All That Remains
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope you are all enjoying time with family and close friends, appreciating those things which bring happiness into your life.
Like whispers of a forgotten past, today’s image comes from the site of the former Hunters Hot Springs here in MT. Now an empty field in the middle of nowhere, it was a center for social gathering in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Boasting one of the state’s largest geothermal flows, it took a massive fire and a poor rebuild to bring this chapter of Montana history to a close. Beyond a few ancient fire hydrants (which didn’t seem to do much good), this is all that remains. I’m in the process of trying to track down the landowner, so hopefully I’ll be able to go back and explore the area a bit more thoroughly for a follow-up post.
Interesting story. I always find it interesting how places are left to decay in the US, but of course things are different when a country is only big enough and comparatively thinnly populated. Yes, that’s interesting. Traces of civilization blending with nature. I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.
Honestly, I can’t even see any sign human construction in the picture. I’ve always been fascinated by the ghost towns of the US and the old, derelict mining structures in Butte.
On the other, unlike Andreas I’m from a sparsely populated area myself, so decaying structures aren’t unfamiliar. My only concern is that too many of the interesting structures that I’ve identified over the years are now being fixed up. At least in Montana that isn’t too much of an issue
Happy New Year!
@Andreas - I’d not thought about it in terms of having enough space to let things fall away, very interesting. There’s a lot of it here, in all stages of whither, little bits and pieces of broken dreams… I was able to get back out for some additional shots, Andreas, should have them posted up in the next few days.
@Ramin - True enough, my friend, the image really portrays no sign of previous development. I went back a few days ago for another go at this area, taking some images of the fire hydrants and what’s left of a stone fence. With actual remnants of that history, they likely deserve the title “All That Remains” a bit more than this one. Love the old part of Butte as well, have spent a good amount of time there just roaming around trying to imagine what it was like when the ‘city’ was bustling and equivalent in size to San Francisco. Long time ago, but just amazing…
@Diane - Happy New Year to you, Diane, thank you!
[...] is a follow-up post to All that Remains, primarily because the former didn’t include images of what actually remains on the site. [...]