Chimney Rock Cemetery Wood Print

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The Chimney Rock Cemetery near Bayard, Nebraska preserves graveside markers from the massive western emigrant movement and a close-up of 19th century pioneers. Cholera, prevalent in the middle 19th century, killed more emigrants than any other type accident or disease. Across the road from the Chimney Rock Historic Site is the small cemetery, holding a few of the graves of those that died along the trail. All too often, pioneers did not receive a proper burial.

Their route west was arduous and contained many dangers, the number of deaths on the trail is not known with any precision and we only have wildly varying estimates. Estimating deaths on the trail is difficult because of the common practice of burying people in unmarked graves intentionally disguised to avoid being dug up by animals or robbers. Graves were often put in the middle of the trail and then run over by livestock to make them difficult to find. Disease was the main killer, cholera killed up to 3 percent of the...

Photography is all about using light to capture the emotion and beauty of a fleeting moment. For me, this adventure began with a single spring image using a small Kodak film camera of a freshly watered central Kansas ditch and has come full circle using modern digital techniques. My first camera was acquired by trading an ancient Royal typewriter to a fellow college student who was desperate to finish a term paper. It was a long time ago and that camera was my passport to an art that has fascinated me ever since. I owned and operated a professional studio in central Kansas for 20 years and moved to Colorado in 1994. Part of the studio's early success came from creating outdoor portraiture using controlled lighting...