The Spirit of Fort Ord

Shoe flinging, or shoefiti, the practice of throwing shoes whose laces have been tied together over wires such as power lines, is attributed varied significance.

Some say that flung shoes are used to indicate the location of a crack house. Others believe that shoes are flung over wires to commemorate a gang killing, the death of a gang member, or as a means of marking gang turf. I doubt the accuracy of these theories, given some of the locations where I have observed such shoes over the years, and the fact that the practice seems to predate at least the existence of the crack house. The movie, Wag the Dog, puts forward the notion that this behavior is a gesture to commemorate a fictional war hero. But, that explanation, too, seems insufficient to me. Certain people hold that the flung shoes mark the end of a school year or an upcoming marriage.

Still others say that the practice was started with military personnel who would throw a pair of boots over a wire as a rite of passage, for example, after finishing basic training, completing a deployment, or leaving the service.

Fort Ord, here in Monterey, CA, was an active Army base beginning in 1917. For almost eighty years, it served as a training facility, as a staging area for units sent to war, and as the home of the 7th Infantry. In September 1994, Fort Ord completed its training mission and left the service of the US Army.

I found these boots flung over some electrical wires alongside a rarely used road on the former Fort Ord. Between their isolation, their now-wild surroundings, the base’s history, and the story of flung boots’ significance in the American military, this sight made me feel a little sad…



“In some neighborhoods, shoes tied together and hanging from power lines or tree branches signify that someone has died. The shoes belong to the dead person. The reason they are hanging, legend has it, is that when the dead person's spirit returns, it will walk that high above the ground, that much closer to heaven.”