A stone wall and empty sign post are the only visible exterior to what was once the nicest brothel in Ely, Nevada. "Bronc Alley" is the name given to the west end of Ely, Nevada's High Street. Throughout the mining and railroad town's history, brothels flourished in a couple different sections in town, though Bronc Alley was the heart of its Red Light District. Today, active houses of prostitution along this section of High Street continue to bathe adjacent Highway 50 in red neon. However one former brothel remains empty and slowly falling to the elements. Opened in 1959, The Green Lantern wa ...
Sitting along an infrequently visited beach on a distant corner of the Caribbean island nation of Aruba is a collection of shacks built from scavenged and salvaged materials creating a colorful ghost town beside the cerulean blue waters. In a sense appearing odd and slightly eerie, the shoreline of Aruba's Rincon Beach is lined with waterfront buildings that sit empty and sometimes varying in different stages of prolonged decay and collapse that is the result of a unique combination of cultural and geographical factors. Built as weekend fishing cabins, the range of permanence in materials and constr ...
The Cherry Patch Ranch brothel in the southern Nevada town of Crystal has a storied history. The building, owned by infamous brothel owner Dennis Hof, sits just up the road from the Love Ranch building where Hof's dead body was found after celebrating his 72nd birthday. While he unquestionably used his media savvy to build the reputation and advertise his properties, Dennis Hof may not have even been the most interesting personality to have had a hand in the brothels in Crystal... A view of the Cherry Patch Ranch brothel trailers and adjoining restaurant Maynard "Joe" Richards was born in Duluth, Minnes ...
In August of 1903, an American fugitive named Paul Watelet attempted to enter Canada via Washington State. Watelet was trying to avoid an Ohio arrest warrant for fraud charges in connection to his company, the Colville Group Mining Company, for having misrepresented the group's operations in order to obtain an investment from a John Carnahan for $4000 (approximately $120,000 in today's money). The warrant named "Count" Paul Watelet in the scheme of obtaining the money by means of false pretense. Watelet was not actually a Count, but instead was a Belgian miner from Oakland, California. And sometime In 1905, he made his way ...
Set at an elevation of 9600' amidst the mountain peaks above Mono Lake and the town of Lee Vining, the Log Cabin mine experienced prosperous boom periods before a presidential executive order during World War II banned the mining of non-strategic materials, leading to the shuttering of operations at the mine. The mine was maintained and ready to be reopened at a moment's notice, however a couple fledgling attempts at reopening and the discovery of contamination of the grounds has instead led the mine to a slow decay. Originally mined under the Mendocino Claim filed in 1890, the Log Cabin Gold Mine ...
Constructed into the area's natural tide pools, one of the most surreal swimming experiences in Laguna Beach may be the infinity pools. Built at the ocean's edge in a private cove along the city's wild shoreline, Laguna Beach's hidden pools have long been a picturesque destination. However for those who don't have one of the few multimillion dollar homes overlooking the ocean with a private staircase to the cove below, the pools are only reachable by coordinating entry and exit through a sea cave with low tides or by swimming around the rock outcroppings from a nearby public beach. Built at the water's edge, the poo ...
Reward / Brown Monster Mine An abandoned gold mine in the Eastern California mountains with an extensive underground network of tunnels and adits. The site today known as the Reward Mine is made up of multiple mining claims that have merged over time, though which today sit in a mostly abandoned state. Following its discovery in 1870, the Reward Mine primarily produced gold and silver, with copper and lead being secondary minerals mined from the mountain shafts located in the Eclipse Canyon area of California's Inyo Mountains overlooking the Owens River Valley. At an elevation of 4000', the Reward Mine sat adjacent to ...
Three Kids Mine; Las Vegas, Nevada Three Kids Mine on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada may be less worthy of mention for its past than for its post-use roles due in large part to its position on the increasingly-encroaching fringes of the urban center. Built in 1916 and opened the following year, Three Kids Mine consists of a massive 300 foot deep open pit, along with two other nearby smaller pits from which high grade manganese ore was mined. Though today it sits not far from the boundary of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, at the time of the mine's construction, the Hoover Dam was still over a de ...
The Captain George Conrad Flavel Home It was from the plot of a horror movie: the haunted house sitting abandoned on the hill, the strange labyrinthine history of the family who owned it and the influence, even in their absence, that they still cast upon the town, the outlandish rumors circulating around them that were repeated by more than a few of the town's long-term residents, and to a lesser and more personal extent, my desire, ever since having moved to the town, to somehow make my way inside of the house. Astoria, Oregon. This was the oldest town west of the Rockies, at least in terms of having the first post ...
Death Valley Albatross Plane Wreck On the day of January 24th, 1952, a Grumman SA-16 Albatross took off from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho bound for San Diego carrying a 6 total occupants. The one-day, non-stop flight was part of a classified training mission supporting CIA Cold War operations. As night engulfed the skies around 6:30pm, one of the Albatross' dual engines gave out. Losing elevation and velocity, the pilot gave the order for the plane to be evacuated. All of those onboard would jump from the rear door and land about 14 miles north of Death Valley's Furnace Creek with no injuries, while the now-unman ...
"We were six prostitutes in a ranch house in the middle of the desert, isolated from the rest of the world, screwing frustrated and horny men for money. That was our life and as far as we were concerned it was as normal as Rice Krispies." -Vickie Star, brothel owner Vickie Star's is a story of a woman who moved west from her Missouri farming upbringing and eventually ended up owning two separate Nevada brothels before retiring to live off of the money she saved from her years in the business. Born to a Garrison, Missouri family in 1923, at age 16 Vickie received an invitation from her older sister to move into her apartment in Sa ...
Zzyzx Mineral Springs Resort Sitting near the northern edge of southern California's desolate Mojave National Preserve is the incorporated community of Zzyzx, California, a small area centered around a the Zzyzx Spring. In recent history, this water source formed the foundation for a small population center first based on a train station, and later as the real estate speculation of a quack "medical doctor" and scam artist. Lake Tuendae, where the spring water collects into a large rectangular march - with a fountain remaining in the center of the lake from the days of Howe's resort - is some of the only habitat for the ...
The facade of the Lazy B Guesthouse Ranch sits on the outskirts of Fallon, Nevada - what remains of the brothel is as no-frills as the brothel itself was during its tenure of service. The Lazy B Ranch was a small brothel sitting just east of the town of Fallon. Opened in 1975, the ranch was located along Nevada's Highway 50 near the mining and ranching operations of the north central region of the state, along with the nearby Fallon Naval Air Station. The ranch operated during the peak 1980's era of Nevada's legal houses of prostitution with 35 located and operating throughout the state. Though the later years of the Lazy B would be ...
The remains of the Old Bridge Ranch (which sit on the site of the original Mustang Ranch) amidst a picturesque Nevada landscape. Sitting in the Truckee River valley of northern Nevada lies the Old Bridge Ranch, a legal brothel that operated near the storied Mustang Ranch - in fact, the Old Bridge Ranch was built on the site of the original location of the Mustang Bridge Ranch, and over the years has acted as compliment and competition to the Mustang. Popular for being one of the nearest brothels to the Reno area, Old Bridge owner David Burgess was the nephew of Sally Conforte (the wife of colorful Nevada brothel o ...
A strange craft sits landlocked above the banks of the Columbia River on a Sauvie Island beach in Oregon. For years, no one seemed to know the history of the saucer-shaped craft sitting amidst the trees on Collins Beach, a clothing-optional beach near the northern tip of Sauvie Island outside of Portland, Oregon. After the airing of a news story on the mysterious craft, pieces of its past came out, including the designer and builder of the boat.. Richard Ensign was an engineer living in Hubbard, Oregon, a small town situated about 25 miles south of Portland, who would spend two years and about $10,000 constructing a concrete sailboa ...
Milky Way above the arcade building, Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark, California A barren oasis in the Mojave Desert may be more popular in abandonment than it was during its tenuous incarnations. Off of Interstate 15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the town of Newberry Springs sits the remains of "the first waterpark in America". Originally opened in 1962 by Bob Byers as a manmade lake and recreation area built atop a spring and named after his wife, Lake Dolores came to feature several attractions based around the water. A set of slides where riders would slide down and glide across the lake on 'floats', two V-shaped metal s ...
The Remains of Multnomah Greyhound Park; Wood Village, Oregon As a suburb of Portland, Oregon battles over the fate of its former racetrack property, the skeletal hulk sits empty surrounded by otherwise modern homes and shopping centers. Greyhound racing in the Portland area began in 1933, organized by the Multnomah Kennel Club. From 1933 to 1955, races were held at Multnomah Stadium near downtown Portland - today the site of Providence Park and home to the Portland Timbers soccer team - and for the 1956 at Portland Meadows, a track used primarily for horse racing. In 1957, the Multnomah Kennel Club opened the track at Woo ...
The Ghost Town of Drawbridge, California The only ghost town in the San Francisco Bay is an island that once operated two railroad bridges. . Located on Station Island in the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, the town of Drawbridge originally had one home for the operator of the island's two bridges allowing the Southern Pacific Coast narrow-gauge railroad to cross the slough between San Jose and Newark (now the city of Fremont). In the 1880's, Drawbridge grew from a town of one building to 90 buildings at its peak in the late 1920's, though the town itself had no roads, but rather the railroad bed served as 'Main Str ...
Nighttime at Mormon Island California's drought conditions have caused the water level of Folsom Lake to fall, revealing the ruins of a mining town buried beneath its waters 60 years ago. In 1955, following the completion of the Folsom Dam project - a dam built at the confluence of the North and South forks of the American River about 25 miles northeast of Sacramento, California - the rising waters of Folsom Lake consumed and made hidden the remnants of the town of Mormon Island. The town would lay buried beneath the waters for nearly 60 years. Founded by a party of deer hunters from Sutter's Fort (which would later become the ...
The Wreck of the Jamie K A 52-foot fishing vessel lays amongst the rocks in Cape Blanco, Oregon. At 1:40 am on the morning of July 21st, 2015, the Coast Guard received a mayday call from the fishing vessel, Jamie K. The boat, carrying 10,000 pounds of shrimp, had lost navigation and power after hitting rocks during an attempt to navigate a rocky area called "Little Hole" while trying to reach a good fishing area. After beginning to take on water, strong winds pushed the boat into the rocks at Cape Blanco. After hitting the rocks, the four-person crew put on their survival suits and climbed into their life raft. A Coast Guard ...
The Future Ghost of Hinkley, California after contaminating the town's drinking water, PG&E begins buying out the residents, resulting in a town of abandoned and demolished buildings. Hinkley, California, an incorporated community located about 14 miles northwest of the city of Barstow, was a quiet desert town boasting a few businesses, including a grocery store and gas station, and had one school serving the population. Today, however, Hinkley is a ghost town in-the-making, as many of its residents have left, and the population continues to shrink as the few remaining businesses close. This shift is due to the contamination of ...
Astoria, Oregon's Goonie Trails a disconnected network of footpaths traversing Astoria's forested hillside that are as fluid as the city's evolving cartography. Astoria, a relatively small city of 10,000 people, is the northernmost town on the Oregon Coast. Being the rainiest urban environment in the United States (and second most in the US only to the Hoh Rainforest on Washington's Olympic Peninsula in total rainfall) and built upon a hill surrounded by rivers on three sides, Astoria has both fluidity and tragedy in its very fabric. Having at one time lived in the town for 6 years, I was always fascinated by just how ...
Donner Summit Railroad Tunnels abandoned tunnels from the first transcontinental railroad route through the Sierras. Just below Donner Peak in the northern Sierra Nevada mountain range in California lie the remains of the tunnels and snowsheds constructed for the first transcontinental railroad route. In the 1860's, the Central Pacific Railroad, in a race against Union Pacific, sought to complete the first transcontinental line. The heavy snows of the High Sierras required the construction of several miles of tunnels and snowsheds along the mountain pass, constructing 15 tunnels in all. (The difference betwee ...
St. Thomas, Nevada a ghost town re-emerging from beneath the waters of Lake Mead. "There are two easy ways to die in the desert: Thirst and drowning." - Craig Childs What's left of town of St. Thomas once sat hidden at the bottom of Lake Mead, though many foundations of this former town have recently been uncovered due to the declining waters of the lake. In 1865 - five years into the American Civil War and with minimal cotton production from the southern US - Brigham Young sent a group of families south from the heart of Utah Territory to the Moapa Valley, a valley in the arid Mojave Desert near the con ...
Cottontail Ranch an abandoned brothel in Nevada In Winter of 1967, Melvin Dummar, a 23 year old magnesium plant worker from Gabbs, Nevada, was driving through the Nevada desert one night when he pulled off the highway and onto an empty dirt road about seven miles south of the Cottontail Ranch for a quick bathroom stop. It was here that Dummar saw a man lying down, beaten and bruised, in the dirt road. He would ultimately give him a ride to Las Vegas where the man asked to be dropped off, leaving the dazed stranger with a little bit of money at the back of the Sands Hotel, before continuing on toward his destination i ...
Janie's Ranch Located on Nevada's Highway 6 between Tonopah, Nevada and Bishop California, Janie's Ranch was a brothel constructed of multiple trailers parked side by side with connecting rooms and hallways. The ranch was built on land occupied by a former railroad stop, located near a cluster of fresh water springs piped down to fuel the steam locomotives. During the ranch's existence, that water was used to feed the lush foliage surrounding the property, as well as a pond that sat behind the owner's house. Former owner, Betty, wanted to house the women in separate rooms than those they entertained in, reserving on ...
Haiku Stairs Atop Puu Keahiakahoe summit in the Koolau mountain range on Hawaii's island of Oahu are the remains of a microwave satellite relay station that at one time served in being able to transmit signals from Hawaii to submarines as far away as the depths of Tokyo Harbor. Ha'iku, the Hawaiian word for Kahili flower, is the namesake for the Haiku Valley, chosen for the microwave transmitter project due to its elevation (2,850') on steep cliffs whose valley bowls were ideal for long-distance transmissions to ships and submarines used in WWII near the waters of Australia and the Indian Ocean. To first construct t ...
Bayshore Roundhouse I've always felt that geographies and places have the ability to carry their own set of circumstantial forces and events that make up its past and current state of being, and, like with other people, that those elements can help shape the intersection between a place and a person, and if you approach these encounters without expectation, they can fall naturally and take on the direction that most benefits those involved. This is amongst the reasons I've always felt drawn to the places that others have determined lack value or use. But if approached, it's visiting these damaged and abandoned locales ...
single family cabin with Little Rabbit Lift in the background Iron Mountain Ski Resort Operating in the Kit Carson Pass area of California, about 13 miles west of Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Iron Mountain Ski Resort (previously called Ski Sundown and Silver Basin Ski Resort) went through a series of owners and attempts at redevelopment before finally being left to the elements. Last operated in 1995, Iron Mountain ran as a "reverse" ski lift, where lifts would bring riders from the bottom of the slopes to the lodge and main buildings and parking areas at the mountain's top. No power lines run over the pass, so, like Kirkwood ...
Sunny Acres Detention Facility Originally opened as the Children's Home at Sunny Acres for orphaned children in 1931, Sunny Acres, sitting on a hillside above a central California valley, came into existence with the optimistic goal a community helping those less fortunate during the Great Depression. Serving as a home for orphans and wards of the court, over time reality had a way of eroding the optimism, until in its later years it became Sunny Acres Juvenile Hall, and eventually was given the nickname Hell's Acres. Staffed by a matron and a maid, records noted cause for admittance included misbehavior and trouble in school, the ...
Southern Nevada Zoological and Botanical Park The Southern Nevada Zoological and Botanical Park, often called the Las Vegas Zoo, was located on three acres in a mixed residential and commercial area of Las Vegas and held over 150 species of animals. In 2013, relations between the park's trained zookeeping staff and park owners Pat and Muffy Dingle reached a tipping point. After years of customer complaints and USDA violations citing poor vet care, lack of shade protection from the Las Vegas sun, poor pen conditions, improper food, and general disrepair of the center, zookeepers who had remained working to provide what care they cou ...