Review of "Abandonings: Photographs of Otter Tail County, Minnesota," by Maxwell Mackenzie

 Review of

Abandonings: Photographs of Otter Tail County, Minnesota, by Maxwell Mackenzie ISBN 1880216345

Five out of five stars

Otter Tail County is in the western area of Minnesota, roughly in the middle of the state going north-south. It is very close to the border with North Dakota and the early white settlers were primarily Norwegian, Swedish, German and English. The winter climate is generally severe, and the overall weather can be harsh during the other months. It was difficult for the homesteading farmers to make a long-term living on their land, so many simply left it, leaving their decaying buildings behind.

 This book contains a series of pictures of those buildings that are rapidly falling into misshapen piles of rubble. They should be interpreted as the skeletons of the hopes and dreams of people that took a chance on the frontier, managed to hold on for a while and then were forced to accept the reality that they could not make a living on their farm.

 Otter Tail County is hardly unique in this characteristic, the rural populations of all states in the upper Midwest have been declining dramatically in the past few decades. Any drive along roads will reveal houses, barns and other buildings that are clearly abandoned and looking like what you see in this book. It is the modern reality of the world, all that can be done is preserve the remnants in pictures, for the buildings are rapidly disappearing. This book is a preservation of a small amount of history in one county.