theboondork's RV blog

what I won't do for a picture

4/12/2018

boondocking sunset at Oliver Lee state Park Alamogordo New Mexico

I was out last night taking pictures of the sunset and I got to thinking that since I have an infrared camera and infrared can see things the human eye can't see why don't I walk up to Frenchy's old cabin and take an infrared picture and see what comes out.

It was starting to get pretty dark but the ruins of the cabin aren't to far away so I made my way up the hill and got there when there was barely enough light left to see. I have to admit it was pretty creepy walking up to the place, and the fact that an unsolved murder had occurred there probably had something to do with that.

When I was there in the daytime I remember wishing that the cabin was more intact instead of just a few broken down stone and adobe walls. But now in the dark I was glad I could take a picture from the outside and not have to walk inside a pitch black room where a murdered body had been found, and the fact that it happened over 100 years ago seemed a small consolation at the moment.

I went to the far end of the ruins and snapped a picture, I couldn't use the flash because that would mess up the infrared. I had planned on moving around and taking a few other pictures from different angles but I heard what sounded like a breeze blowing through the brush coming towards me and I thought it might be some Javelina, which you don't want to be around in the dark, so I made a hasty, but non-cowardly retreat back to the Arctic Fox.

I put the picture below but unfortunately the night was so dark and without a flash the picture came out too dark to see anything. Maybe I'll try again some night when there's a full moon.

theboondork

Frenchy's cabin Oliver Lee state Park Alamogordo New Mexico

10 Comments

Barney Ward

4/12/2018 02:59:38 pm

If I remember correctly I found out that the cabin is a best guess rebuild of his original cabin. I think it was the sign right in front of the cabin that said it.

theboondork

4/12/2018 04:23:48 pm

Yeah, your right about that. I talked to the lady Ranger when I went over there for the first time the other day and she told me that in the 1970s when an archaeologist got there it was mostly just a few piles of rocks. And the archaeologist dug around and found the original foundations and built stone and adobe walls on top of that to show the general outline of the old cabin.

I found it interesting that she said Frenchy never legally owned the property, he was just living here because this area was so desolate in the 1880s nobody cared. And since Frenchy had no known family to try and make a claim on it after he was killed, it ended up reverting to the BLM.

It's hard to imagine someone doing all that work and moving all of those rocks on land he hadn't even bothered to file homestead paperwork on.

Tom

4/12/2018 07:13:33 pm

Ya but...did you capture a ghost in your picture? Sure looks like it. Great Pic and thanks for braving the wilderness and sharing.

4/12/2018 07:28:33 pm

It's hard to tell. But I'm pretty sure old Frenchy is wandering around Dog Canyon somewhere, maybe still looking for the one that killed him. Or maybe just keeping his rock wall fences repaired. Either way I wish I was going to be here during the full moon so I could take some infrared pictures and see what shows up.

Tom

Tim

4/12/2018 08:43:12 pm

Gee thanks . . . I'll be sleeping with one eye open tonight. At least he looks like a relatively friendly spirit.

4/12/2018 09:15:19 pm

When I was a little kid my dad would tell me, a ghost can't hurt you, but it can make you hurt yourself. I'm not sure if that was supposed to make a 10-year-old feel better but it sure didn't help me when the lights went out.

Tom

4/13/2018 08:10:16 am

I remember my younger brother and sister (in high school and junior high at the time) went to see "The Exorcist" when it first came out. They were so scared afterward that they had to sleep on the floor in my parents room for a couple of nights. I didn't go to the movie and slept like a baby.

Needless to say, I doubt I'll be watching any movies of the horror variety while boondocking (or any other time for that matter).

tom

4/13/2018 09:20:39 am

While boondocking it's fairly common to run into some weird, hairy, smelly, horrifying creatures, but their just other boondocker's and are pretty harmless until they start talking, and after a few hours you'll wish you were dead.

Tom

4/13/2018 10:04:35 am

Always steer clear of that weird one known as the Old Fat Man. He will bore you to tears.

Tom

4/13/2018 10:27:55 am

Someone who talks a lot is not as bad as a person who will lock someone in their trailer and force them to watch old home movies.

Tom

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what I won't do for a picture

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