Projects - Ghost Town (2014-2016)

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Alta
Alta-Salt Lake County, Utah - by Gretchen Reynolds
Two puppets, sewing and reading the newspaper, discuss what they know about Alta.
Amache
Amache-Prowers County, Colorado by Lily Havey
...This is all that is left of one of the mess halls. In my book, "Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp: A Nisei Youth Behind a World War II Fence," there is a photograph by Jack Muro of a mess hall decorated for Christmas..
Bingham Canyon
Bingham Canyon-Salt Lake County, Utah - by Elizabeth Miklavcic
This project depicts, through a series of abstract digital paintings, the extraction and melting of ore from the mine that buried Bingham Canyon.
Bullion Canyon
Bullion Canyon-Sevier County, Utah - by Barbara Chamberlain
Jacob Davidson increased his speed on the highway into Bullion canyon, Utah. This promised to be a great day trip into one of the historic gold mining areas of Utah...
Callao
Callao-Juab County, Utah - by Sheri Sturdevant
After visiting this area, I was impressed with the areas many historic homes, wildlife and scenery. I would like to preserve Callao's beautiful scenery through the visual arts.
Capitol Reef
Capitol Reef-Wayne County, Utah - by Elizabeth Miklavcic
A 1984 hike in Capitol Reef National Park sparks reflection about looking at the ghosts of our past selves.
Cisco
Cisco-Grand County, Utah - by Callous Physical Theatre - Joséphine Garibaldi, Paul Zmolek, Julie Leir-VanSickle and Bridget Close
Cisco, while technically a Ghost Town still has a few residents whose posted No Trespassing signs warn off curious tourists and annoying artists...
Clarion
Clarion-San Pete County, Utah - by Marden Pond and Brent Haddock
As many Jews immigrated from Europe in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, fleeing the persecution and pogroms, a significant number of émigrés settled in the urban areas of New York and Philadelphia. However, the times were difficult, and many of the Jewish residents of these cities felt that their children were being "urbanized," losing their important Jewish heritage and suffering from the ill-effects of sweatshops, slums, and crowded cities...
Corinne
Corinne-Box Elder County, Utah - by Sheryl Gillilan
I created my Corinne wall quilt in the folk art style to conjure an older, more "naive" time — though the irony inherent in this choice is that no respectable quilt maker in the 1800's would have made a quilt for anything but a bed...
Deer Creek
Deer Creek-Utah County, Utah - by Jimmy Miklavcic
...I’m not talking about the Deer Creek area up Provo Canyon. The phantom I’m referring to lived an extremely ephemeral life. It began in 1872 and grew to the ripe old age of 6 in 1878 when the railroad that gave it sustenance, closed down. That wasn’t enough time to even begin to create memories, let alone try and jumpstart the next generation...
Devil's Slide
Devil's Slide-Morgan County, Utah - by Peon Clover
In 1904 a mountain of limestone was discovered by Aman Moore. Several prominent area men recognized the value of limestone in the production of Portland Cement (an ingredient used in the making of concrete). They formed a corporation named The Union Portland Cement Company for the purpose of quarrying the limestone. A town quickly grew with the success of the cement plant. At one time the population of the tiny village exceeded 250 people...
Echo
Echo-Summit County, Utah - by Sarah Morton
I have produced a series of pen and ink drawings that represent what the town was and what it's become.
Eureka
Eureka-Utah County, Utah - by Alexis Levitt
As Felix (my boyfriend) and I pulled into a gravel parking lot on Main Street of Eureka, I felt a sense of relief, which could have been attributed to the fact that our car had made the journey despite some questionable moments along the way. But it was more than that; I felt alive...
Fish Springs
Fish Springs-Juab County, Utah - by Sheri Sturdevant
I have explored this Wildlife Refuge and will draw and paint the area. I will visually share the wildlife and scenery in this relatively wild land.
Forest City
Forest City-Utah County, Utah - by Jimmy Miklavcic
We never got to actually see Forest City, or what little there is of it. It wasn’t for the lack of trying...I think now, having been unwilling to continue up the road, about those wagons, made of wood and carrying large loads of ore. They survived the journey several times. How many times did the mules traverse this path?
Georgetown
Georgetown-Garfield County, Utah - by Brian Thayne
One cannot go to this place without being awestruck, by the grandeur of the place, near 2 National Parks, Bryce and Capitol Reef and at the entrance of the Grand Staircase National Monument, but also awestruck by what the people that lived here must have been made of...
Gold Hill
Gold Hill-Tooele County, Utah - by Patti Thomas
I will create some carpenter pencil drawings and oil paintings of this old ghost town and it's wonderful tale of existence.
Goshen
Goshen-Utah County, Utah - by Elizabeth Miklavcic
When we were driving west on the way to Delta, we did not notice this facility, but on the way back to Salt Lake City, we were awestruck by this incredible, massive, structure cut into the mountain, that looked like Anasazi ruins. We had to stop!
Grafton
Grafton-Washington County, Utah - by Phillip Bimstein-Red Rock Rondo
In 1866, just a few short years after Marvelous Flood Tenney was born, two girls (Loretta Russell and Elizabeth Woodbury) died on a swing in a tragic accident in Grafton, Utah (a remote town once used as a hideaway by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), when the log that held up their swing fell on them. The two long-haired girls were buried together in long white dresses...
Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake-Salt Lake County, Utah - by Elizabeth Miklavcic
...We decided to take the North Temple frontage road next to Interstate 80 (also called the Lincoln Highway), when we saw this graffiti covered railway car and cinderblock building. We pulled over to check it out and to film the interesting abandoned structures on the shore of the Great Salt Lake...
Gunnison Island
Gunnison Island-Box Elder County, Utah - by Dr. Marden Pond
...Dr. Pond was introduced to the writings and artwork of Alfred Lambourne by a fellow musician and relative of Alfred Lambourne, Bruce Fowler. Lambourne’s book, Our Inland Sea, provided a creative springboard for Pond, who composed a musical suite and audio album (on the Music Enterprises label) based on Lambourne’s colorful descriptions in his Great Salt Lake memoirs...
Joy
Joy-Juab County, Utah - by Barry Carver
Racing out the dusty road
Or arcing 'cross my sky
You don't slow up, or look down, or in
Or hear my long, slow sigh,
But I've seen you...
Lucin
Lucin-Box Elder County, Utah - by Elizabeth Miklavcic
When the railroads were first moving across the country, they needed water for their steam engines. The Lucin ponds were developed in the 1800's for this purpose. The water to fill the ponds comes through a pipeline from the Pilot Mountain range, southwest from this location. Since the development of the Lucin cut-off, Lucin has been a homesite for many people and in recent times, a small community of retired people lived here...
Mammoth
Mammoth-Juab County, Utah - by Sarah Morton
I have produced a series of pen and ink drawings that represent what the town was and what it's become.
Mercur
Mercur-Tooele County, Utah - by Babs Delay and Bella Hall
Just south of Tooele, then Stockton, watch for the one sign that points east to Mercur and turn right. There is a stunning view west to the Rush Valley from the parking lot at the bottom of the hill in Mercur...
Miners Basin
Miners Basin-Grand County, Utah - by Callous Physical Theatre - Joséphine Garibaldi, Paul Zmolek, Julie Leir-VanSickle and Bridget Close
Though it was late Spring after a very mild and dry winter the road to the trailhead to Miners Basin was impassable by vehicle due to snow. We hiked up the hillside but were turned back by several avalanches of melting snow along the steep ravine above the trail...
Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant-Sandpete County, Utah - by Haun's Mill - Eliza Wren and Nord Anderson
...Jackson is the lead character who in an act of rage, murders his cheating lover, April, and her man. He then goes on the run, creates a disguise and moves across the country dodging the police, all the while being tormented by what he has done and the place where it happened. The police eventually track him down, shoot him, and his last thoughts are about how peaceful the town was before this giant mistake he made...
Ophir
Ophir-Tooele County, Utah - by Alyssa Kay and Students from Sego Lily School
I took a group of students from Sego Lily School to the Ophir Historic District. Each of them explored the site through the medium of their choice. I photographically documented their explorations.
Osiris
Osiris-Garfield County, Utah - by Brian Thayne
Osiris is located 13 miles north of the ghost town of "Widtsoe" which is north of Bryce Canyon about 25 miles on the road to Antimony, however I will say it seems a lot farther than 13 miles from Widtsoe...
Park City
Park City-Summit County, Utah - by Dave Hogan
A short documentary, mixed with historical photos, that explores the elements of Park City's past that are visibly mixed in with the present day shops, restaurants, and homes.
Rockwell's Station
Rockwell's Station-Salt Lake County, Utah by Elizabeth and Jimmy Miklavcic
...The Pony Express and Overland Mail Service operated for 18 months, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861 before the Telegraph was established. The westbound pony rider proceeded south along today’s State Street to this station, which was located just south of the Utah State Prison. The stop was [Orrin] Porter Rockwell’s Hot Springs Brewery Hotel. The hotel and brewery made this a popular staying over point for Pony Express riders and for people traveling on the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company stagecoach prominent from 1858-1868...
Salt Lake City Cemetery
Salt Lake City Cemetery-Salt Lake County, Utah - by Elizabeth and Jimmy Miklavcic
I don't need to think about you. Really, I don't. My mind gets so cluttered up with thoughts.That just being able to let you in for a brief moment with nothing except acceptance gives me chills and lets my eyes see...
Sego
Sego-Grand County, Utah - by Callous Physical Theatre - Joséphine Garibaldi, Paul Zmolek, Julie Leir-VanSickle and Bridget Close
The road to Sego goes past the many abandoned buildings in Thompson Springs, an old graveyard and ancient petroglyphs. The abandoned coal mines, wreckage of a wooden school and the impressive company store provided much inspiration...
Silver Reef
Silver Reef-Washington County, Utah - by Karen Knudsen
I have visited Utah ghost towns since I was able to drive and was moved to write a poem about ghost towns...
Spring Canyon
Spring Canyon-Carbon County, Utah - by Jennifer Gray
The town of Spring Canyon is on a road with the unglamorous name of Sowbelly Gulch. There are numerous ghost towns up the beautiful winding canyons in Carbon County, Utah; many of these towns can be accessed by car, though it is much easier with a 4-wheel drive vehicle and a good pair of hiking shoes...
Standardville
Standardville-Carbon County, Utah - by Kevin Gray
Spring Canyon winds deep into the surrounding mountains to the west of Helper, Utah. Along this canyon lie the scattered remains of several ghost towns, and the abandoned coal mines they were established to serve. For almost a hundred years, from the late 1800s until the 1950s, coal was king here, because it was vital to the railroads to fuel their steam engines...
Terrace
Terrace-Box Elder County, Utah - by Roz Newmark
During our spring break this year, my sweetie and I headed south out of Salt Lake City in search of an interesting site for the Ghost Town Project...Finally, we stopped at the last ghost town on our list, Terrace, Utah. Prowling the grounds there, we found hundreds of pieces of colored glass, rusted metal, bricks and railroad ties. A cryptic hint of a once active community. Almost immediately I felt this was the site for my project...
Thistle
Thistle-Wasatch County, Utah - by Dave Hogan
Thistle is permeated with a peculiar sadness. Most ghost towns are abandoned suddenly when the mine stops producing or the wells run dry over the span of a few years...maybe a decade. In 1983, Thistle's demise came suddenly in the form of a massive landslide that dammed the Spanish Fork River just south of town...
Topaz
Topaz-Millard County, Utah - by Elizabeth Miklavcic
The mile-square camp begins at the corner of 10000 West and 4500 North, with a monument located at 10750 West and 4500 North...The barracks were not insulated in any way and the outside of the building was covered in tar paper, offering little protection from the bitterly cold Utah winters...
US
US-Salt Lake County, Utah - by Jan Abramson and Victoria Mansell
The mining town of US was once to the south of Salt Lake City; today, the mine has been subsumed by the Rio Tinto/Kennecott Utah copper mine. Tori Mansell has created a CAD drawing of what a town might look like rising from the roots of US, now all gone. Jan Abramson conducted research to see if there are any public domain photos of US, as well as, contributing the project description.
Widtsoe Junction
Widtsoe Junction-Garfield County, Utah - by Paul Heath
...It was late December and the temperature was cold, but the evening light was warm and inviting. Our eyes were attracted to an abandoned stucco home. The eerie thing about the home, is the interior walls were all exposed lathe, with very little plaster. It had arched doorways and room dividers, giving the home a mission style feel, which you can imagine was quite beautiful in its heyday...