Population of One: Living Alone in an Abandoned Ghost Town

when I first came out here my biggest worry was am I going to die I mean I've lived in a city my whole life and the thing about it is out here in the country if something happens it's gonna happen to you and there's nobody out here to help you the day after I bought this place really the next day someone had broken into the trailer my little Airstream they totally trashed it and then I really did wonder you know what have I done [Music] while we're in Cisco Utah which is a ghost town it's high desert which means it's a really harsh environment in the summer it's like over a hundred and in the winter it's below freezing I would say it was about three years ago that I flew out here I was going to Horseshoe Canyon which is about three hours away from here and when I first came I thought oh I'm not sure that this is abandoned but after I established that it was then I had all kinds of other ideas I like the idea since this was a town at one point to do an artist residency out here the desert draws a lot of artists because it's a really good creative space you're not distracted by anything actually it's just this is all there is [Music] this is the house that I live in it's a 1950 Spartan mansion the person that I bought this from he was an older guy when I called him on the phone I said well I don't have that much money but here's what I have and then he agreed to it immediately which made me nervous it wasn't that much money but it was all of that I had luckily for me I come from a family of now I don't want to say hustlers or anything but I feel like we were a pretty scrappy bunch and we were very much like raised to make use of the things that you have and what's around obviously everything needs to be done because when I got here everything was falling apart so I'm rebuilding this entire place which takes a lot of time this post office shut down in like the early 90s and it was replaced by these pio boxes as you can see there's a lot of room for people to move in this town was made to service the steam engine River which is funny because there's no actual water here technically it was abandoned during the 90s but I mean people started leaving like the late 60s as a whole just power rich it's all it is yeah I built this porch all of this wood here is from the kitchen that I tore down behind my lot captain I made all these windows myself it's really hard to make a window off a lot of people are scared of the outhouse which makes sense I mean you're hovering over a giant hole full of so people don't really consider what it takes just to exist as far as like what happens to your sewage where do you get your water and all that stuff which is something I didn't really think about either when I came here kind of but not to the extent of like the actual reality of what do you use every day the bathroom so yeah this is the Winnebago this is hopefully gonna be the live workspace for the residency program obviously it needs some work the roof the electric the windows I'm just happy that the door is still here you know what I mean people assume that because I'm living in a ghost town that I have nothing to do I've have rehabbed trailers and houses I'd built decks this is what I'm here to do since I have to rebuild the roof anyway and I'm gonna be tearing all this apart is I want to actually extend it and make a sleeping area up here I have a lot of time to do that because in the desert it's so sparse and there are very little rules you know it makes it more likely that a creative person would be able to do what they want there and it's also like you could test as an artist to see whether or not they will do their artwork if left alone to it this is a very conservative state and it's a very religious state and I would like to say to people that it's safe here for gay people but I can't I can't say that the flags inside for now which I feel a little bit ashamed of 99% of the people out here have been very welcoming to me and guys that you wouldn't assume that would be you know that way my neighbor just brought me a whole bunch of ammunition and every people do look out for each other out here and I have had to stay in certain circumstances oh my husband will be right back hey Joe I got your water this one's leaking again Joe was one of the first people I met out here there's a lot of people that kind of snoop around and stuff and so I watched him he was over there for a long time I was like what is that guy doing he was like digging in the dirt and I was like okay it's starting to get dark I have to go over there and tell him to go and he stands up and show him what you carry and I have my little Billy MIDI guy but that's the serious gun mine looks like a toy when you stood up and I saw your gun oh ho that's right this is Utah this is Utah everybody is good everyone has a gun and Joe has since then taught me how to shoot and actually this this handgun here he gifted to me but after we had a certain incident happen where he is like you need a real gun yes Oh No maybe another time I've had some problems with people at night and it gets really dangerous there was a truck down the street and I pulled up and there's a big confederate flag on the back and there's flashlights and a guy comes out of an abandoned building and he's holding a gun which is a different thing than keeping in the holster and the whole time I'm trying to explain to them that they need to leave that there on private property he's holding a gun which puts me at a disadvantage eventually I got them to leave but the last thing you want is somebody to come into your house at night because they think it's abandoned and they're drunk and I didn't sleep for I don't know a week out here by yourself male/female you need protection this is still the Wild West here literally it's lawless it's beautiful in the ways that it'll kill you the cowboy culture that we have as Americans is just sort of like good nostalgia thing I carry a gun to defend myself I'm not trying to make any kind of statement about freedom those guys that open carry I'm sure they're not often in survival situations or they are actually going to need the gun but I have to deal with things where I might possibly have two different myself every day it's this place which draws people I put a lot of time and work into this more so than I mean maybe that I expected even [Laughter] Eileen and I are both like fiercely independent vastly different backgrounds and now I've just got to see how the story of the girl from the city unfolds who moved out here to the ghost town and the desert by herself and I want to see how that ends or doesn't end but it's an amazing story and I love stories so I want to see hers I've had so many people say to me oh you're like a modern pioneer which is funny but kind of true there are a lot of things that need to be done but it's not impossible and now that I've been doing this I don't want to do anything else that's for sure [Music]

Channel: VICE

Views: 577,875

Rating: 4.7403655 out of 5

Keywords: artist, lifestyle, ghost town, society, Utah, DESERT, CITY, rural, Abandoned, Infrastructure, town, rebuilding, vice, journalism, documentary, videos, culture, interview, film, movies, underground, vice videos, independent, vice guide, exclusive, vice mag, vice magazine, vice.com, world, documentaries, short films, docs, yt:cc=on, off the grid, country, wild west, wilderness, living alone, sustainable living, cisco utah, survivalist, a day in my life, camping, hunting, shooting, outdoors, mountains, remote living

Id: qQ7CBzg870Y

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 19 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/flightless_greeb]

I thought it was neat, thanks for linking. Also a S&W Sigma is definitely a gun you get for free or not all lol

[u/digitalwankster]

This seems like a piss poor way to convince anyone because the vast majority of people on this sub don't live in an abandoned ghost town.

[u/xAtlas5]

I think most people would be cool with someone out in the boonies living or hunting having guns. Their concern comes from people in urban or suburban areas owning firearms.

[u/coolchewlew]

I want to do something like this. I'm tired of the 9-5...

[u/attoj559]

It would be cooler if she knew how to hold a handgun properly.

[u/big_red_dog87]

Four minutes in and I quit watching, I'm sure there was a point she was gonna make but editing sucks if it was 2A support video.

[u/milkboy33]

Good video. Helps gets the message across better to the "city slickers". However let's try not to forget the reason behind the 2A. It's for The People to be able defend themselves from a tyrannical government foreign or domestic. Please don't forget that.

[u/lolduude]

Never seen such angry comments on this sub before. We're already pro 2a don't need to convince us. You should try posting on a non-gun sub reddit.

[u/JohnCarpenterLives]

....vice? Hard pass. The only thing worth watching from them is one of their idiot workers drinking literal liquified shit.