2003 02 Nevada

Today turned out to be mostly a travel day.  I was in Ely this morning, and am in Truckee tonight.  I thought I would stay in Fallon tonight and tomorrow night, but the weather over most of central Nevada was not good.  Snowy, very cloudy, and generally not very good for photography.  In fact by the time I got to Fallon it was quite bad.  Very windy, snowing hard, and cold.  Since the places I want to go in western Nevada are within a day trip of Truckee anyway I just came back.  If there are a couple of good weather days between now and Sunday I will go out, if not I won't.. I think there will be.

So I headed west on 50, but did not get very far.  Just outside Ely, near that huge Robinson copper mine, is the "town" of Lane City.  Another ghost town, but this is right on 50 and within view of some of the slag heaps at Robinson.  The usual assortment of falling down stone and miscellaneous structures, blown apart cars in the sage, and other junk.  Since this is close to Ely there has been some obvious vandalism. It's a nice place to come out and drink beer and set things on fire.  Here are a few snaps.

This looks like it is one of the older structures here, and also one of the better built.  Stone and brick, nicely put together.

The above is a residence.. someone's house.  Dirt roof that has fallen in.

Hard to tell what the above is/was.  It is now full of junk, mostly car parts and a couple of rusted solid engine blocks.

The above the interior of a residence.  About 12x12.  This one was partially built into the hillside.  I guess that would keep the temperatures more moderate inside.  Stays cooler in the summer and not so hard to heat in the winter.

The above is a shot of the interior of a structure that had been a residence. A house.  About 12x12.  The use of discarded metal signs as building material is common, as is the use of cardboard as wall covering.

The abobe looks like the remains of what must have been either a row of apartments or some sort of commercial structure.  Perhaps a rooming house.  It was a row of rooms each with a front door.  The stone front wall had collapsed but you can see the door frames lying in a neat row looking like planting beds.  (You can't see them in the photo..)

 

This last is a fairly recent looking house, probably built in the 40s or 50s.  Looks like the owner decided he needed a basement after he build the place.  Or after he moved it to the site.  Or something.  

After this I just took off again.  I tried to go off 50 to see a couple of mine sites, but in both cases the gravel/dirt roads were muddy and slippery.  I did not want to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere so I decided to come back another trip.

I did wind up taking a lot of panoramic shots of approaching snow.  The weather got progressively worse as I headed west.  Here are a couple snaps that are a good indicator.

Once in this it was snowing hard.

Here a couple shots that I just thought were interesting.  You do the counting..  I couldn't.

(I am finishing this Thursday morning, 2-20.)  Looks like it is quite sunny out in Nevada so I am headed out for the day.