Posts Tagged ‘abandoned’

I just returned from a short but satisfying trip through the San Luis Valley of Colorado and a small chunk of northern New Mexico between Taos and Chama. I was out to snap a few photos of the past- The faces of the forgotten and forlorn buildings of the region- A region still very much alive, but where the past coexists side-by-side with the present.

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

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Garcia, Colorado

There is a unique energy in this part of the world. I can not describe it, but things just look and feel “different” in some way as you travel down the lonely stretches of blacktop that run the length of the San Luis Valley and North-Central New Mexico. There is something about this area and it’s vast openness and sweeping views, the surreal aspect of the Great Sand Dunes butting up against the jagged snow-capped peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the Taos plateau and the great defile of the Rio Grande Gorge that rips through the middle of it- This is an area of intense natural beauty and quiet, peaceful, solitude. Some even say this is an area of supernatural or otherworldly energy- Cattle mutilations, UFO sightings, and the “Taos Hum” which reportedly only about 10% of people can hear, are evidence of this theory.

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

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Hooper, Colorado

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Along a back road in northern New Mexico

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Mosca, Colorado

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Moffatt, Colorado

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

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Colorado Ghost Travels- The Gold Belt Region Guide Book by Jeff Eberle Only $20!

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Penitente Morada, Abiquiu, New Mexico

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Tres Piedras, New Mexico

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Garcia, Colorado

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Moffatt, Colorado

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18th Century Spanish Colonial Church, New Mexico

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

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Moffatt, Colorado

2016 Ghosts of Colorado Calendar by Jeff Eberle only $14.99!

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Garcia, Colorado

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

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Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

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Hooper, Colorado

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Costilla, New Mexico

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Moffatt, Colorado

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Abandoned Church, New Mexico

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

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New Mexico

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Costilla, New Mexico

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

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Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico

Just southwest of Leadville, Colorado, shortly after you drive through  the dingy black slag piles and the tumbledown buildings of Stringtown (Leadville’s smelter community during the mining days) a sharp eye will notice a beautiful red and white schoolhouse standing forlorn on the side of the highway.

This is the last remnant of Malta, Colorado, a once important town in the silver boom years in the region. The schoolhouse was built in 1902, and has stood the test of time. The rest of the town and it’s residents are long gone, but the old schoolhouse still remains to mark the spot of Malta.

Schoolhouse at Malta

Schoolhouse at Malta

Visit my bookstore for more photos of the ghost towns, mining camps, and graveyards of the west

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