Chloride Arizona Ghost Town - Back Streets

In my last post, I was ranting against some of the "cheesy" things that are presented in some ghost towns. In truth, the places that hold staged "gun fights" are really not quite ghost towns yet. There are people still living and working in these places. I also said that my next article would be related to what I love about them. If you get off the main street, you will see that they are very much alive. Alive, with history, interesting people that are only found in the desert, and an amazing mix of creativity and art.  Chloride is one of these towns.

The Back Streets of Chloride Arizona

Bowling balls

Industrial whimsy

Scales?

Not necessarily historical, but I love the old RV. 

Cowboy boots as yard art

Many of the homes on these streets have some kind of display, either along the road, or in their yard

At first glance, it may just look like a bunch of rocks and junk. Upon closer examination, there are some really cool items and displays in there. A cross between folk and yard art.

This house has some bottle trees. Some bottles were old and some were a bit newer. 

Certainly not art, but pretty odd that these two boats were just sitting there. This is pure high desert and there is no place in the area to use them.

Stuff...

Motorcycle parts

More stuff

New house and sculpture

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Some folks might not like this stuff at all. To me, it is quirky, whimsical, and very creative. There is a lot more, but I wanted to keep this post reasonably short.


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Chloride AZ Ghost Town

Chloride used to be a silver mining camp in the state of Arizona. It is said to be the oldest continuously inhabited mining town in the state. Valuable minerals were first discovered here in the early 1840's. The town was founded in 1863, but mining did not really take off until they found a way to cheat the local Hualapai Indians out of their land. The town then prospered and became the county seat. By the mid 1940's it was considered a ghost town (or close to it). Today, there are still a couple hundred people living in the area. 

Allegedly, some of these buildings date back to the early days of Chloride and some were moved here from somewhere else. To me, it looks like most were built on this site from old wood. 
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Allow me to rant for a bit...
Don't get me wrong now, I love history and I certainly love ghost towns. However, I'm not terribly fond of mining camps and/or ghost towns that are created, or allowed to exist primarily for tourists. An example: This little western "cul-de-sac" is not here for historical significance, it's here for theater. During the tourist season, mock gun fights are staged every Saturday at noon. That is so darn cheesy! Most of the folks who are interested in this, don't even see the back streets of the town. Many of the buildings on the actual main street of town, although newer, are much more historical and real, than this "contrived" history side show. The best parts of Chloride are either outside of town, or on the back streets. 

 Can you imagine two gunslingers pacing towards each other ready to shoot it out? Yuck!

Below are two photos from the early 1900's (thanks to Wikipedia)

 Some of those same buildings today

 Another (there are plenty more)

The next few don't really have any historical significance, but the scenes really appealed to me and I snapped them.

The next post will be about the part of Chloride that I loved...


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Oatman Arizona - Ghost Town Back Streets

Although I haven't posted anything relating to ghost towns lately, this seems like a good time to do so. 

We're out in the desert again and I have a camera full of photos, but we've been very busy exploring and I just haven't had the time. Speaking of which, I apologize for not getting to your blogs (those of you who have them) in the last week or so, but I promise that I will soon. Umkay? Now back to ghost towns.

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Don't get me wrong, I love ghost towns. However, many ghost towns still have some people living in them. Usually, just out of town, or on the back streets where visitors seldom go. We always look behind the scenes. I love looking at the old stuff and it amazes me that it is just left there. I almost always sense despair and ruin there. Some of it current and some of it very old. The "ghost town" that people see, is much different than the back streets they don't see. It is very cheap to live there and many people do so for that reason (and some others).  The back streets are almost always run down and I rarely ever see anything hopeful or positive in there. Some of you probably remember the earlier post I did on Oatman (follow the link if you like). It was all main street, visitors and wild donkeys roaming around everywhere. 

I won't do much of a narrative because I'm sure the photos will say it all. 

 Only because it's pretty!

 Park in a "no parking" zone and get your windows shot out!

 I'd love to have this safe!

The closest town to Oatman is Needles, California. I'm almost afraid to say that. The email and non-publishable comments I still get from there is amazing. Well, it would be amazing if it wasn't so pathetic.

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Knapp's Castle

Located not far from of the subject of my last post (Chumash Painted Cave), is another one of those places that few have heard of and even fewer have actually seen. Just about 100 years ago a very wealthy industrialist named George Owen Knapp decided to build himself a little mountain retreat (on about 160 mountain top acres).  He already owned one home in the nearby town of Montecito (on a measly 100 acres). Montecito is a perennial member of the most wealthy towns (per capita) in the United States. I guess that is no surprise, because Mr. Knapp was one of the founders of Union Carbide Company. If you haven't heard of that company, you are probably very young. Over the years, I believe it has morphed into Dow Chemical Company. Don't hold that against him though, because he was a philanthropist of the first order.

Craftsmen and building materials were imported from Europe to complete Mr. Knapp's castle. Apparently, the "retreat" consisted of five bedrooms, observatory, studios, cottages, servant quarters, and a superintendent's house. Running water was provided by nearby waterfalls.  (photo credit: Unknown. In addition to seeing it many times on the Internet, it is also at GeorgeOwenKnapp.com) 

This is what it looked like when we were there a few months ago. I'd heard that there was security on site and the property had been purchased and the ruins were going to be demolished. Is that possible? I'd also heard the county of Santa Barbara refused to issue the required permits. We had no inkling of what we would find once we got there.  I apologize in advance for the inconsistency of the photos. The sky was huge, bright and harsh. 

If you look at the two buildings to the far left of the fist photo. You will see that this stonework is all that is left of them. The whole place was destroyed in a wild fire in 1940. The Knapp family sold it to a ultra-famous German soprano Lotte Lehamm 46 days before the fire. 

There was a guy working on the property while we were there, but he didn't give us a second look. If you look at the stone work, you can see that he has been doing some repairs to the original work. It didn't look like anything was being torn down.

For those who know a little about the area, the water in the background is Lake Cachuma. The famous town of Solvang is about 12 miles beyond the lake. Solvang is a Danish community established in 1911. It is a great place to visit. For me, that means visit no more than once every 5-10 years. I say that because it never changes.  I'll shut up now and let you look at the photos.

I told her not to drive the Jeep so hard! She didn't listen!

Seriously, I have no idea why, but this jeep was sitting on the property.

This is the dirt road leading to the place. Although it is locked, there is clearly not a "no trespassing" sign to be seen. Besides, we could squeeze by the tall pole on the right.

After about 10 minutes we came to another locked gate. But read the sign! "Right To Pass Revocable By Owner."  There was another sign at the ruins that said:  "This is Private Property and Under 24-Hour Video Surveillance." It also said that they would give a reward to anyone who reported acts of vandalism.  In other words, "look around, but don't screw anything up! I have no idea who owns this place, but I love them!

George Owen Knapp

Thanks for using so much stonework George!

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In Addition:

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A Storm gathers across the galaxy...

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After enemy ships attack the desert planet, Byron discovers another battle within his own family.  the declaration of war between all ten races triggers nightmares in his son, threatening to destroy the boy's mind.

Meanwhile the ancient alien ship is transmitting a code that might signal the end of all life in the galaxy. And the mysterious probe that almost destroyed Tgren twenty years ago could return.  As his world beings to crumble, Byron suspects a connection. The storm is about to break, and Byron is caught in the middle...

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CassaStorm by Alex J. Cavanaugh

Science Fiction - Space Opera/Adventure

Print ISBN 9781939844002

E-book ISBN 9781939844019

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You can find CassaStorm and the other books in this series at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Amazon Kindle and Goodreads.

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Also available:

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