Colorado Ghost Towns

[Ben Ruset]

So anyway, I'm spending less and less time in Jersey as my company flies me all over creation to work. Right now I'm in Denver setting up a new office out here.

I was fortunate to have this weekend free, so I decided to find some ghost towns out here. The ghosttowns.com website has been my friend - it's helped me find a ton of interesting places to explore. The problem is, they're all really far away from Denver. Today I drove about 2 hours each way to get to some towns. But it was worth it.

Since it's late and I don't feel like typing much, I'll just give links to the towns on ghosttowns.com and you can read about the places I visited.

I visited the towns of Keota and Buckingham today. Keota is really interesting - it's the closest I have seen (thisfar) to a typical western ghost town. The buildings are in a pretty good state of repair (compared to ones in NJ).

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~bruset/album36

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/co/keota.html
and
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/co/buckingham.html

Tomorrow I am off to explore Iron City, St. Elmo, and Romley. These towns are in the mountains, so hopefully I won't have any problems getting there.

PS: Colorado is absolutely AMAZING.
PPS: 35mm > digital. All of these pics are from 35mm prints I had done out here. I think I am going back to film cameras.

 

[BEHR655]

Great pix Ben. Colorado is a beautiful state. I've never been to Iron City but did go to Leadville. It's not a ghost town but there is a neat old saloon there.

 

[Teegate]

Ben,

Great photo's. Why don't you see if you can move out there. Then I will have a place to visit in the summer

Did you run into anyone while at these places?

Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

As beautiful as it is out here, I can't leave Jersey. Now owning a house out here would be very nice.

I didn't see a living soul at any of these places except the cow that was standing in the middle of the road.

 

[Teegate]

I didn't see a living soul at any of these places except the cow that was standing in the middle of the road.

That animal did not look healthy!

guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

Well today's trip didn't quite work out as well as I hoped. I went to visit "St. Elmo" which is the best preserved ghost town in Colorado. It's privately owned, but the state gave the owners a grant to preserve the buildings.

It took me about 2 1/2 hours to get there, and being as that it was far up Mt. Princeton, the weather changed pretty suddenly. I arrived just as snow started falling, so I ran around quickly to get some pictures and get out before I got snowed in at the town. Unfortunately I am stuck with a POS Chevy Malibu so I wasn't about to risk driving downhill on a snow & ice covered road without 4WD.

I did get some good shots of the town (not developed yet) but most of the good pictures will be of the mountain range I had to drive through.

 

[Teegate]

No snow here A perfect day this aftenoon.

Looking foward to seeing your photo's.

Guy

 

[MikeBickerson]

Wow, those are some great pictures! I've never been to Colorodo, but I'd like to go now...

 

[bach2yoga]

PPS: 35mm > digital. All of these pics are from 35mm prints I had done out here. I think I am going back to film cameras.

I'm using the dinosaur right now. I miss the ease of the digital, but I love my 35mm. I've heard a lot of people say that you can just as good as a picture with digital, but a professional photographer I spoke with recently felt that if you are using slide, then there really is no comparison between 35mm and digital.
He said that using slide flim requires the photographer to be a better photographer. There's ectocrome, which is a good start, and most any place can develop. Then there's Kodachrome which only a few places do, and must generally be mailed away. He said the trick is to use the f/stop, to learn to underexpose just a touch to intensify color. He said there is more latitude in the ectocrome for mistakes, so it's a better first start. The Kodachrome has little latitude in accuracy but more than makes up for it in dynamics in color. The reds especially, like in a cardinal flower, he claims never show up with as much intensity as they do in Kodachrome.
Maybe one of these days I'll try the ectocrome...
Renee

 

[Ben Ruset]

I have never shot slide film. The film I used was Kodak high-definition 35mm. My favorite is Illsford B&W but I couldn't get any out here.

I have to say that I was impressed with the high-def film. I'll be using that for color prints from now on.

 

[KenDawg]

Ben,
Great pictures, I will have to make the trip out there someday.
Ken