Amateur photographer preserved history

Accompanying my column last week was a picture staged and photographed by Granville Blankenship in January 1920. That particular picture of pelts mounted on a barn won him a $4 cash prize.

Granville described himself as an amateur photographer, according to his daughter, Mila Elam, of Bear Grove Township.

Mila and her late husband, Loren Elam, were my "end of the road" neighbors when I was a newlywed in 1976. My husband, Dale, and I rented a house not far from the Elam homestead for a little over three years, and we became good friends.

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