Empty Reel

normally a red fire hose would be wrapped around this reel.
the reel is one of several spaced in intervals along the long wood and metal-clad walls of this now abandoned saw mill situated on the fertile tree-lined banks of the siuslaw river.
not long ago, there were at least five saw mills, shingle mills, plywood and chip mills located on the riverbank along the 14-mile stretch between florence and mapleton.
time and changing economy has left the riverbank empty of the long-ago industries that nurtured and defined these old river towns of the west.