A Wider View

I've shown you so much of our little town from a few inches to a few feet away, thought I'd take a wider view today and show you some of it in panorama. Above is Avenue A (streets are numbered and avenues are lettered). From the location I was standing, looking in between the church and firehouse towers is roughly the direction of Mt. Rainier from here. Were there no clouds on the horizon we might well see it.

With a wider view comes clutter. I have mentioned before that only towns and road make spaces in the continuous carpet of evergreen forest. As a result, these are on the places you see wires. Endless wires overhead. It is a bit like noticing that the only place you see corrupt politicians is in politics. Put a corrupt politician in their backyard and you lose sight of them pretty quickly.



On down the avenue, we come to the crossing of 2nd street. Looking east, we see where the Cascades would be luring on a clearer day. To your right is the church and the old firehouse you saw in the previous photo.

I wouldn't say that Snohomish is a pretty town, but it does have a charm of its own. It has the feel of an open western town without quite so many cowboy boots and hats (although you can find them for sure). What we have a motorcyclists instead. I believe this is the reason we don't have any really good restaurants here like Staunton does. The clientele don't demand it.

As you can see, this was a really large firehouse. These days it is a business center with a variety of stores and offices housed inside.

This gives a notion of the history of this town. It was put here during the heyday of logging. Fire was the enemy and fighting it was important. Especially when you are completely surrounded by trees.

Continuing down the hill towards the Snohomish River, we come to 1st street and the heart of town. Looking east, we see the Snohomish Bakery sitting at the next corner, apparently in the middle of the street as it curves around to the right. Although I had to wait to get a shot with no cars in motion (it plays havoc on stitching a panorama), there is little traffic these days. Certainly none like we are used to this time of year.

You can tell from the truck parked in the central spot that folks from the surrounding farmland come here to shop and work.

Looking west toward the Olympic mountains (which we cannot see from here...got to get to Everett to be on a hill high enough to see that far), we do see some traffic but also lots of empty parking spaces. When I come this way on my morning jog, I see many fewer parked cars but there are still some here. I think they are from the folks who live upstairs over the storefronts.

On a fine day like this under normal circumstances, we'd have bustling streets and lots of traffic. If you inspect the images carefully, you'll see empty storefronts, some of which have appeared since the beginning of March. For example, the old bank on the left above, recently a real estate office, is now vacant. In the image one above that, the green building on the right is now vacant and apparently being remodeled (maybe). At any rate, the former occupant, a antique store, is now gone.

The usual small town struggles are accentuated during the apocalypse. Hard to know the lasting effect on Snohomish. Or any of us. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay in touch.