Braden on the Carousel for Missoula-- Missoula, Montana. The carousel was built almost entirely by community volunteers, including all the hand-carved horses, and is one of a small number of wooden carousels left in the country. Braden is astride the lead horse in the carousel, the Columbia Belle.

Braden in front of a 4-6-0 Northern Pacific Mogul, Missoula, Montana. The Northern Pacific was one of the original land-grant railroads commissioned by Abraham Lincoln in the Northern Pacific Land Grant Act of 1864. To build the railroad, its founders received a 'checkerboard' swath of land 40-80 miles wide -- alternating square-mile sections--across the entire northern tier of the country, running from Minnesota to Washington State. The land, originally given to the railroads with the direction that the grant was to be sold to homesteaders that would follow the railroad, ended up in the hands of the Weyerhaeuser syndicate, as well as the holding company Plum Creek Timber Co. With one of the most corrupt histories of any of the land grants, the legacy of the Northern Pacific is a checkerboard swath of clearcuts across the face of the Pacific Northwest's forests.

Braden loves trains-- especially steam locomotives.

Braden in Railroad Park, outside Missoula, Montana. Braden has a model railroad with a fleet of Milwaukee Road diesels, and an orange caboose like the one shown. The Milwaukee Road, which unlike the Northern Pacific, did not receive a land grant, was one of the most innovative of the western transcontinental railways, and ran an electrified division through the mountains of North Idaho and Montana, ending 100 miles from here at Avery, Idaho. It went bankrupt and was basically dissolved in 1987, most of its western mainline abandoned.

Braden in the Wind River Mountains, Wyoming. Standing amid roadside trash, in cow-burnt sagebrush, Braden squints to block the dust out of his eyes as the wind howls 40 mph around him. The Wind Rivers are Ground Zero for GW Bush's energy plan to open up public lands for energy exploitation. Just to the north is the disheveled trailer town of new Pinedale.

Braden at the Potawatomi Zoo, South Bend, Indiana. Braden's grandparents live outside of South Bend, and he is always happy to take an afternoon while visiting them to go to the zoo. Braden loves animals, especially big tigers. He is standing in front of a white Bengal tiger, of which there are none left in the wild.

Braden in front of a tractor on his aunt's farm, Lakeville, Indiana. His aunt's friend recently bought this tractor for $5,000, as the weak farm economy has made farming acreages smaller than 500 acres virtually impossible-- thus releasing a glut of mid-size farm equipment on the market.