It was built in the early 80's. This part of the desert was full of new structures back then, families and hermits moving out away from civilization, and closer to the big money jobs at the uranium mine.

Then the winter of '83-'84 hit, and they found out why no one lived out here. And the bottom dropped out the yellowcake market, and the jobs went away.

The tent "homes" were gone first, shredded by the wind. One scattering the porn collection of its former lonely inhabitant. Then came the camper trailers, left behind as the owners packed up in their trucks and left. Tipped and blown apart.

Next was the mobile homes, out on exposed ridges, or hidden down in sheltered swales. First vandalized and scavenged, then assailed by the elements until the roofs were blown off, and the walls collapsed. Leaving yet another pile of detritus to tarnish the landscape.

All gone.

Except this one.

This home was abandoned at the same time as the others and, in fact, may never have actually been completed and occupied.

Yet here it stands still, twenty years later, a testament to its engineering design.

I'm told great horned owls live there now.

Another shot of Wednesday's sunring: