2025 E. Washington Road Trip 06 - Fading Small Town: Mabton

Mabton is a small town in Yakima County, Washington, a few miles southeast of Yakima on Hwy. 22. Most travelers rush by on Interstate 22 just to the north, but I took the local road to see the small towns in the region. Mabton has had a rough recent history, with a deputy city clerk being arrested for stealing $22,000 in a fake robbery scheme, along with other small-town graft exercises. Hmmm, sounds like small towns in the Mississippi Delta - or Jackson.

Approaching Mabton on Hwy 22

A block north of Hwy 22, B Street was the former commercial strip, complete with square-front shops of the type typical in small towns. Most are now closed. It was rather sad.

Proceeding west, we reached Yakima and stopped for a coffee. The downtown looks prosperous, but there may be possibilities in the outskirts. The famous teriyaki burger joint was too tempting to resist (for a photograph, not lunch).

I took these photographs on Kodak Portra 160 film with my Pentax MG camera and various lenses. The lab that processed the film made some major chemical or timing error, and the film was very thin. This resulted in exaggerated grain and odd colors. 

The old barber shop and unused grocery were behind dirty glass. I attached a rubber hood on my 28mm ƒ/2.8 Vivitar lens and pressed it against the glass. The Pentax MG camera has aperture priority exposure measurement, so I set the lens at ƒ/11 and let the camera calculate the exposure. The rubber hood shielded the lens from external light. This was much easier than trying to point a hand-held meter at the scene through the reflective glass.