Mists of Time

This collection is a contemporary essay on the frontier past. Alaska, like many areas of the American West, developed in boom and bust cycles. Once the economics collapsed, people packed up and left, leaving to the elements abandoned buildings and equipment.

These images were acquired at the Independence mine in south-central Alaska. This was an active mine until WW2 when it was subsequently abandoned. 100's of people worked and lived here during the early 20th century and it was a complete though isolated community living in a robust climate at over 3,000 ft. elevation in the Talkeetna Mountains. Today, it is an historical state park.

I find these places interesting, haunting, mysterious. Like windows into a long forgotten world and way of life. The towns themselves are stories, told through fragments of dilapidated buildings and rusting equipment. Stories of a hard life lived in a harsh, remote landscape with the dream of striking it rich.