Atlas of the New West

The Ponderosa Ranch opened in 1967 and every year approximately 300,000 visitors from around the world have kept alive the memories of television's most famous family, the Cartwrights [as stated in the "historical marker" near the ranch house], Ben, Adam, Hoss and Little Joe. Since its first showing in 1959, followed by more than 831 original episodes broadcast into 86 countries and 12 different languages, "...the Cartwright Ranch House has been the ever-present star in a television legacy that will live on forever."

Lori J. in her bandit costume at the Ponderosa Ranch. She robs the breakfast hay-wagons that pass by every fifteen minutes, 1996.

Atlas of the New West

"The Fort" serves nineteenth century's finest gourmet meat featuring Buffalo steaks, Buffalo tongue, Roast buffalo marrow bones, Rocky Mountain oysters, Armadillo eggs, charbroiled quail, Elk medallions, Colorado Ostrich, Pintate game hen, and wild Arctic Musk Ox. Sam Arnold, Bushwah and his wife Carrie preside over the courtyard. The Mountain Man's Toast is:

Here's to the childs what's come afore.
'An here's to the pilgrims what comes arter.
May yer trails be free of Grizzlies,
Yer packs filled with plews,
And fat buffler in yer pot!

Changing Mines in America

Oak Park Amusement Park "Haunted Mine" ride. This ride was temporarily closed because someone set off approximately twenty stink bombs inside the building. This amusement park is along the Willamette River, Portland, Oregon, 1997.

Changing Mines in America

Miner's Hat Realty near Kellogg, Idaho, 1996. This realty company is within the 21 mile-long Bunker Hill Superfund site [named after the biggest mine in Kellogg]. Kellogg looks more like a quaint Swiss resort than a toxic waste superfund site. A giant tram runs tourists and skiers up into the hills. Summer music concerts at the nearby ski resort attract thousands. Mining provides an historic context for a growing tourist and recreation-based economy. But a century of heavy-metal pollution has left its mark--when health officials first tested for blood-lead in Kellogg's children in 1974, they found levels 6.5 times higher than today's 'level of concern' established by the Environmental Protection Agency. Tests on men who worked at the smelter between 1940 and 1965 indicated that they died from kidney disease at a rate four times higher than normal. Federal officials have removed much of the original soil from residential areas and capped many yards with plastic sheets covered with clean soil. Building codes remain in effect preventing the breaking of those plastic barriers.

Changing Mines in America

View of Yellow Jacket Mine from room #10, Gold Hill Hotel, Gold Hill, Nevada. The Gold Hill Hotel is Nevada's oldest hotel built in 1859. The old stone structure originally served as a hotel with banquet hall and saloon and became a miners' bunkhouse in the early 20th century, and continued as a personal residence and a bed and breakfast before its current restoration.

Changing Mines in America

Abandoned mining site along Wolverine Road north of Death Hollow and East of Horse Canyon Circle Cliffs, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, 2000.

Stopping Time - A Rephotographic Survey of Lake Tahoe

Glenbrook. The effects of lumbering were dramatically visible in the summer of 1884, when this picture was taken. The debris from the logging and milling activity created an artificial shoreline at Glenbrook Bay, as tons of sawdust were deposited along the lakeshore. Clear cutting of trees on mountain slopes accelerated water runoff into the lake. The photograph at top left suggests the truth of one story, that after the Glenbrook area was logged, "only eleven trees were standing as far as the eye could see."

The modern shoreline of Lake Tahoe is also an artificial creation, made possible by the new dam at the outlet to the Truckee River. The dam was completed in 1913, to store water in the lake for downstream users. The maximum storage allowed raised the lake level six feet beyond its "natural" outlet of 6223 feet above sea level. Seasonal variation in lake level occurred even before water began to be stored there, however, due to natural cycles of drought affecting the mountain streams that drain into Tahoe.

Stopping Time - A Rephotographic Survey of Lake Tahoe

South Lake Tahoe. The Young Brothers Bijou Resort, built early in the twentieth century, is now the site of the Tahoe Marina Inn. The original road artery along Lake Tahoe went through the Bijou Resort. Highway 50, the current artery, is now a few blocks to the east. Note the protective curbing around the trees in the historical view, and how that motif has been preserved in the contemporary location. A denser population has brought more automobiles, however, and there are more parking spaces and fewer trees in the modern photograph.

Tracing the Line

Looking west at the entry point of the New River into the United States at Calexico and Mexicali. The New River is severely polluted, posing a major health hazard, 1985.

Tracing the Line

The train yards in El Paso that border the Rio Grande are favorite crossing points for undocumented workers. The trains provide relatively easy and quick transportation out of town, and the yards provide many hiding and resting areas. This is the notorious "Black Bridge," site of repeated violence. It is also called the "East Railroad Bridge." This view looks south from El Paso into Ciudad Juarez.

Tracing the Line

The headwaters of the Rio Grande are above Albuquerque, New Mexico. Beginning at El Paso the Rio Grande (also called the Rio Bravo del Norte) engages the emotions and drama of a natural boundary between two countries. West of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, the border line reflects the surveyor's precision. This view looks west at the beginning of the land boundary between New Mexico and Chihuahua at Sunland Park. Monument No. 1 is hidden among the trees at the end of the rock fence line (Mexico is on the left). The cable prevents vehicle "drive-throughs." In this first segment, the border lies east-west, a direct line for 104 miles, marked by 41 monuments.

Tracing the Line

Today, no federal, state, or local governments have any concerted policy regarding the border fences. The United States section of the International Boundary and Water Commission constructed fences in a cattle control program that began in 1935 and terminated in the 1950s. At that time, funding was withdrawn and responsibility for established fences was either transferred to local ranchers or abandoned. Most of the fence is barbed wire, usually three to five strand. There are sections of chain link fence, but no more than fifteen miles total along the entire border. This photograph shows a "drive-through," 1/4 mile west of the port-of-entry at Naco, Arizona and Sonora. Smugglers use this to avoid the mordida, literally translated as a "bite" (bribe), but it is monitored by the Unites States Border Patrol using ground sensors. The view looks into Mexico.

Nuclear Landscapes

NUCLEAR BUNKER This University of California Radiation Laboratory photo station bunker was constructed for Operation Castle (1954) on Aerkijlal Island, Bikini Atoll. Note the six cement support housings for heavy-duty iron beams used to brace the bunker against the force of the nuclear blast. The bunker withstood the blast, and the beams were later removed.

Nuclear Landscapes

OVERGROWN ROAD and CRATER After a subterranean nuclear test, an area larger than the diameter of the cavity was declared off-limits and marked by fences with yellow ropes. Because this road was within the test zone, it was closed off. No longer in use, the road collects scarce rainwater, creating an environment conducive to overgrowth. This subsidence crater is located along the northeastern edge of Yucca Flat.

Humanature

TREES Since 1968, it has been government policy and practice to set controlled fires in an attempt to mimic natural processes, such as lightning strikes. This is an active burn conducted at Peachtree Rock Preserve by Nature Conservancy personnel in South Carolina. The objectives of the burn were exceeded.

Humanature

Every year, in order to attract tourists to Virginia Beach, the city must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars restoring the beach. Here dredging and bulldozing commences near 7th Street along the boardwalk. A sand and water slurry is pumped onto the beach north of Rudee Inlet. The sand particles settle out, while the sea water drains back to the ocean. After a sufficient amount of sand builds up in the discharge area, new sections of pipe are added, extending the restoration effort further and further along the beach. Beach erosion is a serious problem along the Atlantic seaboard because people want to live as close to the water as they possible can regardless of the natural hazards: beaches continually move.

Humanature

BEACHES Discarded Christmas trees, temporarily stored here in the parking lot of the picnic area at Ft. Macon, North Carolina, are used to establish new sand dunes. The trees catch blowing sand allowing for the formation of new dunes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Ft. Macon between 1826 and 1834.

Humanature

TREES On 26 September 1991, researchers from the Biosphere 2 project sealed the airlock on a three-acre, enclosed ecological system in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona. Public relations information about Biosphere 2 proclaims: "Biosphere 2 is essentially an airtight structure, composed of elements from the Biosphere 1, planet Earth. Like Earth's biosphere, Biosphere 2 is designed as a stable, complex and evolving system--sealed off from the outside world, yet open to electrical and solar energy as well as information exchange." Biosphere 2 contains seven biomes: tropical rainforest (pictured here), savanna, marsh, twenty-five-foot deep ocean, desert, intensive agricultural area, and human habitat. The ecological systems inside are designed to recycle air, water, wastes, and nutrients, maintaining the 3,800 plant and animal species as well as sustaining the biospherian crew during the time of each experiment. Two years later to the day after entering Biosphere 2, the eight-person crew emerged, having lost about fifteen percent body fat. This is one of the latest versions of humanature.