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

12 Angry men

Alright, this post kinda ties into an earlier one I wrote, but the other night I watched the movie 12 Angry men (a fabulous movie by the way) and in one of the very first scenes we see a man (Henry Fonda) go against the crowd. When a few strong willed juror's quickly raise their hands indicating that they think the man on trial was guilty, most of teh rest of the juror's slowly raise their hands. But one man stands up for what he believes, through out the movie he speaks with confidence and conviction and by the end he was not 1 against 11 but he had convinced the rest of them to let the boy on trial to go free. This movie just shows the power of speaking your mind and standing up for what you believe.

3D film!....?

Well whether you love it or hate it, it gives you a head ache or blows your mind from its awesome power, 3D for films is here to stay. It brings in the money (6 of the top 10 grossing movies of 2010 are 3D, also Avatar the highest grossing film of all time was shot in 3D), but it does not work. Before I begin, I would just like to say that personally I hate 3D, I think its a (not so) cheap trick that distracts the audience from subject matter allowing the actual quality of film to decrease. With that said I will try not to make this to biased, so for every point I make against 3D I will also make a point for it.

Alright, so I know there are a ton of web sites and articles..... well tons of websites, but virtually only one article, that deal with the flaws of 3D. So I think I will being by addressing the ideas that Walter Murch brings up in his letter. As Mr. Murch mentions the biggest problem with 3D is the issue of focus: "But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what...But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on". The reason that this creates a problem is because never before have people needed to have their eyes converge on one point but have their focus at another. Walter Murch brings up several other very good points in that article, if you have not read it yet I strongly suggest that you do.

Now on to my opinions of why 3D makes a inferior medium for film. Most people go and see a movie because it offers them a cheap escape from their lives. They want to go and see things that could never happen to them. But the entire point of 3D is to make movies more life-like, more realistic. While this has no effect on movies like Avatar, once 3D becomes the industry standard and they make more realistic movies in 3D it becomes less of an escape for people. If movies stop offering that same level of escape for viewers people will stop going and this will mean a decrease in revenue for production companies.

Like I said before 3D is what people are becoming to expect as this happens more and more movies are going to be made in 3D, but since 3D is such a drastically different format it will slowly begin a revolution in film. It will change everything, from the way the movies are shot, the cameras they are shot with, the process for editing them, the theaters we view them in. While I think it is about time for the movie industry to go through another major revolution in the way that things are done (the last big change happened in the 60s and 70s). But the problem is that a completely new infrastructure for film would have to be built and in the end it would be payed for by us, the viewers, through ticket prices and other ways. Im sure there would also be a crack down on illegal piracy so all of you out there smugly smileing to yourself with your devious plan, best of luck not getting caught.

But as much as I have bitched about it 3D does have some very wonderful qualities. Such as it brings in money to the production companies. Also a benefit to me is that because it is going to bring about this film revolution, directors and the like will be looking for people who have not been in the industry for long and so they are able to think freely and be able to see new ways of doing things. So hopefully when I graduate film school I will be in the right place at the right time.

The Match

As i sat there with my think black polyester hood covering my closed eyes my mind felt like it was racing at about a 1000 miles per hour, but only one thought was going through my mind. “this is going to be my last match. Ever”. Even though I was in a noisy gym all I could hear was a faint murmur of the people talking. I open my eyes and slowly lift my the thin layer of fabric that is separating me from the rest of the world and look out at the mat in front of me. The last match had just ended. I see the ref’s mouth move and all I hear is 152. Its not time yet. Not yet but soon. As i stand up from my crouch on the floor a single small drop of sweat drips down my back, following the curve of my spine. I pull my hood back up to block out any and all distractions, like my team sitting a few feet away talking with my coaches, or my mom and sister standing near the mat talking, or my dad sitting in the bleachers alone. I begin to pace around the gym. One foot then the other. Left foot then right. Left foot then right. Im feeling tired and sore and stiff from wrestling and sitting in the stands all day. I hear a whistle blow and the crowd cheer. I look up and over to my left towards the mat. The match was done. I was up. I walk over to my coach and I am greeted with a firm hand shake and a pat on the shoulder. My team and every one else who has stayed to watch me moves to the side of the mat and begin to offer me their encouragement. The butterflies in my stomach feel like they are trying to break free of their confines. I remember back to practice when we wound do yoga to help us relax. I begin to breath like coach taught us. In 1-2-3-4-5. Hold 1-2-3. Out 1-2-3-4-5. Hold 1-2-3. I am calmer now. The winning wrestler of the previous match walks over to the corner near us an collects his things. I take one last deep breath. I feel the reassuring and familiar pat on my back. I open my eyes and step across the the bright neon yellow cord. I quickly but calmly pull off my warm up pants. I glance across the mat at the opposing corner. Its empty. I turn around and quickly scan the gym. My opponent is not here yet. A wave a relief and hope comes crashing over me. Maybe he wont come. Maybe he left. Maybe I’ll get the forfeit... Please? The ref slowly. Casually. Walks over to me. I put my hood down to hear him. I see his lips move and hear sounds but do not understand them. FOCUS. shouts my mind.... Focus. Please? “pardon me sir, I didn’t hear that” I say politely. A small smile cracks across his course, rough face. “ We have to wait for the other gym to finish. We want all finals rounds going at once”. I give a. Short. Quick. Nod to show my understanding. I step out on to the mat for the first time in hours. I feel the familiar comforting squish of the mat beneath my right foot. When my foot comes up a perfect mirror image of my shoe is left on the mat. As I watch it the mark slowly fades into nothing. The people at the scoring table beacon me to come to them. So I go. When I get there I am ask what my name and school in. “John Sims, Fairview” I answer with out hesitation showing i have said it before. Hundreds of times. “you’ll be green” is their only response. I thank them and walk out to the center of the mat and pick up the green ankle band. I squat down to one knee. I place the green band, cool and slightly sweaty from hours and hours of wrestling. against my ankle and then i securely over lap the two Velcro ends. I am ready. I am happy. I am calm. I bounce slowly until my opponent appears. I then take off my warm up top and put on my hear gear. It is uncomfortable, the Velcro strap has abraded away a piece of skin under my chin in an earlier match. I can feel the excitement in the gym build. We are ready. The ref brings us to the center of the mat. My right foot is carefully placed on the green bar on the mat indicating it is my side. He and I bend our knees and lean forward. We are ready. The ref steps in, “shake hands boys. Good luck”. Our hands break after our short hand shake. A loud piercing whistle blows. We wrestle.