Museum of Clean Gallery

The Museum of Clean is a quirky, fun, family oriented museum in Pocatello, Idaho.  They have such diverse displays as antique pre-electric vacuum cleaners, the world's first motorized vacuum cleaner (which was horse-drawn), a chimney sweep exhibit, and a replica of Noah’s Ark in a state-of-the-art 74,000 square foot building.  They also have an art gallery which includes a rotating display by local artists.

Don Aslett is the founder of the museum.  He has written 40 books and completed over 6000 seminars, workshops, and TV filmings all about “clean.”  I spoke to him when I visited the museum a few months ago, and he said he would like to have Linda and me exhibit there.  I had forgotten all about it, when one day I got a phone call inviting us to hang our photos in November 2017.

So, Linda and I hung 24 photos in the art gallery at the museum for the month of November.  A few are shown here.  I would like to thank Don Aslett for the opportunity, and Museum director Brad Kisling for all his help getting us set up.  He could not have been friendlier or more helpful.  Just about everyone should enjoy a visit to this very unusual museum.
www.museumofclean.com

As usual, our photos are copyrighted and cannot be used without our permission.

Topaz Japanese Internment Center, Utah

During World War II, Japanese people, including American citizens, were taken from their homes and placed in internment camps for the duration of the war.  Generally, these camps were inland, in desolate areas, and the living conditions were primitive to say the least.

I have been to the sites of four of these camps at Manzanar, California; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Minidoka, Idaho; and now Topaz, Utah on my annual fall camping trip.

Internees were kept under guard behind a barbed wire fence, although many worked outside the fence at a chicken farm, turkey farm, cattle ranch, and other facilities that supported the camp.

There are a few ghostly buildings left at the chicken ranch, but the rest of the camp has been almost completely eradicated.  After the war, buildings were torn down, except for a few that were sold and moved away from Topaz.  The buildings were basic barracks with tar-paper insulation and minimal coal stove heat in a climate that had temperatures below zero in winter and over 100° F in summer.  The area was plagued by high wind and dust storms.

Residents tried their best to make the area livable by creating gardens and planting trees, but the terrible soil and bad weather made it nearly hopeless.  This tree is one of the few left, and the photo shows how all the buildings have disappeared.  If you wander across the desert, you will find foundations, concrete slabs, and an occasional artifact like this toy gun.  But there are no buildings left at the barren site of the camp.

Just imagine – there were about 9000 people living here at one time.  Most of those people lost nearly everything when they were removed from their homes and sent to Topaz or the other camps.  They were forced to sell their homes and belongings on short notice at a great loss because they were not allowed to take much with them to the camps.  Despite all this, 105 men from Topaz volunteered for service in the US military during the war.  One of their units, the famed 442^nd, became the most decorated unit for its size and length of service of any unit in US military history!

Now there are several monuments and this flag on one corner of the desolate town site.

The nearby city of Delta has a Topaz museum with a barracks (photo below), recreation hall, artifacts, and best of all, wonderful art work created by internees.  While the actual site of Topaz emphasizes the desolation of living at the camp, the art and artifacts at the museum helped us understand more about what the people were like and how they lived.

I hope the leaders of this country have learned something from the imprisonment of these people.  It is hard to believe that so many people (110,000) were taken from their homes and jobs and placed in camps against their will because of their race.  They were never charged with a crime, and many of them stayed for four years.

I want to thank my camping / photography buddies, Stephen Johnson and Bruce Gregory for all the opportunities to explore unusual, little known, and historic places like this over the last 34 years and 44 camping trips.  It has been great!

All photos are copyrighted and must not be used for any purpose without permission.

Cerro Gordo, California

Cerro Gordo (Fat Hill) is a ghost town now, but once it was so important that it helped transform Los Angeles from a sleepy small town to an important city. Around 1870, nine tons of silver-lead bullion per day was being smelted and transported to Los Angeles for shipment. Cerro Gordo had a population of 4500, so goods to support all these people were sent on the returning 14 mule ore wagons. Los Angeles prospered with all this commercial trade.

Cerro Gordo sits at 8500' elevation, about 5000' above Owens Dry Lake. This photo shows the Yellow Grade Road that climbs the mountain over a very steep gravel road with plenty of switchbacks and dramatic drop-offs. The large building is the American Hotel, and the building to the left is the Crapo house.

When the owners of Cerro Gordo passed away, the ghost town was closed to the public. Recently, a caretaker was placed on site and the town was opened for tours. We were extremely lucky to be given a tour by Jim Phillips and his three-legged dog "Patch". They are on the porch of the American Hotel in this photo.  When we were through exploring, Jim invited us into the old Belshaw House, where he lives, to relax and tell stories.

The American Hotel still has a beautiful old bar inside.  The portrait over the bar is Jody Stewart Patterson.  She and her husband, Mike, owned the town until she died in 2001 and Mike in 2009.

There are mines, old equipment, and artifacts everywhere you look.  This old ore bin and trestle dangle up the hill from the town.  After the silver and lead played out, the population decreased, then zinc mining brought back a few people about the turn of the century.  That lasted about 20 years before Cerro Gordo became a ghost town.

The corrugated steel building may have been a store once, but now it is a museum of sorts.  It is stuffed full of dusty relics found all over the mountain and in the mines.  The building on the right is the Belshaw House, where the smelter operator once lived.

I found her inside the museum.  Could the exotic spirit of Lola be trapped here in the dust and rust?

We revisited Cerro Gordo in 2015.  You can see my post about that visit here:
http://rosswalkerphotos.blogspot.com/2015/06/cerro-gordo-revisited.html

Rent a locomotive!

One of the highlights of this year's annual camping trip was renting a locomotive for an hour at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California.

The 917-D was built around 1951 or 1952 and has a 16 cylinder engine.  Visitors can rent this engine or a smaller switch engine and run it around a relatively short section of track.

                                                 

Ross Walker ran the locomotive under the watchful eye of Charlie, a museum docent. Photo by Bruce Gregory.

Stephen Johnson was the second engineer.

 Bruce Gregory got the next turn.

This was the view from the cab as the train traveled around the border of the museum property.

The victorious engineers as photographed by Charlie the museum docent.