40 years ago you could find stuff like this.

[dwinslow]

This was Granite, Oregon way back when. We rolled into town and nobody around. Just look at that old gas pump in front of the old store. Can you imagine what it'd be worth today. Stuff like this was sitting around, out in the open. Oh well, times have changed.

[campp]

Really nice pictures!

[speedy]

More great pics. Thanks again.......Speedy

[dwinslow]

Thank you, more coming.

[Joel]

Fantastic! Glad you got to see them in their day!

[danny_stoddard]

awesome pictures! looks move-in ready! :) If only! :) I wish I could

[Vulture]

Not bad...;)

[LV Caretaker]

dwinslow,

You have put up some fantastic photos. Very, very nice.

Thanks!

Kathy

[dwinslow]

dwinslow,

You have put up some fantastic photos. Very, very nice.

Thanks!

Kathy

Thanks Kathy. Wish I had some from New Mexico but all my stuff is from the north-west and east into Montana, Calif., Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

[dwinslow]

Fantastic! Glad you got to see them in their day!
Hi Joel.........
I think the best time to see some of these places was in the 60's and 70's. A lot were pure ghost towns then and the hippies and dopers hadn't discovered them yet. A lot of towns like Granite, Oregon were empty. Granite now has a bunch of people and does a tourist trade. I can remember going into a town in Montana (can't remember the name right now) but the only inhabitants there were an old miner, his dog and a bear. It was great. I spent a whole day talking with the gentleman and heard some great stories as he had been born in the town. He offered to let us use a cabin for the night and said that we were the only people he had seen for a few months. I declined as I had a trailer in a base camp about 75 miles away but it was a great experience. I'll find the pictures and scan and post them when I locate them. I'm just glad that I was around to get some of this on film. Then, of course the weather has taken a lot of the old buildings. I have pictures in one town of a complete street filled with small cabins that were originally wh*re houses. I went back in a couple of years and all had been destroyed by heavy snow. This was in Colorado. Again, when I find them I'll stick 'em on the site. A lot of these towns were only accessible by 4 wheel drive and we had to re-build trails and winch ourselves into these places as nobody had been in them for years. In those days we didn't have stuff like a GPS and had to do research using topo maps. We never knew what we would find. Sure had a lot of fun though. One year, about 1970, we took a 2 month trip and went to 104 ghost towns. Some were great and some had nothing left but it was worth it.

[LV Caretaker]

Well, dwinslow, you are located about 725 miles from Lake Valley, as the crow flies. You can visit the state and take lots of great photos of NM's ghost towns.

Kathy

[Joel]

It's always worth the effort to get to the ruins! :)

I don't GPS myself. I work with hi tech all week and the last thing that I want out in the desert with me is something beeping and giving me directions. I prefer maps and sheer dumb luck myself. I'm not above swiping GPS numbers and converting them to the real world since so much has vanished from my beloved topo maps. Darn the USGS, but I do understand the need for protecting the sites.

The ruins are coming down fast and hard these days. I really feel bad when I find sites that have just foundations left after seeing the pictures from the '50's, '60's and '70's. The weather, age, the modern construction boom and mindless vandals have all contributed to their loss. There's still quite a bit out there, but I can see how little is going to be left in a decade or two.

[danbo]

I work with hi tech all week and the last thing that I want out in the desert with me is something beeping and giving me directions.


That's funny, I know what you mean. I have an old "hoopty" ski boat and my teen aged daughters keep trying to get me to install a "sound sytem." They don't understand that the desert and the lake are places I go to get away from idiots with sub woofers extolling the virtues of "slang'n cane", "bustin caps in the po-po" and "runn'n ho's" etal.:D

[old judge]

I guess that's why I continue to rag a liitle about the old days. My first visits to places like Jerome, Golden, Madrid, etc.,,,,they were true Ghosts, or close. I still like getting out there, but the older one gets, the less likely the ability and opportunity to visit something which hasn't been ravaged by idiots. As I said in an earlier post, Virginia City was really enjoyable at one time. I'd still go back, but I'd keep muttering..."when I was here in '06..." OJ

[dwinslow]

I guess that's why I continue to rag a liitle about the old days. My first visits to places like Jerome, Golden, Madrid, etc.,,,,they were true Ghosts, or close. I still like getting out there, but the older one gets, the less likely the ability and opportunity to visit something which hasn't been ravaged by idiots. As I said in an earlier post, Virginia City was really enjoyable at one time. I'd still go back, but I'd keep muttering..."when I was here in '06..." OJ

Boy are you so right. As I scan these old photos from the 60's and 70's and see how neat these places were and then look at the recent photos of the same spots, I realize just how lucky I was to get these old pictures. I've been going to Virginia City since the early 60's so I know what ya mean.

[Ghostdancer]

I saw Granite back in 2002 and took some photos. If I remember correctly the store was charging five dollars to anyone using the restroom if they didn't make a purchase.


Tom