Nature versus Congestion
Some of my favorite days are spent lost, roaming with a camera. It’s a great way to see the (often over-looked) details.
Some of my favorite days are spent lost, roaming with a camera. It’s a great way to see the (often over-looked) details.
Sometimes the most mundane things find a way to say so much with so little.
Although we could have easily drove right by this spot, I really had to pee and hey – we were kinda lost (in a good way, of course). So we stopped and took it all in for a spell. Only after getting out of the car did I really notice this sign.
It’s easy to imagine that I wasn’t the only full bladder who’d visited that very desolate, very lonely intersection. I wonder if this sign caught them off-guard at first, too… boldly reminding everyone that cares to read it that no, there’s no hunting anymore here.
I can almost hear the steel sign thwack and twinge from the gunshots, being given an impromptu “salute to the union” just before the hungry ghosts beat their own hasty retreat; their beer bottles and spent cases left behind to find their own resting places.
Eventually the dust from their retreat settles back down and all that’s left hanging in the air is the close but impersonal wind, already exploring the sign’s jagged new holes.
Have a fun and safe Independence Day, everyone. Don’t hurt each other.
The sign bears one word: Esmeralda… where have you heard that before? You’re pretty sure it means Emerald in Spanish, and it is the name of a neighboring county here in Nevada. But there’s not much else about this sign to help you out.
You can still go over to the massive ruins of the three-story tall building or head to the lone train caboose.
This crusty old metal Coca-Cola sign was something I found laying in the dust of East Las Vegas. There’s a little paint still hanging on, but for the most part it’s camouflaged against the desert floor.