Arizona Treks

Although ghost towns are historic sites, here in the Southwest there are so many ghost towns and they take so many different forms that they deserve special treatment.  Besides, ghost towns are among my favorite places to photograph.

Most ghost towns are not managed by a government agency.  Bodie is an exception, it is part of the California State Parks.  Which may close many of the parks due to the current fiscal crisis.  Many of the towns are on public lands and can be visited freely.  This is unfortunate because that means the people who have no respect go in and destroy the place.  Some are on private property and are managed like Vulture Mine, you pay admission and can visit.  Many today have been re-settled, like Jerome.

Tip Top is an example of a town on public land, well, it is my understanding that it is actually private property but no restrictions are placed on visiting.  Which is part of the reason the buildings are almost completely gone and there is more new trash than artifacts, very little mining equipment, and a lot of willful destruction.  

Vulture mine is one of the best in Arizona because there is not the destruction, however no effort has been placed into retarding the decay and the buildings are falling down.  

Eden has newer houses surrounding the original buildings which make it difficult to shoot exteriors.

Many ghost towns are nothing more than a few foundations.  But with some research you can find places to go and perhaps find interesting things there.  If they are on public land you will find the best preserved sites are those that require long difficult tracks to get to them.

Most of the ghost towns in Arizona were mining boom towns and many have old mining equipment left behind to rust.  These old rusty machines can make very good subjects but require practice to consistently get the best possible results.  So don't give up when you come back with a camera full of mediocre  photos.  Go back, try again and eventually you will learn to shoot those old machines.

Inside buildings you can sometimes find wonderful photos.  If there are old pots, dishes, bottles, cans, furniture, cabinets, etc can be great subjects and with the decay as the background it will support the photo wonderfully.