The Canal

Same negative size, same contact print, same single weight matte paper, so even though it's not the same people and subject matter, it has to be by the same photographer.  With the boat in the background and the dirt berm it has to be a canal.  That doesn't help with a location.  There are canals like this all over the world.  The workers pictured may work on the canal or may work on the boat. 

Click on Triangular Plan in labels.  Hopefully I'll get back out to the store where I found the photos from this and the previous two posts and find some more.   If not, so it goes.

Among the Ruins

The same group of people, including the same military officer, as the last post. 

I'm beginning to rethink my theory that these pictures show the future site of a military fort.  I think an equally reasonable guess is that these pictures show the remains of a fort from the past.  To start with I did my due diligence on this collection, which I hadn't done before my last post.  I looked up bastion.  A bastion is a certain type of fort.  Forget the wooden stockade popular in westerns.  Bastions were built for artillery.  Large, usually made from both brick and mortar and dirt.  They were either pentagonal or hexagonal in shape with triangular shaped extensions from the points were the main walls came together.  By mounting one canon at each point of the triangle, a clear field of fire could be established with no gaps in coverage.  The actual walls of the fort were so thick, that they could easily absorb fire from the enemy's field artillery.  The only way to beat a bastion style fort was to starve the inhabitants out.

Click on triangular plan in labels to see more.  I bought these at an antique store near Joshua Tree National Park and with the end (hopefully) of the government shutdown, I should be back in that area soon and if the pictures from this collection I didn't buy are still there, at some point in the future, there'll be a lot more than the three I'm putting up in a row.

First Fort

This is a bit of a strange one.  I had to dig out one of my best magnifying glasses to read the sign these people are holding, "SITE OF NORTHERN BASTION OF FIRST FORT TRIANGULAR IN PLAN 160."  The only thing  I can guess that makes any sense is that the military has seized land for some sort of fortification.  But where?  Some place temperate and green but cold enough in the winter to require heavy coats.  I'm tempted to go with England during the first world war, but there are a lot of other possibilities.

I bought this photo and the next two, clearly from the same source, at an antique store on the way back from a short trip.  There were others which, given the opportunity, I'll buy next time I head out that way.  So, it's a collection tagged Triangular Plan in labels.