An ongoing loss of heritage and history

Some time ago I saw a photograph taken at the Helmville cemetery on the day they buried my great grandfather in 1922. In the picture there's a cottonwood sapling, maybe 10 feet high. Both the tree and my great grandfather are still there, but the cottonwood is 80 feet tall and about 3 feet at the butt. I'm sure the old man is part of that tree.

Entering the family ranch, a person sees the corra...