#Ghost town full#

She calls the time sheвЂ™s spent here her вЂњimmersion school.вЂќ She taught herself to salvage so-called junk and use it to transform formerly-abandoned spaces into livable buildings. Muza had no experience in building or renovation before she moved to Cisco. вЂњI wanted it to look like how it was, but I also wanted it to be clean, structurally sound, and beautiful.вЂќ вЂњI didnвЂ™t want to redo the place to not look like Cisco,вЂќ she says. She cleaned it out, salvaged what she could, and then reinforced the walls, floors, and ceiling. She says that this was one of the first structures she renovated the uninsulated shack had been ravaged by mice and vandals.

The next morning, I talk to Muza in the warmth of the sun on my porch.

| Photo: Emily Cataneo Projects everywhere I wake up in the night to use the outhouse and the wind is so loud for a moment I could swear that ghost riders are galloping through the field. Buildings and objects appear out of the dark: A glowing red hen house, the shack where IвЂ™m staying, is marked by a splash of Christmas lights.

#Ghost town full#

Overhead is a dreamscape of clouds, a handful of stars, and a full moon grass crackles beneath my boots. I arrive in Cisco on Thanksgiving night, after driving all day through the harsh, otherworldly landscapes of Utah. I learned about Muza from a friend who followed her efforts on Instagram, and I knew I had to find out what it was like for a woman my age to leave her urban life behind and transform a ghost town into a livable space. Now, Cisco contains a welcome mural, designed by Muza and an artist friend a renovated shed available to rent on Airbnb a skatepark and snake sculpture wending through an abandoned bus and a Winnebago and truck transformed into a residency where artists can work on their craft. Since purchasing it in 2015, MuzaвЂ™s lived in the ghost town, using salvaged and on-site materials to transform it from abandoned to an artistic space. The artistвЂ™s residency living and working space: a truck-home and a refurbished campervan.A mural on one of the old buses Muza found on the site.One of MuzaвЂ™s big projects this year is to renovate this shed.The whole encampment viewed from across the field on a freezing, windy morning.

A sculpture of a snake winding through an abandoned bus.

I wanted to test myself in a way and learn new things.вЂќ I can always go home.вЂ™ I was getting older, I was going to be 30 and I saw the trajectory: IвЂ™m gonna be at this job forever. вЂњI tried to make it a rational decision,вЂќ she says. Muza had never been to a ghost town before, but she started to imagine herself living there. But like so many once-bustling towns in the West, it shriveled when the interstates came through and was officially abandoned by the 1990s. When Muza arrived, she found early 20th-century shacks, a dilapidated post office, old buses and trucks, and heaps of trash.ДЇounded in the 1880s, Cisco, which sits near the Colorado border on a plain below the Book Cliffs, had been a railroad fill station.

On the flight, her seatmate recommended that she check out Cisco, a ghost town on the way from the airport to the park. Muza was 29 years old and working at the Chicago Park District when she took a trip to Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Eileen Muza didnвЂ™t mean to buy a ghost town.