Ghost Towns and Modern Trains

                                                Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
                                                Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
                                                Is an open field . . .

                                                                    -- T. S. Eliot, "East Coker," Four Quartets




Throughout the United States, there are hundreds of abandoned towns and settlements . . . so-called ghost towns.  In the Southwest U.S., most originally arose as mining towns in the mid- to late-19th century:  boom-and-bust communities that grew rapidly with the discovery of gold or silver, then declined or disappeared entirely when the mines played out.

These ghost towns are in various states of disrepair, ranging from fully restored and inhabited (like Tombstone, AZ) to crumbling adobe ruins and rusting mining equipment.


 


























With a group of photographers from Albuquerque's Enchanted Lens Camera Club, I visited three well-known New Mexico ghost towns in the far southwest corner of the state:  Steins, Shakespeare, and Lake Valley (where, of course, there is no lake).


Steins and Shakespeare are located near the small railroad town of Lordsburg, NM (see map by clicking on the word Lordsburg), which means that, in addition to the ghost towns, there were plenty of photo opportunities with trains -- primarily freight trains -- passing through, headed east or west, every 30 minutes or so.

Image by Barry Schwartz  (c) 2013

That's my photo buddy Barry Schwartz in the first image above.  In the second image, you can see me barely visible in the lower left corner by the RR crossing sign.  

And here's what that oncoming locomotive looked like from my vantage point:

You can see more images of these trains at my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.


Now, back to the ghost towns:


Steins

Steins was established in 1880 along the Southern Pacific Railroad, initially as a water stop for steam locomotives, which could only travel 10-15 miles before a re-supply of water was needed.  Ironically, Steins had no natural source of water, so all water had to be brought in by train or wagon.

In 1905 a rock-crushing plant was built nearby to produce track ballast for the railroad.  By the 1910 census Steins had its peak population of some 1,300 people, not counting the 3,000 immigrant Chinese laborers at the quarry a few miles away.

In 1944, toward the end of World War II, the railway ceased operations at the Steins quarry and gave notice it would no longer subsidize water deliveries.  And by then steam locomotives were being replaced by diesel.  The railway offered the inhabitants of Steins free transport elsewhere with only what they could carry; most of the population accepted this offer, leaving their houses and many of their possessions behind.  The remaining structures are filled with poignant reminders of their lives.

Over time Steins was completely abandoned.  Part of old Steins burned down, but a large section remained, and is now privately owned.  It is unusual among the Old West ghost towns in having been a railroad town rather than a mining town.

You can see more images of Steins at my photography website by clicking here.



Shakespeare 

Shakespeare Ghost Town is a national and state historic site.  Originally called Mexican Spring because there was a reliable source of water there, and long before silver was discovered nearby, the town served as a stop on the Butterfield stage line and an alternate stop on the San Antonio to San Diego mail route.

  


In 1870, silver was discovered and a group of California investors headed by Bank of California president William Ralston bought up most of the claims and re-named the town Ralston.  3,000 people flocked to the town.  However, the silver ran out pretty quickly and people began to leave.  To attract East Coast investor money, people associated with the original California owners' group salted the area with diamonds and other precious stones, none of which naturally occur in the same geological area.  Eventually the fraud was discovered and the town emptied out by 1873.

In 1879, the famous English mining engineer William George Boyle bought up all the claims, restarted some of the mines, and renamed the town Shakespeare.  President Rutherford B. Hayes visited on the return portion of his cross-country tour (the first such trip by a sitting president) in the fall of 1880.  The mines ran until the Panic (and depression) of 1893, then re-opened in 1907 and ran until 1932.  The town was purchased in 1935 by Frank and Rita Hill, who began the restoration process.  

The site includes well-restored buildings . . .

guides/storytellers in period costume . . .

and re-enactments . . .

 for the tourists and photographers  :-)

Click on the image below to see a brief video of one of the shoot-outs.  Note that the video opens in the same window, so after viewing, hit the "back" arrow to return to this blog post.

Shakespeare also boasts a functioning blacksmith shop . . .

with a real blacksmith (not an actor) who is much friendlier than he looks in this photo . . .

You can see more images of Shakespeare at my photography website by clicking here.


Lake Valley

Lake Valley, NM, was a mining town created with the discovery of silver deposits in 1876.  Mining operations began in 1878, and in 1882 a huge deposit of silver just 40 feet beneath the surface caused the town to grow rapidly.  The large deposit yielded 78 tons of silver but, as with many other mining towns, the silver played out rapidly, and the town declined after the Panic of 1893, when silver was devalued.  All of the buildings along the main street burned in 1895.

There were brief periods of revival for Lake Valley in the 1920s and during World War II into the 1950s when the area was mined for manganese ore.  The last residents, Pedro and Savina Martinez, left in 1994.  Today the area is partially owned by private owners and partially by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which has implemented a program to protect the area.

Most structures are collapsed or collapsing . . .

but the one-room schoolhouse, built in the 1920s and reinforced in the 1960s, is the most well-preserved.

There are rivers of tin cans (and a few contemporary bottles) that do not biodegrade in the desert climate . . .

and a 1935 Plymouth slowly falling apart . . .

There is also a cemetery about 1/2 mile from the town.

You can see more images of Lake Valley and its cemetery at my photography website by clicking here.


En Route

Finally, I've collected a few en route images from stops we made along the way during the trip from/to Albuquerque.  Some of them, like this one . . .

show the smoke cloud emanating from the "Silver" wildfire in the Gila National Forest about 30-40 miles west of where the images were taken.  Others show how the sky looked from within the smoke cloud:

See these and other en route images here. 


Until my next post, I hope you enjoy the trip.

  

Canyon de Chelly

  
                                            If there were water we should stop and drink . . .

                                                                  -- T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land



In the middle of the northeast Arizona desert there is water.  Over hundreds of thousands of years, runoff and snowmelt from the Chuska Mountains have created Canyon de Chelly, a sheltered oasis in an otherwise vast and forbidding desert.

Because there is water in the canyon much of the year, Canyon de Chelly is probably the oldest continuously inhabited site on the North American continent, with ruins and evidence of human habitation dating back 5,000 years.  Navajo families still farm in parts of the canyon, growing beans, corn, melons, and the like, as well as herding sheep.

Located entirely on Navajo land, Canyon de Chelly is a U.S. national monument owned by the Navajo Tribal Trust and is jointly administered by the Trust and the National Park Service.

The name is pronounced duh-SHAY, a corruption (via Spanish and English) from the Navajo Tséyiʼ, which means "canyon" (literally, "inside the rock").

Within the canyons there are over 3,000 documented archaeological sites and at least a dozen significant structures built into the canyon walls.

A closer view . . .

This site (below), called White House ruins, is the subject of a famous 1942 photograph by Ansel Adams (see it here), and is a location in the movie, The Lone Ranger, premiering next month.  Canyon de Chelly, of course, is hundreds of miles from Texas where the scene is supposedly set . . . but that's Hollywood!

The ruins are called White House because the upper structure (in the cliff) was painted with a solution containing mica that still reflects light.

And did you ever wonder why all these cliff dwellings are built so high up above the floor of the canyons?  Well, to a certain extent, they were positioned for safety, both from rising water and from enemies.  But when they were originally built, they were not so high above the floor -- perhaps 6 to 10 feet.  They are now higher because hundreds of years of erosion from the water flow has lowered the canyon floor and raised the relative position of the dwellings!  (Why didn't I think of that before?)

For example, here are some cliff ruins:

At the time this structure was built, 
               the floor of the canyon was here  ----->












But let's go back to the beginning.  You enter the canyon where the water emerges.  Here the canyon walls are only about 30 to 40 feet high.

Further into the canyon the walls rise to almost 1,000 feet.  This is Spider Rock, towering 750 feet above the floor of the canyon in one of the deepest areas.  (For comparison, the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall.)

With the exception of one area (the White House ruins), you have to be accompanied by a licensed Navajo guide, and most tours into the canyon are via 4-wheel drive vehicles.

Traveling in the canyon, you cross the stream multiple times, but it's only about 6 inches deep.

Along the way, there are hundreds of ancient pictographs and petroglyphs . . .

perhaps a little easier to see in black-and-white . . .

There are beautiful stands of trees . . .

Horses grazing along the stream . . .

Birds flying high around the canyon walls . . .

and even a glimpse of a fox darting through the underbrush on a ledge below the rim of the canyon . . .

 
The work of water and weather has created beautiful patterns and shapes in the sandstone walls and floor of the canyon:

The stains on the canyon walls are called "desert varnish," and are caused by the deposit of minerals from the topsoil as water drips down from above.

Seeing and walking in a space that has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years is a magical experience.  But even more magical is hearing the stories and songs of the Navajo people who have lived in Canyon de Chelly since the 1300s.

On our tour, we were fortunate to have a Navajo guide, Adam Teller, whose family has lived in the Canyon de Chelly for many generations.  He told us some of the traditional Navajo stories and sang two of their songs as we stood on the south rim of the canyon.  

(That's Adam on the left, and our tour guide on the right, which I suppose is obvious.)

Adam even persuaded the entire group to join in on the second song.  Here's a short (93 sec.) audio clip of the songs:




If you would like to see the images above (and more) in a larger format, you can go to my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!