I brought this up a long time ago and thought I'd do it again. I'm intrigued by a bunch of people with a common interest who are from such diverse corners of the country, and in some cases other countries. I live in the heart of the gold rush country here in California. The snow capped Sierras can be seen off in the distance.
What's it like where you live? What interesting, historical, or just plain beautiful stuff do you see every day, and maybe take for granted sometimes, that others would think is cool?

Most of the time I'm here in the middle of some of the best grain farming land in the world...miles and miles of corn and soybeans, neatly subdivided by roads running n-s/e-w along the section lines like a giant checkerboard. It's particularly lovely from the air in the late spring and early summer when each field is a different shade of green. I'm about 100 miles west of the Rock Island Arsenal museum which I'm sure most folks here would enjoy visiting. The rest of the time I'm up in the Chippewa National Forest, right on the Laurentian divide where the rivers start flowing north to Hudson Bay and the arctic ocean.

__________________
Rick, W0FG
CTR2 68-72

Well, there were a couple of pretty big skirmishes around here during the late War of Secession. You might have heard of them. Fredericksburg, Chancelorsville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Brandy Station, Manasass (1&2). Those are the ones within twenty-five miles or so. A hard days march anyway. There are rifle pits just outside the kitchen window here. Stonewall Jackson was killed less than five miles from where I sit.

That'll do for now.

__________________
John 3:16 .

Its sunny and bright, but cold here. I live right on the banks of the Ohio river. When I look out, all I see is murky water (its still receeding from flood stage.) I can look out and see the stadium where the Bungals lose all season. Barges constantly ply the waters up and down stream. Always action. Last week there was a floating restaurant break loose and try to head out (full of people). I had kind of a ring side seat. I'm at a wide place in the road, so drug buyers returning from Ohio pull up to use their recently scored poison. Then the locals bust them for it. Sometimes full felony takedowns. Neighbor once went out and asked nicely if they'd point their guns someplace other than his house! I thought it was a reasonable request. I've noticed now they point the guns at Ohio and keep their backs toward our homes.

__________________
Dick Burg

I get to see countless bumber stickers stuck to Prius's on a daily basis. The most common seem to be Obama Hope/Change, Free Tibet, No War, Coexist and Bush Lies. Often, there are so many on the back of the car (usually a Volvo or Subaru in this scenario) you can hardly even tell what color the car is.

__________________
~ S&WCA No.2159 ~

Cedar city utah is close to zion, cedar breaks and bryce canyon national parks. Known as the festival city for shakespearian stuff (I never went) but people actualy come from the other side the planet for plays!
Near the mountain meadows massicure site, 45 miles. My wifes stepmother is the gr, gr, grandaughter of john doyle lee who was the only person to be exicuted for his part in it. In a hours drive you can see many turkey, deer, some mountain goats and sheep, elk, antelope and wild horses also some poligamists. Walmart is good for spotting them.
We live at 6,000 ft, it gets to almost 11,000 ft behind us. Also the country drops down to 2,500 ft below us so you can pick your tempiture. Mesquite nevada a hour and half away for eats and gambling.
Probley one of the best areas in the country to own and ride a ATV, as the famous piute trail system is near as is the marquant and panascant trail systems. It`s all BLM land out of town every direction. Also dixie national forest etc. You can open carry here, and ccw,s are easy.
Lots of piute indians, cowboys and sheep hearders. Some plad shorts wearing tourists too along with spandex wearing bicyclelists.
Lots of mormons, but I never been in one of their churchs. They are nice people but I am glad I aint looking for a job here!
Picture from above our house. I found a old trail on the quad there. Also just a typical picture on another quad ride about a hour and half away.

Surrounded by the beautiful hills of east Ky (GO UK). Close to the nicest small town in the U. S. (IMO). In coal country.

In Southern California and near the resort town of Palm Springs, and in the desert. Great hiking and golfing all nestled in a mountain surrounded valley. Snow on the mountain tops right now. Does get HOT here in the summer though. Bud

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.

__________________
Sure you did

I'm 15 minutes away from a boat launch that will let me explore the atchafalya basin (think Swamp People) catching bass, sac a lait (crappie) catfish etc.(Also can hunt tree rats deer ducks and woodcock) I'm 10 minutes from a launch that will take me into Vermillion bay and then to the gulf of Mexico where you head south and the next land you hit is Mexico. I'm half an hour away from my duck ponds. I'm far enough from New orleans yet close enough to go in for the day. All this and cable TV and a WalMart too!!!!
The only thing I would like is crystal clear water like in Florida-but hell, if you go far enough out into the gulf I got that too
I think the only other place I would like to live would be along ther Texas coast west of galeveston down to the border. I loves me some of that warm salty Gulf air .

__________________
Forum consigliere

CW's description above would be similar to my description of this area, the primary difference being that the soil in his area is more consistently superior over large tracts of ground, whereas my area has spots here and there which aren't as productive.

Just north of here is a huge area of ground as flat as a tabletop which generations ago was known as the Great Black Swamp. There is an interesting history to it, but rather than try to record it here, I'll just suggest that you run a search on it. Others can tell the story better than I.

Putnam County, where I live, was settled largely by German Catholic immigrants. As you're probably aware, they built BIG, TALL church buildings, modeling them to some degree after European cathedrals. For the architecture buff, or someone like me with an artistic bent, one can enjoy a drive around the county to see a number of these magnificent edifices. I believe the tallest spire in the county is in Glandorf(yes, settled by folks from Glandorf, Germany), around 260' if I remember correctly.

There's probably more stuff which I'm currently forgetting, but I better get back to work.

Andy

And you're pretty close to the EVILLL Bohemian Grove, nestled right in the middle of granolaville to the west of you. Do you ever come across an old VW bus with the stupidest old bumper sticker of all time "You can't hug a child with nuclear arms!" I could just shoot...oh, never mind.
We put my mom's, dad's, sister's, and cousin's ashes in the Russian River over the course of twenty years. Guerneville was our hangout in the late 60's because my uncle had a cabin outside of town. Pretty fun back then.

Del Gue in the film Jeremiah Johnson says it best:

"Mother Gue, I says, the Rocky Mountains is the marrow of the world! And by God, I was right."

All four seasons in perfect form. 300 days of sunshine annually. All the trout menacing days my calendar will allow. Elk, deer and proghorn a' plenty, with which to fill my hunting tags. Wide open spaces, high mountain passes, paradise to me.

Sir.
I live in Yuma Arizona. We have large amounts of lettuce and snowbirds in the winter. In the summer we have warm weather. When the sun goes down we have renegade mexicans running thru the area importing themselves and drugs.
Yuma does promote its old history to a small point. We are famous for having a Territorial Prison and a train from Contention, New Mexico. It is not a large city, but Yuma County is a large tract of land. Once outside the city limits it is wide open desert, great for off road and many places to shoot against the hillside. Lots of unique desert to walk thru and many good rocks to pick up. If you are a camera person there are unlimited thing to photograph.
It is a border town and that is not always a good thing. Heavy presence of federal, military, and law enforcement. Law enforcement is here because of the crime. Military is here for the desert training ranges.
I have had a good job here for 26 years and it is a good place to live. It would be even better if the illegal aliens and the winter aliens would all just go away.
Bill@Yuma

Right in the middle of the bluegrass region of Kentucky. Gently rolling hills, bluegrass, horse farms, rock fences. A great place to live.

__________________
SWCA #2421

Piney woods of East Texas. 10 billion stinkin' pine trees.

__________________
Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Abilene, Texas, where you can fry eggs on the sidewalk in the summer, it gets really hot! In the old west days Abilene was quite the cattle town with thousands of head going through every day and with that a lot of wild boys with guns, it was a pretty rough town in the 1800s. The town did settle down after that, until the last few years we never locked our cars or houses, however, with the influx of illegals coming in if it ain't locked up its gone, such a shame. All in all you will find good southern hospitality, great bar b que and the best highways in the country. Now we just need some trees, lol.

I still get a kick driving up Highway 49 out here that, like your town, is full of old towns that I'm proud to say were as blood soaked as any in the west. Mokelumne Hill, Angels Camp, Nevada City, etc. Moke Hill was the most violent. We're talking 1850's and on, with Colt Dragoons and 51 Navies bellowing gunsmoke on a daily basis. I've often traveled through Copperopoulis, the location of the first, and last stage robberies of Black Bart.

This 'bout covers it.

Floyd County, Virginia. It's where people from "Almost Heaven" go when they pass on. . .


Bullseye

__________________
Five screws and 3-1/2 inches.

Macon County Tennessee - Official Web Site - Macon County TN
Hills, burley tobacco, hardwood forests, and a Wal Mart.

Goldsboro, NC, home of the 4th Fighter Wing - desendents of the Eagle Squadrons of WWII. Small country town of 30/40 thousand people and we live out of town in the farming country.

I'm from the Endless Mountains region of NE Pennsylvania. I live on 164 acres in the middle of quite, rural country. The surrounding land is all farmland (or once farmland) filled with rolling hills, dense woods and countless streams and ponds. Lots and lots of dirt roads. My brother lives with me.. we bought the house and land from my mother (we added some more acres on about a year ago).

Nobody lives close by so I'm free to shoot wherever I please (a big range up in the woods, a small handgun range at the end of my driveway, and a small setup off of my deck for plinking). When you look out at any direction from my house, you see trees, trees and more trees. My yard is cut out in the middle of the woods. The woods start just 40 feet behind my house, so when I'm in my room at the computer (like I am now) I can look out and enjoy a nice woodland view. The woods stretch for many acres in each direction which means I spend plenty of time bumming around enjoying nature.

There are a lot of critters... deer, bear, bobcats, mountain lions (even though they don't exists in PA) turkey, grouse, fox, coyotes and the typical rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, birds of all sorts etc. that frequent my yard. In fact just two days ago I spent an hour following bear tracks that came right up on my front deck. I usually spot a few bald eagles fly over a few times each year.

I have a pond that's suitable for a lazy float and some fishing in a rowboat, and can get my kayak in a stream that leads to a river. It's a great area for kayaking....there are lots of ponds and lakes nearby.

I also live within 20 -30 minutes of two towns... one rather redneck, and the other rather uppity. Big contrast between the two, but I enjoy them both. I'm close enough where going out isn't a trek, but far enough that things stay quiet.

Here are some pictures... Three of my yard (one taken from the front window, one from the deck, and one of the house) so you can see the privacy I enjoy, one of a typical dirt and one on a nearby lake.

Attached Images

	WhatsItLike1.jpg (66.6 KB, 54 views)
	WhatsItLike2.jpg (96.6 KB, 54 views)
	WhatsItLike3.jpg (105.5 KB, 55 views)
	WhatsItLike4.jpg (109.4 KB, 60 views)
	WhatsItLike5.jpg (64.7 KB, 60 views)

__________________
- The Federalist #46 -

I love those roads, Bullseye. That's my kind of driving!

__________________
- The Federalist #46 -

I live 10 minutes from this view. This is looking south from Ecola Park, between Seaside and Cannon Beach, on the North Oregon Coast. Crescent Beach, which can be seen on the left, is where William Clark went with the Natives to view a dead whale. This is one of my favorite places in the world, and I come here all the time.


I live 3 hours from this view of Mt. St. Helens. My Dad's logging operation had a tower set up at the exact spot this photo was taken, back in 1981, a year after it blew. I make an annual hike up here every summer.

I'm originally from Sonoma County, CA .... but spent that last 7 years in Hong Kong and mainland China .... these days I live in Denver Colorado and absolutely love it.

I'm on the coast of Maine, an hour or so further east than Bar Harbor. Beautiful coastline, a mix of granite where the water is deep and mud flats in the tidal rivers. It's a working coast away from the areas that attract the tourists, depending on the time of the tide you'll see lobster boats on the water or clammers and wormers on the mud, we have huge tides here and when the water goes out whole river bottoms are exposed.
Occasionally you'll see sailboats or kayaks but it's mostly working folk.

When you move a bit inland we have lots of pine trees - this is where all of LL Bean's Christmas wreaths and the like come from. October and November are "tipping" and wreathing season - people go out in the woods and cut "tips" off the trees and sell them to the wreath makers.
Also, we have blueberries, lots and lots of wild low bush blueberries. The areas where the blueberries are are called the barrens, big open areas that were scraped clean by the glaciers and the blueberries took up residence. Now the plants are cultivated and maintained as the "wild" blueberry crop is big money.

It's a beautiful place, very rural and down homey, sparsley populated by good, hard working people, I love it here. I'll post up some pics later this evening.

__________________
Don't kiss smiling dogs!

We have a winner!

__________________
~ S&WCA No.2159 ~

I'm from a rural community thats named after a Kiowa chief. He was supposed to be the first Kiowa to be baptised but some accounts say he was only baptised to stay out of trouble for being a drinker and possible horse thief.

Its a small community of less than 200. Most folks farm around here. The rest are employed directly or indirectly by the limestone quarry south of town. Lots of rock trucks runnin through town.

Its pretty flat country for the most part but theres still plenty of good fishing and hunting around. Theres aleso plenty of good places to shoot my favorite Smith's!

__________________
What would Josey Wales do?

Is this a great country or what!!

Iggy,

Where do the tracks go? Are they some sort of old, established trail?

Andy

I live 6.74 miles from the biggest, baddest, greatest, most wonderfulest gun show in the world. It's this weekend. Might see some of y'all there. Gotta be careful, though. The big monkey said he won't be able to make it, so there won't be anyone to ride herd on us.

__________________
Insert short witty words here

Iggy's picture looks like Ward Bonds Wagon Train when he guided the settlers west

Taken not far from where I live, this horse farm joins the Ocala National Forest. On summer mornings you can see turkeys, deer, and sandhill cranes coming up to eat breakfast with the horses. The critters were grouped a lot tighter but by the time I got my camera the horses had finished their grain and gone to the hay feeders.

Attached Images

faraway 02-8 (Small).jpg (60.7 KB, 46 views)

wow seven years as an X-pat...
So you must be in oil or finance

Ive been to HK for a short trip spent some time in the main land off the beaten tourist path. Places like Guangzhou (sp), Shenzhen, Chengdu. Its interesting at first but gets old fast, to me. I have only been in the Beijing airport and never been to Shanghai. Id like to see more of HK.

I was asked to go back to China some time this year...

I work in manufacturing but met lots of Texas oil workers in China. Even good texmex food

.

Come on, Iggy. You're not going to get away with just the picture. Looks like its too far to walk. So I guess you take the truck out across that little field. Is that your front lawn?

__________________
Dick Burg

I live on the central washington coast, doesn't snow very much, Seldom gets over 80 degrees in the summer. Rains quite a bit in the winter. On a clear day you can see both the Olympic and Cascade mountains.

We do have some pretty sunrises:

I don't know where those tracks go in Iggy's picture, but they look fresh and it appears to be a big one too

__________________
Forum consigliere

This is where the Toccoa becomes the Ocoee River at the GA/TN border between McCaysville, GA and Copperhill, TN. Confused? I grew up here.
When we were kids, we used to climb up on the top girder and walk across this bridge. I don't remember falling off, hmmmm.....
This used to be one of the most polluted places in the US, due to the sulphuric acid plant and copper mines just downstream from here. All this went out of business in the mid '80's. Its now a mecca for whitewater sports, fishing, hunting, and just about anything outdoors.

In Central PA everything is very old.......a new house was built in 1890 I'm joking, but, not really. And everything is haunted.

There are some really neat old towns around here though, when you picture Main Street USA circa. 1920, those towns are all over, towns no one's ever heard of. Very old, very nice brick building, storefronts, old factories and workshops......back when there used to be a lot of industry in PA, and before "box stores" every Main Street in every little town had a hardware store, a jewelry store, a little grocery, etc. Right down the street from me is an auto repair place that's been there since Model A's rolled down the street. Central PA is what used to be hard working, blue collar America...now half of the factories closed and outsourced to Mexico......the other half burnt up....I live near the "coal region" with streets full of row homes, hundreds of them, used to be coal miner housing from the turn of the century. Now most of those mines are abandoned.

I hate the winters here, but the spring and summer are very beautiful. It's easy to lose yourself walking around in the woods, you could almost forget it's 2011. This area is the kind of place where you go walking in the woods and come across an old, forgotten family cemetery from the 1800's, from a house that was long lost to history. Just so much forgotten history in PA.

One can dream, can't they?

__________________
Sure you did

I live in a condo in a fairly intensively developed urban area, on the fringe of the core of the original Mormon settlement of Mesa, AZ , the historical remnants of which are scanty. All the amenities of a large city are close at hand. Here at about 1,100 feet above sea level, the native vegetation is mostly sparse saguaro, prickly pear, barrel, cholla, and other cacti, low brushy plants like brittlebush, creosote, jojoba, etc., and where there's enough groundwater, trees such as mesquite, paloverde, and ironwood. It's mostly flat and open --- a large valley, but studded and ringed by mountains and buttes. But, within less than three hours drive, I can be in another world entirely --- subalpine conifer forests near Flagstaff (with a ski area), open, treeless sagebrush flats which look a lot like Iggy's photo, the largest contiguous stand of Ponderosa pine in the world, numerous large lakes, a Wild and Scenic designated wilderness canoe stream, lots of Forest Service and BLM land for recreation. Mountains all around. A little longer than an hour drive thru jaw-dropping scenery on the Apache Trail to Apache Lake, where I keep a small boat to transport my camp gear to isolated campsites, far from the madding crowd. One hour to excellent bear and lion habitat. It's all good!

Ladder 13, I can take you to the spots where you snapped those pictures in the tetons and yellowstone. I worked for the NPS there in 1961. That church is the "church of the transfiguration" at moose wyoming. I have been in it, looked the same back then. Our camp was at beaver creek, two miles north. The lakes are yellowstone and jackson lakes. I was there for 6 great months.

It just dawned on me that I lived and worked there 50 years ago this comeing may! I am getting old! I worked the summer before in yosemite for 6 months too.

Merril, you know your Parks I was gonna post some of Bryce, but............you've done so already.
Love NW Wyoming.

__________________
Sure you did

Were you there for the earthquake? Lost a campground & some campers if I remember correctly. Maybe '62 tho. I was a 10 yo kid in Glasgow, Montana & my dad woke us up so we could feel it.

Bruce

I worked with several old timers there. One, a old cowboy dewey van winkle had been sheriff of teton county way back. He was close to 70 years old in 1961 when I was there. He told me he punched cattle there before there were roads there! He must have been talking 1910 or so! Another guy that I worked with said he had been a caretaker for wallace berrys place on jackson lake. They also filmed shane nearby. I went and seen the movie shane with a girl that was a small girl extra in the movie at jackson. In the movie she was about 7 years old. I knew her when she was about 17
There was a store in jackson that had deweys colt saa and rig on display. He was a tough old timer and I worked with him for awhile.
Later I was a studio guard for universal studios and met a old cowboy actor/producer who`s name I no longer remember. The guy handeled horses for the studio. He told me he was a cowboy with dewey and I think he also said they rodeo`ed together.
Edit: No, I wasnt there for the earthquake. That was the fall of 1959, about a year and half before I was there.
I see you put up a picture of downtown jackson. I frequented the cowboy bar in those days. They used to have black jack tables. There was a pretty good tip system. It would be wide open for awhile and everything hid the next night. I got into a fracus in that area. They used to chase clover the killer around the town square a couple times a day and mock hang him for holding up the stagecoach. They would rope the square off and stop traffic for the show. I watched it a few times, then it got "usual". I came out of one of those establishments one day and a nice fight was going on. 4 guys were in a knockdown drag out. Maybe 500 tourists watching. At first I thought it was a new act and these boys are pretty good! Then I seen it was the real deal. One guy was laid out and a girl asked me to help her put him in a car. He was knocked cold. I picked him up over my shoulder and he come to, bit my ear and started to punch me around my head. He thought I was the guy he had been fighting! I got him in the car and walked back to watch the other two. I eventualy got to know all four partys. Two were rodeo riders, the other two, one turned out to be a marine deserter, and the other, a local indian. I never seen a man take a worse beating. The indian was drunk crawling on his knees, the cowboy was so used up he couldnt knock him out, and was useing his boots on him. I finaly held the indian down and told the cowboy to walk off. Not one person out of hundreds of men there voulenteered to give me a hand. It was mass shock!
It did make me popular with some of the local business owners. Later the owner of the cowboy bar came up to me and asked me if my buddys (about 5 or 6 of my co workers) were at least as old as me. The funny thing was, I was the youngest of the bunch! That was early into my job and it gave us a place to drink and not get carded rest of our season! That was a good year!

Looked like this in January. Pretty much the same today, only a bit warmer.

Won't bother posting pix of where we live. Too much urban-sprawl coming to what was once a nice rural-area. Cookie-cutter houses in supposedly safe-gate communities where home-owner-associations rule. If the lottery ever comes my way, we are getting outta here.........

Atlanta may be forty-miles away, but it is now spreading itself in all directions, like an amoeba........or a cancer........

__________________
GA Carry member
Vietnam Vet

All these pictures were made on the farm I was born on except the bird-hunting picture. It was made on the farm that my wife's family has owned for over 100 years.

We have roots here.

About 100 miles due South of Atlanta.

__________________
Georgia On My Mind

I live about half way between the Big Horn mountains of Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota. Great hunting and fishing in the Big Horns. My other hobby is riding motorcycles. I cant think of a better place than the Black Hills to do that.
Wing master