Return to the Volkswagen Disposal Yard in Moab, Utah

In mid-2018, a friend visited Moab and told me he thought the big Volkswagen disposal yard off Spanish Valley Drive was gone. Was that possible? We had photographed the treasures (i.e., old Volkswagens) in 2016, and I thought it unlikely that someone had bought them and moved them all away. Considering that there were 100 or 200 cars there, moving them would require a fleet of 18-wheelers, a serious expense.

However, I can report good news: as of October 2019, Tom Tom Foreign Car Parts is still at 1809 E. Mill Creek Drive, at the junction with Spanish Valley Drive. It looks like someone maintains the place because I saw fresh cat food and cat water outside. I did not see the watch cats, but possibly they were on rodent patrol. I only had time for a few mobile phone images. The yard has been cleared and neatened a bit, but the overall ambience is intact.

Here are a couple of Type 3 Volkswagens, known as the Squareback in the USA market and the Variant in Europe. These were handy little station wagons with more interior room than the Beetle. I had a 1965 model in college. My dad bought this car in Ankara, Turkey. He drove it to Genoa and had it shipped to Boston. When camping, I could sleep in the back at an angle or straight front and back with the hatch open. You can't do that in most of the pretentious crossover/SUV play trucklets that curse our highways and mall parking lots today. With its rear engine, the Squareback could go up and down snowy mountain roads with no problems at all.

Here is the classic Beetle, the Type 1 Volkswagen. The original is still popular.

This is the classic bus, officially the Volkswagen Type 2. It was also called, depending on body style, the Transporter, Kombi or Microbus. The Westfalia-Werke camper versions are still popular in the US west, and restored examples sell for serious prices now.

Tom was creative in his use of body parts to make the fence at his property. Well done! When you readers travel through Moab, make time to visit the Volkswagen museum. Buy one, take it home, and get it restored. Learn how to use a real transmission (i.e., with a clutch pedal) and have fun in your Beetle.

These are all digital images from a Moto G5 mobile phone.

Travels on the Mother Road, Route 66: Part 8d, Budville and Cubero, New Mexico (2019)

Continuing east on Route 66 (where it still exists) or I-40 through central New Mexico, the country is pretty arid with only an occasional farm or truck stop. According to the Route 66 Adventure Handbook, Cubero was bypassed by a new road in the 1930s. An entrepreneur built the Villa de Cubero, which is still in business on Route 66 where it diverges away from the interstate. You can buy snacks, gasoline, and other essentials there.

Courtesy of 66postcards.com (Thank you!)

The Villa de Cubero Tourist Courts catered to early Route 66 travelers. According to the Route 66 Adventure Handbook, the adventure/musical Desert Song was filmed near here (the 1943 or 1953 version?). Desert Song was based on Sigund Romberg's 1926 operetta about a galant and handsome desert sheik who captures the heart of the beautiful city girl and rides off to the desert with her, singing all the time, while he also directs the revolt of the Berber tribesmen.

Villa de Cubero De Luxe Tourist Court (expired Kodak Ektar 25 film, Yashica Electro 35CC camera)

The tourist courts are closed but in reasonably intact condition. The Route 66 Adventure Handbook also notes that Ernest Hemingway may have written The Old Man and the Sea here! Or maybe he did not because he might have been in Cuba. A blog from the Villa de Cubero explores the controversy of Papa Hemingway's stay in the tourist court. We need to weigh the options:
Cuba: tropical breezes, palm trees, beautiful women, lots of booze, and deep sea fishing.
Cubero: desert, not much to do, and booze.

Budville Trading Co. (Moto G5 digital file)

About a mile southeast on old Route 66 you come upon the former Budville Trading Company. It is closed and longer has pumps on the island.

Budville Trading Post (Tri-X film, Hasselblad 501CM camera, 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

A bit further east I saw another closed garage/filling station. This one had another long-wheelbase Cadillac!

That is all the excitement for Cubero. We will continue east on Route 66. Standby for more updates.

Travels on the Mother Road, Route 66: Part 7b, Twin Arrows, Arizona (2019)

Dear readers, we are back to Route 66, the Mother Road. On my 2019 western trip, I revisited some Route 66 towns that I passed through in 2017 and checked out some spots that I totally missed before. I will continue the trek from west to east as before, and will number the locations in the same pattern as before, for example, with Part 7 being Arizona.

Twin Arrows is an abandoned rest stop, trading post and gas station just east of Flagstaff. It is distinguished by a pair of steel arrows sticking out of the ground. As noted in the Route 66 Adventure Handbook (fourth ed.) "This is the type of feature which so distinguishes the old highway's attractions from today's cookie-cutter copies." It is a pity no one has tried to revive this rest stop, but possibly Flagstaff is too short a distance to the west, and travelers would just head into town if they needed gasoline or snacks.

The original Twin Arrows, near Flagstaff, Arizona (Kodak Ektar 25 film, Yashica Electro 35CC camera, polarizer)

As you can see, there is not much left to the place. Fortunately, in this dry climate, the arrows will not corrode for years. Maybe one day they can find a new home in front of a museum or similar attraction.

Most of these views are digital files from a Moto G5 mobile phone.

Standby for more 2019 Route 66 updates. For a quick stop in Seligman, Arizona, during this 2019 trip, click this link.

Small Towns in the Texas Panhandle: Quanah (Panhandle 2019-04)

Let us continue on our way west through the Texas Panhandle on US 287. Quanah is sort-of a big town. It is the county seat of Hardeman County and now has a population of about 2600. I wanted to stop here because I read that you could still see the remains of a drive-in cinema.

In Quanah, Texas (Moto G5 digital file)

This was not the first time I noticed that my car was puny compared to what the Texans drive. Oh, oh, I felt inadequate.

I found a somewhat tired but clean motel on the west end of town. I wanted to take a swim - oops, no pool any more.

The old drive-in was on Spur 133 not far from the motel. Most of the screen had collapsed, but there are pictures of it on the internet.

Only a mile or so into town, I came across an old garage with a Cadillac parked on the concrete. Oddly, the car was in good condition, with full tires and upholstery that looked fresh. Someone must have driven it there recently. Hmmm, long wheelbase, soft suspension: the perfect road trip machine.

 Quanah has some nice 1920s cottages, but sadly in poor condition (this one was on W 3rd.).

The Fire Department's van on Mercer Street was also sort of tired.

An early-20th century store on Mercer, possibly once a car dealership, had an old fire truck parked inside.

Although it was Sunday, the fellow who ran the garage on Mercer was getting equipment together to make a repair call. He said someone called from a motel with a stalled car. There was not much else happening in Quanah, and I headed back to US 287.

West of Quanah, I saw two of the lonely and abandoned farm houses of the type I wanted to photograph as I proceeded on 287 towards Amarillo. The second one above was a distance from the road, and I needed my 250mm Sonnar lens to get this frame. I was a bit hesitant to walk in the grass because of rattlesnakes. Maybe I should buy snake boots for my next Texas trip.

The square photographs are from Kodak Tri-X 400 film exposed with a Hasselblad 501CM camera with 50mm, 80mm, and 250mm Zeiss lenses. I scanned the negatives with a Minolta Scan Multi medium format film scanner.

Small Towns in the Texas Panhandle with Ektar 25 film (Panhandle 2019-01)

Introduction

The Texas Panhandle is the land of big skies, big farms, big men and women, enormous pickup trucks, and fading towns and farm houses. The Panhandle is the northern rectangle of the state, bordered by Oklahoma and New Mexico and northwest of the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolis. Most people drive through in a hurry, but the area offers a wealth of photographic topics. The famous Route 66 crosses the northern Panhandle (type "Route 66" in the search box to see posts on this topic).

Highway US 287 takes you from Dallas to Amarillo and passes through a number of small towns. These were bustling and active up through the mid-20th century but today are slowly fading. I drove east on US 287 in 2017, and numerous abandoned farm houses caught my eye. I promised to return and record them before they disappeared. For a trip west in September of 2019, I loaded my Hasselblad medium-format camera and Tri-X film into my camera bag, but at the last minute added my little Yashica Electro 35CC rangefinder camera with one of my remaining rolls of discontinued Kodak Ektar 25. Long-term readers may recall that I have experimented with Ektar 25 before and concluded that it is well past its prime. Of course, I ignored my own advice and decided to use it for this trip.

Future articles will include black and white photographs from many of these towns. 

In the Panhandle

For my September 2019 road trip, I took my time, stayed in seedy motels long past their prime, and enjoyed warm summery weather (and almost stepped on a rattlesnake in my sandals). A month later, an ice storm was threatening and I drove back east in a hurry to keep ahead of the sleet. We will start in Quanah, a town west of Wichita Falls and proceed northwest on US 287. Click any picture to see it enlarged to 1600 pixels wide (there is plenty of interesting detail).

Dinner at eight, Quanah, Texas

A bit fast-food-like, but OK. The staff were very friendly. Breakfast the next morning was great.

Repair shop and Cadillac, Spur 133, Quanah, Texas. The Cadillac was in surprisingly good condition.

Attack of the giant chickens, Rustic Relics, Quanah, Texas

Even the chickens in Texas are big. Rusty Relics, Quanah, Texas

Nash Metropolitan automobile, US 287 east of Childress

No lunch any more, Estelline, Texas

This cute little building in Estelline may have been a Valentine Diner. Mr. Arthur Valentine formed Valentine Manufacturing Company in Wichita, Kansas, in 1947 to build small lunch buildings. He sold many to veterans who wanted to start their own businesses in the booming post-war years. The Kansas Historical Society has an interesting history. I photographed another Valentine Diner in Chandler, Oklahoma, in 2017.

Commercial building, 704 Cleveland St., Estelline, Texas

Abandoned farmhouse near Memphis, Texas

Benitez Tire, Hedley, Texas

Taqueria Tijuana, Hedley, Texas

Lonely farmhouse near Clarendon

Abandoned house near Goodnight

The largest number of these abandoned farmhouses are between Childress and Amarillo. It is sad that the families who once lived in these homes moved out. Do they now live in towns? Did the old folks die and their kids moved to sophisticated cities? There may be more derelict houses like these on side roads, but it is possible that they typically clustered along the rail corridor, which is now followed by US 287. I will later post black and white film photographs of these lonely farmhouses.

Gas station, Claude, Texas

My last stop on Route 287 was in Claude at an odd little gas station with zinc or zinc-coated steel roof shingles. These shingles were popular early in the 20th century because they looked like clay tiles but were lighter and cheaper. I photographed this station in 2017 with a digital camera (Panhandle article no. 01).

Santa Rosa

Oops, wrong state. But the dusk light in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, was sublime. 

Rio Pecos Truck Terminal

Summary

Texas is fun for a photographer. The people are friendly and travel is easy. The roads are in good condition and there are plenty of gasoline stations along the way. But beware, other than fast food offal, the Panhandle is a rough place for food outside of Amarillo and Wichita Falls. It is even more of a coffee desert. Take a thermos and brew your own. Also, watch out for rattlesnakes.

Techical Notes

I took these photographs with a Yashica Electro 35CC camera with a fixed 35mm ƒ/1.8 Color-Yashinon DX lens. This is a handy compact camera with an excellent 6-element lens and a genuine rangefinder. “Color” was the advertising buzzword in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, it would be “digital.” I suppose some people are fooled. I scanned the film at 3,600 dpi with a Plustek 7600i film scanner using Silverfast Ai software to control the unit. I saved the scans as 16-bit TIFF files. Silverfast does not have an Ektar 25 profile, but the Royal Gold 1000 profile worked reasonably well. The colors were off, and I sometimes used the grey dropper to select a grey area on the frame as a reference. Some of the colors are slightly odd, but it suits the subject matter (and if I wanted boring perfection, I could use a digital camera or mobile phone). A few frames needed some cleaning or scratch removal; Pixelmator 3.8.8 has one of the best healing tools that I have tried. To resize for this article, I used an old version of ACDSee Pro 2.5 running under Windows XP.

Industrial archaeology: Redstone Quarry, North Conway, NH (2003 with film)

Flooded quarry pit

Background

New Hampshire is known as the "Granite State," and for good reason. Granite outcrops are found throughout the state, as well as the adjoining states of Maine and Vermont. In the past, numerous quarries mined the hard and durable stone, sending the products throughout the northeast United States. Redstone Quarry in North Conway (formerly its own town of Redstone) operated from the mid-1800s until 1948. It featured both pink and green granite at one site, which is unusual. For many years, the Boston and Maine Railroad owned the quarry. The railroad used finished stone for train stations, while rubble and waste product served as track bedding. Columns and finished blocks were sent to Boston and other cities.

Panatomic-X film

I previously wrote about Redstone in 2012. That time, I posted digital images from autumn 2012. Oddly, that has been one of my most accessed blog posts. It was time to retrieve my older film negatives and present them here. I took these photographs in June of 2003, exposing Kodak Panatomic-X film in my Rolleiflex 3.5E with 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens, all tripod-mounted. I also used another Rolleiflex with Ektar 25 color film. It was a stifling summer day, and I noted in my field book that the temperature was 35° C. In my opinion, these black and white film frames are more powerful than the 2012 digital images.

This is one of the few wood buildings still on the site. It may be a former dormitory for quarry workers.

These two frames are from the old forge. I read that early in the 20th century, the cutting tools needed sharpening and re-tempering constantly. The forge-master was a busy fellow. Tungsten steel and other specialty metals would have reduced the need for sharpening, but those improvements came late in the history of this quarry.

This was the face of the larger rock lathe. This machine would have been used to turn stone columns  of the type used on banks or other major buildings in cities. The roof was open to allow a hoist to position a piece of stone in the right position before being attached to the lathe. Consider that this lathe could support tens of tons of rock. The lower picture is a close-up with the help of a Rolleinar close-up diopter.

This was part of a smaller rock lathe. The men who operated these lathes were true craftsmen, but they died at young ages because of silicosis (lung disease).

More machinery of unknown purpose.

Here is the pulley at the main pit (see the first photograph). I am amazed that some of the booms are still standing and supported by these rusting steel cables.

Ektar 25 film

I also took pictures with Kodak Ektar 25 film the same day. This was one of the finest-grain color negative films ever marketed. I liked it for technical work like this. It required the best lenses and methodical technique.

This is the same pulley at the edge of the main pit. The color film shows how the pulley has rusted.

 This is the forge that I showed above.

Face of small lathe

Finally, this is the building that may have been a dormitory for quarry workers.

These are the last of my Redstone Quarry photographs. Click any frame to see it in more detail. Someday I would like to return to the site. Thank you Peter and Holly for hosting me during this trip.