Essentially the Only One

Another trip to the American Bottom floodplain this evening, and a rather aimless ramble down country roads was brought up short when I found this unusual structure.

It's the Fort de Chartres, a beautifully renovated 18th century French fort dating, in its first incarnation, all the way back to 1720. That is old for this region.

As you can see, I found it very late in the day with the sun low in the sky. The museum had closed so I was able to do no more than walk around the grounds.That was interesting enough in itself though, resembling many a castle I have wandered through in England, yet here it was right in the middle of America.

There was absolutely no one else there at this late time, generating a sense of desertion that added to the historical aura of the site. I climbed up above the gatehouse and looked out over the corn fields to my east, getting a strange frisson from the clash of past and present. By now, the sun was very low in the sky, enough to illuminate from almost zero elevation the trees outside the fort. This resulted in a delicious fiery glow. Then it was off home, almost beating the full dark of night.