The Old Iron Ore Dock in Marquette is one of my favorite structures in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was built as a gigantic, purely functional iron ore gravity feed dock on the waterfront in 1931. Decommissioned in 1971, it is now a hauntingly beautiful, symmetrical, cathedral-like edifice to the iron mining industry in that region.
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Ghost Cave at Pictograph Cave State Park is near Billings, Montana. There are several caves in the park with impressive Native American pictographs up to 2,100 years old. I really like how the low cave opening is centered between the two huge rock masses.
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Sam Clemens/Mark Twain’s 1862 silver mining shack is in Unionville, Nevada. He lived there only a short time, apparently hated mining, and continued west.
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The Tufa towers in Mono Lake, California are amazing sculptural rock formations formed under water as calcium bubbled up through carbonate-rich lake water. They are now exposed as Mono Lake has been significantly drained for human uses.
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Elephant Rock in the Valley of Fire in Nevada is the most zoomorphic rock formation I have ever seen. It is larger than an elephant, maybe the size of a mastodon.
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The ancient Bristlecone Pine is among the longest-lived life forms on our planet (4,000+years). It was magical to visit them in the White Mountains of California at the 11,000 ft. above sea level tree line.
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Ravens are among the most intelligent birds on the planet. Jill and I really like them. I especially enjoyed drawing this Raven’s “hairy beak” and shaggy shiny throat.
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Turku and Buddy were our semi-tame wild tom turkeys, who would come right up to us for treats. Turku was healthy but Buddy caught a tumor causing virus called Lymphoproliferative disease. Eventually Buddy died in our yard and Turku soon after drifted away and did not return.
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The Northern Cardinal is one of the most common birds at our feeders. The vivid red of the male is enjoyable to view year-round, but especially on frosty winter days.
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The American Goldfinch male, in brilliant yellow summer plumage, is a delight as it bounds up and down in flight near our feeders.
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