There was no way that I wasn't going to have my Ellsworth Railroad Post complete by now....but it's not. I have been working on it though just in small bursts and a complete Post they do not make. Not only have there been distractions of my own making but also surprises have come along. Mom has been moved to a Memory Care unit and I've been busy getting her former apartment dealt with. Late last week our well went out and that has caused another level of commotion.
Here's the fun part....one of those distractions has been the time I've spent looking through old aerial photographs taken of farms in our neighborhood. As has so often happened with the internets, searching leads to fun (and all too often expensive!) new discoveries. Between my general interest in geography, family history in the area and learning more about the nearby railroads the Vintage Aerial Photography channel was discovered.
I've known for years that firms have made it their business to fly over farms, take photos of each and every farmstead and then return (by automobile) and go door to door selling framed prints. My uncles had numerous shots framed over time so I was familiar with the concept. The Vintage Aerial firm maybe purchased the inventory and have made those old photographs available online?
In our little corner of SE Minnesota, flyover photos were taken in 1967, 1970 and 1981. The farm we live on was in the family for 100 years back in '84, the house burned in '86 and we bought the place in '89. Though I don't have the 8" x 12" photo yet of our place in 1970, I did purchase the older photo from '67.
Other than the house and one 'machine shed', the buildings then matched what we purchased from my mom and her siblings 22 years later. In '67 my grandmother owned the farm, cousins lived there at the time and were renting. It would have been about that time, possibly '66 that our large extended family held their annual 4th of July picnic on the lawn under those large oak trees. I remember it well, Charlie was my brother's and my age, we were playing in the barn and he tore a big gash in his pants that he'd been too excited to change after church.
After the house burned, the parents moved to town, their son added a milk house to the barn and started milking cows. Not long after we moved in, horses goats and a herd of sheep populated the barn. Currently, the only building still standing is the grainery, only the roof peak visible through the trees.
The red path shows the record Aerial has of the flight that day and the places photographed. There are many discrepancies and you can see that they are encouraging accurate updates of locations and descriptions of note. I've been having a lot of fun doing so. By 1970, brother and I were 'scouting' these roads on a SL100 Honda and 125 Yamaha Enduro. The bikes have changed but I'm still running these roads.
Check out www.vintageaerial.com and see if you can help them identify places that YOU know. There was a snafu with my original order and Alexis worked hard to make things right.....they're good people.
This farm is a couple of valley's away from us, the place where mom's uncles (my Great Uncles) farmed for years. I remember family gatherings here, specifically a Thanksgiving with a very full house of people. One of these little buildings is still standing, the rest are gone. The house survived until just a couple of years ago, the fire department used if for practice and the brick chimney stood all alone as a monument for over a year.
The guy cleaning the barnyard on the John Deere is mom's Uncle Johnny, Uncle Herman and Uncle Walter all farmed together.
Just beyond, their John Deere track'd caterpillar. See the '59 Chevy? I was in the barn a couple of times, not to work, only to visit Uncle Henry milking cows. The stave silo stood until a dozen years ago, I never knew the wooden silo.
