Kingdom of Idols II


Milepost:  1519.8    Butte, MT

In 2009, I first wrote an entry titled "Kingdom of Idols" and wondered at the passing of eras. Of the era of 2009, I wrote:
... We rest in .. [an era].. of entitlement and gratification, one that quickly moves beyond past accomplishments for which we have no personal use. Our current idols have plotted an interesting course that is just now coming into clearer focus. The destination does not always seem appetizing, but the howl of radials along the Clark Fork remind us of its coming.
And so we continued in that era until something changed.  Indeed, since I last wrote on these pages, the entire world has changed.  All around us institutions that marked western civilization and the world at large remain shaking.  Dear reader, consider that in a matter of days education systems, government systems, healthcare systems, economic systems, transportation systems, and many personal freedoms that we lay claim to in the West lay closed all about us.  In the US we hear threats of meat supply problems while around the world there is news of increasing hunger.  Are we seeing the hints of a new era between eras?  An era when perhaps even the light is darkness?  



The photos here mark the Milwaukee Road's entry to Butte, and the second depot that was constructed in the 1950s to avoid the stub-end arrangement of the original.  This was a different era, when two transcons called at Butte and the high tension AC lines shown in the picture above helped Little Joes and Boxcabs across the Rockies that now lie looming to the East.  Ahead, a westbound run along the Clark Fork River beckons, as do the Bitterroots that will be the barrier to Palouse Country in Washington State.  

Perhaps our missing transcon really was 'one too many' as some have suggested. Or perhaps our current era between eras suggests something different?  As the economic problems of the 1970s came to a close and America lost its Resouceful Railroad, it was a sign of things to come. Decisions driven by short range planning and immediate profit stole it from the country that could have used it.  

Our arrival in Butte has witnessed miles and miles of abandoned towns, depots, and an America that has been lost.  It has been driven away by the drivers of efficiency, immediate profit, and streamlining.  Towns have seen jobs depart for decades, and their struggles are well documented.  They've been replaced with massive, efficient systems with no real redundancy and no fail-safe.  Our prior era and our old idols now seem to have failed us and I wonder, dear reader, if perhaps some "inefficiency" and a little redundancy isn't such a bad thing?  

So as the systems we built tremble and shake, I will be hopeful that from this era between eras good will yet arise.  For this I will bring to mind and therefore have hope - as Jeremiah (Lamentations 3) said - because of the Lord's great love we are not totally consumed for his compassions never fail.  ... I will say to myself the Lord is my portion therefore I will wait for him, he is good to those whose hope is in him and to the one who seeks him.  It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Comments

Pat, Marcus & Alexis said…
As always, really thought provoking and beautifully written.
5/18/2020 05:31:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Place Where She Only Sleeps

Image
 Location: MP 1566.8 Grant-Kohrs Ranch Not far from Deer Lodge, headed west on the transcon we arrive here, at Grant-Kohrs Ranch where the Resourceful Railroad only sleeps.  Instead of empty right of way and scattered gravel, steel rail still binds the land in this place that is unlike the many other hundreds of miles along Lines West.  Across the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, on federal Park lands, the railroad only seems to rest and slumber while waiting for a new time to come.  Against the backdrop of Montana clouds that hold no rain, the catenary poles can still be found here standing against the endless skies.  The lineside poles that mark an era of railroading now gone still hold to the right of way.  It is not hard to imagine them whipping by outside the windows of an Olympian under the electrified power of a Quill or Joe.  Perhaps an XL Special could easily whisk across the scene above as though decades had never passed. Things don't seem so forgotten or beyond hope in a place like th
Read more

Rock-a-bye bye bye?

Image
There are footnotes to history and there are chapters. Dependent on your perspective, sometimes those footnotes deserve a book unto themselves. As the economy sagged in the seventies, railroads were hit hard. The East saw a general collapse in the form of Penn Central. As the seventies wore on, the PC would be combined with several other bankrupt roads to form Conrail, a government backed corporation who's sole goal was to save rail transportation in the eastern half of the country. Collapse worked its way through the western lines during these years as well. The Milwaukee Road pulled out of the West just over 30 years ago at the beginning of March. Bankrupt and reeling, its retreat to the Midwest would last only a few more years until its absorption by Soo Line. Its competitors in the West and Northwest managed to hang on, but healthy balance sheets were not to be found in the board rooms of the Cascade Green lines in those years. The Rock Island had a long flirtation with
Read more

Hidden in the Trees

Image
 MP1613.1, Ravenna, MT.  Substation 9  I once met the man who owned the old Substation at Ravenna.  In one of those strange twists of history, so I'm told, it was supposed to be torn down and sold for scrap as the bricks had value.  But the original sale didn't work, the scrapper never came and it remains standing near the howling roar of I90 to this day. I90 is just one part of  the U.S. system that moves upwards of 90% of freight by truck and highway.  But tucked in amongst the tall pines like a mirage, Ravenna looks out blankly towards that interstate and shouts quietly back about a different time. The year was 1972 and General Electric had put together a unique proposal: completion of the electrified railway portion of the Milwaukee Road.  In a formal proposal, offered by GE itself ("Proposal for the Completion of the Electrified Railway Operation of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company") via the Locomotive Products Department, the proposa
Read more