Driving the long and lonely back roads, stretching from Kansas to Montana and through the Dakotas, you finally get a sense of the vastness of the Great Plains.  There are few encounters and very few distractions - no phone coverage, passing cars or semi-trucks -  nothing to keep your mind from imagining and reflecting on the brave pioneers who settled on this land and the indigenous Americans who also called it home.

Before the settlers came the Lakota Sioux, one of the oldest and largest Native American tribes dating back over 2,000 years.  Beyond where  the eye could see were the massive herds of buffalo roaming over the edge of the earth. For the Lakota, the land and the buffalo wielded a deep connection to a spiritual way of life, believing that all things are connected and sacred, life made up of parts that form a greater whole. 

In the midst of these Lakota tribes came the late 19th century settlers from the east and abroad.  They came to the Plains seeking a new life, a place of their own, a place they could call home. Miners, cattle ranchers, farmers, and the railroad brought energy and hope to this new, untamed territory. These pioneers dared to dream big and through the decades they laid the foundation for America’s success. Their unwavering determination, unshakable hope, and incredible spirit are all evidenced by the buildings that barely remain standing.  Unfortunately, this generation’s legacy has only a handful of homesteads, barns, and other iconic structures that are rapidly fading away, like a watercolor in the rain.

During our travels, we have witnessed beautiful fading structures and a repeated pattern in our rural communities.  Small-town buildings, homes, schools, barns, and farms, that were once alive with the spirit of life, are now empty, abandoned, decaying, and returning to the earth, a circle of life illustrated by the Lakota.  When a tribe member’s life ended, they were placed on an elevated platform, their inner spirit ascended to the skies, finally leaving the physical body behind, exposed to the elements of nature, gradually returning to the earth, forever nurturing the land.  

It is our hope that these images, captured from the past, will be reminders of the celebrated dreams and aspirations of our ancestors.  And as you view this collection of images, please  take a moment to reflect on the ambitions and accomplishments of these past generations. May we treasure these structures now, for once these few remaining structural icons crumble to the ground, like the Dakota, their stories go with them, leaving behind only a handful of memories.