colors
"Pumpkin Harvest"
There was a large truck packed with pumpkins beside a field so full that you couldn't tell any pumpkins had been harvested.
"Marsing Fishing"
About Idaho
The natural terrain of Canyon County, Idaho is mostly high plains desert with sage brush dotting the land. Volcanic rocks form the buttes and litter the ground. Rivers carved steep canyons as they wind their way from the mountain chains that encircle the area called the Treasure Valley. Their waters fed the irrigation canals which nurture the farmlands that thrive on the fertile soil.
Petroglyph-carved rock in Celebration Park
Up until about six years ago, Idaho was like a postcard from the past with its view of rural life. The barns studded the cornfields. Orchards covered the hillsides. My mother's house had only a barbed wire fence in the backyard separating her yard from the cow pasture behind it. At night, you could hear the crowing of chronologically-impared roosters and the low moan of freight trains passing by.
"Idaho Gold"
Alas, but modern times are finally catching up with Idaho. Housing developments sprawl across the land that once bore alfalfa or sweet mint. The orchard lands are turning into vineyards or yet more houses. The cow pasture behind my mother's house is now buried by duplexes.
"Storm on the Cornfield"
In my portraits of Idaho, I have tried to capture the fragile remnants of the past and protect them from the ravages of time. In the few months that I stayed in Nampa, I saw old barns torn down. The cornfields lined with sunflowers are bulldozed for new houses. The fruit stand that last October sold pumpkins from the neighboring patch has its own "For Sale" sign now. The Idaho my mother grew up in is passing away.
"Fading"
These pictures of Idaho are my tribute to my mother. This is her homeland; the land she loved. I grieve that she, like the field of sunflowers, is now only part of my past. Yet I will always treasure the memories of Idaho and my mom.
Graveyard post at Silver City, ID