Ore Scale, Missouri Mines Complex

A beautifully patinaed ore scale inside one of the abandoned buildings at the Missouri Mines Complex, an old lead mining district in southern Missouri. 

Winter trees from the Rocheport bluffs

I hiked out to the blufftops above Rocheport last week to see if I could find a view similar to the one I found there last April.  Even though I found the same spot, and photographed the same vista, without the pale green of early spring and the warm light of sunrise, it just wasn't as magic.  So I started working with the screen of oaks and hickories that I at first mistook for an impediment, and I decided that given the flat light of the winter morning, this image wasn't too bad.  It has a lot more to do with the repetition of the tree form, and the resulting variations and permutations thereof, than it has to do with color.  I'll post the image from last spring next time, to give you a taste of this location in the glorious fecundity of early spring.

Cooper's Landing, Missouri River, Boone County

Hillary Scott plays on the porch at Cooper's Landing, a music/sunset/boat landing/thai food/cheap beer venue on the Missouri River in the wilds of southern Boone County.

High Point

Old garage, High Point, Missouri.  Across the highway from this garage are a few very well preserved brick buildings, one of which houses a general store.  Legend has it that not too far from High Point are the remains of a very old, very deep coal mine.  It's hard to believe that this part of Missouri was once home to a thriving coal industry.

Church Interior, Carroll County

A friend and I explored this church while driving north on highway 65, through Carroll County.  The dust on the pews is due not just to neglect, but also to a rock quarry located just behind the church.  The church building and surround trees were the last outpost of non-quarry between the highway and the quarry itself. 

Sedalia

I found this image while walking the streets of Sedalia, near the railroad tracks on the north side of town.  The far north side of town used to be Sedalia's red light district, back in the day of cattle drives and a burgeoning ragtime music scene.  No less than Scott Joplin got his start playing piano in some of early Sedalia's saloons and clubs.  The name America seemed appropriate because of the resemblance, if you use your imagination, to an American flag...red brick surround a blue field, pitted with characters.  And what state could be more American than Kentucky?  Bourbon, bluegrass, and coal mining.