Tahawus, New York

The town of Tahawus, NY was settled in the early 1800's for the sole purpose of housing workers at the nearby iron ore mines. These mines were closed later that same century because of an unknown element in the iron ore that they could not process (later found to be titanium). Around 1870 or so the town was left abandoned. Six to seven of the houses are still there, some only partially and walking in a few is quite treacherous. The houses all appear to be street level in the front, but that level is actually the 2nd floor because they are on a hillside. The quarry was later mined for the titanium from the 1940's until it's close in 1982. Sadly the operational facilities were demolished in 2006. You can see images of them here.

You can see in the above photo and the inset on it, the massive size of the quarry and the result of 25 years of rainfall and neglect have now created a lake filled with a crystal clear, almost carribean-like water with absolutely no algae or growth. Which I'm guessing is either because it is so rich with minerals from the quarry or it is 100% acidic? I didn't take a dip to find out.

Anyway, it's a great ghost town for anyone that enjoys photographing decay or abandoned places. I know I enjoyed making a handful of scapes there. More info and pics about Tahawus on this site here.

example of one of the not so stable homes.


and a non-related photo I took just outside of Tahawus... that tiny 20ft. wide stream down there in the background is what you New York city folk know as the Hudson River. This photo is taken probably 10 miles south of it's teenie tiny source up here in the mountains. And don't worry I didn't accidentally drop 300ml of liquid LSD in it... although I've been tempted...just to see what might happen downstream?