Leland Howard Fine Art Nature Images

It Was Running When I Parked It

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Cabins and old car in ghost town of Marysville, Montana, #g8

Artifacts in a ghost town tell more of the story, and can be used to roughly date a settlement. Old Cars, or maybe bits of hardened leather from tiny shoes and lace up boots reveal that some miners brought their families along. If a little "color" was discovered in the rocks and dirt, more prospectors arrived and something resembling a town soon took shape. Historical references state that it was common for there to be as many as a dozen saloons in a town, sometimes serving a community of only a few hundred people. The first bars were often canvas tents erected before hastily constructed buildings. Other establishments considered necessary were the general store, hotel, blacksmith shop and sometimes a jail. Law enforcement was haphazard in such an environment. Accounts of murders, robberies and mayhem back in the day confirm the wild in "Wild West."
"The town was filled with the worst element of the Pacific Coast, and thieves and gamblers from the East. The saloons and gambling houses were wide open night and day, and a man was killed nearly every night." Alonzo Brown, a resident of Florence, a ghost town northeast of Riggins Idaho.