One of my favorite parts about the Southwest is driving through small towns and seeing old, rundown buildings — and how they interact with our wide open spaces.
This particular one sits just off the shoulder of Highway 60 in Salome, Arizona. I photographed it last July while chasing storms through the area.
The recently added “hitching posts” make it appear older than it is. A local told me it’s an old gas station built in the 1930s, with the fake hitching posts sitting atop the old concrete island that once held the gas pump.
I saw a photo taken about 10 years ago when the hitching posts were falling apart, so apparently someone — perhaps the property owner — maintains them.
They sure do make it a photographically interesting scene, but I don’t care for their historic inaccuracy.
I poked around inside the structure and it is completely empty. Deteriorating plaster interior walls reaffirm that it’s just about a century old.
A couple pieces of graffiti adorn said walls. One, applied with spray paint, espouses “Rigo ❤️z Jane!” The other, written with what I assume was a big fat permanent marker, proclaims “I ❤️ life.”
Not that I condone vandalism. But it was there and I found it interesting, if not a bit surprising with these messages of love and positivity.
But seriously now, kids — please don’t go marking up stuff with your love professions. And especially not carved into aspen trees or written over the top of petroglyphs.
As they say, leave only footprints and take only photographs. And if you have the means and the gumption, take a little road trip to a small town in the middle of nowhere that you’ve never been before.
Surprises abound.
-Jake
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