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Tucked away between two alignments of old Route 66 in Missouri, travelers in the know will find this somewhat sinister scene, haunted by tinny radio music, V8 motors, and laughing voices, portrayed here in a black & white 8x10 documentary art photo.

Nearly an entire wall of the wooden 1930s cabin is missing, the timbers shorn away by a falling tree. Left open to the elements, the entire cabin looks as if it has suffered a violent attack: pieces of the ceiling and plaster walls on the floor, the sofa shredded in some places, its upholstery completely torn off in others.

Even in black and white, this fine art photo clearly shows nature's debris and detritus littering the abandoned cabin's floor. Water stains create an odd map on the plaster that somehow remains attached to the walls, and through the enormous gaping wound in the cabin's wall, this Route 66 photo shows us one of the cabin's companions, tilting precariously forward, groaning under decades of neglect and abandonment.

The whole scene is one that sends a shiver down the spine, a chill to the bone-it could so easily be something more menacing and cruel that left such a disheveled, abused state as we see in this photograph! Once a bustling Route 66 motor court, John's Modern Cabins are now left to return to nature-as so easily could happen to us, to our homes, to our towns in the future. Still, it's an oddly beautiful destruction and loneliness, and as such, I feel bound to capture it on film, not only because the old motor court will soon be gone, lost to history.

If you love Route 66, road trips, history, or Americana, be sure to take a look at the rest of my Route 66 photography!

The condition of this old tourist cabin-the wall torn out, the sofa ripped apart, pieces of the ceiling and walls scattered on the floor-makes it look as if a devastating attack had taken place, though it was truly only a tree falling through the roof. Regardless, due to the mood of the photograph, I've entitled this black & white image "Menaced".

For the past two years, I've been travelling America's Mother Road, Route 66, capturing pieces of our history and our present for others and for posterity. Meeting the people who live and work along this fabled road has been an absolute delight, and seeing and, of course, photographing the places that line Route 66 has been an amazing experience. If you ever have a chance to take that trip west, even just a little sliver, do it!

digital, canon, camera, archival paper

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