Mother Lode Cinnabar Mine

 

 

Pendleton Series

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW PINE CREEK CEMETERY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lakeview Grave

 

 

Besides an overnight visit to the ghost town of Silver City, Idaho (just across the southeastern Oregon border), Eric's travels beyond Oregon did not begin until 2011, when he moved to Southern Oregon and started taking photography trips in Utah and Nevada.
 

 

Moe's Jewelry Store (1880)

S.N. Moe immigrated from Norway (where he was born in 1859). He learned his the watch repair and jeweler trade. His residence was in the other half of this building. Later this was one of the offices for the Silver City public telephone, until May of 1901.

War Eagle Hotel (1894) Annex - By 1900, the 1st Floor was an Undertaker Parlor/Furniture Store.

The War Eagle Hotel proprietor, John Grete, Sr. settled in Shasta, California; mining in the strikes near Shasta City, from 1860 until May 01, 1862, then leaving with a party of prospectors for the Canyon City, Oregon gold strikes.

John Grete, Sr. operated a pack train between the ghost town of Idaho City, Idaho and vanished town of Auburn, Oregon before moving to Silver City, Idaho in 1863.

John's son Fred Grete, in 1900, purchased and relocated (to the first floor of this building) the undertaker parlor/furniture store of Townsend and Upham; which neighbored the Owyhee Avalanche's last newspaper printing office (see the photo in the Newspapers 9" x 12" Photographs Gallery). By 1906 John Grete Jr bought the Furniture Store/Undertaker Parlor from his brother, remaining open until the abandonment of Silver City. The War Eagle Hotel Annex continued to operate on the second floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PART 4 - Southern Oregon and Bohemia Sequence

The Bohemian Club (Established in Nov. 1933) - Medford, Oregon. © Eric Thome, 2012This was my first night photo of a historic neon sign still lit.

I photographed this sign in 2012 while living near the California border in Southwest Oregon for a couple of years. The bar closed in 2019 after losing its liquor license due to a "sustained history of serious and persistent problems."

The Bohemian Club (Established in Nov. 1933) - Medford, Oregon. © Eric Thome, 2012

This was my first night photo of a historic neon sign that still lights up. I photographed this in 2012 while living near the California border in Southwest Oregon for a couple of years. The bar closed in 2019 after losing its liquor license due to a "sustained history of serious and persistent problems."

 

 

Bohemian Club Beer Bottle Photo

 

 

 

The first of Eric's new cameras was purchased in 2013, one year before he moved to Sacramento, California. With his greatly improved image quality came expeditions around California, Nevada, and Utah; also, he returned to Baltimore, Maryland and the East Coast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the years passed, Eric visited more states and began shooting with his first macro lens in 2016. In 2018, his camera quality improved even more after purchasing his first full-frame sensor camera. In 2019, he began using a DJI Mavic Mini as a flying camera to take aerial photographs. He has since upgraded to the DJI Mini 3 Pro for high-quality aerial photographs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 2015 to the present year (2024), Eric has taken a nearly annual photo trip to Nevada, a dreamland for ghost towns and historic mine sites. He plans to continue traveling the western states for as long as he can, as there are more than a lifetime's worth of places to photograph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beginning with his Portland darkroom days, Eric was also interested in photographing historic buildings, signs, and sites from living towns and cities (which are also being constantly vandalized and disappearing).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An unknown number of buildings and structures no longer exist since Eric photographed them because he only knows when he returns if something is gone or if he learns from an internet source that something is no longer in existence or ruined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In school, Eric didn't have a specific class about the history of photography or photographic artists. Researching taught Eric, often years after photographing a site, that famous photographers shot some of the same ghost towns and locations. These photographers include Carleton Watkins, Timothy O'Sullivan, William Henry Jackson, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Horace Bristol, Paul Strand, Andreas Feininger, Todd Webb and more as he continues to learn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baltimore Demolished 

 

 

Eric has traveled to places he finds exciting and awe-inspiring, taking him through more beautiful scenery than he has time to photograph during thoroughly planned trips. Each travel day is filled from the morning into the night with sites to explore and photos to take, fueled primarily by rockabilly, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and other genres of music from the 1950s and 1960s.

 

 

 

 

The Wild and Wicked 1956 Movie Poster - Chico

 

Portland, 1957-58 Morrison Bridge - Royal Hotel

 

 

 

 

Crockett, CA Live Music Neon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fresno - Neon Auto Supply
 

 

Nelson - Metropolitan 1953-1957 American Cars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wyatt (Josie) and Virgil Earp Sequence