The steel doors and cut stones that make up the front of this bank are the only façade left intact, probably because of the frames that held these huge steel doors…. Pretty metal. Check out the safe while you’re here, or you can take off from this dusty place and head back towards a less bumpy road.
Well, fine… it probably wasn’t a fort after all. Bulky, yes; the bigger rocks that this building was made of gave it a kind of fortified look from a distance. But upon closer inspection, you realize it was probably just the local warehouse. Cool looking rubble, broken glass, and this doorway. That’s it, though.
There’s the bank nearby that you can check out, or you can leave Luning and head down the road a little further.
So this is what a safe looks like after blowing the door off with dynamite…
The safe itself is barely still here, and there’s really nothing inside but rubble. Pretty cool view of that Lunar-landscape hill from here (is this where the town got it’s name?) but that’s really it.
Do you check out the front of the building or see what this “Fort Luning” is?
It seems this bank is no longer FDIC insured.
Either the wind or a very destructive bank heist took most of the walls and the roof down. It looks like there’s still an old safe lying among the rubble.
You also consider checking out the only wall (still standing) at the very front of the building.
Tempus fugit (Time flees).
But you feel a lot better getting some miles between yourself and that old graveyard. The desert feels indifferent, if not completely inhospitable. Seeing so many dead in one small spot, all dying in such short time and over some mysterious “plague” that even today is unknown in origin…. It was just too vivid of a reminder that you really are only visiting this place.
Even these stoic buildings of stone and wood built upon the backs of salty, driven old-timers… are all in total ruin a few generations later.
There isn’t much left to check out here in Luning, Nevada. But while you’re here, right? There’s a few old buildings to take a look closer at: the bank, the hotel, and what looks like an old cabin.
You’ve noticed this same thing happening around the area; these half-buried wooden structures that look like they were once cabins, maybe? But now it’s hard to tell so many years later.
So you step closer to the old door frame in order to take a better look inside. The gravel leading in suddenly gives way and you lose your footing, slipping through the door! Broken glass and gravel, dust and small rocks follow you inside the little room as you scramble to catch a foothold… but this cat litter of doom is as fast as you are!
You start getting panicked. Death by little landslide!?
After several cough-filled seconds, the dust flow slows to a mild torrent and you finally get some leverage.
There are tumbleweeds piled up in every corner of this small room, but you start to realize that the bottom is somehow deeper than the few boards of a “floor” that’s barely keeping you from falling further. Holy crap! It’s unreal that you haven’t crashed through by now!
Maybe you should get the heck out of here and run away. There’s still that tiny Fort over by your vehicle… or you can just bail on this place altogether, adventurer.
Totally up to you, just get out of here.
From this angle you can see the reinforced doors better, which starkly contrast the collapsed mess of a roof and supporting walls.
You decide to look closer look at the front doors.