Too Big to Fail?

Well composed image. I like the way the diagonal of the clouds fit the broken wall. Ironic that the last bit standing is a wall of the bank.

Although I am not a fan of B&W, I admit that it's the perfect choice of rendering this image. It conveys a feel of photography at the time the building was in operation.

Cooks Bank was actually a very big bank in its day. Putting a 3 story stone building into a community that consisted mostly of wooden cabins, and even canvas tents, illustrates that.

The building itself has taken quite a few hits since I saw it for the first time. As recent as five or six years ago both upper windows were still intact. The left side broke off since. And 25 years ago the windows' wooden frames were still in place, along with some red velvet curtains.

Mining in Rhyolite isn't completely dead. There are currently at least 5 mining companies active in the Rhyolite/ Beatty area, including the original and current owner of Rhyolite's mines, the Beatty Bullfrog Mining Company. Those mines still hold profitable deposits of gold.

It is true that Nevada has some parts of Death Valley, but Rhyolite is not one of them, even though nearby Beatty claims to be the Gateway to Death Valley and the park's visitor center used to be located in that town for a long time.

Jens Peermann wrote:Although I am not a fan of B&W, I admit that it's the perfect choice of rendering this image. It conveys a feel of photography at the time the building was in operation.

Cooks Bank was actually a very big bank in its day. Putting a 3 story stone building into a community that consisted mostly of wooden cabins, and even canvas tents, illustrates that.

The building itself has taken quite a few hits since I saw it for the first time. As recent as five or six years ago both upper windows were still intact. The left side broke off since. And 25 years ago the windows' wooden frames were still in place, along with some red velvet curtains.

Mining in Rhyolite isn't completely dead. There are currently at least 5 mining companies active in the Rhyolite/ Beatty area, including the original and current owner of Rhyolite's mines, the Beatty Bullfrog Mining Company. Those mines still hold profitable deposits of gold.

It is true that Nevada has some parts of Death Valley, but Rhyolite is not one of them, even though nearby Beatty claims to be the Gateway to Death Valley and the park's visitor center used to be located in that town for a long time.

Jens,thanks for the historical update. I was told that Rhyolite was at the edge of Death Valley so thanks for the correction . I was aware that gold extraction was still in process in Beatty-I remember passing a sign for Barrick Gold .

I too like the diagonal of the clouds versus the building's lines and parallel to the shadows.