This is topic Ghost towns... in forum Member forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://www.huntmastersbbs.com/cgi-bin/cgi-ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=004200
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 14, 2015, 11:31 AM:
Spent the weekend leading a large group of 4x4's around SW Utah, showing them around some ghost towns and old mines. We covered almost 350 miles of dirt, with only hitting 6 miles of pavement, in 2 days.
Fun trip!
Anyway, know that some of you like this stuff too, so posting a few pics from the trip.
BTW... Leonard and Troy, not sure of the relationship, but there's a new Yee's heathen joint in Milford. Old one is still sitting vacant.
- DAA
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 14, 2015, 11:34 AM:
More...
- DAA
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 14, 2015, 11:37 AM:
More...
- DAA
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 14, 2015, 11:42 AM:
More...
- DAA
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 14, 2015, 11:46 AM:
More...
That's it! Hope you enjoy!
- DAA
Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on April 14, 2015, 11:51 AM:
Totally cool !!!!
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Posted by cornstalker (Member # 4593) on April 14, 2015, 02:22 PM:
Right on, Dave! Great pix. I could only imagine the stories behind each of those places.
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 14, 2015, 03:12 PM:
Chad, I've spent a good portion of my life researching those stories. I actually have quite a bit of info accumulated.
That was part of this trip, I played tour guide and told some of the stories of the places as we visited them.
So, here's a small part of the story of a few pictures...
This ranch, the Hackett ranch, was settled in 1895 as the headquarters of the Gold Bug mine, but the district was short lived and by 1900 the Hackett family were about the only ones left, turning from miners to ranchers. Three generations of the family continued to ranch there up into the 1950's.
Two sons of the family bought this car.
But shortly after, both went off to fight in World War II. Telling their folks to keep their car, they'd be back for it after the war.
Sadly, both were killed within weeks of each other...
And so, the car never went anywhere again, and sits in just about the same spot the two brothers left it 70+ years ago when they left for the war...
Makes me wish I knew the stories about more of the "old junk" I find in my wanderings.
I'm trying to find out more about the old CCC camp and that huge swimming pool. Doubt it has had water in it for close to 80 years now.
The desert is grown up so much around it, you almost have to know it's there or you won't find it. If you go walking around in the sage brush in the area, you'll find a dozen foundations and the stacked stone layout of a large tent city. Must have been hundreds of men living there at one time, but you could honestly drive right past it all within only a few yards today and not even notice anything - it looks like virgin desert again.
- DAA
Posted by jimanaz (Member # 3689) on April 14, 2015, 03:26 PM:
Nice! Thanks, Dave.
Posted by Paul Melching (Member # 885) on April 14, 2015, 03:46 PM:
Very nice Dave great pics
Posted by Lonny (Member # 19) on April 14, 2015, 05:27 PM:
DAA, I love this sort of stuff, seriously, thanks for posting it.
Great stories too. Like you I, whenever I see a rusted hull from a piece of farm equipment, car etc... I always wonder about the story behind it.
Thanks for sharing the stories!
Posted by MI VHNTR (Member # 3370) on April 14, 2015, 05:29 PM:
VERY nice pictures and some interesting history behind them. Thanks!
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 14, 2015, 06:55 PM:
Dave, you know I have seen a lot of that stuff in my wanderings, but I am also sure that I have bypassed many more, not knowing they existed. However, I am truly fascinated by all of it, and always wonder about who did it and the circumstances of the abandonment. Have you seen the pipes they make of tin rolled around a mandrill and riveted? Life must have been exceedingly difficult in those days.
Just negotiating and blazing their own trails, a few hostile indians but completely left to their own devices. I conclude those people were tough nuts. Actually, I sometimes wonder if I have the same kind of "grit" to be a pioneer? Truthfully, we have it very easy, in comparison.
Hey Dave,you remember that abandoned site we explored with Huber? Interesting. Huber and I both took a shit in one of the cabins, different corners, and covered the mess.
I love this stuff. Thanks for sharing, Dave!
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by cornstalker (Member # 4593) on April 14, 2015, 07:30 PM:
SW Utah ain't too far for me, Dave. I wanna sign up for one of your guided tours one day. That stuff is intriguing to say the least.
I'll never forget that photo spread you did with the land bridge to the Anasazi tower fortress. You have a way of sniffing out the real treasures and sharing them with us trapped in the work/society/business rat race. I applaud you. (and am a tad envious)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Keep it up, bro.
[ April 14, 2015, 07:31 PM: Message edited by: cornstalker ]
Posted by knockemdown (Member # 3588) on April 15, 2015, 03:37 AM:
Yessir! Chad captured my sentiments, exactly!
Dave, the care & attention you give to the composition of your photos really comes thru when enjoying them...
THANKS!
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 15, 2015, 05:28 AM:
Thanks fellas.
And Leonard, yes I sure do remember that spot. Neat to look at now, but must have been quite the slick operation in it's day.
- DAA
Posted by ursus21 (Member # 3556) on April 15, 2015, 06:00 AM:
I so need a "like" button for this. Very cool photos. I'm sure that new Yee restaurant is some relation to Tommy. There's just not that many Asians in Milford.
Just curious, that first photograph, was there a pond anywhere nearby that photo was taken?
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 15, 2015, 06:40 AM:
Anybody been to Kyle Hot Springs, just south of Unionville, Nevada? At one time there was useful cabins that you could bunk in, and the steam bath and the covered pool, all of it self regulated.
The story I heard was it dates to around 1900 or so, a wealthy man from back east had a luxury spa built but there was an earthquake not long after. The site has been in the public domain ever since, it's on BLM land. But, most of the cabins burned down, abuse and lack of respect. Assholes.
The pool has a self regulating pipe that you can raise and lower changing the temperature. The steam bath has a pipe outside that you pour a coffee can full of water from the spring and that creates the steam inside. All of it over 100 years old, and still works.
I think you can google it?
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 15, 2015, 07:42 AM:
Been by there a few times Leonard. Stopped by last summer, in fact, along with showing some friends the Lovelock caves on our way to run the Rubicon Trail in your great <cough> state.
Visited the Seven Troughs area that same day, pretty dang good little ghost town up there too.
- DAA
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 15, 2015, 08:07 AM:
Hmm? I just googled it. Makes me sick! There is nothing left. Back in the 60's, 70's there were at least six fairly decent primitive cabins you could stay overnite or as long as you wanted to stay. The pool was covered, tin roof with a changing area separate from the pool itself. Pool had a sand bottom, about 3-4 foot deep, perfect for sitting with just your shoulders exposed.
The steam bath was another structure with a changing area because people would completely disrobe. From some of the photos, looks like there is absolutely nothing left? I never saw the round tubs, weren't there before? There is a canyon up a road behind the springs in a northeasterly direction. About a mile or so up the canyon, there is a berm across and a bubbling spring covered with what looks like the top of a dryer or maybe a washing machine? The water was cool and safe to drink.
I haven't been there since about 1976, and it looks like things have changed drastically? I am pretty sure of the date because I bought a '75 truck just before the new model year, in fact it was Memorial Day weekend.
Well, things do not stay static and it's good that some of these places are not very well known. But, Kyle was a local resource, lots of people thought the minerals were beneficial and visited regularly. Probably vandals from The People's Republik destroyed it? Because, basically, it's gone!
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 15, 2015, 08:39 AM:
You bring up something important Leonard.
People tell me all the time that they would "love" to go see this stuff. I always tell them they better be getting on it then, because "this stuff" is disappearing at a constantly accelerating pace.
It's no exaggeration to say that most, as in more than half, of all the historic old buildings etc. that used to exist when I was in my 20's, no longer exist today.
That's more than half gone, in only 30 years.
But the stuff is going away faster and faster all the time. In another ten years, half of what's left now, will be gone. Leaving less than a quarter of what there was when I was young.
I'm not kidding - if you want to experience this stuff, you better do it now! The shit might be gone next year.
In Utah, there is a gov't agency whose sole purpose is to systematically destroy historic buildings and mine relics. It's a branch of the DOGM - dept. of oil, gas and minerals. Called the "Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program".
I shit you not. Tax dollars at work. Systematically destroying our heritage.
This used to be "the" best preserved, neatest, biggest, "wild" mine mill in the West. Nothing that wasn't behind locked gates or in a state park like Bodie could rival it. But today, thanks to "abandoned mine reclamation" it looks like this:
Tax dollars at work. Just be glad we don't get ALL the gov't we pay for...
And then, there's the idiots as Leonard just mentioned.
Two years ago, this:
Now, this:
I could show example, after example, after example.
If you guys are serious about experiencing this stuff, get on it! The West is going away FAST!
- DAA
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 15, 2015, 04:25 PM:
Does anybody recognize this spot? It's about half way between Lovelock and Fallon along the RR tracks.
Good hunting. El Bee
View My Video
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on April 16, 2015, 08:20 AM:
Doesn't ring a bell for me Leonard. Don't think I've been there.
- DAA
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 16, 2015, 12:16 PM:
It's not that much, Dave. But it is really in an out of the way spot. I can't imagine someone building that in the middle of nowhere, but there is a flowing creek a hundred yards from the cabin.
It is really fucked up that when people happen on these places, they get the urge to destroy. I don't get it.
As far as Kyle Hot Springs, that was a primitive resort, no need whatsoever to destroy all of it, but maybe it was our tax dollars at work? Like one of the campout spots we have used several times. There was a canopy and countertops for setting stoves and cooking. I mean, somebody went to a lot of trouble to completely remove telephone pole supports and there is no trace of it. Who would go to that trouble? And, haul it off, no trace, never guess it ever existed, unless you had been there before?
However, the Park Service in the East Mojave have removed guzzlers that volunteers installed for quail and bighorns because -not natural. And, they throw up berms and deny access except for a couple of "controlled" entry points. They keep track of everybody coming in and you had better not park more than a few feet off the two track. They really want to forbid hunting as incompatible with their policy. And, the policy, (believe it or not) is to cater to foreign visitors that hike in with backpacks and these people get nervous around guns and/or hunting.
It's a changing world.
Lastly. Dave, you might want to consider a Huntmasters tour? I bet you would get plenty participation!
Good hunting. El Bee
UBB.classicTM
6.3.0