Joselyn and I stopped for a night in Chloride on the way back to Vegas. Chloride is an old mining town that once had a population of over 3,000. Now it's only about 350.
This is the fence at the entrance to town. It is "decorated" with rusty stuff, colorful glass bottle necks, broken china, etc.
There is a nice RV park in town with full hook-ups where we stayed.
After we got settled, we took Thistle for a walk to the old cemetery.
Almost all of the graves were simple mounds of dirt and rock with handmade memorials.
This iron worker made his own grave marker.
Thistle had to be carried due to all the stickers he was getting in his paws.
More handmade markers...
I disturbed this lizard.
Those are the toes of the deceased's cowboy boots sticking up!
Pretty mosaic tortoise.
This corner of the cemetery had the oldest graves...with no markers.
The RV park owner told us we had to go see the murals about 2 miles above the town on a dirt road. He didn't tell us we needed a high-clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle to get there. I drove the Fit as far as I could, then we parked and walked the rest of the way.
The murals were painted in the 1960's Vietnam War era by a renowned local artist, Roy Purcell. The arrow points the way.
Pretty blue flowers on this bush.
You can barely see Chloride way down in the valley. We can see the evidence of many old mines up in the mountains, but there are no longer any active mines. Silver was the prime metal mined here.
AS we approach the murals, we can see that there are also ancient petroglyphs up here. It crossed my mind that I hoped the artist didn't paint over any of them.
We made it!
A large pile of big boulders became the canvas for these paintings.
The artist came back up here once and retouched the fading paint.
Cacti are blooming here.
Back in town we did a walking tour to see the historic buildings and all the yard art.
More blooming cactus.
A basket tree!
Everyone we spoke to recommended this restaurant, so we ate here.
The owner? took our picture outside, but before we ate, we finished our walking tour.
We didn't eat at Digger Dave's, but we enjoyed their decor too.
There are a lot of old empty houses in town...giving it a ghost town feel. Someone thought to name this the "Old Red House." That's a washing machine in the front yard.
The old bank.
This old gas station has been repurposed as a private residence.
Another view of Digger Dave's, popular as a motorcycle bar, I guess.
A couple of lucky shots of bees collecting pollen from the cactus flowers.
The Chloride Post Office is the oldest continuously operated post office in Arizona, established in 1871.
Art is everywhere!
More yard art.
The walls of the old jail are being held up by a cable strung through the door and a window and around the right side. But the door is unlocked and you can go in.
Jailhouse cat.
One of two cells.
This yard is for sale.
Back of an old building with an interesting roof.
The old depot. The Santa Fe Railroad served Chloride from 1898 to 1935.
One of the local residents.
Foundations of a couple of houses.
This whole street had a decorated fence similar to the one at the entrance to town.
Another local resident. She couldn't stop to talk though.
Bottle tree.
Shady Lady Attic Antiques is a unique place. It was closed for the day, so we only saw the outside.
Not much use for a landfill around here. Just hang your junk on the fence outside.
Boot fence.
This is the setting for the Saturday gunfight....every Saturday except the 5th Saturday of the month.
Back at Yesterday's Restaurant, it was politician night. Local politicians were getting their petitions signed to get on the ballot. There wasn't much mystery about which side the restaurant owners were leaning. Check out the burger menu:
The mural artist also has a small gallery in the back room of the restaurant. This is one of his paintings.
The daily special was tacos, beans and rice....$4.99. Can't beat that.
And there was live dinner entertainment too.
One more yard to look at.
On the way into Las Vegas to take Joselyn to the airport, we stopped for a tour of Hoover Dam.
Lake Mead above the dam.
Turbines that generate electricity for the area.
I liked the tricycles...economical transportation down there.
The floor is inlaid Italian terrazzo...rather fancy for a government facility.
The RV parking is on the hill behind the dam...on the Arizona side.
The bridge from Arizona to Nevada and the Colorado River below the dam.
Statue commemorating the dam builders.
The turbines we saw are in the two long buildings below .
So I left Joselyn at the airport to await her flight back to Florida, and in the morning I left Las Vegas without ever seeing the famous strip. More adventures ahead.
