John- thanks for sharing these. I’ve never been to Wyoming before and this is really reminding me that I should go. Hope you’re well this week? Cheers, -Thalia
Great story, John. I love the movement from the bad camping trip to the intriguing conclusion about the right relationship with nature. It reminds me of a book I read a while ago, "The Environmental Imagination" I think, which suggested that we all have a primal sense of perfect nature, usually from a childhood happy place and time. Lots to think about. Thanks.
It is a most excellent fish hatchery, the setting and the buildings.
I am not sure that the sense of rightness and the perception of beauty are so different. And I would offer parkitecture (and the similar civic architecture that evolved alongside it as part of the New Deal) as an example of an understanding that we can and should make better places to be. That understanding has dwindled in a world of building to the bottom line, but could be retrieved
I need to revisit Jackson Lake Lodge. It was the break from parkitecture, the inspiration for Mission 66 -- and I get the sense that today it's seen as a good place to be. If so, then maybe there's bad parkitecture just like there are bad other architectures.
I think Jackson Lake Lodge is a good place to be. The scenery the building has to work with is hard to match. I am not a big fan of most Mission 66 buildings, but they were entitled to want a break from the New Deal approach and to use the architectural themes of their era. The same is true of civic architecture, which was mostly awful in the 60’s.
There is mediocre and even bad parkitecture out there, the natural variation of any human project. But IMO, there will be some CCC projects that continue to function well when the last Mission 66 buildings are gone.
I really like that ending question. I don’t know how to answer it but it’s an intriguing one! I’m inclined to think it has less to do with “rightness” than with an embodied reaction that comes from millions of years of evolution, but then I remember all those landscaped English gardens and the enthusiasm for carefully crafted estate “wildernesses.”
My mom's reaction to Yellowstone was that all that fallen timber should be taken away and used to heat poor people's houses. She has dementia so it wasn't worth trying to counter that argument logically... but then I started thinking: it's her definition of beauty, and it comes from somewhere.
So glad I found your Substack! I live in Dubois, Wyoming, and most every day encounter something that makes me ponder my relationship with nature. Today's question: Why is it so thrilling to spot a band of antelope or fox or badger outside the window, and yet irritating in equal measure to have a group of cows escape the forest and tromp across the yard...
So Tracy, would that same herd of cattle be offensive when spread out over a lush green irrigated pasture rather than in your yard? Or confined to a feedlot? To me, the irrigated ranching of the Rockies can, at the right scale and well managed, present a beautiful scene of a wreasonable relationship of the same class that John found at the hatchery, where I will point out (though John is free to have a different angle on this) a critical part of the relationship is the cottonwoods, whose height absorbs the planes of the buildings. There are, I suppose, certain natural objects (blossoms, gemstones, butterflies) that are beautiful in isolation, but I think beauty is most often about the right suite of things in the right context.
Thanks for subscribing and commenting! Yes that's a great question! Do the cows feel like a symbol of human encroachment? If we could be fully confident that they were mimicking the traditional function of bison, would they feel more legitimate? But would we describe that as "beauty"? :)
John- thanks for sharing these. I’ve never been to Wyoming before and this is really reminding me that I should go. Hope you’re well this week? Cheers, -Thalia
Great story, John. I love the movement from the bad camping trip to the intriguing conclusion about the right relationship with nature. It reminds me of a book I read a while ago, "The Environmental Imagination" I think, which suggested that we all have a primal sense of perfect nature, usually from a childhood happy place and time. Lots to think about. Thanks.
Thanks for the tip! I put the book on my list.
It is a most excellent fish hatchery, the setting and the buildings.
I am not sure that the sense of rightness and the perception of beauty are so different. And I would offer parkitecture (and the similar civic architecture that evolved alongside it as part of the New Deal) as an example of an understanding that we can and should make better places to be. That understanding has dwindled in a world of building to the bottom line, but could be retrieved
I need to revisit Jackson Lake Lodge. It was the break from parkitecture, the inspiration for Mission 66 -- and I get the sense that today it's seen as a good place to be. If so, then maybe there's bad parkitecture just like there are bad other architectures.
I think Jackson Lake Lodge is a good place to be. The scenery the building has to work with is hard to match. I am not a big fan of most Mission 66 buildings, but they were entitled to want a break from the New Deal approach and to use the architectural themes of their era. The same is true of civic architecture, which was mostly awful in the 60’s.
There is mediocre and even bad parkitecture out there, the natural variation of any human project. But IMO, there will be some CCC projects that continue to function well when the last Mission 66 buildings are gone.
I really like that ending question. I don’t know how to answer it but it’s an intriguing one! I’m inclined to think it has less to do with “rightness” than with an embodied reaction that comes from millions of years of evolution, but then I remember all those landscaped English gardens and the enthusiasm for carefully crafted estate “wildernesses.”
My mom's reaction to Yellowstone was that all that fallen timber should be taken away and used to heat poor people's houses. She has dementia so it wasn't worth trying to counter that argument logically... but then I started thinking: it's her definition of beauty, and it comes from somewhere.
That’s kind of lovely.
So glad I found your Substack! I live in Dubois, Wyoming, and most every day encounter something that makes me ponder my relationship with nature. Today's question: Why is it so thrilling to spot a band of antelope or fox or badger outside the window, and yet irritating in equal measure to have a group of cows escape the forest and tromp across the yard...
So Tracy, would that same herd of cattle be offensive when spread out over a lush green irrigated pasture rather than in your yard? Or confined to a feedlot? To me, the irrigated ranching of the Rockies can, at the right scale and well managed, present a beautiful scene of a wreasonable relationship of the same class that John found at the hatchery, where I will point out (though John is free to have a different angle on this) a critical part of the relationship is the cottonwoods, whose height absorbs the planes of the buildings. There are, I suppose, certain natural objects (blossoms, gemstones, butterflies) that are beautiful in isolation, but I think beauty is most often about the right suite of things in the right context.
Thanks for subscribing and commenting! Yes that's a great question! Do the cows feel like a symbol of human encroachment? If we could be fully confident that they were mimicking the traditional function of bison, would they feel more legitimate? But would we describe that as "beauty"? :)