"To whom it may concern..."

Thus begins the note, written in marker pen on the jamb of an interior doorway. The doorway is in this cabin,

just a half-mile or so east of the last lek of the day. It's a cabin of wood, with crumbling stone walls around it. I cannot tell if the stone rooms were there first, or if they were added to the wooden cabin at a later date. But the wood has held up better.

Half of the south wall, and half the adjoining east wall has been removed, including the corner post. Stolen by folks wanting the weathered "barn wood", I reckon. That quarter of the roof just hangs there, waiting for the snow or wind that will bring it to the ground. Twin-sized bedsprings lay in that open air room, stripped of any cloth to reveal just the metal coils.

With the surrounding stone walls, I can easily imagine the gunfights of the old westerns, although the place is not that old. Built early in the last century, I'm guessing.

The entire message on the doorjamb, in printed capitals, is:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

THIS WAS THE HOMESTEAD OF HARVEY N. BRANNAN

THE SON OF FRANKLIN HENRY BRANNAN IN THE GRAVE TO THE WEST.

On the other jamb, in the same pen and hand, was a name. The author of the message, I assume, but with a different last name than the homesteader. Not the name shared by the frozen reservoir to the west, built to catch winter snows, spring runoff and summer cloudbursts for irrigation, to make a greasewood flat out here in the desert bloom.

The greasewood is back. It has won.

But this note doesn't make me wonder about the man who homesteaded here. The man who baked with this stove.

It makes me wonder about the person who wrote the message.

They knew people like me would come here, drawn to these structures, shimmering like ghosts on a barren plain. Even though still private land. And they wanted us trespassers to know about Harvey. And this building's connection to him.

So who was this person? Who was Harvey to him? Grandfather? Great-grandfather? A distant but inspiring uncle? Or cousin? A stranger who befriended lost travelers some time, and became friends?

The message doesn't tell me these things, the things I really want to know.