Outside Steamboat

Outside Steamboat

Oil on canvas, 10x10

The drive from Fort Defiance to Ganado takes about 30 minutes. About 40 minutes past Ganado, you arrive in Steamboat, Arizona. 

In 2010, according to the Census, there were 56 households in Steamboat, and nearly 300 people. The median yearly income was $9,276. There is a gas station/convenience store, a place that appears to fix cars and other machines, a church and some houses. 

Steamboat's page on the Navajo Nations Chapter website says that the town's Navajo name, Hoyee, means "State of Fright." The site says that there is a V-shaped canyon there, with an overhanging cliff and a spring at the convergence. The spring was a place where travelers could get water, but locals were afraid of being ambushed if they got water there. "Steamboat" comes from a rock formation that supposedly looks like a steamboat. 

The town fascinates me because I can't imagine living there. But Wachapreague - where we live, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia - is not that different! Same general size, though Wachapreague has a grid pattern to the streets, a town green, fire department, restaurant and hotel. All of Wachapreague's 200 or so residents live in the 192 square acres that make up the town. I think many of the people of Steamboat live on the plains. 

It takes 90 minutes to get to Salisbury or Virginia Beach from Wachapreague - but then you're in a big city. It might not take much more than 90 minutes to get to Gallup, but then you're in Gallup. And Onley is 100 times larger than Fort Defiance, in terms of shopping and amenities.

But it is beautiful. The plains stretch out pale and silvery between deep-red buttes. The sky is the size of the world. There is nothing there, but the quiet of the landscape makes serene that which could be desolate. I love standing in that landscape and painting. 

Here's my painting in the landscape

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The plains shimmer under a huge sky. 

Wild horses, cows, sheep, llamas and dogs roam all over the reservation. I have seen

 horses pretty much everywhere I've traveled. 

I've really come to love the sage that grows all over. Its stems are gray, its leaves a soft, silvery green, and its flowers a light mustard color. At certain times, I could smell the scent of sage on the air. 

Here's the place in Steamboat where I think you could go to get your car fixed. 

Gallup must be a major hub for trains. This one had four engines, and a far-as-I-can-see line of double-decker boxcars, stacked on on top of the other. It seems pretty miraculous. 

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Dog of the Day

Here's Minnie! I met her in Tubac, and she was a funny, friendly dog.