Friday, January 22, 2010

Bones of the Cedar Bucket, part 3

This sculpture was created from the charred remains of the world's largest cedar bucket. Sculpted by Murfreesboro-Rutherford Art League member Carl Morris Brandon. Carl brought to bear much of the remains including charred nails.
Red Cedar (or Juniper) is one of nature's many gifts to Middle Tennessee. in "Bones of the Cedar Bucket" the natural grace of the tree limb, the beauty of the red heartwood and the skill of the artist are all represented. The last vestiges of the world's largest cedar bucket are used to represent the bones of the human hand, symbol of the artist's creativity, making beauty out of destruction. One mad cut the cedar, another made the bucket, someone set a fire, the artist creates a memorial.

At the time, July 2008, this sculpture to the memory of the bucket sat just inside the entrance to the museum in Cannonsburgh Village in Murfreesboro. It is still unknown to me the fate of the rest of the remains of the charred bucket. It is still unknown whether or not a new bucket will ever be built. You can never truly replace history, but you should never forget it.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The night the bucket burned; part 2

In the early morning hours of Father's Day, June 19, 2005, an arsonist went to the historic village of Cannonsburgh in Murfreesboro and set fire to the World's Largest Cedar Bucket. By the time the fire department arrived, most of the bucket was a total loss. The upper half of the bucket was scorched, the roof of its shelter had burned through, and the walls of the next door blacksmith were blackened.

Two days later, I hurried down to see it with my own eyes and was horrified at the scene. The marvelous bucket, which my daughter and I had just visited and photographed a few weeks earlier(for the umpteenth time), was in ruins. Surrounded by crime scene tape, the smell of burnt wood was overwhelming.

As you can see, the bucket wasn't burned completely to ashes, but the damage was done. The guilty party-to my knowledge-has never been found. Local blacksmiths have vowed to rebuild the bucket, but it won't be the same. A local artist has taken some of the charred remains and created a sculpture that now stands in the museum at the village.




Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Big Red Bucket, a 3 part story

The World's Largest Red Cedar Bucket. This bucket was originally built as a promotional item in 1887 by Tennessee Red Cedar Woodenworks Company in Murfreesboro. A height of 6 feet, weight of 800 pounds, and capacity of 1,556 gallons. It spent time at its factory in Murfreesboro, with trips to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 and St Louis in 1904. It was sold to a grocer where it sat from 1950 to around 1965. It was sold to an amusement park in Georgia. It was eventually brought back to Murfreesboro in 1976 where it was placed on display at Cannonsburgh Historic Village.

Cannonsburgh was created as Murfreesboro's 1976 Bicentennial project. The buildings around the village, for the most part, were brought from around the county and some date back as far as the 1830s. The bucket sat next to the blacksmith shop, and across the path from the grist mill.

June 19, 2005, arsonists visited Cannonsburgh late at night and set fire to the Bucket. What was left was mostly charred remains.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Snow expected!

They are predicting 2-4 inches of snow for the Middle Tennessee area! I have been waiting a few years now for a really good snow in order to get out and take some cemetery photos in the snow, particularly Stones River National Cemetery. If I can get out and get any photos, I will certainly post them here.


**update: they have downgraded us to only maybe 1-2 inches. That stinks. I WANT SNOW!

**update 2: 11:03am on Thursday, still no snow!

Monday, January 04, 2010

The New Year

Time to think about the things I want to get done in 2010. I think last year pretty much sucked. I have my fingers crossed that this year will be better.

I did get some things done on it last year, fixing up a new look and sectioning it out more. Now I just need to add more of the hundreds of thousands of photos I have to it. I really want to work on the cemetery and historic places sections. Those seem to be what I have the most.

  • Add more and better photos to my Flickr page.
I don't have a 'premium' membership, so I'm only allowed around 200 photos. I just want to make sure that I upload the best and most interesting photos I have and hope that it leads people who look there to my personal website to see more. I don't get many views right now though, not really sure what I need to do to get more out there. Maybe I should comment on other photos I like more, and that will lead others back to my page. Not certain.

Maybe I'll just get over my fear of rejection and link my 'photo of the day' to some of the contests that they have. And maybe link the other to some cemetery blogs I've come across. Either way, they need help and they need me posting more often and not playing games so much.

  • The big one, of course, is to get more organized.
I have stacks of photos all over, they need to be scanned and re-filed. I have boxes of tourism pamphlets that I've considered scanning and organizing somehow. A box of maps that need filing. Books need to be straightened out. Copies from reference books at the library need to be placed in notebooks. I even need to go through the cups of pens on my desk and throw out the ones that don't work anymore!

  • And finally, get out more!
If only I can convince the hubby. January and February really are the best times to get out and see things, when all the foliage has died back and there are no bugs or snakes! So much to see, so little time. So much to do, time to get started!