Eccentric desert art - Amargosa Opera House and Goldwell Museum

"Lady Desert," by Dr. Hugh Heyrman (1992)
Rhyolite, Nevada, at Goldwell Open Air Museum

Julianne and I are carrying on our project of traveling by car in a great circle from Detroit to Seattle. So far, we enjoyed Christmas in New Orleans, then booked it across western Louisiana, southern Texas, and southern New Mexico. To Arizona where we stayed a month in Tubac and Tuscon, then up to Jerome and Grand Canyon. 

After that we headed west past Hoover Dam and Las Vegas, to Death Valley (actually in California). Many of our notes and pictures only saw daylight in our FB postings, as we have been too restless to actually write complete sentences. Hopefully I'll do some retrospective postings to the blog. But for now, onward! 

Here we are resting in Lone Pine, California, for a few days, and I want to look back upon Nevada a little. We only saw a little of it, the southern tip. But still.

Nevada struck us both as the most amazing place. The bleakness of the landscape attracts few people to settle and try to make a go of it -- we thought, before we got there. We've had to reconsider every bit of what we assumed about Nevada, including the notion of bleakness itself.

Passing on Las Vegas

Let's get Las Vegas out of the way. It's got fantastic architecture, but really, it's all for commercial purposes, and I don't count it in the same basket as art that comes from the heart. But it certainly fits in the fantasy basket.

Sphinx in Las Vegas, pyramid behind, obelisk in front

In Las Vegas, we had lunch with a friend of Julianne's from her working days. Eva is a down-to-earth, smart person who retired to Vegas for the weather and cheap prices. She seemed slightly surprised we were going to the Strip. Just looking for fantasy. Don't have to gamble.

Statue of Liberty with roller coaster

Venice-style fantasy - or something about Carnival?

We drifted along the Strip, stopping for photos as possible. Out-the-car-window shots, many of course out of focus or bad angles. Too bad about the poor focus on the blonde young "cops" in thigh-high boots, high-cut short-shorts, official badges on their hats and handcuffs at their waists. There was a fantasy.

Goldwell Open Air Museum

There's good imaginative art in southern Nevada, for instance the Goldwell Museum, close to Rhyolite. 

Rhyolite is a ghost town close to Beatty. We stayed at the El Portal Motel in Beatty, a town founded in 1904 to supply miners at Rhyolite. Beatty has always been small and unpretentious, with a couple restaurants, a gas station or two, and businesses that only open when you call the proprietor. It has a little local museum, a library in a geodesic dome, and a stream, the Amargosa River, which actually flows in this desert. Come to think of it, the water is the reason the town survived.

Rhyolite, on the other hand, had the gold mine. Discovered 1904, and by 1907 it had 5,000 people looking for a buck. A train station, a hotel, several banks and a school, also of course saloons and brothels. No natural water, though. And not as much gold as suppposed - by 1917 it was all but abandoned,with houses and other assets moved to Beatty or left to ruin. 

Rhyolite train station, with Joshua trees and chain link fencing

Ouside Rhyolite stands the Goldwell Open Air Museum, a serious endeavor to preserve outdoor sculpture in Nevada. It began 1984 with "The Last Supper" and other works by Albert Szukalski, and has been going on since. There's more to it than meets the eye, and the visual impact is engaging on its own.

"Ghost Rider" and Scotty the miner, who first found gold at Rhyolite

Maze, parking lot, sculpture of Scotty

"Server Ghost"

"Last Supper" by Albert Szukalski, 1984

Amargosa Opera House

The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel just misses being in Nevada. But since the road is straight and the border is hardly marked, and since the hotel doesn't offer any food (for which you have to drive over to the Longstreet Casino in Nevada), I will consider it an honorary citizen of Nevada. Honestly, it should be in Nevada.

It's quirky, with an atmosphere of being a manifestation of sheer will. A dancer with Radio City Music Hall, Marta Becket, by a process of serendipity found herself in Death Valley Junction - you can read her story at the link.

She (and her husband, who later left) established her theater in the abandoned building she found, painting the scenery and the walls, establishing the program, dancing. Through ups and downs, over decades, she continued. The building was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, and stands now as a non-profit hotel and theater. Marta, 91, still lives there, and only stopped dancing herself at age 85. 

We stayed there one night, charmed by the whole thing. Sadly, we were there on Thursday, so we missed the Friday night performance by Jenna McCintock, a ballet dancer recreating Marta Becket's ouvre. If you go, be sure it's a weekend!

Satin cover, and golden swan painted by Marta Becket

Bedroom wall, painted by Marta

Now isn't that too darling for words?

TLC would be welcome.

That was our last night near Death Valley. We intended to shift to Lone Pine, California, and come back for another day in Death Valley. But the road from Death Valley to Lone Pine! We couldn't do it again. Once was too many times, actually. More on that in another post. Meanwhile, I have to think that Nevada is the most eccentric state we've been in, so far. Hm. Rural Louisiana gives it a run for the money. And, what about south Texas? Hm. We can go on!

Nancy Donnelly

Grand Canyon: Indoors and out during winter

Who goes to the Grand Canyon and writes a blog about the design of the dining room?  Well it is winter: dark, cold.  But pretty wonderful here nevertheless.  Stunning scenery, clear days.  Grand Canyon is more beautiful than the many well-published photos. The photo above is our view from the south rim a week after heavy snowfall.

We have had three full days of sun, geology and mountain scenery at Grand Canyon on top of a full month of stunning Arizona birds and desert scenery in southern Arizona; a casual walk in the Patagonia area and an Elegant Trogon appeared (very rare bird in the U.S.)  All this is to say that our time in Arizona has been well spent.  Relatives--time with my dear sister.  Friends--Jean and Cynthia came from Seattle.  New friends--Margie, Gary, Paul and others in Tubac. A lovely visit with Novie who now has moved from DC to Clarkdale, AZ.  Saguaro cacti everywhere my eye falls. This area is a contrast with Louisiana, our other long-stay upon return to the US. Both are a good introduction to resuming life in this country.

But what I was not expecting is the delightful early 20th C resort on the south rim of the canyon.  We walked into Bright Angel Lodge where we are staying--stone fireplace, log design.  Totally a throwback to the era when tourism was starting here with the Santa Fe Railroad bringing tourists.

Our cabin at Bright Angel Lodge

I grew up in Montana with many family vacations to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks but this is my first adult visit to the Grand Canyon; Nancy's first visit at all.  This is of the same era as my much loved Old Faithful Lodge and Many Glaciers Lodge up north.  But this is the southwest and the Santa Fe RR so the design and presentation fits this locale.  I just love this stuff and am happy to learn about the designer of the many buildings that give me such pleasure.

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter was the architect for the Fred Harvey Corporation beginning in 1901. Fred Harvey was one of the main entrepreneurs of tourism for Grand Canyon, hiring Colter for many buildings and other design efforts. Her 40 years with the company spanned an era of design that I particularly love.  Much in common with Charles Rennie McIntosh in Glasgow, John Ruskin in England and an era of art and design which has largely faded from view except in historic designations. The hotels that Mary Colter designed here are on the Register of Historic Places and are in the "Historic Hotels of America." Fortunately, Bright Angel Lodge is also affordable.

The two buildings shown below are on the south rim of the canyon.  Lookout is directly in front of the building we are staying in and is one of the primo places to watch for California Condors to rise up on thermals out of the canyon.  Right now, too cold for condors, sadly. Desert View Tower is quite far east, near the Navajo lands.  It looks down on the area the Little Colorado River joins the main river. Both of these areas were highlights for early tourists and for us too. I think the buildings are striking.

Lookout, by Mary Coulter

Desert View Watchtower, by Mary Colter

Thomas Moran and early painting of Grand Canyon
A little detour from Mary Colter and architecture to Thomas Moran and painting.  Moran Point, along the south rim is one of the views made famous by Thomas Moran an early 20th C. American painter. Heroic views of scenery, larger than life; some of his work was on view at the Renwick in DC until the recent remodel unfortunately set different priorities.  This famous painting of Grand Canyon is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (More information here.)



And here is another picture of the same scene by Moran. This is Nancy's snapshot of an information panel at Moran Point, which reproduces the picture below. You'll notice how different it is from the painting above.  The panel at Grand Canyon comments, "Moran placed no value on literal transcriptions of nature. Instead, his paintings were idealized landscapes, drawing from the inspirations that surrounded him."  We can hardly imagine that much mist and cloud cover.

Colter
Back to Mary Jane Colter--her philosophy of architecture was to design buildings and accouterments which fit the physical and cultural landscape of their location.  She preferred to use native materials to blend into the landscape,  Since she designed many of the early buildings of the "Village" on the south rim, her influence is widely felt.

The fireplace in Bright Angel Lodge was designed by Colter to mirror a typical cross-section of Grand Canyon Geology.The stones for the fireplace were hauled up from their places in the canyon by mule and put in place where Colter determined they should go.  Stunning.  The room with the fireplace is a history room now and had no fire, sorry to say.

Fireplace at Bright Angel Lodge

The bottom of the fireplace is made of Vishnu schist, the basement rock of the canyon, about 2 billion years old.  It is dark colored and generally has vertical orientation.  In front of the upright schist layers are rounded rocks pulled out of the river itself, carried along from many layers and eroded into roundish shapes. Next from the bottom is what they call here "Grand Canyon Supergroup."  These layers include the bright reds, blue greens which define the canyon visually for most of us.  In the cnyon and here in the fireplace they are at various angles reflecting their uplift and erosion. Then we have Paleozoic layers--also bright reds and yellows--mainly horizontal.  The top is Kaibab limestone--yellowish, buff, white.

Dining in the early 20th C. and today
So to the dining room.  I am particularly charmed by the dining room at El Tovar, the high-end historic hotel also designed by Colter. It touches all my historic, 20 C. art and childhood buttons and had fairly good food as well.

Lobby of El Tovar

El Tovar Dining Room in dim light. I am taken with the light fixtures (detail below).

Light fixtures, furniture, dinnerware were designed by Mary Colter to fit the era and area.

These lights could be in Glasgow at the Glasgow School of Art. The furniture and animal heads are National Park Lodge style.

This dinnerware though, with similar philosophy, could be nowhere else.  Colter took Mimbres designs (Mogollon culture from southern New Mexico, more information here) and created stunning dinnerware which was used by Fred Harvey and the SFRR in their hotels and dining cars.  Although those corporations have demised, the hotel here has carefully had recreations made.  We had our pork chops and bread and butter on these fine plates. What a pleasure.

We are ending our month in Arizona.  Off to Nevada and Death Valley.  So much rain this year has probably created a great wildflower year.  More delights.

Biosphere 2, Up to Date

Do you remember Biosphere 2? It started out in the late 1980's and continued into the 1990's as a project to demonstrate how humans could migrate to alien worlds and create their own livable environment. An interesting idea. NASA was among the hopeful sponsors.

Or was that Biosphere 1?  What's the difference between 1 and 2? What happened to those people? Is this thing still going on? Well! With so many questions we wanted to visit. And luckily, it's in Arizona only about 50 miles from where we're staying.

Our Visit to Biosphere 2

Turns out, Biosphere 2 is carrying on, and open to the public with scheduled tours. We took a tour with a tour guide, Julianne and I, our Seattle friend Cynthia, and about 15 other people. The guide has been with Biosphere 2 since the beginning, and was very enthusiastic about both the past and the future. We had about an hour and a half inside, and more wandering and thinking time outside. It's a beautiful and solidly built complex of structures.

Main environment, with rain forest and ocean, among other things

The Original Biosphere Project

Biosphere 1, it turns out, is the Earth and its atmosphere.  "2" was the effort to create a viable living space separate from Biosphere 1.  Eight people did actually live inside Biosphere 2 for two years, recycling their own O2/CO2, recycling and using the same water over and over, growing their own food.  Two years seems like an eternity. But they managed it, despite some problems.

The way Biosphere 2 was designed to work, eight people would live sealed off from the outside world, growing all their own food and conducting biological and biophysical experiments. The environment would be like the real world, with the plants, animal life and water resources in balance, creating an earth-like atmosphere of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen.

They set up small versions of a rain forest, an ocean, a grassland, a farm.

Living quarters and "lung," with our friend Cynthia

To equalize air pressure inside and outside in the expanding heat of the day and the contracting cool of the night, there were expandable membranes, the "lungs," connected to the biosphere by underground passages. These expanded in the day time and contracted at night. 

Four men, four women, many plants, some mammals including one other primate, fish, insects. The eight lived in quarters connected to the greenhouse, also shut off from the outside world, except for computer contact and email.

Rain Forest

The rainforest understory

Ocean with wave-maker at rear

To avoid inside plants from accessing outside water, or outside plants accessing inside water, a basement of steel plates sat under the whole thing. Amazing. They really tried to think of everything.

Underground Biosphere 2 with tour guide and tourists in the room where water is recycled.

Inside the lung, which can adjust air pressure in Biosphere 2

How Did It Turn Out?

It was not as easy as the Biospherians hoped.

They had a farm where they grew their food and raised domestic animals. But during the first winter of Biosphere 2, the weather in Biosphere 1 (the Tucson area) was rainier and cloudier than typical, so photosynthesis lagged. Thus the percentage of oxygen fell inside the complex.

It fell also for another factor which they had not accounted for:  Concrete, used extensively in the construction, absorbs quite a bit of O2 as it is curing, and this depleted the atmospheric oxygen even more.

So the biggest problem, which showed up early in the experiment, was that there was not enough oxygen.  The amount of oxygen in the air dropped from 19% (normal) to 14.5%. At 13% humans die.

Of course, the project managers violated the isolation of the biosphere to add more oxygen. Outsiders called this a failure, but the Biospherians didn't agree, and stayed on, emerging in 1993 after two years.

Other than that, they were close to self-sufficient, but not quite. Basic life tasks -- farming and the other tasks required to sustain life -- took 66 hours/week for each person. They had adequate nutrients but not enough calories, and so they were hungry - beyond hungry. In desperation, they ate their seed corn, and dipped into the emergency food supply.

Further, simple self sufficiency wasn't enough. A central part of the project was their scientific experiments. But they couldn't get around to them, they were working too hard. The science was not progressing.

Non-rain forest area of the Biosphere

Hunger, poor air, and frustration made them cranky, and they divided into factions. Is that human, or what? (We think the guide said that the lack of oxygen was the strongest factor in the crankiness but our memories are weak.  Maybe we need more oxygen ourselves. Or maybe we have personally experienced the crankiness of hunger.)

Lots of learning in these two years, but finally the managers decided to stop the project since the science experiments were not being carried out. So two years was how long it lasted.

For a more complete review of Biosphere 2 history, see this Wikipedia article. A TED talk by participant Jane Poynter is here. A fascinating description of the whole concept of biospherics is here.

Now--15 years later

After years of effort, several changes in ownership and direction, and financial crises, a new template has emerged for Biosphere 2. The facility is managed now by the University of Arizona, and they are open to scientists from anywhere in the world who may want to conduct research there.

Our tour guide didn't focus on the hard times, but about the chances for future projects and what can be learned from them.

Two really interesting projects are in process now.  Probably others too but these are the ones we were able to absorb.

Climate science and water resource use are the focus now.  The Biosphere 2 site is well-suited to experiments on earth atmosphere, which has become one of the key issues for our planet.

Rain forest, I couldn't resist the rain forest

Rain Forest

Scientists have found that the trees in rain forests (temperate and tropical) do not take up water from rivers but rely fully on rainfall reaching their roots. Learn more here.

Using the enclosed rain forest in the Biosphere 2, this project is now measuring the plant usage of water in rainfall conditions (how much intake, expiration, etc).  (We were visiting during one of the rainfalls--yikes!) Later they will induce drought conditions and measure what the trees do especially to see whether their roots reach for the "rivers" under extreme conditions.

Water Cycle

This experiment is just starting.  The area which was the farm area when folks tried to live in Biosphere 2 is being transformed into an area with bare soil.  The scientists will measure rainfall and where it goes on soil with no vegetation, to create a baseline.  How much evaporation, how much percolation, etc.  The total amount of water can be held constant; amount and type of dirt remain constant. Next grass and grass-size plants will be introduced and similar measurements will be made. Later yet--trees. Learn more here.

I do not recall what they said about temperature, sunlight and so on but we suppose they also will be measured. Those factors depend on the Biosphere 1 climate in the Tucson area. The research will take several years so stay tuned.

Beginning project with high school students, water and plant growth.
Different contributions of water have different tracers.

More views from the tour

We saw the rain forest and ocean. We went down into the underground passages that link the living quarters to the rest. We went up into the lung and felt the hurricane wind as we left through the outside door.

Tour guide, Cynthia, Julianne, rain forest and Biosphere 2 skin

Wind when exiting

Photos by Nancy
Text by both

Photographing Birds in Southern Arizona

We've been visiting places near Tubac, Arizona, where birds can be seen and photographed. We are in an area important to birders, the northern tip of the Sonoran Desert, with mountains and lowlands next to each other, different species at different elevations and various degrees of moisture.

It's fun catching these little guys in the lens, still the outcomes are partly a matter of luck and circumstance.

Pyrrhuloxia, a desert relative of cardinals

That one felt to me like a successful picture. Is it always like that? How does picture-making generally go? At Sonoita Creek State Natural Area, there's a bay, with coots. Coots are rather bad-tempered birds, and often chase each other. Thus they are very watchful of each other, though not very shy of humans. I watched them for some time, made maybe 15 shots, and here are two.

American coot

Same flock, note odd half-webbed feet

Isn't that interesting? Same flock, they all looked the same color, yet there's a huge difference in the photographs. This has partly to do with the reflectance of the feathers and the angle of the sun. The swimming bird is broadside to the sun but the walking bird heads into the sun, its feathers at more of an angle to the light. 

That's not all. See how there's less detail in the bill of the swimming bird? That's because the camera read the dark water as lighter, and made the whole shot lighter, than would have been ideal. 

Then it read the pale dock as darker, and so the whole second shot is darker, including the bill. The automatic exposure is always adjusting toward middle grey.

Lots of issues with color. With this Sage Thrasher, the late afternoon shadowy light makes everything look bluer than real. It's actually a rather brownish bird.

Sage Thrasher, with increased contrast using paint.net

So is there a little bit of uncertainty?...oh, yes. Next here's a sequence trying to capture this Canyon Wren if possible. One bird and a couple minutes.

Sit up!

Where'd he go?

Turn around!

Could you please step farther into the sun?

This somewhat frustrating series was at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum outside Tucson. Eventually I did better with a different Canyon Wren.

Persistence, that's the key. Here's another Canyon Wren, more successful, later the same day. Not perfect, but better.

Canyon Wren in shadow 

This is a fun game. Birds don't hold still. You have to use a telephoto because they're so small, but then frequently you can't even find them.

Or, they just will refuse to move into the sun, or they turn their back, or you know, they ignore what I have in mind for their big opportunity. 

Gila Woodpecker, wrong side of tree

Sometimes my little automatic camera insists on focusing not on my subject, but on something else, such as branches.

Inca dove in thicket, focus on tree and branch

But then, sometimes everything goes well. The bird holds still enough. The light is good enough. Focus is adequate.

Lesser Goldfinch, winter plumage, not seeming so brilliant

Lesser Goldfinch, winter plumage, males and females

by Nancy, with her darling little Panasonic Lumix DMZ-TZ6, Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens, bought in Rome a year ago.