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Historic

Historic places

52 posts

Peg Leg Smith’s Inscription

Peg Leg Smith’s Inscription

Sometimes, in the desert, you can find what you are looking for. It was already dark by the time we started our drive out into the desert. The sky was completely overcast, and the wind was howling. And after a few hours of driving on the highway, it started to

Bannack Ghost Town

Bannack Ghost Town

Over the summer of 2015, we visited the fantastic ghost town of Bannack, Montana, which has been well-preserved and turned into a state park. It is similar to Bodie State Historical Park but with fewer buildings. Still, ghost towns remaining from the gold rush days are rare, and this one

Jayhawker Spring Petroglyphs

Jayhawker Spring Petroglyphs

The Jayhawkers are famous for their harrowing journey through the unexplored lands of Death Valley in 1849 on their way to reach the fabled gold fields of California’s Mother Lode. They made it, but only after burning their wagons and ditching some of their possessions. They are likely the

Robidoux Inscription and Pictographs

Robidoux Inscription and Pictographs

On a late autumn day in 1837, a fur trapper from Santa Fe, Antoine Robidoux, stopped along a narrow canyon in the Territorio de Alta California (what is present-day Utah). Beaver pelts were surprisingly lucrative at the time, and as hard as it is to believe today, the Uinta River

Joshua Tree Car Wash

Joshua Tree Car Wash

Our National Parks aren’t known for their collections of old junked cars, but Joshua Tree has one. I heard there were a few wrecked cars in the vast expanse of the Pinto Basin, but I didn’t know how many, what to expect, or even if they were really

Mojave Car Wash

Mojave Car Wash

This is an interesting little corner of the Mojave. I was surprised to see so many old junked cars out here. It is pretty unusual to see so many in one place, but why are they here? They all seem to be missing their engines and drive-trains. One engine could

Death Valley Incinerator

Death Valley Incinerator

Dan and I visited a little-known incinerator inside Death Valley National Park. It is an interesting little site. There are bits of historic trash here and there, but not too much else. Amazingly, this isn’t the only one in the park. I've been asked not to disclose