Re: Farm Findings
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Farm Findings
- From: b*@comp.uark.edu (Robert E. Stassen)
- Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 09:16:19 -0700 (MST)
As someone who was raised on a family farm, worked with many farmers,
married a farmer's daughter, and has spent a big chunk of a previous life in
rural areas--here's what I have come to assume about so-called "abandoned"
farmsteads.
The building site and old buildings are there for a reason, and that is that
the property owners prefer to see it remain in that state. For whatever
reasons, the children/hiers who grew up on that property do not want it
plowed up and/or bulldozed for additional acreage. There is something
"sacred" in rural areas about preserving old homesteads.
I don't think I'd refer to it as abandoned property when someone still owns
it. This whole notion of referring to rural property as "abandoned" (i.e.,
ripe for the taking) strikes me as some sort of urban vs. rural bias or
ignorance.
Imagine the thoughts of the land-owner who finds out (sometimes through
neighbors) that strangers have been driving around on their property.
