People - High School Rodeo
Lincoln County is remarkable in its overlapping contrasts. Wildly different cultures, weather, topography, and economies, all together in a seemingly endless American dream-like expanse. From where there were once hundreds, only a mining town, a farming town, and a railroad town remain. Three dissimilar towns in a tight row share a 20-mile stretch in the middle of 10,00 square miles of nobody. From encroaching mountain ranges with Cottonwoods and Pinion, a desert ecology from the south integrates Joshua and Yuca. Amongst the overlapping mountains and deserts are ranchers, maybe land-rich and cash-poor. In an open bar, next to several that haven’t been open for most of the last century, are actual retired miners drinking beer for breakfast. In the few schools are kids who will likely become adults elsewhere. Almost 200 miles away, in Las Vegas, retirees wonder if they will ever see it again.
The railroads and mines slowly disappeared, yet this American West continues.