Yeah, we have more photos of ghost towns. I'll see if I can get some up. Exploring and photographing them is what my husband and I do together as a hobby. I use the digital camera and take pictures of whole buildings and parts of the town and the landscape around the town. My husband uses black and white film and takes some wonderful detailed photos. This is just his hobby, he's a computer programmer by day.
Ghost Towns in the West U.S, especially the mountain and desert areas, are usually mining towns where it was/is no longer profitable to mine. There was no more of what they were mining or there wasn't enough of it. A lot of silver mining towns became ghost when the U.S. govt changed monetary policies in the late 1800's. Not only are some of the abandoned stores and homes there, some of the mining equipment and structures may be around or nearby. In some the government has blasted the mining shafts closed or at least put fences around the holes to avoid liability. In others, we travel at our own risk.
The towns that have gone ghost are that way because there was no other reason for the town to exist. There are old mining towns that are economically used some other way so they are not ghost. Aspen Colorado was once a mining town then someone discovered that it would be a good place to put a $ki re$ort.
Some ghost towns are totally abandoned and gradually disappearing. There are a couple of those we like to return to every year or two to record the changes. Some are turned into total tourist sites, like Virginia City Nevada. Some, like Bodie in the photo, are kept as state parks in a state of "arrested decay." That is they're not turned totally tourist, there may only one building that is used as a museum/souvenier(sp) store. The rest of the buildings are not allowed to fall down, the visitor may see some new wood on a building or a foundation stabilized. The places where the ghost towns are may be spectacular or bleak or both.
btw, fyi, Bodie is at 9000 feet and is only open a few months a year.
Can you tell that I'm totally passionate about this?
Thanks for the input. <3 I'll see if my husband can help get a few more photos posted.
