Loose in Palouse

You’d think, after four posts and dozens of pictures in a series called “Loose in the Palouse”, that we’ve actually been to Palouse. But we haven’t.

How can that be? Have I been lying to you this whole time?

Nope.

What we’ve been visiting, so far, is the Palouse region. The region is quite large, extending into and beyond Moscow.

Moscow, Idaho, that is.

While I’m uncertain of where the regional borders fall, and I think the definitions vary, this map segment should be in the ballpark. Think southeast Washington, northern Idaho, and maybe northeast Oregon. In general, it’s an area of fertile hills and prairies.

Approximate Palouse region. Steptoe Butte is where we often visited, and where I shot the panoramas in the last post. The yellow push pin star is the location of Palouse Falls featured in the post before that.

The heart of the area led to the development of four towns: Colfax (where we stayed), Palouse, Pullman, and Moscow. Pullman and Moscow are more developed these days, thanks to being the homes of major agricultural colleges established in 1871: Washington State University and the University of Idaho.

But however you define the region, it’s the small border town of Palouse that we haven’t visited yet, and where we’ll focus today.

Why? Maybe because it’s the sort of place that the tornado of time seems to have mostly skipped over, only dipping its current day toe here and there.

Old time advertising

A brick wall that’s seen better days

Garage Door

I suppose it was an antique store where I found this old, beat up wheel adorning the side. An eclectic collection of various other items of questionable value joined it. The common theme, a rusty patina that spoke of years of exposure and neglect. Oxy-coating with a water chaser does that to bare iron – not something it should become addicted to.

One thing that really emphasized the old timey feel of the place was the old vehicles scattered here and there. We started with a car parked on the main street, an old Hudson. I think it’s an early 50s vintage Hornet, but I’m not really a car guy.

Appropriately somehow, our workshop leader’s name is also Hudson, albeit of a later vintage.

Just down the road, parked in a small lot between the main drag and a small river, we found an ancient bus with the name “Gene Autry” festooned across its top. Gene goes back before my time. He first gained renown back when radio was king and movies were black and white as “The Singing Cowboy.” From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films, and between 1950 and 1956 hosted The Gene Autry Show television series. He’s also the original owner of the California Angles MLB team.

1948 Tour Bus

Who knows how it ended up in the small town of Palouse.

Whilst in Palouse, our little workshop group scattered in various directions. I wandered solo, and ended up chatting with a local for five or ten minutes. My guess is he wondered why a stranger was roaming around town taking pictures of stuff. When I mentioned I was part of a photography workshop group, and that we came to the Palouse because of its beauty and uniqueness, he said, “I’ve lived here my whole life. It doesn’t seem all that unusual to me.”

60s era grill. Say cheese…

I suspect there may be a lesson in that. We may think we have to go far afield to find beauty, or character, or things of interest, when really all we need to do is to look at what’s around us with fresh eyes. Is there something in your neighborhood you take for granted that a traveler might find unique?

This will be the last of the Palouse posts. Perhaps a good way to summarize the set is to show you a video I put together. It’s part slide show, part drone video footage. I’ve never built a video before and have just started learning drone photography, so please don’t expect perfection.

And as this Palouse series fades off into the fog of time, a parting shot…

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