600 year old ruins, the original Panama City setting, frame modern downtown Panama City, Panama | Poppet heads frame the rich mining history of Butte, Montana
These ruins just outside modern day Panama City, from the 1500’s, reflect the optimism and hope of earlier generations. The site includes a large and sophisticated hospital, a cathedral, well established housing, and a school. We should expect change in our dwellings, cities, and landscapes, with the passing of the years. To think otherwise is not reasonable. Whereas, to expect change is part of being ready to embrace and work with it.
It is twilight in Butte, Montana, both literally on the day of this picture being taken, and figuratively in terms of the city’s rich mining history. These poppet heads (a poppet head is a framework that sits above a mining shaft and supports the winding mechanism that moves miners and equipment to and from the mine) are a busy refuge for crows, a source of mild interest for tourists, and a visible reminder of the past — but not the future — of Butte.
