Ghost Towns and Ruins

It is always exciting to visit an old abandoned ghost town. I love walking down the streets looking at the houses and trying to imagine how it must have been to live in those days. It makes one appreciate how much we have now and how easy our lives now compare to what it has been just 100-150 years ago.

Bodie California

Bodie is one of the best kept ghost towns around. Perhaps because it was still occupied as late as the 1930’s. Below are images of the old sawmill. The disk must be 2-3 feet in diameter and the teeth a couple of inch each.

This was a working town.

Must have been difficult to find water in this dry part of California. The well in this image must have been much deeper in the past as currently if you drop the pail in it would hit dirt very quickly. In reality the outhouse was a good distance from the well

An old well in a dry vally — An old well made of simple dimensional wood and a rusted bucket, A few old building on the hills near by, Bodie Ghost Town, California

An outhouse and a pile of old rusted food cans — An old well made of simple dimensional wood and a rusted bucket, A few old building on the hills near by, Bodie Ghost Town, California

Jarbidge, Nevada

Maybe it is not quite right to include Jarbidge in this page, but it is a neat old town. It is certainly not abandoned. A person I talked to in Jarbidge told me that they are very grateful to the highway engineers who built the I-80 through Nevada. They chose the driest most desolated place for the highway leaving jams like Jarbidge out of the public mind.

Well kept model A ford near an old building — Old Ford Model A vehicles fit right in next to the old hotel building, Jarbidge, Nevada

Josie Bassett Morris log cabin, Dinosaur National Monument, Utah

This abandoned log cabin on bare ground was the home of Josie Morris for 50 years, until just a few days before her death in 1964 at age 90. from the outside It looks almost as if one can just move in. Inside the living room with a brick fireplace might need a few updates.

A log cabin with on bare ground and big green trees all around, It looks almost as if one can just move in, Josie Bassett Morris log cabin, Dinosaur National Monument, Utah

Walnut Canyon National Monument, Arizona

This is not your typical ghost town. It is a Pueblo Indians ruins abandoned some 700 years ago. Still, it is preserved enough that you can walk through the area and get a feeling of what it was like for the people who built and lived here. There are multiple rooms with connecting passages built in a rock alcove carved by water erosion in the rock. This provides a roof, floor and the back wall. All that was required was 2 side walls and one in front.