When The Well Runs Dry... Use It For Something Else!

This past Friday I went with the kids from our Christian school and several of their parents to see the Calico Ghost Town.  For those of you who don't live in California, it's between Barstow and Las Vegas and it's basically a pimple on the backside of Nowhere!  Really!  I want to know what made those people come waaaaayyyyeeeee out to the middle of a DESERT! for heaven's sake, and say "Hm. This looks like a GREAT place to mine for silver and gold. Let's get started!"  I will say, in it's hey-day, they pulled out over $62 million in silver from the mine (or "Glory Hole" as it's called). Now, it's dry-rotted timbers and dust.  It's also what the folks who live here have made of it.  A tourist trap (altho' you have to mean to go there, it's not sitting right off the main road).  For those of you from the mid-west and further East, if you're thinking of the likes of Silver Dollar City and such... no!  No and no and no.  Sorry. There are some "crafts" for sale, but I don't know that I'd put them on the same level as SDC or, even, what I saw at the Ren-Faire (mentioned a few posts ago).  But, there's enough people interested (it's worth a one-time visit) that they keep it going.  And, I can't really bag on ALL the crafts.  Some of the pottery is gorgeous... just not made in situ, as I understand.  I think I'd have been more impressed if the pottery, crafts and geological findings had been local, not imported (which I was told they were by a couple of the workers).

Still and all, it was something worth visiting at least once.  And, here are some pics of the kids, the day and the town


When you 1st walk in



...old-timey Main Street look (except it's not a dirt street)



Local "sherriff" is a big ol' ham! (and super hero! ~hee~)



school principal and HS teacher




checking out the pics with daddy (her brother's in our
kindergarten class so her parents came and brought her, too)




school's founder playing dead
(does a better job than any of his dogs ever did!)

 

Tour guide and master storyteller for the Haunted Shack (snerk)



...they pay SO much attention to their surroundings!

dad of a school kid and our semi-pro photographer
(he's really, really good, kids!)



In front of what's supposed
to be the old school house. Geez, a
field trip away from school and you
can't get away from school! (HA!)



part of the old, abandoned mine... not sure which part, but
coooool, huh? Wish they'd have let us in to explore!



Yes, cuteness abounds even in a rugged desert!


 As I said, not much here, but what is they've really made an attraction (of sorts) out of.  Their "well" ran dry several decades (and then some) ago but they used that well for something else. The majorest of repurposing jobs.  What do you do when your well runs dry?  Do you throw out whatever you were working on?  Toss it aside and think it's pointless or useless?  Or do you find another purpose for it?