To One Day Own Such a Machine

The caption for this photo reads: Circa 1900, this camp site, located near the corner of 100 South and 400 East, near the Sun Bowl in St. George, was used by the local Indians who often worked for the early settlers.

The black and white image is one of many hung on the walls of the lobby in the hotel i recently stayed at in St. George, Utah. For one two-wheeled reason my eyes were drawn to this one more than the others. It is an interesting photo, not just due to the bicycle in it. We can see a level of poverty in it, or we can see a family group (Paiute most likely) living a way of life close to what they long had, the house in the background a contrast. Who the white settlers are is a mystery of sorts (the names of at least some of them were shown, but) were they simply local settlers, tourists, missionaries, were they friends of the photographer, who accompanied him/her to the indigenous camp? We cannot get specific about the bike, but i surmise that given whatever the young man might have earned for a days' labor, would not have been enough for him to purchase it, and he may simply have been holding it as a prop, it actually belonging to one of the white men standing behind him. That he chose to hold it, however, speaks to a dream he may have had, in which he too may one day own such a machine.