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Last week a work crew came through with a spectacular brushcutting machine and cleared all of the blackberry thickets along the side of Holgate Boulevard. Beneath a large billboard that read "Health Care with a Heart" I noticed some scattered rags and discarded shingles. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a little campsite, with two distinct residential areas. Although the camp's walls had been mulched, its floorplan and features were still clearly visible: an improvised brick staircase; sleeping areas shelled in salvaged canvas awnings; a fine layer of cedar chips sprinkled around all of the living areas to inhibit fleas and bedbugs; a depot of old bottles containing greenish-brown liquids; a carefully crafted firescreen made of artificial pine boughs. Stepping back to look at the scene, surrounded by a vast meadow of shattered blackberry canes, I was struck by how intensely familiar the patterns in the wreckage were, and how much they resembled the footprints left by a tornado wandering among the dwelllings of mankind.

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Portland, Oregon Travelers and Record, popular places

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