Monthly Archives: July 2011

St. Joseph, LA

7/11/11 – We sleep in a little this morning because we are so exhausted. I have a brief panic after we leave when I realize that I left all of my color film in our motel refrigerator. We return to pick it up and to my relief it is all there. Little Rock has a library system connected to the Arkansas History Center. Like the shared library between the City of San Jose, CA and San Jose State University this allows for a bigger and better library. The old Carnegie library that used to be here is gone. However, the old columns were preserved and are now located in front of the new library. Pine Bluff is one of the poorest and most violent cities in the U.S. Its library is a large 1960s faded beauty with a great map of the U.S. painted in front. Nick filmed Walker walking the route of our trip. We continued southeast to our last library in Arkansas at Lake Village. It is right on the water and the librarian Judi Fava is happy to bring the local community to life. The librarians that have the free time to talk are invaluable for us to understand what we are seeing. Lake Providence, LA is one of the many small, poor black communities that we will visit in the next few days. We arrive 15 minutes before they are closing. A little black girl looks up at me as I enter and announces that the library is closing. I told her that I would be quick. After a few shots of the interior I stepped back into the heat to photograph the exterior. The two friendly librarians, one white and one black, pose with one of their grandsons in front. We really feel the Mississippi Delta region beginning here. We listen to great gospel music as we drove through a vast farming region interrupted with bayous. The sun got lower in the sky and the temperature came down to around 100 degrees. This region reminds me a little of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta in California. St. Joseph is our last library of the day and one of the best of the trip. It is a small but somewhat prosperous Delta town that is unusual because it was originally laid out like a New England village in the early 19^thCentury. The library is a fascinating blend of architecture that I photographed with my medium and large format cameras. We spent the night in Natchez, MS., a quiet antebellum gem. Dinners on this trip have mostly been excellent and the Pig Out Inn amazes us again. On my computer in our motel I read a national news story that the mid-West and South have been experiencing a record heat wave. It has followed us the whole way and we have experienced 18 continuous days over 100 degrees. Yikes!

7/9/11 – We started the morning in a Vietnamese mall drinking sweet coffee and being amazed at seeing this culture in this state. Old men were outside smoking, drinking coffee and enjoying the company of their fellow Vietnamese. Oklahoma City surprised us by being so cosmopolitan. I then photograph the interior of the Main Library. It is both architecturally beautiful and filled with people on this Saturday morning. The Oklahoma Room and the separate tribal rooms are especially nice. We begin to appreciate the rich diversity of the region. The Oklahoma National Memorial is another well done shire to the national tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing. This attack was the most extreme anti-government hate crime in our history and still has a resonance here. Much of the area around the bombing was affected and the attacked help spur redevelopment of the downtown. The reflecting pool and the hand made memorials are very moving. The temperature is rising and we photograph and film the libraries in Chandler and Tulsa. The Brookside branch in Tulsa has an odd curvy roof that reflects some of the interesting architecture in the area. Frank Lloyd Wright built several buildings in the area. We stopped at an another excellent Vietnamese restaurant in Tulsa for a small lunch and iced coffee to go. The fat, pompous, drug-addict Rush Limbaugh entertains and outrages us on the radio as we cruise the Turnpike. His selective grasp of history was interesting as he attacked President Carter but never mentioned President Nixon. As we pulled into Muskogee I thought of Merle Haggard. We zoomed by the Main Library which we had dismissed in our earlier research. I spotted something and quickly pulled into the parking lot. A beautiful sculpture of a white guitar was above the Muskogee Public Library sign. Painted on one side of the guitar is a collection of faces of many races. The other side was the face of a traditional Native American. We’ve come a long way from “Okie from Muskogee”. Today, Muskogee is one of the most diverse places in the United States. The old Carnegie library in Muskogee is  now the Ark of Faith. This was an interesting conversion from the public commons to a Christian charity. We drove through beautiful winding hills and farms before coming to our last library in Hulbert, a Cherokee majority town. It was the first town we saw the Cherokee script. We spend the night in Tahlequah, the capitol of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokees have the largest population of any Native tribe in the US. The area here was the end of the Trail of Tears which was the forced migration of many of the Native tribes from the eastern part of the US to the “Indian Territory” of Oklahoma. This is now considered a national tragedy.

7/10/11 – Tahlequah has one of the few Carnegie libraries built in Oklahoma. A large library was connected to it bridging the old and the new. We drove into Arkansas and immediately leave Native America and enter the South.  We had decided to change our route and spend more time in the Ozarks. We headed north to the home of Walmart in Bentonville. Its eclectic library has been replaced with one that has a wide veranda with comfortable chairs that felt very Southern. Walker calls this area “corporations, God and guns”. We were dangerously close to the Missouri border and decided to include it in the project. Seligman, MO has a Museum and Library as part of a government center. Although closed on Sunday, it had a wonderful mural of books on the outside. After driving through the Mark Twain State Forest we came to the town of Eagle Rock, MO. Its library also doubled as a government center and community meeting place. Back into Arkansas we drove to the amazing town of Eureka Springs. The old Carnegie library there was carved into a rock cliff as is much of this hilly town. It is one of only four Carnegie libraries built in the state and is stunningly beautiful. Eureka Springs is touristy but deserves the attention. It ranks as one of the most interesting and beautiful towns we have seen so far. The Ozark Mountains are green and breath-taking. Being up higher in elevation we actually cool down below 100 degrees for the first time since the mountains of New Mexico. We decide to be nice to our old Toyota’s engine by not using the AC today. I have a peak driving experience through the Ozarks blasted by the wind from the open windows and Credence on the CD. Like our first evening coming into Needles, we dropped down out of the Ozarks and the temperature once again climbs over 100 degrees. The Carnegie library in Morrolton is a beautiful building with a spectacular sky at sunset. After driving for 12 hours through the curvy roads with no AC we collapse into our motel room in Little Rock. Exhausted, we still do our usual routine of dinner, changing film and working on Nick’s vlog (video blog for those of us over 25). We have been up for 18 hours. Whew! This pace is both exhilarating and exhausting.

7/7/11 – The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas made me cry. The site of John Kennedy’s assassination had been in my mind since 1963. In some ways my childhood ended on that day. The Museum was well done and very moving. I discovered the the grassy knoll was a WPA project from the 1930s. Kenda had set up a meeting with Photography Curator John Rohrbach at the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth. I was still a little choked up from the Sixth Floor Museum and we talked about trying explain the 1960s to our sons. John gave me some excellent feedback on the library photographs. Walker, Nick and I left the Dallas area in the 107 degree heat and headed north to Oklahoma. The license plates name Oklahoma as Native America and we feel the change as we cross the Red River. Durant, OK is the capitol of the Choctaw Nation. I photograph the library for the symbolism, not its beauty. The Coal County public library in Coalgate, OK seemed very plain at first. As I walked around it though it became much more interesting. The context of the library was important and I included the Native run Dollar General store across the street. Manjula Martin has assisted us setting up this blog and also my Kickstarter site. She had a friend from Ada, OK whose advise was to get out of Ada as soon as possible. However, we found the town to be relatively prosperous and nice. It had a 1930s, Deco-inspired library and a stunning older library which is now a history center. We then had our usual evening routine of Bar-B-Q, blogging and a beer in Ada.

7/8/11 – Holdenville, OK was another surprise. Winding our way northeast of Ada through beautiful farm country we find a real mix of Native and Anglo cultures. We didn’t know what to expect in Holdenville but found another nice New Deal built library. The two librarians were very talkative and told us about the history of the Grace M. Pickens library. Grace’s son, T. Bone Pickens lived in Holdenville and the family donated money to rebuild and expand the library. The biggest part of the economy is the nearby private prison. It is a growth industry because California’s insanely over-crowded prisons are shipping the excess prisoners here. (Irony #1) The librarians also explained that one of the principal recreational activities for some of the locals is cooking meth. (Irony #2) The 1926 built library in Wewoka was another gem. It is the capitol of the Seminole Nation. The Seminoles were originally from Florida and were forced to  emigrate here along the famous 19th century Trail of Tears. The library was obviously well funded and well loved. There was an interesting ethnic mix here between whites, black and Natives Americans. The oldest Carnegie library in Oklahoma still used as a library was in El Reno, just west of Oklahoma City. It was packed on a hot afternoon and had some particularly beautiful hand-painted columns on the inside. Even though it was 5 PM it was well over 100 degrees on the outside. We are gradually getting adjusted to the unrelenting heat but I still melted under the dark cloth photographing out in the sun. We drive on to Oklahoma City and check in to our AC motel room. After stashing our stuff we head over to the Stockyard District to photograph the small Wright branch library. We then head to a nearby cowboy clothing store where I buy a much needed belt and Walker and Nick buy cowboy hats. Then, we drive down to the beautiful new Main Library to photograph in the early evening light. We finish the evening at the famous Cattlemans Steakhouse, another George Bush favorite. The is another classic Western steakhouse dripping with character and serving some of the best steak I have ever eaten.