Notes
I couldn't resist sharing some detail of this W.F. Laraway negative with you. Much of the negative is damaged, but the action in this quarter of the 5x7 frame is full of great detail. There's a partially constructed massive trestle, two steam donkeys, construction material and apparatus all over the place, and plenty of people working or watching. I can easily count 24 people in the frame. The cart at the top of the ramp shows motion blur as does the man alongside as it reaches the top of the ramp. You may be able to see the cable pulling it, which wraps around a pulley and back to one of the steam engines.
I believe Laraway took this image in Iowa circa 1900. I don't know what they were constructing, but the project attracted quite a few onlookers.
Category: [default]
Tags: Iowa Laraway steam_donkey steam_engine
Comments
Possibly a logging flume?
Dale Nicol on 27th July 2022 @ 7:08am
I am guessing railroad.
There is a "Historic Glenwood, Iowa" Facebook Page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/84459081123
I know some are not fans of Facebook, but I think these Laraway photos would be of great interest to the group. I did a search of WF Laraway....
"....That 1866 portion of the Laraway Block is so old that there is no newspaper story of its construction as no 1866 newspapers from Glenwood survive to the best of my knowledge. That was a really long time ago when Omaha and Council Bluffs were the same size and everything came by way of Missouri River steamboats. It was in 1879 when W. F. Laraway, inventor of the "Glenwood Chronograph", moved across the Square into the 1866 building. That building got a good scorching in 1892 when Sharp Street's old "cottonwood row" east of Walnut went up in flames and were replaced by the brick buildings there at present. Fred Myers was the contractor of the 1899 expansion of Laraway's "big new jewelry store" that also included a cafe "not open to the public". This was Laraway's "private dining room in which to eat his meals." Laraway's influence in Glenwood's development runs deep, particularly his significant role as local fruit-grower and major promoter of the 1895 Apple Carnival. He later relocated to an Oregon orchard as apples from the Pacific Northwest predominated while Glenwood's former dominance declined and was forgotten. The jewelry store closed after the death of his brother in 1931...."
L.E. on 27th July 2022 @ 9:12am
Tyhanks L.E. That fills in much of the Laraway back story,
nels on 27th July 2022 @ 10:29am
My first thought (by free association) was Rube Goldberg. It is hard to tell what is going on here without seeing more of the frame to the right. The donkeys and contraption in the foreground, with "rails" running off to the right, and the form work in the lower right, possibly suggest some type of concrete work. But what does this have to do with the high trestle structure that abruptly ends in the middle of this frame? The trestle structure doesn't look to be robust enough to support any significant weight at that height. A complete mystery. Arthur, you should let us see what the full 5x7 image looks like.
kmb on 27th July 2022 @ 8:46pm
+Please give me a call 402-297-6387 or just send them to me for our collection. Oh, my name is Stephen Hunt Director Mills County Historical Museum.
Stephen Hunt on 28th July 2022 @ 6:06am
I still think this construction is the underpinning for a elevated logging flume.
It seems to be too narrow to support any sort of rail line.
Dale Nicol on 28th July 2022 @ 7:12am
Could the ramps be a setup for loading crushed rock or ballast into rail cars. It looks like maybe there are rails on the lower sections and they could back 3 separate rail cars underneath the elevated dump ramps. The eastern terminus of the first transcontinental rail road started near here but this image is likely later than that.
Basaltgrouse on 28th July 2022 @ 7:56am