Soft porn

The other day Bill the archeologist asked if I'd like to go out to a rock art site. He needed to take some photos of it and knows that I'm interested in all of that history. I really welcomed the break; the work I'm doing has me chained to the computer and it's driving me crazy. I've acquired a hot spot on my right shoulder blade from all the mouse work and I'm going cross-eyed from looking at the screen. I really needed to get away.

He described the art as a woman's leg and I immediately thought of A Christmas Story, but even when he added the leg was in a boot I still couldn't get the image of fishnet stockings out of my head.

It's thought that a survey crew that came through the area around 1870 chiseled the leg into the rock, maybe when they'd finished warming up with their department name and a picture of their horse. I'm sure they'd deny it. I'm sure they'd say it was just coincidence.

Wouldn't you love to know the story behind this leg? Who is she? Why is there an outline of some kind of clothing - a skirt? - etched in outside the leg?  See the curved lines of Ts running along the top and bottom of the leg? When looked at in a larger version, I think they're supposed to be stars, just like the ones right above the boot. What do they signify? All delicious mysteries, especially out of any discernible context.

We were at the site in late-ish afternoon and the sun was casting shadows so this is hard to see, but it shows the survey guys' graffiti (lower left) near the leg. Coincidence? I think not!

Near the porn is the remains of an old stage coach stop on what was the Beale Road. According to the Petrified Forest Museum Association, it may represent the only remaining structure associated with that road. Here's what's interesting about it:

Today Interstate 40 transverses the northern portion of Petrified Forest National Park, however, it is just the latest of several roads and highways that have followed this same route for more than a century. The first major road was the Beale Wagon Road constructed in 1857 across New Mexico and Arizona. It passes through the Petrified Forest just north of present Interstate Highway 40. This road is famous in part because it represented the first and only time the U. S. Army tried to use camels for transportation in the desert. 

Later, portions of this road, including the Petrified Forest section, were used for stagecoach travel along the Star Mail route between Santa Fe New Mexico and Prescott, Arizona.
In 1912 a new road alignment that followed the Beale Road was established. This road was officially designated the National Old Trails Highway and stretched from Baltimore, Maryland to Los Angeles, California. In some places such as eastern Arizona the road was divided into southern and northern routes and both pass through the Petrified Forest. In 1926 the northern route was designated U.S. Route 66.

This is all that's left of the building. The Park Service has specialists in historical renovation, some of which are masons who've come here for a couple of years, a few weeks at a time, to help stabilize the walls. Last year the mortar on the wall on the left was nearly gone, leaving the stones seemingly held together with just daylight. The masons removed the stones and laid them on the ground as they were removed, and then reset them in new mortar. I could not see the difference from the old to the new.

 That's the remains of a fireplace in the far corner.

There was another fireplace in the wall hidden behind the short section on the left.

There are a few inscriptions inside, maybe made by folks hanging out by the fire, waiting for the next stage to show up.

 I really need to have a talk with the archeologist about this.

Right outside the structure I found several pieces of this glass. I could tell from the worn edges that it had been on the ground for a while. Bill said he thought it was window glass.

 Look at the thickness! That has some R value.

There's no question in my mind that the stone for the building didn't fall far from the tree, so to speak.

And one more view with the truck, to show the scale. This was a small place.

I found a Coors can, below, that I'm fairly certain does not date from the mid-19th century. No, in fact Bill noted the two circles on the top, saying they were designed to be pushed in or knocked out with a knife or similar tool, and that Coors made this style can for just a few years. He couldn't remember when so I looked it up. This is what Wikipedia has to say:

These problems [with the design of the old pull tab that would either be tossed on the ground or were dropped into the can to possibly be choked on when the contents were drunk - remember that?] were both addressed by the invention of the "push-tab". Used primarily on Coors Beer cans in the mid-1970s, the push-tab was a raised circular scored area used in place of the pull-tab. It needed no ring to pull up. Instead, the raised aluminium blister was pushed down into the can, with a small unscored piece that kept the tab connected after being pushed inside. 

Push-tabs never gained wide popularity because while they had solved the litter problem of the pull-tab, they created a safety hazard where the person's finger upon pushing the tab into the can was immediately exposed to the sharp edges of the opening. An unusual feature of the push-tab Coors Beer cans was that they had a second, smaller, push-tab at the top as an airflow vent — a convenience that was lost with the switch from can opener to pull-tab.

That was the end of my learning experience for the day, and also the end of the day for me altogether; my shoulder thanked me for not going back to the computer - at least until the next day.

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Thought of the day:

Workin' on mysteries without any clues.... - Bob Seger, Night Moves