We're not having a super wet winter, but the snow we have is sticking around, making some of the abandoned buildings in Snake Valley seem even more desolate. Whenever I see old buildings like these, I always wonder about the people who lived in them and what they did and how they survived the winters.
Here's one of the old telegraph poles south of Garrison. There was a telegraph line out to Burbank and I think also one to Milford.
Although the water level in Pruess Lake (Garrison Reservoir) is slowly being replenished during the winter, the water is still low enough that there is a line of burdock between the shore and the ice. These nasty plants have little burs that cling to shoelaces.
Standing on top of the century old dam, one can see how low the water is. The dam was built with bricks that were fired in a kiln up on Snake Creek. The original dam was built by water prospectors who thought they could entice people to come out to Snake Valley and make big bucks farming. They promoted the steady water supply they were developing with the dam. They were better promoters than geologists, though. The rock you can see in the photo above on the left is limestone, and the porous nature of this rock meant that the water could never get near the top of the dam. The huge tracts for farming across the valley never emerged, although one can see the miles-long ditch from the air (and partly from the road) that extends north from Pruess Lake to Garrison and then across the stateline into Nevada. That round of water prospecting didn't turn out so well, and we're hoping current attempts meet the same fate.
We're not having a super wet winter, but the snow we have is sticking around, making some of the abandoned buildings in Snake Valley seem even more desolate. Whenever I see old buildings like these, I always wonder about the people who lived in them and what they did and how they survived the winters. 
Here's one of the old telegraph poles south of Garrison. There was a telegraph line out to Burbank and I think also one to Milford.
Although the water level in Pruess Lake (Garrison Reservoir) is slowly being replenished during the winter, the water is still low enough that there is a line of burdock between the shore and the ice. These nasty plants have little burs that cling to shoelaces. 
Standing on top of the century old dam, one can see how low the water is. The dam was built with bricks that were fired in a kiln up on Snake Creek. The original dam was built by water prospectors who thought they could entice people to come out to Snake Valley and make big bucks farming. They promoted the steady water supply they were developing with the dam. They were better promoters than geologists, though. The rock you can see in the photo above on the left is limestone, and the porous nature of this rock meant that the water could never get near the top of the dam. The huge tracts for farming across the valley never emerged, although one can see the miles-long ditch from the air (and partly from the road) that extends north from Pruess Lake to Garrison and then across the stateline into Nevada. That round of water prospecting didn't turn out so well, and we're hoping current attempts meet the same fate.
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