Me and my buddy have always talked about checking this little town out some day and we finally made that happen on a previous trip.
Darwin, many would say, is a ghost town and certainly with its own backstory and history. I’ll dive into that in a minute. There are still a small group of people that live here and call this area home. It’s definitely for those wanting to live off the grid, that’s for sure. There are no stores here or services of any kind, other than the local Post Office. As a matter of fact, keeping the Post Office open and operational is the only thing that allows Darwin to keep its designation as a town vs losing that distinction. The Posr Office does sell sodas as well but that’s about it. In fact, while we walked around the different streets, there were signs posted in some of the windows letting people know that Darwin is a living town, not a ghost town, and to respect the buildings and properties because people still live in them. The closest services and schools would be about 25 mins away and it does get very hot here in the summer for sure.
I would describe Darwin as being in a partial state of arrested decay, as you can tell from my photos below. I really liked the old vehicles as well as the gas pump and rusted adding machine. The post with all of the tea kettles was odd, and was right in front of a family’s home. We could tell the dance hall is still actively used (pink building) . There were a few people out doing things on their properties while we were there. Amongst the strange things we saw was the very weathered wood statue carving as well as multiple white marble statues of naked women and men. These were hand-carved by a resident at the town because we happened by his home and could see many blank marble block slabs (for future projects) as well as a large statue carving in progress complete with a ton of fresh white marble shavings piled up around it. These were interesting to look at, but also seemed very odd and out of place. Also, a lot of furniture left outside to weather under the hot sun. Not sure if these get used by the residents, or are there to invite people to gather, not really sure. The Library was in such a tiny shack of a building. Really, the town seemed very quiet and mostly deserted. I don’t see the point of wanting to live here unless you want to be left alone and off the grid. Obviously no internet, and cell service was not good signal. Whatever you might need, you would always have to drive further back to a larger town to get it. It seemed for several of the properties there, each one had its own theme of recycled/manufactured art or collection, if you will. The mine is still there, set up into the large hill, along with a large grouping of what used to be individual worker residences. These may have possibly ok way back in the day, but these had very thin walls, no insulation and very small. Better than nothing I suppose but not very good either. The whole mining property was gated and locked up, so no change to hike around to get a better view. Obviously that’s done to keep people out and nobody getting hurt.
There was a critically-acclaimed documentary done back in 2011 about the history of the town, simply titled “Darwin”, that I would like to watch. You can search this up on the internet or IMDB. Enjoy my photos below. All taken on my Sony A7III and my new Sigma 28-70 f2.8
The Alpha Landscape 
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