American Ruins

Beliefnet

Home

Faiths & Prayer

Feiler Faster

American Ruins

posted by bfeiler | 2:02pm Monday November 26, 2007

Archaeology among us. A wonderful idea for a book.

Southern New Mexico is the site of some of America’s most spectacular ruins.
Photographer Arthur Drooker traveled America for two years taking pictures of places like the Quarai Mission, which was built in 1622 as Spain expanded its empire.
“Well just think of it,” he told CBS News correspondent Jerry Bowen. “If we were here about 350 or 400 years ago on a Sunday, there would be a mass going. We’d be walking through these walls, which probably would have been plastered white. There’d be gold ornamentation. Crucifixes. The Indians who were converted would be probably on their knees praying to their new god. So all that goes through your mind as you’re walking here.”
Quarai and the nearby Abo Mission are among two dozen man-made structures that have weathered time and now fill the pages of Drooker’s new book, “American Ruins” – from missions to ante bellum mansions to Alcatraz, the prison that was home to Al Capone and Machine-Gun Kelly.
“I like to think that my book is almost a guidebook, if you will, to some of these places,” Drooker said. “Because most Americans just don’t know about them and they should be visited. I think it’ll give people a certain kind of depth and appreciation for our history and heritage.”
To make Drooker’s list, the ruins had to meet certain criteria: They had to be part of a preservation program, and had to represent the geographic and architectural diversity of America.

most popular

beliefnet

Goodbye!
Dear Friends and Readers, After a wonderful relationship with Beliefnet, I've moved my blog to brucefeiler.com. Please join me there, or check out my new site, councilofdads.com, where I talk regularly about faith, family, and health. Thanks for your interest. Bruce Feiler

posted 2:12:51pm Apr. 21, 2010 | read full post »

The Man Who Started It All
In WALKING THE BIBLE, he's still sitting there forever, behind a cloud of smoke, saying, "People like me don't have time to talk to people like you," then calling me at home that night to introduce me to Avner. Now, nearing 100, he has finally passed.Avraham Biran, an archaeologist of biblical site

posted 10:32:33pm Oct. 06, 2008 | read full post »

Feiler Faster in Denver -- Final Thoughts
The last of my brother's blogs. * * * I was on the floor the other day and came across a man of about forty who wore on his left breast what looked like a military medal. A small ribbon pinned to his chest with a medallion hanging from it. It was the credential that his grandfather wore at the 196

posted 9:16:57pm Aug. 30, 2008 | read full post »

Feiler Faster in Denver -- Day 3
My brother's dailiy blog from inside the hall. * * * President Carter addressed the Georgia delegation this morning. Recently, he said, he'd been interviewed by the editor of the British newspaper "The Guardian" and had been asked whether a President Obama could change America's reputation in the

posted 12:25:22pm Aug. 28, 2008 | read full post »

Feiler Faster in Denver -- Day 2
My brother's latest blog. He's the official photographer of the Georgia Delegation. * * * Considering I described myself yesterday as a pop culture moron, the funniest response I've gotten so far was, "Who's Angela Bassett?" In the wake of opening night there's been a lot of play about Carville and

posted 10:28:13am Aug. 27, 2008 | read full post »

read all»