Musings on "preservation"
Several weeks ago, when I announced my vacation, Terry posted the following comment:
Have a great vacation! Take lots of pictures of garbage cans (I think it was you who had that interest wasn't it?)!
As it turns out, I think I only took one garbage can picture during the entire vacation.
This was taken at Lincoln's New Salem in Illinois, a site that preserves the town of New Salem as it was in the 1830s when Lincoln lived there.
However, how do you preserve a town yet maintain its accessbility to the modern visitor? Modern practice results in a compromise, in which you have a site that somewhat LOOKS like the site used to look, but is not the same in all respects. There are trash cans so that you can throw away your McDonald's wrappers, modern restrooms so that you don't have to go out into the woods (or use a fly-infested outhouse), and in some cases lighting so that the site can be viewed at night. And the rum kegs aren't filled with rum, since the concoction might not meet modern health standards.
Still, it looked cool.
Comments