{ Goldfield Ghost Town }
Today my family and I visited Goldfield Ghost Town in Apache Junction, AZ. It was my first time experiencing the ghost town and had a really great time. I'm a sucker for historical stuff, so this place was right up my alley.
Nestled away in the Superstition Mountains, the natural beauty around the ghost town is incredibly beautiful to look at and experience.
This time of year, Arizona starts to see beautiful yellow flowers sprouting on the trees everywhere! Yellow is one of my favorite colors because it's so bright and cheerful and these little yellow flowers were in abundance in and around the Ghost Town.
Okay, little tangent there. ; ) Back to the Ghost Town, ha! One thing that my family and I did first was ride the train around the area and get an insight to some history of the area.
Our conductor had such a quirky sense of humor and was actually pretty hilarious. He reminded me so much of a geology professor I had in my early college days, beard and all.
I couldn't say the same for the fake conductor sitting in the little building where you buy your ticket for the ride. He was a little creepy to me.
I honestly didn't pay much attention to the historical facts while on the train ride. I'm a visual person, so I was soaking in the sights all around me and snapping my camera all over the place. The train car was open around the sides and we were permitted to stand up if we held on to the railing. I didn't and almost lost my footing a few times. Oops. ; ) It was fun shooting and capturing such historical pieces! I couldn't help myself.
Once back into town, we were delighted to stumble across some kind of filming for a movie. I love film stuff and am fascinated by all the equipment and the artistic side of it, so I wanted to poke my nose in and see what was going on!
The location was definitely ideal for capturing the true essence of a western town--the details were plenty and there was so much to look at visually.
What town would be complete without a pair of cowboys milling around? These two were hanging around the Livery Stable. My family seems to ever be set on the idea of embarassing me. I'm still single and my family is determined to find me a special someone. Oi. Usually, that involves making me want to crawl under the table and hide. True to fashion, they kept asking me, "Did you get his (the cowboy's) phone number? Are you going to get his phone number?" Seriously? In front of the guy? Where's the hole I can crawl into please? At least he was nice about it. I sure hope he didn't hear their earnest inquiries.
Oi.
I almost got myself into some trouble at the Ghost Town. I had no idea what a "Bordello" was and so when a lady, dressed as a can-can girl asked me if I wanted to visit, I asked her what it was about. She responded, "It's where the women used to take care of all the men in the town. Come on up--there's a lot of places up here for great pictures!" Naive me thought, "Oh cool--that was so nice of the ladies! They must have done the cooking and the cleaning and gave the guys a chance to relax after the end of a long, hard working day. Oh, was I way off base.
Turns out that a Bordello was a place for prostitutes!
Whoops! I had a different kind of "helping" in mind than what she did.
I couldn't believe that I'd been so naive. My family teased me about it for the rest of the day. I was super embarassed because before I found out what a Bordello was, I had been calling out to them in an excited and loud voice, "Come visit the Bordello with me! It's where the ladies used to take care of the guys--it sounds cool!" Um, yeah. (Totally shaking my head right now). Everyone around me heard my happy harkening. Oh sheesh. Only me. ; ) I'll be side-stepping the Bordello next time I visit the Ghost Town.
The rest of the town was so intriguing visually. There was so much texture and rustic beauty to look at.
I would definitely recommend it as a place to visit if you want to immerse yourself in local culture and history or if you want to step back into time and pretend that you're in Disneyland's Frontierland (since that costs an arm and a leg!). No costly sacrifice here! ; )
Y'all come back now, ya hear?
Here's a great freebie texture for you photographers out there:
Droooling over here! :) Great great photos.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fun town!
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