Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Seen Better Days

Okaton, South Dakota.

This week, Tina Schell challenges us to share those photos of places and objects that have seen better days. She writes, “Through the years I’ve learned how much we photographers love dilapidated, vintage, older things. My archives are a veritable storehouse of worn, aging items that are full of character. So this week, let’s all take the opportunity to show them off.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

In 1906, a railroad town was born in South Dakota. Okaton still has a few residents, but it’s got some buildings that have certainly seen better days. The elevator in the opening photo is certainly one example. In its life, it was even in a movie that was never released. Today, it’s but a shell of its former self.

Probably my favorite image from the visit to Okaton featured this house. An unrelated Internet post led me to believe that this house once belonged to a woman known as Crazy Bear.

You may have seen this image in a Cellpic Sunday Challenge post I published in August of this year. In fact, you may have seen all of these images in a previous post about Okaton here. In that post, you’ll find more details about these abandoned buildings and their potential for being a tourist attraction that didn’t materialize.

As this is being written, we are just beginning the last week of a month-long journey across the western states. We are in Spokane Washington for the weekend, and sometime today, we’ll be headed eastbound for Fargo.

If you click on any of the images above, you’ll see them in HD on my Flickr site, and you will find a few extra images shared from my original post in January. Thanks to Tina for an opportunity to reflect upon a visit to a place that features several buildings that have seen better days.

John Steiner