Round house: Boreas Pass Railroad Day

IR image of the railroad round house, used to repair and turn around locomotives, Como Colorado. 

Riding the hand cart at Boreas Pass Railroad Day

An IR image taken at the Boreas Pass Railroad day, in Como Colorado. Como is a ghost town, but recent efforts have stabilized and restored a number of the historic buildings. On  Boreas Pass Railroad Day all of the buildings are open to the public. 

Garnet Ghost Town: Ole's Tavern

Ole's Tavern now doubles as the visitor center. 

General Store and post office

Combustion Chamber

An old combustion chamber for a boiler.

Fallen down shack

This corner of the site consists of this shack, and a number objects scattered around it, such as the shovel and spring.

Garnet Door Detail

Found Objects

One of the exciting things about the ghost town at Garnet, is its high state of preservation. I'm used to ghost towns here in Colorado being used for target practice. This site is in beautiful shape and is filled with interesting objects.

Garnet Ghost Town: Miners Cabin

In the 1800s miners migrated north from played-out placer mines in California and Colorado. Placer mining of gold or other minerals is done by washing the sand, gravel, etc. with running water, but by 1870 most area placer mining was no longer profitable. The Garnet Mountains attracted miners who collected the gold first by panning, then by using rockers and sluice boxes as the free-floating gold diminished. Although miners had located gold-bearing quartz veins, the lack of decent roads and refined extracting and smelting techniques, made further development unfeasible at that time. Silver mines elsewhere started to draw the miners out of the Garnet Mountains, but in 1893, the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act set off a panic throughout the region. Silver mines closed, and within weeks thousands of unemployed miners were on to gold mining in the Garnets. Miners began to trickle back.

Garnet Ghost Town: Kelly's Saloon

"Garnet was named for the semi-precious ruby-colored stone found in the area and it was a good place to live. The surrounding mountains were rich in gold-bearing quartz. There was a school, the crime rate was low, and liquor flowed freely in the town’s many saloons. The bawdy houses did a brisk business and Missoula and Deer Lodge were close enough for necessary supplies."

Garnet Ghost Town

This is the first of a roll of images made at the Garnet Ghost Town near Missoula Montana. I liked the form of the chain hanging on the side of the log cabin.

Holland Lake reflection

Another shot at the northland of Holland Lake. Taken at late morning. 

Montana wild flower

Holland Lake IR

Morning at North end of Holland Lake

Door

One of the many old doors in Virginia City Montana.

Virginia City Adobe detail in IR

Detail image of the front door of  adobe meeting house in Virginia City Montana. Digital IR image. 

Virginia City Montana Adobe

An old adobe meeting house in Virginia City Montana. Photographed in early morning light. It was hard to get this structure without cars parked in front of it.

Photographer’s Formulary Barn

The Photographer’s Formulary in Montana has this great barn. I had intended to make a few shots, but time and the light got away from me and only make this one. Its dusk and the light is fading.

From Loveland Pass

IR image of the view south west from Loveland Pass with Arapahoe Basin Ski basin in the distance.

Como Storm

Como Round house

IR image of round house and tracks from Como Colorado.