Cottonwood at Historic Empire Ranch

Cottonwood

Cottonwood at Empire Ranch © 2014 Bo Mackison

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. ~ Hermann Hesse, Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte

A tree stands in the spreading grasslands of the Empire Ranch, a thriving ranch from the 1870s to the 1970s.

Empire Ranch was not only a ranch. It was the set for dozens of western styled movies and television shows, filmed from 1946 through 1998.

I imagine many a movie great walked the land under this cottonwood tree.

Just a few of the many movies icons and films shot on this wide open “set” were: John Wayne in Red River, (1948); Gordon McRae, Shirley Jones in Oklahoma!(1955); James Arness, Dennis Weaver, Amanda Blake in Gunsmoke, several shows (1955-75); Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, (1957); Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, several shows of Bonanza (1959-73); Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson in A Star Is Born (1976); and Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Huston in The Furies (1950).

They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. ~ Hermann Hesse, Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte

This tree has a history, but the history I imagine for it is a fictional one.

It is easy to imagine a movie crew resting in the shade of this cottonwood between takes filmed under the unforgiving desert sun. It is easy to imagine the children who lived and played on the working ranch bringing a picnic spread to eat under the tress. Perhaps there was a doll party or two. Or even a child’s birthday party.

An argument, a first kiss, a fist fight, a marriage proposal? The tree was near enough the ranch to be a convenient gathering place for all sorts of events.

Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars,

all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farm boy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow. ~ Hermann Hesse, Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte

A solitary tree in the high desert is a mighty thing.

Few trees reach the stature of a cottonwood in this land. The cottonwoods create a sinuous ribbon of life contrasted with the parched white grasses spreading away from the dry creek beds. The trees, with deep roots, can access the deeper water aquifers that other plants cannot.

This tree stand solitary, sacaton grasslands spread from it in all directions for miles. In the harsh light, the light is brighter, the shadows are deeper. The cottonwood is beginning to leaf out, but the brilliant light transforms the individual fluttering leaves into brilliantly lit diamonds.

Empire Ranch offers many opportunities for photographs, but for its introduction, I chose to focus on this one tree. When I combine this stoic tree, leaves rustling, with the distant voices in my imagination, it is enough for an introduction.

 

Windswept

Windswept

Windswept ©2013 Bo Mackison

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

And that when we no longer know the way which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

~ Wendell Berry

My old ways, my tried and tested ways, no longer seem to fit. What happens when the stories I’ve lived these many years feel too small and restrict my breathing, my feelings, my actions? There is a spark on the edge of the shadow, and it shimmers.

The wind sweeps in, brushing away the old, allowing space for the new to take seed, grow and thrive.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series called Desert Lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines.

Possibility

Tumbleweed in Barbed Wire Fence

Tumbleweed Fence © 2013 Bo Mackison

Winds that once blew free,
now scatters dust to the sky.
~ lyrics from The Cowboy, by Randy Newman

Wandering, I am lost.

I speed along the washboard dirt road, skimming its ridges,
Don’t jar me, bumping along dips and rises.

Earth so dry, wild and unsettled winds sweep orange dust into roiling vortexes,
chase tumbleweeds across the grasslands.

Hello, tumbleweeds, caught in the barbs and fence lines,
impaled on gnarled mesquite.

Globes of sun-bleached gold, you can no longer travel on wind’s breath,
whipping forces crumble your desiccated skeletons.

Tumbleweeds, no more wandering and skittering across this land.
I know how it feels to be trapped, too, unable to roll away.

Ominous clouds, they are possibility.
Desert rain is never a promise, yet
when seeds swell with moisture, they open.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is exploring creative photography and emotion in a  series called Desert Lines – a combination of visual lines and written lines.

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

Buenos Aires Grassland

Buenos Aires Grassland © 2012 Bo Mackison

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona is 118,000 acres of grassland, mountain ranges in the background, riparian corridors rippling through the land. The habitat, a semi-arid grassland, is land of the masked bobwhite quail and pronghorn antelope, both of which are being re-introduced in the region. Grasses once filled the Altar Valley, and are now maintained and restored by prescribed burns.

The Pleasures of Simplicity

The Pleasures of Simplicity © 2012 Bo Mackison

In the 1800s, Altar valley was open grassland. Pronghorns had free range, falcons and hawks filled the air with their swooping, gliding, and soaring.  Mexican wolves, black bears and jaguars roamed in the grasses, traveling the corridors between the mountain ranges.

Poppies at Buenos Aires NWR

Poppies at Buenos Aires NWR © 2012 Bo Mackison

Then the Valley began filling with small towns and ranches in the 1860s, and the delicate balance maintaining the ecosystems gradually suffered. As ranchers expanded and grazing bared much the grasslands and exposed the land to the monsoon rains, erosion of the barren soils quickly followed.

With the grass gone and natural fires suppressed, mesquite gained a foothold. The grassland no longer supported the masked bobwhite quail or aplomado falcon. Pronghorn, wolves, bear, and jaguar were hunted or trapped.  Lehmann’s lovegrass, a non-Native grass, was introduced in the 1970s to help stop erosion. But this poor substitute for native grasses and now considered an invasive species, did nothing of benefit.

 Spring in Arivaca Cienega

Spring in Arivaca Cienega © 2012 Bo Mackison

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1982 to re-establish the grasslands habitat and protect the Arivaca Cienga ( spring fed marshy area) and the Arivaca Creek and its watershed, and important resource for the several hundreds of kinds of birds that either live in the region, migrate through, or winter over.

The area is again lush with grasses. The wildflowers are abundant — Mexican poppies turn areas golden with bright color, purple bunches of Verbena add contrast.

A beautiful place, an important resource to protect and preserve.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC, living and photographing in southern Arizona. There are days Bo wanders the roads and imagines pronghorn ranging, wild and free.

Hiking the Loop at Arivaca Cienega

Cienega Cootonwood

Cienega Cottonwood © 2012 Bo Mackison

I spent several hours hiking in the Arivaca Cienega in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Preserve in southern Arizona. To be honest it wasn’t as much hiking as walking on a lovely mix of boardwalk over the wetlands and smoothed trails on the drier parts of the trail.

Some of the beauties of this trail are: it is of a decent length – just over a mile; it heads into country one cannot see from any road; and it is accessible for everyone — the path can accommodate wheelchairs and strollers. There are a also at least a dozen welcoming benches along the trail, so there is always a nearby place for a “sit and ponder” if one isn’t watching the clock.

The cienega is prime habitat for birds (and other wildlife), especially during migrations, but I am not much of a birder. I saw quite a few species, but only recognized the woodpeckers and the sparrows.

Spring Fed Cienega

Spring Fed Cienega © 2012 Bo Mackison

The cienega, which is defined as a semi-desert grassland, has a spring fed riparian area. There are many cottonwoods, some aged giants, growing near the wetlands. When I examined the grasses, I was surprised to see grasses that were similar to the grasses in the prairies in Wisconsin, and I wonder how closely they were related. (Something to research some other time.)

I sat on the first bench I came upon.  I am working on adding a new habit to my daily walk and I am finding it more difficult than I imagined! I find a bench, the first bench I come to that is in a good location to get the feel of where I am. That’s the easier part. The harder part is that I try to sit on the bench and stay fully absorbed in the environment while using all my senses. The hardest part is that I try to sit there, mindfully, for a full fifteen minutes.

If it sounds easy, try it.

I am eager to see what is on the path ahead, and my mind wanders to the immediate future instead of staying in the present. The first time I tried my fifteen minute exercise, I checked the time after 5 minutes, certain that I had gone over my time. Not wanting to pull out my cell phone and check the time every five minutes, I’veve begun to bring a small office timer with me. It is small and unobtrusive. I can glance down and see how much of my quarter hour is left as it tells the time in a pie shaped wedge that slides closed slowly until it disappears. Then the time is over.

Arivaca Cienega

Small Pool at Arivaca Cienega © 2012 Bo Mackison

It was a cool, breezy afternoon by desert standards and when I closed my eyes, it was a wonderful sensory experience as I  concentrated on my sense of touch and hearing.  I first enjoyed the warming sun on my face. Then I listened to the rhythms of the wind.

The breeze would begin quietly, a mere rustle of the grasses, then build to a crescendo sounding much like a distant train rumbling through the preserve, and finally the rustling would calm until it was nearly silent again. Except for the chirping and chattering of the birds, this small oasis was quiet. No traffic noise. Only a few other visitors and they were all on different parts of the trail.

I am working on a photo project that explores the concept solitude and so I find the fifteen minute quiet time an invaluable asset to get me in the right mindset for photographing this subject.

*** I would be remiss if I did not mention that there is a park closure along the US/Mexican border. It is a small part of the park, and is suitably marked and patrolled by security. The order to close this area went into effect in 2006 and there have been no recent problems, to my knowledge. The closure notice can be found on Buenos Aires NWR site — it is a PDF, found on the bottom right of the page. It is recommended that visitors read the bulletin before exploring the more remote areas.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is doing a great deal of slow photography during her time in Arizona, including this slow photo shoot she did at the cienega. There are more photographs of Arivaca to post., but she is also slowly processing . . .