When I was very young playing along the back fence digging in the dirt I found a piece of pirate treasure. It was a small silver knife that must have accidentally found its way into my parent’s backyard. I spent the rest of that day digging along the fence line hoping to find more treasure, perhaps a Piece of Eight or loot taken during a high seas battle.
Later in
the evening, having exhausted myself and being covered in dirt, I showed the
treasure to my mother along with my explanation of where it must have come
from. As my excitement level was at its
peak it was at that moment that I recognized my newfound pirate treasure
matched my folk’s silverware pattern perfectly.
I’d discovered a missing butter knife, one that had probably been used
by my brother or perhaps even me to dig in the dirt.
You might
be wondering, what has this got to do with the images posted?
The top
image (courtesy of Getty) shows a replica wagon similar to those that left
their wheel ruts along the Oregon Trail.
Hundreds and hundreds of wagons crossed the Great Plains along various
routes, pioneers hoping to find a place to start anew, their wagon wheels passing
across rocks leaving marks that have lasted long enough to still be visible.
This past
week a roofing crew was at our place to replace our damaged roof. They had to tear off the old roof, and all
that material had to be hauled off to the landfill. We’d had rain a couple of days earlier so the
ground was softer than usual. To accomplish removal of the old shingles their
dump truck backed across our yard leaving some deep ruts. No
big deal, it’s not the first-time large trucks have left ruts on the property;
those ruts will fade away and be forgotten in time.
This
morning, as the sun came up, my mind saw those tire ruts in a different light
as imagination kicked in. Those might easily have been wagon wheel ruts left by
pioneers crossing through Buffalo on their way to the OSR. We might have some Texas history right here
on our property. Wow, that’s neat!
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