Cemetery

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. Our first stop was Delta, Utah. There, we visited the Topaz Japanese American Internment Museum. I was very touched by the refined skills demonstrated in the paintings and shell work on display.

Gift

by Roz Newmark

It was apparent that a number of the artists were aware of, and creatively connected to, their European counterparts, such as Kathe Kollwitz. The collection was a powerful example of the tenacity certain individuals have to create beauty even while living in appalling conditions.

Home

by Roz Newmark

From Delta we meandered north exploring a number of sites, most offering only a whisper of their past inhabitants. I began to think we'd have to plan another excursion in order to find a ghost town that would provide enough inspiration for a project.

Rust

by Roz Newmark

As we continued north we visited the Sun Tunnels and the ghost town of Lucin. 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.

Desert

by Roz Newmark

In short, Terrace was established in 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad where a 16 stall roundhouse and an 8 track switchyard served as an operations base. A number of Chinese who had labored on the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad lived in Terrace.

Metal

by Roz Newmark

The general population varied from a couple hundred to several thousand depending on who was counted. The Chinese were usually excluded from the census. Some material states that there were 54 males and 1 female. However, I've also read that the population was large enough to create a small China Town...where they lived in dugouts or shanties.

Pails

by Roz Newmark

There were a few Chinese inhabitants who chose not work on the railroad but rather, tried their luck with commerce; a grocer, vegetable gardner and 2 laundry services. One account states that in 1900 a fire drove out many of the inhabitants.

Penzai

by Roz Newmark

Shortly thereafter, in 1904 when the Lucin Cutoff was built and the new route bypassed Terrace, facilities there were closed, moving the division to Montello, Nevada. The railroad through Terrace was abandoned in 1942 and many of the houses and buildings from Terrace were moved to Montello.

Railroad

by Roz Newmark

Although Terrace was not an internment camp as in Topaz, I felt very compelled to create a body of work that would pay homage to the disenfranchised ghosts of this ghost town.

Tea Pot and Cup

by Roz Newmark

Culling through several hundred photographs, taken during a second visit to the site, I've compiled a series of collaged images. Each piece is titled with Chinese characters to help reference the few physical remains of an almost silent past.