Lawn Ornaments
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Colleen Sheehy writes in The Flamingo in the Garden: American Yard Art and the Vernacular Landscape, “regional differences in the choice of imagery, materials used, placement and frequency are useful to understand regions and motivations for material culture use" [Ref 16]. The lawn decoration in Laramie has both a distinct regional flavor and a more generic one. When one looks for themes portrayed in lawn decoration, there is one that becomes quickly prominent: the West. The most notable theme in Laramie’s lawn decorations is that of the West. People use a variety of materials and methods to evoke a western feeling on their landscape. Wagon wheels, coal car trains, railroad implements, cowboy mailboxes, western fences, windmills, water pumps all call to mind, perhaps a stereotypical, western, pioneering spirit. The houses that had this type of decoration were found throughout town. The items used to create a sense of the west are often antiques in various states of disrepair. They are not items that one could easily buy. |
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The Western displays at some homes were highly stylized and well maintained. The house on the corner of Gibbon and 7th St has a fence that has been welded together containing various tools from the railroad, mining, ranching and farming industries. The owners collected the items over the course of many years. The tools are painted so they stand out more [Ref 9]. The lawn itself contains larger items from those three mainstays of the Wyoming economy. Careful examination of the lawn reveals a clear intent in the design of the artwork [Ref 8]. |
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Other homes created a sense of the West in less stylized way. Many residents used one or two items, somewhat in a state of disrepair to invoke the West. Many displayed a rusty metal wagon wheel, or a wooden one, antique farm tools or simply pieces of wood or bone in their yards. Dorst calls this type of display"“entropic" [Ref 10]. He writes, “The treatment of surfaces in such displays is left entirely to the elements. "[T]hese surfaces express the effects of time and decay in the western environment. They speak of hardship, harshness and dissolution" [Ref 10]. Both through the artifacts themselves, and by their treatment, the owners of theses yards have created a sense of the west. |
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Although the western theme dominates Laramie's yard decoration, not all decorators use it. There are also some non-regional themes present in the yard displays. Many homes displayed mass produced items that could be bought at a garden supply store. Small wishing wells were common throughout Laramie. Citizens also seem to enjoy plastic swans, particularly in West Laramie. There were even a few pink flamingos, the epitome of lawn decoration, spotted in town. |
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One can find yet another theme in displays around Laramie. A very small number of residents displayed completely a-typical items in their front lawns, items that really don't belong in a yard. One house in West Laramie displays a wooden headboard in the center of the lawn. The house has no other decorations. Another home, also in West Laramie has a toilet in the front yard. It is impossible to know the story behind these items and the reason they were chosen as display pieces without interviewing the residents of the homes. However, it is possible to postulate. The lawn displays could indicate the humor of the people who live inside the homes. Sheehy writes that yard art serves an important function in people's lives: "They are objects that people need to create some kind of beauty where they live or make some kind of statement about who they are or simply to communicate that they are there, alive and healthy" [Ref 17] Although West Laramie is the oldest section of town, it has a history of being marginalized and ignored by the rest of the town. At the same time, residents of West Laramie seem to have a sense of pride about their separateness. For example, the fight many of the residents put up last year to keep their roads unpaved shows this sense of pride. The unusual yard art found on these two particular lawns in West Laramie may be a statement about that sense of separation and uniqueness, some kind of declaration of the independence of West Laramie's residents. Further, it could be a way of thumbing noses at the residents on the other side of the tracks. |
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