Cuervo Ghost Town 31Cuervo Ghost Town 32Cuervo Ghost Town – OpennessCuervo Ghost Town -Target Object
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.
Cuervo Ghost Town – Abandoned AutomobileCuervo Ghost Town 32
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).
Cuervo Ghost Town – Parting Shot
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.
Cuervo Ghost Town 13Cuervo Ghost Town – Gravitational DistortionCuervo Ghost Town 14Cuervo Ghost Town 15Cuervo Ghost Town 16Cuervo Ghost Town – Cholla Planter
Cholla cacti converts this abandoned washing machine into a planter. This image was chosen by Flickr for its Explore page.
Cuervo Ghost Town 17Cuervo Ghost Town – Even the Trees have Ghosts hereCuervo Ghost Town 18
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.
Cuervo Ghost Town ChurchCuervo Ghost Town 8Cuervo Ghost Town 9Cuervo Ghost Town 10Cuervo Ghost Town 11Cuervo Ghost Town Water TankCuervo Ghost Town 12
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.
Cuervo Ghost Town 1Cuervo Ghost Town 2Cuervo Ghost Town 3Cuervo Ghost Town 4Cuervo Ghost Town 5Cuervo Ghost Town 6 – Cali-RoseCuervo Ghost Town 7Cuervo Ghost Town 8 – The Church
The old church is still somewhat maintained, at least. The roof appears to be relatively new.
We finally arrived in Animas Forks, where we did not intend to linger for long, since we still had to drive back to Silverton, then on to our lodging in Ridgway, CO. and the day was slipping away.
Plaque
One of the best remaining old structures in Animas Forks is the old home of William Duncan. This site was completely covered by an avalanche a few years ago and I was curious to see how it had survived.
Old Home Interior
Water damage to the old wood structure is evident. Maybe some of this was there before the avalanche, but I do not recall seeing such damage the last time I was here.
Ceiling BoardsBare Walls
For its age this old home is in remarkably sound shape.
Registration
Of course, many visitors have to scratch their names and initials into the wall boards, which have a nice aged patina.
Who Does Windows?ChimneyWindow and CeilingWall BoardsWho’s Been HereMountain View 1
The inhabitants here had magnificent mountain views.
Mountain View and StreamMountain View 2
As we were getting back to our vehicle to begin our return trip, the couple we had met on the road at a waterfall, drove up and we chatted again. I learned that the driver was a retired photographer, who was happy not to have to continue making school photographs. He told me about an old mill nearby that his dad had made a painting of many years ago and also about an abandoned truck just a short distant past Animas Forks.
My wife was reluctant, having had enough of this rocky road, but relented to allow me to try to find that old truck.
Driving towards Del Norte on FSR 380, I stopped at the ghost town of Summitville, an old mining town. There are abandoned, weathering old structures here and some old mine equipment in a parking area that overlooks the current modern mining operation.
Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.
I had previously passed through here with my son and DIL, having lunch in the parking area, but I had not browsed around the abandoned structures. So today I walked around with my iPhone getting a few images of this historic site.
Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.
The lumber planks on some of the sidewalls of these old buildings had weathered to a wonderful patina.
Nail heads and tarpaper. Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.
There are remnants of the original tarpaper covering, held in place by rusty nails, on the outside walls.
I was intrigued by the weathered patina on the exposed lumber on the exterior walls of these old buildings.
Nails and weathered wall plank, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.Abandoned house, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.
It must have been cold in these old buildings in the winter here, as there did not appear to be any insulation in the walls or ceilings, just tarpaper covered exterior walls.
At least the residents and workers here had good views of the mountains, which were probably much more attractive in those old days before the pine bark beetles killed so many of the evergreens.
Old, abandoned houses and modern mine structures, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.Abandoned facility, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.Rusty, broken door hinge, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.Abandoned structures, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.
Imagine how this might look with healthy evergreens around, rather than the beetle killed trees.
Abandoned and Weathered, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.Abandoned Structure and Modern Mine Facilities, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.Abandoned Structures, Summitville, Colorado. iPhone photograph.
The attractive, colorful weathered patina on the wood planks appears to be on mostly the sides facing a southeasterly direction, while all the other sides have mostly a grey patina.
