Last fall I ventured by the virtually abandoned ghost town
of Lake Valley, New Mexico, where I got some photos
of the building above which was the saloon, general store,
and gas station.
(I first did this post on April 23, 2010
and I want to highlight some of my older posts that I did in the first year or so of this blog
that may have been overlooked by current readers.)
This was a beautiful well built building of stone.
Above is well executed stonework as you can see by the nice clean line
of the corner and the well dressed corner stones laid in a brick like
fashion. Generally the corners, around the doors and windows,
and in this case the foundation are the best dressed stones
( meaning that they are worked into nice rectangular shapes )
while the in fill is more of a random rubble.
Another nice corner...
but a closer look reveals a serious pulling away on the right.
This is a common problem when a load bearing wall
wants to fall out at the top, away from the structure .
Causes can be a compromised foundation,
a lack of a bond beam at the top of the wall,
a lack of rafter ties in the roof structure
to keep the roof rafters from spreading,
or... old age.
The rear. This building was built to last and much care was taken
in putting it here. Who was the last customer?
Who closed up for the last time?
This seemed to be the front where the gas pumps were.
For more and old photos click here.
There is much more to this ghost town and
Lake Valley is well worth a visit.
It lies between Nutt and Hillsboro on state road 27 ( paved )
in the southwestern part of New Mexico
and is administered by the BLM
which is part of the Lake Valley Backcountry Byway.
