The Shoe Tree

A couple weeks ago Zoltor and I took a car ride to see Kyle in Colorado. On the south side of the desolate highway 50 that bisects Nevada is a desert trailer park encampment known as Middlegate. The settlement seemed to exist solely for the neon glow of the saloon. Like a scattered pile of drunken moth carcasses under a Bug-Zapper, the trailers looked as if they had fallen from the sky, and the occupants came tumbling out and into the doors of the bar. From the road it appeared the bar possessed the only permanent foundation in the entire town. A few miles east of this bizarre community, Zoltor and I discovered what was undoubtedly the purpose, and livelihood of the residents of Middlegate...the amazing spectacle pictured above known as the "Shoe Tree." Thousands of shoes hanged from the tree's limbs in meticulous arrangment. It is believed by the residents of Middlegate that this tree is a holy site, and the shoes are offerings of penance to the God Pediazus for their sinful nomadic lifestyle.