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This is the abandoned Masonic Temple of Galata, Montana. It sits at the very western edge of the ghost town. The building looks quite old but the interior looks like it was last updated in the 60s.
Galata is almost a complete ghost town. There really are no more businesses open. Only a few homes are still lived in. This town has an interesting history and there are so many abandoned buildings that I would love to know the story behind.
Here is a video from when I drove through this great ghost town:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0R55_f-ndA
"Galata, east of Shelby, is near Willow Creek, one of the streams that flows into the reservoir created by Tiber Dam. It was a trading point and cattle shipping station on the Great Northern’s High Line. In 1901 David R. McGinnis, first immigration agent of the Great Northern Railroad, was so impressed by the beauty of the spot that he filed a claim for the land near the railroad where it crossed dry Galata Creek. McGinnis hired a surveyor to lay out a town and the following year brought carpenters and lumber from Kalispell to build a two-room house.
Cattlemen from the Marias River ranges brought their cattle to Galata for shipment to eastern markets. On cold winter days they were glad to have the protection of the two little rooms in the only building in “town.” The house burned down in 1904, but in 1905 McGinnis began rebuilding Galata. He built a two-room real estate office and an eight-room hotel, and eventually induced a storekeeper to set up shop in one of the rooms of the real estate office. Ranches would drive in with a chuckwagon and load up on $500—sometimes even $1,000—worth of supplies, pay in cash and return home for the long winter. After a few years, Galata’s only merchant closed shop and the hotel was abandoned; McGinnis gave up his dream of a town and moved to Kalispell.
One day he was surprised to receive a check in the mail. It was marked “back rent,” and was from a cowhand who had moved into the deserted Galata store and had done a good business with dryland farmers who were then settling on the old-time open range. By 1910 Galata had four lumberyards and five store. (from Cheney’s Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company)
Near Galata, residents and visitors can enjoy one of the most versatile recreational areas in Montana, Tiber Dam-Lake Elwell. The lake provides excellent year-round angling for Walleye, Northern and Sauger Pike, native trout, Ling, Perch and others. Some may want to try their hand at bow fishing for carp that often exceed 20 pounds. For boaters and swimmers the area boasts over 50 miles of shoreline, a marina, and four well-maintained boat ramps located strategically around the lake. There are also numerous campground areas.
While you're at Tiber you'll observe spectacular windblown sandstone formations, Indian rings, and one of the largest earthen dikes in the world! The area surrounding Tiber contains excellent hunting, and a unique birdwatching area is located along the Marias River below Tiber Dam." -Montana's Russell Country Website
This is a great article, just scroll town to the one titled “Caught between two worlds, one dead, the other struggling to be born.”
www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/fieldnotes/C77/
This is a link to a neat photo taken near Galata many, many years ago:
I was recently a visitor at 10 Downing Street, the Office of the Prime Minster of the United Kingdom. I took the liberty of grabbing this "Field Notes in Action" shot of my Night Sky edition I'm currently working through.
Getting ready for colder weather, with Eden, leg warmer queen, in mind. –It's already winter in the cube room.
Tumblr was giving these out at their party earlier this week.
photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
This photo is licensed under a Creative Commons license. If you use this photo within the terms of the license or make special arrangements to use the photo, please list the photo credit as "Scott Beale / Laughing Squid" and link the credit to laughingsquid.com.
I decided to start collecting County Fair edition FNs, based on historical sites from the U.S. Civil War..
Perfect timing. I got the new set in the mail on on the same day I finished my last of the spring set.
"I never knew a town could die and people would keep on living there."..."Kind of like ghosts, huh?" Sam said and laughed ..."Be careful you don't turn into a ghost while you're here." -Stanley Gordon West, 'Blind Your Ponies'
If you follow a dirt trail (that disappears eventually) west out of the ghost town of Galata, Montana you will see these buildings. There really is no way to get to to them anymore (no road that is) but they are part of Galata, MT! It's so odd because they are fairly far removed from Galata its self. But the buildings do belong to the town of Galata--the depot says "Galata" on the side. What a mystery!
Galata, Montana is almost a complete ghost town. There really are no more businesses open. Only a few homes are still lived in. This town has an interesting history and there are so many abandoned buildings that I would love to know the story behind.
Here is a video from when I drove through this great ghost town:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0R55_f-ndA
"Galata, east of Shelby, is near Willow Creek, one of the streams that flows into the reservoir created by Tiber Dam. It was a trading point and cattle shipping station on the Great Northern’s High Line. In 1901 David R. McGinnis, first immigration agent of the Great Northern Railroad, was so impressed by the beauty of the spot that he filed a claim for the land near the railroad where it crossed dry Galata Creek. McGinnis hired a surveyor to lay out a town and the following year brought carpenters and lumber from Kalispell to build a two-room house.
Cattlemen from the Marias River ranges brought their cattle to Galata for shipment to eastern markets. On cold winter days they were glad to have the protection of the two little rooms in the only building in “town.” The house burned down in 1904, but in 1905 McGinnis began rebuilding Galata. He built a two-room real estate office and an eight-room hotel, and eventually induced a storekeeper to set up shop in one of the rooms of the real estate office. Ranches would drive in with a chuckwagon and load up on $500—sometimes even $1,000—worth of supplies, pay in cash and return home for the long winter. After a few years, Galata’s only merchant closed shop and the hotel was abandoned; McGinnis gave up his dream of a town and moved to Kalispell.
One day he was surprised to receive a check in the mail. It was marked “back rent,” and was from a cowhand who had moved into the deserted Galata store and had done a good business with dryland farmers who were then settling on the old-time open range. By 1910 Galata had four lumberyards and five store. (from Cheney’s Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company)
Near Galata, residents and visitors can enjoy one of the most versatile recreational areas in Montana, Tiber Dam-Lake Elwell. The lake provides excellent year-round angling for Walleye, Northern and Sauger Pike, native trout, Ling, Perch and others. Some may want to try their hand at bow fishing for carp that often exceed 20 pounds. For boaters and swimmers the area boasts over 50 miles of shoreline, a marina, and four well-maintained boat ramps located strategically around the lake. There are also numerous campground areas.
While you're at Tiber you'll observe spectacular windblown sandstone formations, Indian rings, and one of the largest earthen dikes in the world! The area surrounding Tiber contains excellent hunting, and a unique birdwatching area is located along the Marias River below Tiber Dam." -Montana's Russell Country Website
This is a great article, just scroll town to the one titled “Caught between two worlds, one dead, the other struggling to be born.”
www.montanaheritageproject.org/index.php/fieldnotes/C77/
This is a link to a neat photo taken near Galata many, many years ago:
Field Notes Northerly Winter 2011 Limited Edition. Read my review at archer-rantings.blogspot.com/2012/01/notebook-review-nort...
Clay Aiken met with Jamad on his trip to Afghanistan with UNICEF. Jamad attends a unique school where boys and girls from grades 1-9 share classes and study in the open. The school is in urgent need of funding to buy tents and materials to build a new school to allow more children the opportunity to be educated.
For more information visit fieldnotes.unicefusa.org.
PHOTO: US Fund for UNICEF
www.flickr.com/photos/lasertrimguy/16349252614/
Earth Fissures in Arizona
Guy Shovlin
Pima Community College
Geology
GLG 101
Heidi Barnett
7/12/2011
Abstract
Earth fissures in Arizona have been observed since 1927. These cracks in the soil are caused primarily by basin subsidence in the basin and range areas of central Arizona. This subsidence is the result of the extraction of ground water at a faster rate than its replenishment. The surface subsidence gaps have ranged from a few inches to tens of feet in Arizona. Fissures are found on the perimeters of those basins whose subsidence has exceeded a few feet and the fissures may extend hundreds of feet into the ground and laterally for thousands of feet. Known earth fissures are found in Pinal, Maricopa, Cochise and Pima counties. The Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) is producing, for Arizona, the most detailed fissure map ever made. The AZGS does not have enough information to issue safe building requirements in the vicinity of fissures. For this reason construction near fissures should be avoided. The AZGS requires time and resources to gather fissure data and design accurate propagation models before state construction guidelines can be issued.
Earth Fissures in Arizona
Imagine living in a small farming community in rural Arizona. While you stand looking at a small pond near your home, you hear a loud unfamiliar rumble, so you focus on the pond and the source of the sound. A crack has formed in the soil and in less than a minute, 10,000 gallons of water has disappeared. The sound you heard was the rush of pond water flowing into the ground and you were one of the few people on earth to witness the formation of an earth fissure. If you are lucky, the split in the land will not grow and damage your driveway and your house. If you are not so lucky, this misfortune will happen to you too, just as it did to the person whose experience this account was taken from (Slaff, 1993).
Earth fissures are broadly recognized as cracks, separations or seams in the ground caused by tensional forces related to differential land subsidence (Arizona Land Subsidence Group, 2007). Figure 1 shows a low altitude aerial view of a fissure located in Apache Junction, Arizona. Tensional ground forces are common in nature but Arizona and a few other southwestern states have had these forces generated by human endeavor. We humans like to live and more importantly grow crops in the desert. These enterprises require clean and abundant water, which the aquifers in Arizona basins contain in vast amounts. This is the starting point for the uniquely manmade adversities known as subsidence-related earth fissures (Arizona Land Subsidence Group, 2007).
Figure 1 Fissure in Apache Junction, Arizona (Arrowsmith, 2002)
The history of Arizona fissures begins with the first report of a surface crack in 1927. It was discovered three miles northeast of Picacho Peak and was 1000 feet long, crossing under the Southern Pacific railroad bed and the Tucson-Casa Grande Highway, the road that would later become Interstate Route 10 (Leanord, 1929). The highlighted area of the satellite picture, in Figure 2 shows the general location of this 1927 fissure. The map of Figure 3 shows its exact location: the point where it crosses under Interstate 10, the access roads and the railroad bed. Three hypotheses were advanced to explain the cause of this first of many fissures. The most likely reasons for the crack were thought to be either the “commotion” of a distant earthquake or the internal adjustment of rock structures in the nearby Picacho Mountains (Leanord, 1929). The best conjecture was given the least credibility: subsidence.
Figure 2 Google Map of 1927 Fissure Location
Figure 3 1927 Original Picacho Fissure (Under I10) and Surrounding Fissures
The Picacho basin has been farmed using extracted groundwater since 1900 (Burbey & Hernandez-Marin, 2010). The top left corner of Figure 3 shows the edge of a modern day agricultural plot less than a mile away from the original Picacho fissure. This has significant bearing on the fracture since it is now known that ground subsidence is a primary ingredient in the formation of many of Arizona’s fissures and groundwater pumping is a primary ingredient for subsidence.
The basin and range geology of southern Arizona consists of mountains standing on firm bedrock. These mountains are separated by bedrock lined grabens filled with eroded sediment to form flat surfaced basins. The sediment in these basins is the repository of accumulated groundwater that is so heavily consumed today by the farms and residential developments above. The replenishment of the groundwater through rainfall and an elaborate man-made groundwater recharging system does not keep pace with the groundwater withdrawals by public and private wells. This lowers the water table and the buoyant properties that the mined groundwater had provided. The result is that the surface of the basins looses elevation or subsides.
Over 3000 square miles of Arizona land have subsided due to a reduction groundwater levels. Water table levels have dropped by 500 feet near Casa Grande and water related ground subsidence in excess of 18 feet has occurred west of Phoenix (Harris & Pearthree, 2002). The slow irreversible collapse in basin soil goes relatively unnoticed by most people living in these areas. Some notable exceptions are well owners whose steel well casings sit on well ledges below the shrinking soil above. Over time and increased subsidence these steel linings rise out of the ground like a slow motion Jack-in-the-box (Harris & Pearthree, 2002). Figure 4 below shows an example of the ground subsiding away from a stationary well casing head in Eloy, Arizona.
Figure 4 33 Years of Ground Subsidence Recorded on a Well Casing
Another population affected by ground subsidence, although they may not be aware of its affect, are those groups impacted by the earth fissures, which subsidence has created. The sections of basins closest to mountains and their unshrinkable bedrock below tend to subside less than the deeper sedimentary soils in the center of the basins. This provides the setting for differential stresses in the sediment. These stresses create fissures on the perimeter of the basins and often follow the contours of the mountain fronts that boarder these basins (Harris & Pearthree, 2002). Most basins in Arizona where subsidence, greater than a few feet, has occurred have produced fissures. The root cause of earth fissures: subsidence - is irreversible. Once the groundwater is removed and the pore space in the soil is compressed and compacted it cannot be restored to its original size. Therefore the subsided basin soil can never again hold as much water as it did prior to its compaction (Harris & Pearthree, 2002).
The Arizona Department of Water Resources makes use of satellite surveying technology to monitor the change in elevation of areas in Arizona that have, or have the potential to, subside. They create periodic color coded maps of these areas that resolve half centimeter changes in the soil elevation. The Picacho basin has, for example, subsided over two centimeters in the last year (Arizona Department of Water Resources Geophysics/Surveying Unit, 2011).
The Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) has worked on the most detailed earth fissure map in the world covering all the known fissures in Arizona (Allison, 2008). Figure 5 below provides an example of the 1927 Picacho fissure, as well as others, displayed on the AZGS interactive map using Google maps technology (Arizona Geological Survey, 2011).
Although there is no capability to predict the location of future fissures, there is, like with many other geologic hazards, the ability to place probabilities on the likely location of new fissure events. In general new fissures occur in the vicinity of old fissures and the new cracks tend to appear on the basin side of the older fissures (Harris & Pearthree, 2002).
Figure 5 Example of Interactive Arizona Fissure Map
Since a fissure is a surface indication of a crack in the earth that may extend hundreds of feet down to the water table and laterally for thousands of feet, they are difficult but not always impossible to mitigate. When it comes to new construction it is better to avoid fissures and their surrounding areas altogether. The AZGS has no published standards for proximal setback construction distance to fissures. Currently, only Cochise, Pinal, Maricopa and to a lesser extent Pima counties contain known earth fissures in Arizona (Shipman, A Brief History of Earth Fissures in Arizona, 2008).
Earth fissure creation and propagation modeling is in its early stages of development. This is the reason that the AZGS has no published setback standards and is unable to predict where new fissures may appear or already exist but are not evident on the surface (Arizona Land Subsidence Group, 2007).
The leading organization dealing with fissures and subsidence in Arizona, the Arizona Land Subsidence Group recommends:
1.Increasing concentrated research on subsidence and fissure phenomena and hazards.
2.Establishment of a long-term commitment to obtain subsidence and fissure data.
3.Creation of a network that can integrate online sources for geohazard data.
4.Working with neighboring states with similar subsidence and fissure problems.
5.Integrating the latest knowledge of earth fissures and land subsidence into publications and mapping products.
Land fissuring in Arizona is a serious problem that has been observed since 1927. It is the focus of intense study by a number of public and private agencies but due to the serious threats it presents, more research is required. Without improved subsidence and fissure modeling, minimum safe standards for proximal construction and mitigation cannot be generated. Since the water tables throughout the state continue to decline, earth fissures will continue to be a created and earth fissures will continue to be a threat.
References
Allison, L. (2008, November 26). Lee Allison, Arizona State Geologist and AZGS Director on Earth Fissures in Arizona. Retrieved July 11, 2011, from The Arizona Geological Survey | Home |:: www.azgs.az.gov/VISUALIZE/VIDEO/Fissure Vids/1.mp4
Arizona Department of Water Resources Geophysics/Surveying Unit. (2011, July 11). Picacho-Eloy Subsidence Feature MAY-2010 to MAY-2011. Retrieved July 11, 2011, from Land Subsidence Maps:: www.azwater.gov/AzDWR/Hydrology/Geophysics/documents/Gree...
Arizona Geological Survey. (2011, July 11). Earth Fissure Viewer. Retrieved July 11, 2011, from The Arizona Geological Survey | Home |:: services.azgs.az.gov/OnlineMaps/fissures.html
Arizona Land Subsidence Group. (2007). LAND SUBSIDENCE AND EARTH FISSURES IN ARIZONA. Phoenix: Arizona Land Subsidence Group (ALSG).
Arrowsmith, J. R. (2002, November 5). Balloon photography of earth fissures near Apache Junction. Retrieved July 12, 2011, from Active Tectonics, Quantitative Structural Geology and Geomorphology:: activetectonics.asu.edu/Environmental_Geophysics/fissures/
Burbey, T. J., & Hernandez-Marin, M. (2010). Controls on initiation and propagation of pumping-induced earth fissures: insights from numerical simulations. Hydrology Jpurnal , 1773-1785.
DuBois, S. M., & Smith, A. W. (1980). Earthquakes causing damage in Arizona. Fieldnotes from the State of Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology , 10 (3), 4-6.
Harris, R. C., & Pearthree, P. A. (2002). A Home Buyer's Guide to Geologic Hazards in Arizona. Tucson: Arizona Geological Survey.
Leanord, R. J. (1929). An Earth Fissure in Southern Arizona. The Journal of Geology , 37 (8), 765-774.
Shipman, T. (2008, November 26). A Brief History of Earth Fissures in Arizona. Retrieved July 11, 2011, from The Arizona Geological Survey | Home |:: www.azgs.az.gov/VISUALIZE/VIDEO/Fissure Vids/3.mp4
Shipman, T. (2008, November 28). The Origin and Nature of Earth Fissures. Retrieved July 11, 2011, from The Arizona Geological Survey | Home |:: www.azgs.az.gov/VISUALIZE/VIDEO/Fissure Vids/2.mp4
Slaff, S. (1993). Land Subsidance and Earth Fissures in Arizona. Tucson: Arizoan Geological Survey.