# The Ghost Town



## abraxas (Jan 29, 2007)

I'd posted one of the shots of this little arrangement of shacks and sheds in a Death Valley canyon a week or two ago; these are the some of the others.

1.






2.





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10.





If anyone may be interested in the history of the Inyo Gold Mine  & camp, you can check it out >> http://mojavedesert.net/mining-history/inyo/


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## LaFoto (Jan 29, 2007)

Very interesting, lovely light. 
Totally different from what my eyes usually see, in colours, in landscape, in general .
I really like them all, and my favourites are #2 and #6. 
In 2 I like the fact that you picked out this very detail in a surrounding that seems to be only desert (when we look at 2 we don't KNOW there once were settlements, we only know that when we know the whole series, right?). And in 6 I like the colour (low sun!) and the foreground (I assume, that, too, once was a hut?).


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## abraxas (Jan 29, 2007)

The flywheel in #2, fell off the stampmill in #5 and rolled to the bottom of the canyon.  Due to the nature of wood ruins in the desert, and other factors such as vandalism, theft, etc., many of the ghost towns that were liberally sprinkled throughout the desert are disappearing rapidly. Now they are just bare sites with little to record.  I've found I like to isolate buildings and what-not, and in doing so it tends to give the viewer a richer experience (IMO). Most often an overall view of a desert ghost town is bleak and barren. I think if I'm going to spend the time and money to go to someplace that has next to nothing, I'm going to try to make it look like the biggest-deal ever.

I used to like to go to pioneer cemeteries. They were sad and photographed well on the few grey days we get.  Calico ghost town;

http://mojavedesert.net/mining-history/calico/

 a popular tourist-trap type attraction had an excellent cemetery. Within two years after I first shot it, each and every one of the over 100 markers had been stolen and carried off or otherwise destroyed. This has also happened to many other graveyards, gold mines, ghost towns and even petroglyph sites.  There is sometimes so much history associated with these places, I hate to leave them looking like a... phhfffft..

http://digital-desert.com/cemeteries/

Death Valley amazes me with how much the geology can vary just within a few miles of each location. As the raven flies, this spot is only 6 miles from the location my Golden Canyon photos were taken;

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68649

and 7-8 miles in the other direction from where I parked 
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69078

I love this stuff...


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## LaFoto (Jan 29, 2007)

abraxas said:


> ...I love this stuff...


 
It shows! 
And I enjoy each and every one of your photos of it!


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## Arch (Jan 29, 2007)

good stuff, nice compositions here... i like 3,5 and 6 best  :thumbup:


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## lostprophet (Jan 29, 2007)

great stuff, just keep them coming


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## Chiller (Jan 29, 2007)

Amazing series.   I really love these ol ghost towns.  We dont anything like this around here.     Nicely done . :thumbup: :thumbup:


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## rabidzoomer (Jan 29, 2007)

i would like to see some more inside shots and i really like the conveyer belt pics.


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## abraxas (Jan 30, 2007)

Thanks all for the encouragement- These worked out pretty good for me. I'm hoping- someday- maybe- I'll have a style.


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## JTHphoto (Jan 30, 2007)

great shots walter, i'm especially digging 4 & 6... i love the light and the comp of 6.  :thumbup:


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## phantompablo (Jan 30, 2007)

#6 makes me want to get back out to Lost Horse Mine in Joshua Tree.  Very nicely done sir!


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## abraxas (Jan 31, 2007)

Thanks JTH & PhantomPablo. I'm finding I like shooting RAW, and seems to help in processing.

PP, I haven't been out to the lost horse mine in 7-8 years. You know if there is a rock formation on the way with hexagonal columns?  I saw some pictures of these wierd rocks a few months ago, but don't remember anything from my trip.

Lost Horse Mill, Joshua Tree National Park


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## phantompablo (Jan 31, 2007)

abraxas said:


> PP, I haven't been out to the lost horse mine in 7-8 years. You know if there is a rock formation on the way with hexagonal columns? I saw some pictures of these wierd rocks a few months ago, but don't remember anything from my trip.


 
I don't recall seeing any but that's not to say no.  Everytime I walk around out there I find something new and amazing so it's definitely possible!


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## Alex06 (Jan 31, 2007)

Your photos always inspire me to head east! Very well done. Nice eye and lovely color.:thumbup:


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## Mohain (Jan 31, 2007)

Cool series :thumbup:


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## abraxas (Jan 31, 2007)

phantompablo said:


> I don't recall seeing any but that's not to say no.  Everytime I walk around out there I find something new and amazing so it's definitely possible!



I had seen a slide of the formation at a photo class out of the Desert Institute last fall. I didn't hear for sure where it was, so I'll have to check it out. Malapai Hill on the geology tour road is another place I'd like to shoot at sunrise. 

Thanks Mohain and Alex06!

Alex06; I'd like to see photos of the desert area out your way. I've been collecting stories and am interested in Pegleg Smith.  Apparently there were a few guys named that. The one I'm interested in was a mountain man in the early 1800s who during a battle with Indians had his leg shattered by an arrow and amputated it himself with a knife as the other members of his party were too squeamish.  They did carry him into a Ute Indian village and the people there danced around him for days chewing healing herbs and spitting on the stump. While recovering, he carved and fitted his own peg, and learned to ride a horse with it.  The murderous Walkara, chief of this band of renegade Utes became good friends with him, and they would ride into the ranchos of southern California and steal thousands of horses at a time during their raids.

When California became part of the U.S., horse-thieving, on any level became a crime. Pegleg 'retired' to warmer climates (east of S.D.) and found a rich gold mine. However, it was either covered by a flash flood or earthquake and is lost in the eastern canyons of the mountains bordering the western Colorado desert.

Or maybe it was a whole different guy named Pegleg Smith- I just wanted to say 'stump.'


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## woodsac (Jan 31, 2007)

Very nice series! Great lighting and original comps. 
I know being original out there can be hard to do


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## abraxas (Jan 31, 2007)

Cool. Thanks!


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## GrfxGuru (Feb 1, 2007)

Nice series, #3 & #6 tell the story of the location I feel.


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## JTHphoto (Feb 1, 2007)

abraxas said:


> Or maybe it was a whole different guy named Pegleg Smith- I just wanted to say 'stump.'


 - i love these stories... 

:thumbup:


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## Jono (Feb 3, 2007)

excellent shots.  I would love to take a few months out sometime & travel around as many ghost towns in the states as I could.


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