Is the struggle to achieve our dreams ever futile?

Relic of  the past

Nathaniel Herrick was a Canadian entrepreneur that had a dream. He envisioned creating a saw mill to supply lumber in 1877 for the nearby silver operations in Silver Cliff and Westcliff, CO.  He hand built a road where he hauled up a boiler and flywheel. Newlin Creek would supply the power for the operation, as well as a water source for the cabin he built next to it. After completing all of this work, he suddenly died. His dreamed died with him, as the operation was abandoned, along with all the equipment.

Will we take hold of our dreams?

The flywheel and boiler now sit at the end of the Newlin Creek Trail.  I took a number of pictures of the flywheel on a hike, and returned again to do some figurative photography. The wheel itself symbolizes time in my mind and by extension, a dream. This is why the model holds onto it, which poses all kinds of questions. What does this moment in history mean? Was all the effort put into this enterprise pointless? Are our dreams futile?

These questions remind me of Alfred Tennyson’s quote, “Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” In this context, I would substitute “dream” for the word “loved.” While Herrick’s dream was never fully realized, he was nevertheless successful in my judgment. He went after something that was bold, risky and innovative. What better way to spend your last days?  It certainly beats drinking in a saloon and thinking about what could have been. The struggle to achieve is just as important as it is to realize it. What will we strive to achieve?  

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