The Shack

The Shack

Susan Allen
Susan Allen

 

I’m Susan Allen inviting you to stay tuned to  Open Range because I can’t wait share a unique attribute of our rural life  a “code of the west” of sorts that’s precious and rare. One of the most glaring differences I see and feel when I visit family in cities or suburbs is fear.  Without a sophisticated alarm system, (that I might add in my mothers case goes of more often than not ) life in the rural west is uniquely freeing. Case in point. This past week my husband and sons were bear hunting in the remote Wallowa wilderness with friends, one fellow remembered years earlier in that same vicinity there had been a little unlocked cabin, It couldn’t still be there?  Not only did they find it, they found stocked with firewood, canned foods, blankets, oil lamps, even card games. Over the years visitors to the remote dwelling left notes thanking it’s owners for tiding them over while hunting, moving cattle or waiting out a blizzard snowmobiling. The thank you notes penned to the rough hewn wall dated back to the 1930’s. The owners only request was that the cabin be left as it was found and to use indoor kindling to start a fire then the stacked wood outdoors to keep it going so the next visitor always had dry wood. This cabin made an impact on my family possibly because it was near the location of the cabin depicted in the best selling book "The Shack" and also because there are so many like it scattered throughout the Northwest wilderness giving homage to the fact that despite the graffiti strewn city dwellings, high crime rate and intricate urban security systems a vestige of ranch  life still remains,  the open door policy of the  rugged west. 
 
Previous ReportCSP Program
Next ReportUof I's Big Discovery