Kenny Be's Yard Arteology: Platt Park is for stump lovers

The study of neighbors through their lawn decoration...

Figure 38. Platt Park. Passersby can talk to the trees

It is an amazing coincidence that this lumbering display sits in the neighborhood named for the Denver pioneer who's fortune was felled by logs. Vermont-educated James H. Platt served in the Civil War and was a four-term U.S. Representative from Virginia before he moved to Denver in 1887 and spent his life saving's to open the Denver Paper Mill in 1891. He borrowed another $700,000 for an expansion that was completed just as the Silver Panic of 1893 sent Colorado's economy into the tank. Platt died from mysterious circumstances while on a family fishing trip in June of 1894. While boating alone on a lake near Georgetown, he fell into the water and drowned. By 1900, eastern bondholders had foreclosed on the property and sold off all of the equipment.

As pictured in figure 38, logs in Denver now live free of the tyranny of the wood pulper and can bask in the Platt Park sun as yard art. The vertical stance and pairing of these logs indicates that this is a collaborative work created by cohabiters who believe in cooperation and communication. Filling the hollowed interiors with branches and dried long-handle dipper gourds suggests that these yard artists have familiarized themselves with the arranging of vegetable matter through their jobs in the food service and grocery industries. The matching shovel accents propose a romanticized work ethic that strongly intimates an Obama "Hope" poster is hung prominently on the living room wall.

Look below for details of the Platt Park stump lovers' pad...

Sit down and log on

Back on the chain gang