This book is a photo essay of a one day trip I made to the famous Vulture Gold Mine that is located 11 miles south of the town of Wickenburg AZ. The mine has been closed since 1942. All that is left are remnants of the buildings and machinery that was abandoned by the company and workmen at a time of war. At that crucial time with the US deeply entrenched in WWII, lead and copper were way more important to the country and it's fighting men than gold was.



It's fun poking around in these old buildings. Touching things that people over six decades ago were handling daily to make their living. But it can feel a little creepy at times. Poking around these old buildings is a little bit voyeuristic I think. After all you are tramping through someone's home or work place. It's true they are not there just at this moment but all of the things they did back then are still represented in things like the paint on the wall and in that small repair you see in that old kitchen table. Someone did those things. When they were painting that wall or repairing that table were they feeling happy, sad or something else. I wonder some times. There is still a sense of those people that lingers in these places today. I feel it. And I believe a lot of other people feel it too.



Along the way I also snapped shots of an Arizona roadway icon. The roadside shrines for the unfortunate ones who have died on Arizona's highways over the years. I was told that these shrines were first started a long time ago by people who immigrated here from Mexico, South and Central America because they believed that the spot where that person died, the spot on earth where their spirit left their body, is the place to make contact, rather than where ever their body may be buried. I believe this too. So, I have always been intrigued by these shrines ever since coming to Arizona and seeing the first one.