Kutch Co (Ghost Town #6)

So I know I have promised this several times (ok maybe just one other time) but I will try to post more often, mostly because I really enjoy doing it, but if anyone actually reads these I greatly appreciate it. One other note before I actually tell you about the beautiful metropolis of Kutch, I am writing these usually a couple months after I actually go out and take the pictures so I try to remember it as well as I can, and tell you every detail. But lets be honest, no one reads this because they think I am a good writer, I just take mostly mediocre photos.

Ok, now that that is all done here is the story of Kutch.

After going to to Willard the week before and Eaton the week before that I had become addicted. I craved going to these places. Addicted to every aspect of it. The way I felt after first arriving and creaking open the first door I came across, feelings of hope, fear, excitement. I had become addicted to the smell, each place I have been smells so different, yet the same. I was addicted to the fear of being caught, the thought provoking and tantalizing stories I created on who these people were. Who lived here? Why did they leave? Did they want to leave? Bluntly I couldn't, and still can't, get enough. So thats why on one sunny saturday I found my self driving three hours away to beautiful Kutch Colorado.

The first building I came across was an old two story farm house.

I was very excited, I had never been inside a multiple story abandoned building before! So as soon as I got close enough I just turned my steering wheel to the left and drove off the road and parked. The second I opened my car door I was greeted by a ferocious wind. Muttering and cursing the wind I quickly pulled all of my gear together, deciding to go light I left one of my cameras and my big bag of gear in the car, and began taking pictures.

The building had a beautiful exterior, it was mostly solid wood paneling except for where an addition of cinder blocks was later added.

At first I was hesitant to go inside the building because I was able to see the floor from the outside and I was not sure how stable it was.

I also knew that there was a basement under the house.

The stairs leading down to the basement

So being the wise person I am I decided that I was going to go inside anyway. Very carefully I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The first thing I noticed was the temperature. Inside was much cooler, almost cold, an alarming temperature drop from the outside. The second thing I noticed was the floor, despite the way it looked it was solid.

At first I went around the bottom floor, taking it all in, both fearing and dreading the assent up to the second story. My mind raced with thoughts. How long has this building been sitting here? What would happen if the floor gave out? What if I fell?

on the bottom floor looking up at the second story

But once again my thrill for adventure out weighed my fear of death so I ever so slowly walked up the stairs, taking each step slowly, carefully, testing my weight for the sound of unwelcome creaks and groans.

But eventually I made it to the top safe and sound.

looking almost directly through my feet at the floor below

I soon realized that there was nothing very exciting in the upstairs so I slowly retraced my steps back to the stairs. After one last tour around the building I made my way back to the car where I stored my gear and continued down the dusty dirt road to where the town of Kutch supposedly actually stood. I soon came across another place of interest.

So once again I parked in order to investigate. As I got out and looked around I realized that much of this land looked the same way now as it did 100 years ago.

I could not see any other sign of life in any direction I looked. I was totally and completely alone. After my existentialist moment I continued to walk toward the house.

There were several things that struck me as odd about this building. Like the amount of things that they left behind. Not just farm equipment left to rust in the field,

but everyday type of things. Like shoes...

Or clothes.

I just don't understand the absolute hurried rush that these poor people must have felt to leave their house in order for them to leave their everyday clothes. What could have prompted them to feel the need to leave so quickly? So thats all I have on the beautiful metropolis of Kutch, and as always here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Willard co ghost town #5

After my previous trip to Eaton , which began as a un exciting and rather dull day but through luck turned out to be very worth while, I decided that I needed to spend more time researching these towns before I spent hours in the car getting to them. So after some thought and time reading about it I finally decided to go to Willard, though not a true ghost town it promised enough abandoned buildings to be exciting. First off, Willard is not very close to Boulder, in fact its about 3 and a half hours away, but the internet had promised me that it was worth the almost 200 mile drive.

The first time I was in Willard I drove though it with out even slowing down because I hadn't realized that I had reach my destination. But I finally checked my map and noticed that I had passed it a while before, so I turned around and headed back only to find the town of Willard look virtually nothing like the photos I found of it. It was by no means a bustling metropolis but it also wasn't a ghost town. Rather begrudgingly I drove up the one real street of the town only to be very pleasantly greeted by this:

and

Once I saw these two I started to see more and more, and as I did a smile began to slowly cross my face. I had chosen well. Disregarding all personal safety I nearly ran into the close abandoned building to me. It was one of the most disturbing and creepy places I have ever been into. Judging by the shape of the building and the things left behind I was assuming that it was probably left in the 70s-80s and most likely had rarely been opened since the left. The entire inside smelled of rotting wood and it was damp and clammy, but probably most disconcertingly, it seemed to absorb light. I had two very bright (60 lumens) head lamps and a 40 lumen lamp it still seemed dark as night. I walked slowly through the building, testing each step because I had seen a basement down below when I was out side and I did not want to fall through. I finally got to one of the first interesting things in the house, a wood dresser that had been haphazardly thrown into the middle of the hall. On the top of the dresser sat a very weathered and torn playing card box, which at some point over the years split and sent cards cascading down around it. The drawers only opened after a lot of prompting on my part just to reveal papers and a few other things I did not feel comfortable looking through. Immediately to the left of the left of the dresser was a tightly closed door. Years of wind blown dirt and grime had slowly worked its way under the crack of the door creating a very effective natural seal. Once again after a long period of poking and prodding and pulling and pushing I finally got the door open and saw a not uncommon sight in abandoned houses, a bed frame with bits and pieces of fabric still clinging on. Not to interested in the bed I proceeded to walk over to the closet door which swung open with ease. What lay inside the closet was in my mind truly mind boggling and disturbing, several nice outfits of clothes still hung on their hangers forever to be forgotten by their owners who left with out second thought to these poor clothes. There was not much else of note in the house, so after taking some photos of the clothes (which Ill put up eventually) and a few other things I left, feeling creeped out. I didnt go into the second house but I did get a few nice photos of the exterior;

the plains the reflection is what it looks like as far as the eye can see in any direction

After spending a few minuets walking around the exterior of the building as well as the mobile home next to it:

I took a short walk over to the towns once great grain elevator.

Like the house before it, the grain elevator seemed to left in a hurry. Such a hurry that there were still all the certificates of of approval and whatever else they needed hung above the door to one of the offices.

As I walked through the rest of the grain elevator I was able to get some wonderful photos

Then after doing my first sweep around the building I discovered that back behind the building were several cow skeletons, there were fully grown cows, and calfs alike. I am not sure if they were taken back there and shot or if they had wondered back there at some point and were not able to find their way out. But no matter how they got there, there were quite a few.

Well that pretty much describes my adventures to willard in great detail. and finally here were my favorite photos from the trip.

Eaton Ghost Town #3

Yes I know it has been almost two months since I have put up a new post. So in case anyone has been waiting out there with baited breath for me to put up my newest one, I am sorry. But I am going to try to start trying to be more consistent again.

So After my adventures at Last Chance and Dearfeild I was craving more. I just couldn't get enough. Every thing about these abandoned towns and buildings was enticing and to some extent addicting. So during the next week all I could do was think about the weekend so I could leave my house and head out to another town. As the weekend got closer I began to get things ready so I could leave as early as I could on saturday morning. I was also very determined that I was not going to be as inadequately prepared as I had been the first time. So I put together a "ghost town kit" which consists mostly of flash lights and head lamps, but I also decided that I should put together a decent med kit just incase.

But in all this anticipation I forgot to actually research the location that I was going to. That is how I ended up in Nunn....

Now how Nunn ended up on this list I will never know. But Nunn is NOT a ghost town, not even a partial ghost town. After driving up and down all three streets of Nunn multiple times I finally found a, one single, abandoned home. So of course I immediately jumped out of my car and took photos of it (what else do you expect after driving for about 3 hours).

ya this is pretty much what every house in Nunn looks like

But despite the fact that there was only one house worth looking at I actually ended up being very happy with some of the photos.

such as this one

But alas there are only so many photos you can take of one building so I quickly became bored and wanted something more exciting. Remembering back to my map I eventually remembered another town on my list in the nearby area: Purcell. This is Purcell. In case you can't tell it is a farm that looks like this:

This is NOT my image, but that you Rocky Mountain Profiles

Thats it. That is the town of Purcell. There is nothing more. That is it. So obviously I didn't even bother getting out of my car for this one, because well there was no need. At this point I was getting disheartened that these towns and buildings were not as exciting as my mind had promised me that they would be. So at this point I decided that it was not my day and that I should head just head on home. On my way I passed through the town of Eaton and I decided that I was going to get my self some lunch. As I sat there eating I looked up and noticed:

And I thought; "Wow I wish that was abandoned and I could explore it". As I sat there eating and looking at I noticed small clues

Small clues like all the window were broken....

That this building actually was abandoned. So I quickly ran over there and began taking photos of what was at one point the Eaton Grain Elevator and its subsequent weight station.

Last Chance Ghost Town #2

After my adventures in Dearfeild I still had several hours left in the day before the sun set. I recalled back to the map that I made and remembered that in the nearby area there was another ghost town: Last Chance. When I first found this town while I was doing my research I instantly fell in love with it, how often do you get to visit an abandoned town with such an ominous name! So I pulled out the map that I keep in the glove compartment of my car and I realized that Last Chance and Dearfeild are with in spitting distance of each other. Well that is if you can spit 75 miles. But had nothing better to do on this fine day so I decide to drive south a ways and go to Last Chance. After driving for about on hour and a half on the flattest, straitest and most boring road that I have ever seen, I arrived. At first I did a small tour around the town in my car and realized that at the north end of the town people had moved in, in their mobile homes but the majority of the town was left vacant. After my small tour I parked like a law abiding citizen in the Dairy King parking lot.

The king of soft served iced cream until he died and the queen took over

After I got out of my car and gather all of my camera equipment I realized that I had used up almost all of my film in Dearfeild, I had just little more than a roll left. This was a very large problem because just from what I had seen Last Chance was just as if not more neat and exciting as Dearfeild was. So I after realizing this I decided that there was nothing that I could do about it except be frugal with the photos I took. So I then walked over to the Dairy King, as I looked through the windows I noticed something odd. Every thing was still there. It was almost as though they had just closed shop for the night and were expecting to open back up the next day. There was still salt and pepper and ketchup on every table. All the chairs were neatly pushed in. Cooking utensils still hung above the ovens.

despite there being all of these things left that make the place creepy I still decide to take a photo of their step in freezer.... Why?

After walking all the way around the Dairy King I turn my attention slightly west word and I am greeted with a pleasant sight...

In case your wondering that says....

...the Last Chance Motel! I was also pleased to see that unlike Dairy King it was not all locked up.

Oooh they take visa!

So I took this as an open invitation to enter. The office was not as exciting as I had hoped so I skipped taking any photos there and progressed to the motel rooms.

How come my Motel rooms never come with a stationary bike?

At one point someone went inside the motel and tore down all the walls connecting the rooms. But its not like it was the worlds greatest motel to begin with.

After I sufficiently explored what remained of the motel I continued on my journey through Last Chance. After wondering through a few more buildings and not finding much of interest I came across the Joy Bus....

this is the joy bus

The Joy Bus is probably one of the most unintentionally creepy things I have ever seen. The walls and ceiling were all painted with bright colors and rainbows, all of the seat had been turned bright red... and it was in a nearly abandoned town. Besides the bus the brightest colors I could find was a sun bleached orangeish color. Also the inside was covered nearly floor to ceiling with random crap that was just left there.

This is exactly why I am never going to go inside a "joy" anything

After visiting the joy bus I had virtually exhausted my film stockpiles so I finished wondering around the town and finally decided that it was time for me to leave the wonderful, booming metropolis of Last Chance.

A few more photos

the final remains of the Last Chance Cafe

A chain holding the back end of a very old flat bed truck together

and finally

The ballerina of Last Chance

you can find the rest of the photos here

Dearfeild Ghost town #1

At the beginning of the semester in my photo class we were given our final project with the intent that we would work on it all semester long. For our final project we have to make a photo book, it could be of any subject, black and white or color, there were very little restrictions on our projects. I thought and I thought and I thought but I couldn't think of an idea that I liked for my photo book, there were a few that I started shooting for but I scrapped the ideas pretty quickly. Then one saturday I was out taking photos and just kinda exploring and I ended up at an old fort that was in the process of being restored for tourism. After going through there and the near by ranger station I began thinking about more historic colorado. This train of thought eventually led me to the idea of going to ghost towns all across the state and taking photos.

So I began to research about ghost towns across the state. The more I looked into it the more excited I got about doing this as my photo book project. At first I was just making a list on a piece of paper of all the towns I wanted to visit, but quickly this became unorganized and rather messy. So to make it more organized I put up a map of colorado in my room and put a pin on each one of the towns and then attached a piece of string connecting the towns to their names.

this map is probably epic than you will ever be

It was time for my first trip out to a ghost town. I more or less chose at random but ended up on deciding to go to Dearfeild. Dearfeild was established in 1910 by a wealth business man who wanted to make a community solely for blacks.

After driving for a good 45 min more than I needed to I finally reached Dearfeild.

One of the first buildings that you see as you enter Dearfeild

As soon as I got out of the car I began snapping photos. With in the first 5 minuets of being there I had already shot one and a half rolls of film.

A hanger was left among the rubble

Unlike the rest of the buildings I did not actually go inside the first building.

because it looked like this and I thought i might die if i went in

There were still four houses still standing as well as a few barns/ garages/ sheds. The final house that I went into was the most interesting. In an effort to keep the buildings more preserved someone had done some restoration work, this included putting boards on the windows of this final building.

Because there were boards on the windows I was not able to take photos inside due to the lack of light. I was also not able to venture into their basement which was a great disappointment. How ever I did learn that on future adventures I should bring flash lights as well as other gear on these adventures.

Looking at the last building from the other direction

Looking west out of Dearfeild.

the rest of the photos can be found here