{"id":1063,"date":"2008-09-15T13:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-15T13:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1063"},"modified":"2008-09-15T13:05:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T13:05:00","slug":"the-pulley-that-broke-the-plains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1063","title":{"rendered":"The Pulley that Broke the Plains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/p>\n

A close-up of pulleys and chains on that operated an old McCormick<\/a> combine<\/a>, one designed to be tractor-pulled rather than self-propelled.<\/p>\n

I am no expert on agricultural implements, but I suspect that it dates from the 1950s, no later.<\/p>\n

It seems to be part of the prairie aesthetic to park obsolete threshing machines, etc., on tops of knolls, either as local landmarks or memorials to farming as it was. (Or because the nearest scrap-metal dealer is 70 miles away.) This one is near Finley, North Dakota.<\/p>\n

This post’s title is a weak allusion to the movie The Plow that Broke the Plains<\/em><\/a>, made during the Dust Bowl<\/a> and something anyone interested in North American ecology should watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A close-up of pulleys and chains on that operated an old McCormick combine, one designed to be tractor-pulled rather than self-propelled. I am no expert on agricultural implements, but I suspect that it dates from the 1950s, no later. It seems to be part of the prairie aesthetic to park obsolete threshing machines, etc., on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-1063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-h9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":514,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=514","url_meta":{"origin":1063,"position":0},"title":"Mayor apologizes to PagansThe mayor\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 15, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Mayor apologizes to PagansThe mayor of the High Plains town of Ramah has backed away from interfering with planned Pagan event at the local American Legion hall.Mayor Tamra Herrara has apologized to a pagan group whose plan for a Halloween gathering cast the small plains town as a modern-day Salem.The\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":824,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=824","url_meta":{"origin":1063,"position":1},"title":"The Ogham Controversy, Now on YouTube","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Selected bits of Scott Monahan's documentary Old News are now available on YouTube, including the trailer (above) or here in a slightly different version.I tried to summarize this complex alternative archaeological theory of pre-Columbian Celtic explorers\/traders on the Southern Plains before.","rel":"","context":"In \"Celts\"","block_context":{"text":"Celts","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=celts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":919,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=919","url_meta":{"origin":1063,"position":2},"title":"And the Corn Palace Too","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Victorian Slind-Flor puts the \"Loaf\" in Lammas, with photos of the Palouse region and, even closer to my heart, the sacred Corn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota, one of the great Roadside Attractions of the northern Plains.A quick flashback to a 1980s cross-country drive with M.: camping in the Black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Lammas\"","block_context":{"text":"Lammas","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=lammas"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1061,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1061","url_meta":{"origin":1063,"position":3},"title":"On the Road","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Blogging will be sketchy for the next week, as I am on the road, my destination being first, a small town and an old friend in eastern North Dakota -- and then possibly the Turtle Mountain area of that state.Tonight I fetched up in Valentine, Nebraska (more than halfway there!),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"travel\"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":846,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=846","url_meta":{"origin":1063,"position":4},"title":"Martin Brennan at Anubis Caves","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Boulder, Colorado, resident Martin Brennan is known for writing visionary books about ancient megalithic monuments, such as The Boyne Valley Vision.A new video clip shows him discussing the mysterious carvings that appear to be synched to the equinoctial sunset shadows at \"Anubis Caves,\" a site in the Oklahoma Panhandle. You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1010,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1010","url_meta":{"origin":1063,"position":5},"title":"The Inquisition in New Mexico","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This ruined church, Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de La Purisima Concepci\u00f3n de Cuarac, stands at the edge of the Southern Plains, southeast of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is one of three large mission churches built in the early 1600s by forced labor from the Indians who lived at the adjacent villages. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000FA4V5A","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}