Granite, Montana Ghost Town

I knew that Bruce Gregory and Stephen Johnson would enjoy Granite, Montana based on my visit there in 2005 with my wife and our neighbors.  So, Granite was one of our destinations on our summer camping trip.

There was a silver bonanza in the 1880’s on Granite Mountain, and soon the mountaintop was packed with buildings.  The centerpiece was the magnificent Miner’s Union Hall, now a big brick ruin.  The elegant building once had a dance floor / auditorium, lodge room, office, library, and more.

Mae Werning’s house is down the street.  She was the watchman and last resident of Granite and died in 1969 at age 75.  Most houses now are just piles of lumber or overgrown rock foundations.

Granite Mills A and B together ran 80 stamps until the 1890’s.  In the 1950’s the buildings were intentionally burned for safety reasons, leaving these gigantic foundations.

Just down the road along the face of the mountain ruined structures of the Ruby Mine are on the verge of collapse.
Granite has some of the biggest ghost town structures we have found on our camping trips.  It is amazing to think about what it was like to live and work here more than a century ago.
I hope you enjoy these photos, but please be aware that they are copyrighted and can not be used for any purpose without permission and reasonable compensation.

Fantasy Canyon, Utah

Fantasy Canyon is a strange area of eroded gray sandstone about 40 miles from Vernal, Utah.  It covers about 10 acres and has an easy trail.

The entire site is covered with fantastically eroded pillars and gargoyle-like figures.  Early names were the “Devil’s Playground” and “Hades Pit”.

The quartzose rocks of Fantasy Canyon were deposited 38 to 50 million years ago during the Eocene Epoch.  This area was once prehistoric Lake Uinta.

These rocks were on the shore of the lake and different minerals have weathered at different rates, creating the fantastic figures here.

Fantasy Canyon is very fragile.  As old formations erode away, new ones will be formed.

You should be aware that Fantasy Canyon is the territory of pygmy rattlesnakes, although I didn't see any.

Getting there can be tricky.  After driving on good roads for about 35 miles, you turn into a maze of dirt roads in a desert gas field, but the BLM has posted very helpful signs.  We have been told than even a small amount of rain makes these roads impassable, so stay out if clouds are moving in.

As usual, my photos are copyrighted, so please ask for permission before you use them for any purpose.  In most cases, a small fee will be charged.

Moonshine Arch, Utah

Linda and I are visiting her sister, Pat, in Vernal, Utah.  This is wild country near Dinosaur National Monument, and we have explored it several times.  But until now we have never heard of Moonshine Arch.

Getting to the arch was half the fun, and at my age I wasn’t sure I could do it.  I drove about a mile on dirt roads before hiking another mile or so, including about a half mile up a fairly steep, rough ridge, and back down again.  It wouldn’t be a big deal for a younger person, but I was glad to find I could still do it.

The arch is remarkable.  It parallels a huge rock alcove.  Obviously, thousands of years of flash floods have roared downhill, scoured out the alcove in a huge curve, and worn through a wall of rock to form Moonshine Arch.  The arch is about 85 feet long and 40 feet high.

I made the hike in the morning to avoid the afternoon heat, and the light was on the back of the arch, visible from the alcove.  The outside of the arch was in shadow.

If you plan to go, take plenty of water, park outside the fence, and hike the rest of the way.  An ATV or jeep might make it part way, but the ruts and rocks are a real challenge.

Please remember, my photos are copyrighted.  Please contact me if you want to use them.  My fees are reasonable.

Mr. Hot Dogs

I’ve never posted about a restaurant on my photography blog, but I found one in Butte, Montana that deserves to be here.

We were on our annual camping trip and stumbled on Mr. Hot Dogs tucked in a tiny room on a side street.

Every inch of available space inside was devoted to Italian style decorations.  People Magazine chose Mr. Hot Dogs the best hot dog in Montana May 23, 2018.

There were lots of fancy hot dogs on the homemade menu sign, also pizza and other Italian food.  The hot dogs are all “100% Montana beef and buffalo”.

Mr. Hot Dogs appears to be a one man operation.  We ate there twice, and both times our order was taken, cooked, and served by the same friendly gentleman.  This is the view through the order window into the kitchen.

So how was the food? Here’s the Brat, actually two brats end to end in a home baked bun. Everything was unique, and very, very good. If you are ever in Butte, Montana be sure to visit Mr. Hot Dogs at 1806 Cobban Street.

Please be aware that these photos are copyrighted.  They are available for a very small fee.

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.

Thompson Springs, Utah

My camping buddies and I explored Sego Canyon on our June 2014 annual camping trip.  On the way back to our campsite in Green River, Utah, we stopped at the modern semi-ghost town of Thompson Springs.  As a ghost town hunter, it turned out to be one of my favorite photo opportunities of the trip.

The town had some importance from 1890 when a post office opened, to about 1950 when the Sego Canyon coal mines closed.    The community was a railroad shipping point for ranchers in the area, and Amtrak was a flag stop here as late as 1994 or 1997.  The town was doomed when  I-70 bypassed it by just a couple of miles.

Today, downtown Thompson Springs has many derelict buildings, including the Thompson Motel, a café, the railroad depot, and several vacant houses.

The motel was an interesting photo opportunity.  It is boarded up, but the lobby door was open, and the inside has had a lot of abuse.

I explored the interiors of several abandoned houses, the railroad station, and a few other derelict buildings.  Most were in pretty bad shape and had been trashed by squatters, but there were a few interesting things to photograph, like this sign.

One house had a story to tell about a failed subdivision.  This story has been repeated hundreds of times across the deserts of the western United States.  I wonder if anyone paid $5000.00 for a membership.

The café was different from the other abandoned buildings.  It was locked tight, so my photos were taken through the windows.

It was eerie.  It looks like it could open again tomorrow, except for that huge hole in the ceiling.  But, someone has cleaned up the ceiling debris, and the sugar, salt, and pepper are still on the counters waiting for customers.

There are plans to clean up a uranium mine near Moab and bury the tailings near Thompson Springs.  Who knows… maybe those jobs will bring customers back to the old café?