Gone

Over time different peoples have attempted to build a future in the Mojave Desert of California but never stayed. This is a harsh desert with unrelenting winds, scoring summer heat, bitterly cold winters, and lack of reliable water sources. Whatever drove these settlers away, they abandoned their hopes in the desert. This series looks at what remains after the people have left. The arid desert climate preserves fragments of lives, glimpses of abandoned dreams, and evidence of their trials.

A broken fire hydrant is part of what remains from an abandoned subdivision near Lucerne Valley, CA.

Two old posts connected by barbed wire are all that is left of a cattle enclosure in north Apple Valley, CA.

An abandoned brick homestead house still stands roofless in northern Apple Valley, CA.

Two dead palm trees frame a derelict garage in an abandoned subdivision in Lucerne Valley, CA.

An abandoned homestead house still houses the stove near Ludlow, CA

An old windmill blows in the breeze as part of an abandoned homestead house in northern Apple Valley, CA.

One of a row of abandoned cottages that abut old Route 66 in Amboy, CA which was bypassed by the interstate.

Dunes was the sign in front of an abandoned motel on old Route 66 near Lenwood, CA on a cloudy day.

Stormy skies threaten the abandoned wooden structure in the Mojave National Preserve.preserve001.jpg