Aminus3 Photography - weekly prompt: Letters

"There is a deep sense in which we are all ghost towns. We are all haunted by the memory of those we love, those with whom we feel we have unfinished business. While they may no longer be with us, a faint aroma of their presence remains, a presence that haunts us until we make our peace with them and let them go." ~ Peter Rollins

Letters on a ghost town’s grave marker, Kelton, UT - taken on my long meander around the country. Basically "in the middle of nowhere" northwest of the Great Salt Lake, the entire area is fascinating - dotted by the remnants of the towns and workers who built the Trans Continental Railroad. Kelton is now one of these ghost towns, and like many of the others, was once prosperous. It was first settled in 1869 by the Asian (specifically, Chinese) workers on the Central Pacific Railroad and originally named Indian creek - later changing to Kelton after the post office was built. Situated on busy stage coach routes, it had a number of nice hotels, stores, houses, and of course, saloons and gambling halls. But less than 20 years later, all of the stage lines were gone - including the Wells Fargo that ran to the gold mines in ID and MT (and was robbed more often than any other western line). In the early 1900's the main railroad line was relocated, and in 1934, Kelton was rocked by a 6.6 earthquake - the most powerful on record in UT. By 1942, the last remaining people left, and all that's left now are a few scattered graves, and bits and pieces of building foundations and trestles, scrap metal, sand, silt and bones.