In Remembrance

20 years ago I was at work on another ordinary day. Like most people I was oblivious to the fact that the world as we knew it was about to change. My wife was anticipating the celebration of her birthday on April 20th, unaware that she would forever after share that date with another event about to unfold. Back then the internet was still new, cell phones still something to marvel at (the world's first touchscreen phone wouldn't come out until the following year) so the news that there had been a shooting came over the airwaves via radio and television. As archaic as that technology seems now, it was more than adequate in relaying the horror of events happening live in Littleton, Colorado. The shootings at Columbine High School were unfolding before our eyes.

My wife (and her brother) had both graduated from Columbine several years prior and their childhood home was just a block away from the school. Her parents were about to see their front lawn turn into a police command center. SWAT teams, who treated the event as a hostage taking, entered the school 47 minutes after the shootings started and five brutally long hours passed before law enforcement declared the school under control. 12 students and one teacher were to lose their lives that day as a nation came face to face with the then-new reality of school violence.

Some of you reading this blog may not have been old enough at the time to really remember the events of that day but I remember them as if they were yesterday. My commute to and from work took me by Clement Park which is adjacent to Columbine and which would soon begin to fill with thousands of teddy bears, flowers, and signs of condolence as a community as well as a nation found itself in mourning and shock over not just the loss of life but the loss of innocence. The shootings have sadly continued unabated since 1999 and we still seem unable to come to grips with any meaningful solutions to the underlying causes of these sad events.

In September 2007 the Columbine Memorial was dedicated and opened to the public. My wife to this day cannot bring herself to visit the Memorial. Candidly, my first visit was only a matter of weeks ago when I took a friend who was visiting from out of state and it was just as difficult a visit as I had imagined it would be. Now we find ourselves at the 20 year Anniversary of the Columbine shootings. The local media has been covering the upcoming anniversary from every possible angle. Remembrance events are planned during this week and crowds will gather out of respect for those no longer with us. The Memorial, I think, needs to be experienced more quietly so that you have the peace and quiet to ponder what happened so long ago and what has happened in the years since. As I sometimes do I have collected my thoughts and emotions through my photo- and videography. For those too far away to visit, or who still find such a visit too painful to contemplate, I share this humble and respectful view of the Columbine Memorial in remembrance of the lives lost that day. They are not forgotten.

A really, REALLY big hole in the ground

As promised in my last blog, my intention upon leaving Phoenix was to stop in at Meteor Crater, Arizona. From the Highway, US-40, you can't really see anything, other than a sign, that would hint at what lies just 6 miles ahead. Turning off at exit 233 I could still see in my rear view mirror the snow-capped mountains towering over Flagstaff 40 miles away. but everywhere else all I could see was the arid, desolate plain of the high-mountain desert. There is a nice looking RV park right at the exit but I followed the signs and kept going down the paved road that leads to the Meteor Crater Visitors complex.The only way to see the actual crater is to pay the admission fee that gives you access to the rim overlooks so if you come by hoping for a quick easy free view of the crater you'll be disappointed.

Meteor Crater is privately owned by the Barringer Family and has been since Daniel Barringer, a mining engineer from Philadelphia, came to the area in 1902. Interested in the site as a potential source for mining iron ore he bought four placer mining claims giving him ownership of the two square miles containing the crater. I'm always suspicious of privately owned national landmarks but with Meteor Crater the family, in conjunction with the Bar T Bar Ranch that owns much of the surrounding lands, has done a nice job and the modern Visitors Center features a movie theatre, museum, gift shop and Subway restaurant for those that brought an appetite. There's a ten minute movie that explains how the crater formed (at first people thought it was volcanic rather than created by a meteor impact) and you can take a guided tour along a half-mile section of the crater rim or simply do a short stroll to the observation platforms right outside the Visitors Center. And no, you cannot hike to the bottom of the crater...

The crater was created in about 10 seconds when, about 50,000 years ago, a meteor 150 feet across, speeding through the earth's atmosphere at 26,000 mph, slammed into the ground excavating a hole 700 feet deep and more than 4000 feet across. You learn all this from the movie and the museum exhibits before venturing outside but actually seeing the crater with your own eyes will still take your breath away. The crater looks and feels extraterrestrial as you gaze down on it from high up on the rim. Although human eyes did not witness the impact (as people are not thought to have been in the Americas that far back) Native Americans were certainly aware of the crater long before the advent of European explorers. The first known written account was made in 1871 by one of General Custer's scouts (for years the crater was known simply as Franklin's Hole).

There are an estimated 200 plus impact craters known on earth. Some are huge, hundreds of times the size of Arizona's, but Meteor Crater remains one of the best preserved and most accessible. So if you're driving by on US-40 and you see the signs I encourage you to take an hour or two and go see something you just don't see everyday. Here's a quick video tour I shot during my visit...