If only it could talk...

Bill found a 1892 penny in the sand today. (I scanned it and enlarged the image for better viewing.) Most of our town is sand -- Hooper is located in one of the highest agricultural deserts in the world. At about 7700 feet, our desert town is located between two mountain ranges, about 20 miles west of the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

This penny may have been dropped by one of Hooper's early settlers, perhaps as this person recently got off the train that once ran nearby. Or perhaps a young lad, tired of gathering wood for his family's stove, sat on a stump to rest, only to have this penny slip unwittingly from his pocket. Or maybe it fell from the grasp of a teenage girl as she played tag with the neighborhood boys. Hmmm.

It is corroded. At least in appearance. Within its remaining copper being, however, I believe it has a voice -- just waiting for someone to listen to the tales of its journeys. Lucky for it, I am that someone.