Old time work

I've always been fascinated by blacksmithing. To be able to take a lump of metal and by only heat and brute strength form it into something useful or beautiful seems to me a bit of magic.

I'm fortunate in that I live fairly close to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park in Coloma, CA. Situated on the banks of the American River where James Marshall discovered gold that fateful day in 1848, the park has, as one of it's draws, a working black smith shop. The Smiths are volunteers who spend their day explaining what life was like to groups of school children while they make candle holders and other items to be placed for sale at the gift shop. It's not all for sale, though. They also make hinges, blades and equipment for use by the park.

Friendly and incredibly knowledgeable, these smiths harken back to a day when mass production was still decades away. Anything you needed, you needed to make. They are the very essence of both ingenuity and self-sufficience.



I tip my hat to them.