Abandoned Homes – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

More Relics in Rural America – Part 5

This is a continuation of photography of old, abandoned homes or other structures that I’ve found, while traveling in middle America.

It is unusual for me to come across such finds as this late in the day with the sun low in the sky or with such great clouds in the sky from a clearing rain storm. I had to walk through tall grass to get near enough to shoot this old homestead in Middle America.

This tiny house (or storage building?) is behind the bigger house (first image).

Walking around to the back side of the tiny house, I found this pile of rocks from the collapsed structure, an old cast iron bathtub and other debris.

The title for this image is inspired by the small object I spotted in the upper left corner of the door frame. I know that object might be too small in this image for a viewer to identify, but it is an old Prince Albert tobacco tin. Prince Albert tobacco is still produced and it was very common and popular, when I was a kid growing up. Empty, discarded tins like this were common litter items back then.

There are two abandoned houses at this homestead, the one in the first image and the one in the image above.

Shooting the windmill from another direction, shows the first house and the tiny house in the background.

There are modern electric power generating windmills on the far horizon in this image, indicating the continuity of wind energy in Middle America from the past into the future.

Thanks for following,

Ken

More Relics in Rural America – Part 2

This post is a continuation of photographs of relics I encountered during my June, 2025 trip to and from Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

This old house in a small rural town has so much lean that it appears to be relishing its status with a “swagger”. It was raining lightly, when I stopped to photograph here, so I moved around as expeditiously as I could, while capturing these images. Weeks later, when I got around to processing these images, I at first thought that my lens had distorted this old house, since I did not recall noting this much lean in real time. After examing multiple images, I had to conclude that the lean was not exaggerated by my camera.

The concrete pad out front with the water hydrant, makes me think this could have been a business site, maybe an old service station?

Across the street from “Swagger”, is this old boarded up house with a metal roof that seems to be in much better condition than the rest of the house. Maybe this place has not been abandoned for too many years.

There were a number of other abandoned homes and other old structures in the same neighborhood. “Made in the Shade” house seems to be relaxing in the shade of a tree, retired after a long life of sheltering others.

“Not as Neat as I Once Was” is done with the days of neat and orderly, with more important things to contemplate in its old age.

This old home has multiple outdoor laundry facilities.

“Gravity Wins” is the likely future for the abandoned structures in this post.

More Relic to come,

Ken

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 6

In rural U.S. it is not unusual to see bullet holes in abandoned objects and road signs. This is perhaps a sign of the U.S. love affair with guns. Shooting at such objects as this abandoned vehicle could put other in danger, since there are still a few people in this area and many vehicles pass through on I-40.

Cuervo Ghost Town – Abandoned Automobile

One can see in the image above an indication of the traffic along I-40 through Cuervo. I usually tried to wait until there was no traffic in the background of my shots, but sometime that required more time than I had the patience for.

I made the shot of the kitchen area of this abandoned house through an open window, I think (or doorway, I don’t recall which).

I made this last shot as I walked back towards my vehicle.

This concludes this series on the mostly abandoned community of Cuervo, New Mexico. More history of this ghost town can be found here.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 5

To be continued,

Ken

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 4

More photos of abandoned houses in Cuervo, New Mexico, taken as I was passing through, returning from another landscape photography destination.

To be continued,

Ken

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 3

Cuervo Ghost Town – Gravitational Distortion

Cholla cacti converts this abandoned washing machine into a planter. This image was chosen by Flickr for its Explore page.

Cuervo Ghost Town – Even the Trees have Ghosts here

To be continued,

Ken

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 2

This is the old church that first drew my attention to Cuervo, New Mexico, as I drove by along I-40, some years ago. This time I took time to stop and photograph portions of this mostly ghost town.

To be continued,

Ken

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 1

Cuervo, New Mexico is a small community along interstate I-40 in New Mexico. It is mostly a ghost town, having been established as a railroad stop in 1901, then drying up when the railroad chose another stop in Tucumcari, NM.

I’ve driven this stretch of I-40 past Cuervo numerous times, first making a mental note of this place, when I spotted an old, picturesque church as I drove by at 75mph, thinking that someday I might want to stop in to photograph that old church.

I had spent the night near Gallup, NM, waking up to a snow covered vehicle and campground with temperature in the low 20s. I drove through intermittent snow and rain that heavily overcast morning. I figured the overcast sky would create the perfect environment for photographing in Cuervo, so I determined to take time to stop here today. Atlas, as I drove along not paying attention to where I was, I drove past the only east bound exit for Cuervo. I had to drive 7 or 8 miles to the next exit, make a U-turn and backtrack to Cuervo. By the time I got back to Cuervo, most of the overcast had cleared and it was mostly bright and sunny. But I was here and decided to walk around the small town, photographing the abandoned homes, anyway.

The old church is still somewhat maintained, at least. The roof appears to be relatively new.

To be continued,

Ken

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Tag: Abandoned Homes

More Relics in Rural America – Part 5

Like this:

More Relics in Rural America – Part 2

Like this:

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 6

Like this:

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 5

Like this:

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 4

Like this:

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 3

Like this:

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 2

Like this:

Cuervo, New Mexico, March 2023, Part 1

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: