Mining Relic, Death Valley. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A piece of rusted and weathered metal from an abandoned mining site, Death Valley National Park
Between having our sunrise light interrupted by an incoming storm (though it was not a compete washout) and retreating from the road past the charcoal kilns in heavily falling snow, we stopped for a while at the old Harrisburg site, where Harris and Aguereberry ran a mine for a number of years. (They reportedly didn’t get rich, but they also avoided going bust—the story is that they extracted enough ore to make it work.)
Calling the place “Harrisburg” is perhaps over-selling it a bit! There is a small cluster of cabins—three, to be precises—tucked up into a slight indentation at the base of a low hill in a high, broad Panamint Range valley.The mine is found at the far end of the hill and around its far side, and a variety of mining detritus litters the landscape: remnants of old rails leading into the mine, some impressive scaffolding, lots of rusted stuff, an old abandoned vehicle. The cabins are in a state of advanced decay. They still have walls and some interior walls and flooring are still there, though increasing numbers of holes have appeared. Enough remains to give you an idea of what life might have been like here. In some ways it seems very simply and primitive, but in other ways surprisingly modern. As we poked around near the mine I found this old hunk of weathered sheet metal hanging from some wooden structures.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Good catch, Jerry! In fact, in this subject there are elements that mirror those found in the actual surrounding landscape. :-)
Ernie, I’m with you on this. Some of the places I go have some fairly dangerous old stuff lying about… and I’m too paranoid to get very close to the dangerous stuff.
Dan
Dan, It’s a great image. I was also reminded, by the two “celestial bodies”, however vaguely, of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. That might be a stretch, but that’s where it took me. Caponigro talks about the elements of composition being line, shape, plane, point, and volume with “point” serving to stop the eye, albeit briefly. I don’t know how that might relate to this piece compositionally, but I really, really like it.
As an aside, I don’t know if you’ve seen her work, but I love the imaginative, playful aspect of what Gillian Lindsay does with metal http://goo.gl/nnzS5K
I always love visiting old mining sites and love exploring them. But I have learned I have to restrain my urge to go into the tunnels and sometimes the buildings because it is not safe. So while I’m looking around, I’m also reminding myself to check if what I’m doing is safe. But I love the photographs I get.
That splash of blue gives it and earth&sky-like feel. The seam echoes a horizon of sorts, and the continuation of earth-like texture into the sky ties it together inducing a slightly disorienting appearance that invites you to explore the terrain… but then, maybe I’m just weird.