Alex was interested in seeing a ghost town, so he and Nicole took off in search of the town of Riley. For a complete tour, they opted to do a fairly (depending on road conditions) pleasant 100 mile loop drive.
Looking ahead toward Ladron Peak.
Looking back toward the Magdalena Mountains.
And then there are the side views. Looking right.
Left.
And, to the right again.
Look, ahead! It’s Riley!
Riley was originally named Santa Rita and was a small agricultural village. In the late 1880’s mining came to the area and in 1890 it was granted a post office under the name of Riley. At one point the population was up to about 150 but when the mines gave out and drought made farming difficult Riley was left abandoned.
This is the old schoolhouse. There are really only two recognizable buildings in Riley. This one and the church which has been preserved for the annual Santa Rita days festivities.
The rest of the ‘town’ is pretty much a pile of ruins.
What is left is spread out a bit.
Still there’s enough here to leave you wondering about those who used to call this home.
At some point someone tried to restore several of the buildings.
It is evident in the presence of chicken wire.
Or so we thought. As it turns out, chicken wire was invented in
1844. So, is it possible that it is the original covering?
The closest we got to seeing a ghost in this town. Do you see
the face on this seed pod?
As we were leaving Riley, Alex was sort of quiet. Eventually, he piped up and said, “So, that was a ghost town.” Nicole replied, “Yup. Pretty typical.” “It’s not how I pictured it,” he says. “What did you think it would be like then?” asked Nicole. “Like in the Brady Bunch” says Alex!
Um... maybe in Hollywood.
Glad our ghost town visit turned out a bit better than the Brady’s.
