As a followup to my recent Facebook post describing our tour through the sandhills area a few days ago, I’ll now post the picture of the billboard at Pigeon Point we parked by. We dug through some old pictures and found a couple from the time ten years ago when Dennis Bjugstad, Larry Strand and I went to the site of the old way station at Pigeon Point. All that remains are a few depressions in the ground, sort of semi-basements of the onetime log structures built above them. Hordes of pigeons lived in the area, so thick they could be knocked out of the trees with a stick. The meat of the bird could be dressed and eaten, and historical references tell me hunters salted them down and shipped them in barrels to markets.
The pictures of the Pioneer Cemetery I put up then showed a nice neat ground, mowed grass, branches and brush cleared out, and a surrounding fence to keep livestock out. The first time we visited was 40 years ago. Note the difference. A well-motivated community group transformed it some years back and did a good job. Now Roger Sandvig volunteers his time keeping things in order. (I hope I’ve not neglected naming anyone else who volunteers.)
The marker on which I’m resting my hand is the same one that Mary stood by 40 years ago, only it’s missing its tiptop. As far as the ground cover goes there is a world of difference between the two. It’s hard to imagine 40 years have passed from the first time we visited, or for that matter, that 10 years have passed since we three guys visited Pigeon Point.
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