truck inn
Posted by: Matt McCormick
click image to see it bigger
the unstoppable red baron
Posted by: Matt McCormick
as 'relaxing' as ghost town hunting sounds, it really can be stressful. for one thing, most ghost towns aren't really ghost towns, but 98% ghost town and 2% home for eccentrics, outlaws, meth heads, and crazy old men who want to know why you are snooping around taking pictures. the other reason, as exemplified in the above video, is that a lot of ghost towns are at the end of what are essentially ghost roads, and while my trusty war pony mini van has proven it's tenacious unstoppableness time and time again, i still get worried that some day i am going to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere. i mean, in the video above, we are about 20 miles from the nearest town and on a road so skinny that we really couldn't have turned around even if we wanted to. we were on bodie road right at the california / nevada boarder in search of an abandoned town called aurora. one hundred years ago there used to be the giant del monte mill right at the site where the road is washed out, but today there isn't much left.
all of these ghost town roads are pretty much the same- they ever so slowly get worse, luring you further and further away from civilization, tempting you to go a little bit deeper until you get to the point where turning around becomes a moral dilemma. nobody wants to give up and be the one who turned around just before the prize was obtained. yet nobody wants to get stuck out in the desert and have to hike for two days to find a tow truck driver and explain to him that you really thought your mini-van would be able to make it over the pile of boulders in the washed out road. it really is stressful. so much so that after a day of ghost town hunting you feel like you need a massage and a vacation. but as they say, the journey is the destination, and every once in a while you get lucky:
the amargosa opera house
Posted by: Matt McCormick
For years I'd been hearing about a crazy little opera house out in Death Valley. Friends at the Center for Land Use Interpretation or other nomadic road-trip-loving pals several times over told me about an eccentric old lady named Marta Beckett who started a theatre out in the desert in the 1960s and has been performing one-woman shows ever since. It definitely sounded like my sort of place, but for one reason or another I was never able to get down there. The opera shuts down in the summers due to the heat, and being that Marta is now in her late 80s I knew it was foolish to assume I could put it off for yet another season, so last week Megan and I loaded up the ol' Red Baron and headed down for the final show of the 2007-08 season.
In 1967, Marta Beckett, a dancer and performer from New York, stumbled into the rundown Amargosa Hotel while getting a flat tire fixed at a nearby service station in the tiny town of Death Valley Junction . Death Valley Junction was nearly a ghost town: it was originally built as a company town by the Pacific Coast Borax Company in 1923, only to be abandoned sometime in the mid 1930s. The town was built to house and service employees and operations at a nearby mine, but when mining operations slowed down the town was left to rot.
Exploring the town while the tire was being repaired, Marta found the shell of a building that had previously been used as a meeting and events hall. She was able to peer into the structure through a gap in the boarded up windows and could see that it had a stage and rows of benches laid out like a theatre. According to legend, that is when she decided to move in. She located the town manager, began renting the rundown hall for $45 a month, and started the long trek of creating the Amargosa Opera House.
The story of Marta Beckett and the Amargosa Opera House is a fascinating one. Combining the best traits of both an eccentric visionary and a kooky folk artist, Marta seems to have found her calling while making a legend of herself. For over 40 years she has presented one-woman shows that she wrote, made costumes for, designed, and performed on a weekly basis. In addition to rehabbing the theatre she also painted elaborate murals on the walls of a 16th century audience; both as an ode to the history of theatre but also to make the nights when the attendance was low not seem so lonely. There is great information about Marta and the Opera on their website, plus I was able to find this very cheesy yet informative video clip THAT I DID NOT MAKE from a travel program:
The final show of the season was an anticipated one. A line wrapped around the building and the 122-seat theatre was easily packed. After suffering an injury from a fall earlier this year, Marta elected to continue the season's performance schedule but changed the show to the "Sitting Down Show" in which she sat in a chair on stage and chronicled the history of the opera and the numerous show's that she has presented over the past four decades. While getting the rundown of the performances was interesting, I was much more interested in hearing her talk about her own life and motivations. Involved in theatre and dance since her early childhood, it was clear that Marta had dreams and ambitions for the big-time, but perhaps started feeling worn out by the competitive wear and tear of trying to make it on Broadway. "The most rewarding things I have done in my life are the things that nobody asked me to do," she said as she looked back. That, I thought, was a great thing to be reminded of.
We very nearly didn't make it to the opera: as we were on the road and about half way to Death Valley, Meg got a call from her pregnant sister saying that she had gone into labor (a couple weeks earlier then expected) so we turned around and headed back to Oregon. Meg's sister gave birth to a healthy baby boy a couple hours after we arrived, and once everything settled down with that Meg and I figured out that if we got in the car and drove pretty much non-stop back towards Death Valley we'd get to the opera just in time. We rushed down, arriving in Death Valley Junction less then an hour before curtains. After the performance, Marta sat in the audience to answer questions and sign autographs. We told her about our journey and Meg's new nephew and Marta seemed genuinely touched; yet another little piece to go along with a long history of magic.
mystery abandoned roadside attraction
Posted by: Matt McCormick
On Highway 97 in Oregon, about mid-way between Chemult and Klamath Falls, lies a mysterious abandoned roadside attraction that has been taken over by a truck accessories store. Hub City Chrome, an incredibly specialized store that deals in big rig bling, apparently moved into this location about ten years ago but doesn't seem to know or care much about the places history. It looks to be some sort of 1960s era "prehistoric times" campground or theme park, but is now boarded up and plastered with no trespassing signs. The very grumpy man working in the store (which i assume is either a new building or used to be the office of the campground) had no information he cared to share other then to let us know that we were not welcome, and it's clear that the business isn't interested in utilizing the mammoth life-sized Paraceratherium sculpture in front of the store, and instead is sadly letting the amazing mid-century paper-mache looking work of art rot away. It seems at the very worst they would use the Paraceratherium as a sign- paint it up and pimp it out with some chrome rims or something...
this sign said 'PORTAL TO THE PAST' before it was painted out.
over the fence you can see a couple dinosaur statues like this one, though most were too far back in the trees to really be able to make out.
If anyone has any ideas as to what this place used to be please leave a comment. I have not been able to find anything on the web. SAVE THE PARACERATHERIUM!!!
making blue better
Posted by: Matt McCormick
click the image to SEE IT BIG!
beautiful mountain lake
Posted by: Matt McCormick
click the image to see a bigger version (new feature here at urban honking!!!)
