Arrested Decay

There is probably no harder architectural mandate than to keep a building in a state of “arrested decay.” Historic sites often face this mandate to preserve a location or structure for visitors to experience. This is a conflicting mandate, keep a building as it “was” yet prevent it from falling down or decaying further. Improvements must be made in the tenor of the times yet keep the feeling of the times in the structure.

Barber Chair - Tillman Crane — An old fashioned barber chairs sits in the afternoon sunlight in Bannack, MT

In September I will be leading a workshop in Montana where we will visit two of these ghost towns in “arrested states of decay.” We will start in Bannack one of the best preserved high plains ghost towns in the country. It is a Montana State Park. We have made arrangements to photograph in and around the buildings for two days. There is a school, Masonic Lodge, hotel, bar, and many houses spread out down the main street. It looks and feels as if you have walked into the late 19^thcentury. The Montana State Park system is doing an excellent job of persevering and not prettifying the town. The town feels abandoned but safely preserved for us to enter and create our own stories about living in the high and dry plains of western Montana.

Three white pickets stand in the afternoon sun as part of a picket fence in Bannack, MT. — Three white pickets stand in the afternoon sun in Bannack, MT.

Later in the week we will move north to the Missoula area and spend two days photographing in Garnet. Garnet is a hard rock mining town that was established in the 1890s and thrived until the1920s. It is managed and maintained by the Bureau of Land Management. Over 80 buildings are under the purview of the BLM and in the center of Garnet the hotel, bar and general store that are maintained but not prettified.

The second-floor hallway glows with afternoon light illustrating the combination of preservation and authentic feel in Garnet, MT.

While we are in the area of these two towns, we will visit a couple of locations that are being supervised but not maintained: Coloma and Coolidge. Both are former mining towns that played out about 100 years ago. Coolidge is located in the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forrest. Coloma is on BLM land not far from Garnet.

The school house roof sits in Elkhorn creek creating a partial dam on the stream. — The roof to the Coolidge Schoolhouse sits in Elkhorn Creek.

The roof of the Coolidge School sits in Elkhorn Creek. Or it did. Because Coolidge is not being actively preserved it may have moved downstream in the spring floods.

Jon me for a great week in September in western Montana as we explore and photograph the towns in their state or arrested decay.

Tillman

Maine Media Workshops