Category: Desert

Lonely Remnants

Posted on Posted in California, DesertTagged ,

Quiet memorials on lonely highways

Handprints left in cement outside the abandoned school in Amboy, CA.
Hand prints left in cement outside the abandoned school in Amboy, CA.

I suppose this set is a sequel of sorts to In Between, which might just turn into a long-running project given that I’ve accepted a temporary job in the Idaho desert this summer. This set of images of abandoned structures, grit, and graffiti mostly comes from my drive on a section of old Route 66 from Barstow, CA to Kingman, AZ during a week in February 2019. I’ve also included a few images from Bakersfield and Desert Center that felt like necessary additions.

These old windy highways that have been bisected and chopped up by busy interstates feel like a testament to the explosion of population in the West: tombstones whose pitted asphalt hearkens back to an earlier time and pace. This post isn’t meant to instill or celebrate nostalgia, however; change is a constant. These old remnants of the highway system are an extension of manifest destiny which has simply just changed names and gained new lanes since.

Abandoned house on CA highway 46.
Highway 46, CA.
Burned down building and cross outside Bakersfield.
Outside Bakersfield, CA.
Rusty building outside Daggett, CA.
66. Daggett, CA.
A shopping cart and an abandoned building form two memorials along 66 between Daggett and Ludlow.
Two memorials. 66 between Daggett and Ludlow.
Run-down house in Ludlow, CA.
66. Ludlow, CA.
Crow and trashbin on the outskirts of a truckstop. Ludlow, CA.
Truckstop where I40 meets 66. Ludlow, CA.
A church, old sign, and brick in Amboy, CA.
66. Amboy, CA.
"Smile there's hope" graffiti in an old trailer outside Daggett, CA.
66. Outside Daggett, CA.
Abandoned restaurant in Desert Center, CA.
Highway 177. Desert Center, CA.

In Between

Posted on Posted in Alaska, California, Desert4 Comments

2014 – 2018

An interstate cuts off an old two-lane highway town’s lifeblood. Thirsty desert farms siphon water from a river demoting a once rich lake into a salty puddle. An accidental lake that once brought water skiers withers into the baked playa. The relics of lonely highway motels that never got enough business. A shuttered movie theatre in a dying town that once thrived around building bombs. And the survivors of a world they didn’t quite fit into make a stand on the foundations of a long-gone military base.

I started getting interested in these rusty in-between places during my travels and work in Eastern California in 2013. I started making the in-between places my destinations. In my travels, I didn’t always take photos, and as I look back on them, I realize that many of the images I did make didn’t do the places justice. As I sort through these in 2019, I realize that I’ve grown a lot over the years. And I realize that I’m still in-between, perhaps perpetually. But maybe that doesn’t matter. Is it about the destination, really? What is in-between and what’s not?