Tag Archives: History

History, Morning Musings, Site News

Over 6000 Posts!

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Golden Gate Bridge. July 3, 2005. © Copyright Dan Mitchell — the first photograph posted at the G Dan Mitchell website.

As I was setting up today’s photograph (it will appear shortly) I happened to notice that I just passed 6000 posts on this blog! I had been posting photographs for a while before that on other blogs (for example, the old “Dan’s Outside,” which focused on backcountry adventures, and my teaching websites which date to the mid-1990s), but back in 2005 I decided to start a blog dedicated to photography.

The first post here (the obligatory “It Worked!” post) was on July 10, 2005. It was followed by a post explaining the plan to start sharing photographs on the web in a more organized fashion. The first photographic post came on July 16 of that year — it was the black and white image of the Golden Gate Bridge in fog shown above.

At first the posts were a bit irregular. Sometimes I posted several in one day. Other times there were gaps of several days between new posts. On August 16, 2005 the first string of daily photographs appeared, though there were still breaks when I was in the field for a few days or longer. (Posting photographs remotely was not so simple back then!) But I’ve been continuously posting new photographs here since the end of that month in 2005! Believe it or not, that is approximately 5000 daily photographs posted at this blog!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Ghost Towns, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Abandoned Stamp Mill

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Abandoned Stamp Mill
An abandoned water-powered stamp mill high in the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park

Abandoned Stamp Mill. Death Valley National Park, California. April 4, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An abandoned water-powered stamp mill high in the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park

It seems that every national park or monument has both a natural and human story, or perhaps what might be seen as a story about the relationship between the two. While the power of natural forces (heat, water, geology, and more) is abundantly obvious in the huge, austere landscape of Death Valley National Park, the human history of the place is rarely far from view. It begins with the evidence of people who lived here long before European-origin settlers came to the place, evidence that can be seen in rock art scattered throughout the park, in the recognition that many settlements (current and now-abandoned) have a very much longer history than we may think, and in the remnants of those earlier populations who still occupy and identify with this landscape.

Perhaps more obvious is the more recent history of those who came to look for mining success. (There are places in the park where this still takes place.) Some examples are obvious to the casual visitor, but the more time you spend in the back-country area of the park the more you understand that this particular history is everywhere — though not usually as obvious as this example. This stamp mill, built to crush gold ore, is amazing in a number of ways. Perched at the end of high ridge in rather remote location, it was powered in the most unlikely manner… by water piped in from a spring over twenty miles away. The location is stupendous, and it is easy to think that practical issues may not have been the only considerations in choosing the site. From here one can look down thousands of feet to broad alluvial slopes leading towards Death Valley, but one can also look further into the distance and see the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Morning Musings

Important Yosemite Anniversary (Morning Musings 10/1/14)

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G Dan and Richard Mitchell in Yosemite, date unknown
Richard Mitchell (left) and G Dan Mitchell (right) in Yosemite, date unknown

October 1, 2014 marks the 124 year anniversary of the creation of Yosemite National Park on this day in 1890. To quote from a park web page:

“In 1889, John Muir, America’s most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist, and Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine, had growing concerns about the devastating effects of sheep grazing in the high country. They launched a successful campaign to persuade Congress to set aside this area as a national park in 1890. On October 1, 1890, the U.S. Congress set aside more than 1,500 square miles of reserved forest lands, soon to be known as Yosemite National Park.”

(The first federal protections came earlier, on June 30, 1864 when President Abraham Lincoln signed a congressional act that established the “Yosemite Grant” in the Sierra Nevada — the first instance of the US government setting aside land specifically for preservation and public use, though not yet technically a “national park.”)

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the “Yosemite Grant” signing, I wrote a post about my own experience in the park, which includes a bit of my photographic history in the place, including a childhood photograph of me and my brother Richard Mitchell at a park trailhead many years ago, the earliest Yosemite photograph of mine, and a few later shots from the park. Enjoy!

Morning Musings are somewhat irregular posts in which I write about whatever is on my mind at the moment — and the subjects may not always concern photography.

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.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rhyolite, Amargosa Valley, Telescope Peak

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Rhyolite, Amargosa Valley, Telescope Peak
Rhyolite, Amargosa Valley, Telescope Peak

Rhyolite, Amargosa Valley, Telescope Peak. Near Death Valley National Park. April 1, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Telescope Peak, the Amargosa Mountains, and the Amargosa Valley seen beyond the ghost town of Rhyolite Nevada

I first visited the fabled ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada perhaps a decade ago. I lies outside of Death Valley National Park, not too far from Beatty, Nevada. The place has existed in a state of mostly natural decay in the decades since it was abandoned. The story is that it was once a very successful and busy mining town, but as happens to virtually all such places, the mines played out and the town died. Not a lot is left at this point, though there are a few very interesting structures. Their size gives evidence of what the town must have been: a railroad station, a crumbling bank building, the remains of a large schoolhouse, and more.

When I first visited Rhyolite the place was pretty much what it was, and you could go just about anywhere you wanted to go. Within a few years fencing began to appear around some of the more dangerous structures—tall ruins of stone walls that are eventually going to fall. As time passed more and more fences were erected, and today many of the old buildings are off-limits. In a way this disappoints me, but given the increasing number of visitors and the increasingly fragile state of the town and its structures, I’m will to accept these limitations as a way to slow the eventual decay of the place. I’ve photographed at various times of day and in a range of conditions, but I still like dawn the best here. When the conditions are right, the sun comes up over a low ridge to the east and its light strikes the old bank building and other structures in the town just after it reaches the Amargosa Range and the summit of distant Telescope Peak, the highest point in Death Valley National Park.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.