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Voices at Twilight: A Poet's Guide to Wyoming Ghost Towns
The Definitive Wyoming Ghost Town Book Wyoming State Historical Society Book Award Winner In the award-winning Voices at Twilight , a collection of historical stories and photographs, Lori Howe illuminates past and present Wyoming ghost towns. Towns like Old Sherman, once the highest railroad village in the world, is now inhabited only by a child’s grave. Centennial, a former gold-rush town, is now home to a colorful, artistic population of 100. Explore Piedmont’s well-preserved remains including the historic stone beehive kilns of the Moses Byrne empire. Medicine Bow is home to the historic Virginian Hotel, named for Owen Wister and his novel, The Virginian . "Many of the working inhabitants are commuters who prefer the solitude of this small, lovely community." The towns featured in Voices at Twilight offer the reader a visual tour of twelve of the most interesting Wyoming ghost towns. Contained within this full-color book are travel directions, GPS coordinates, and tips for intrepid readers who wish to experience these unique towns and town sites for themselves. Explore classic railroad ghost towns with this resource. Get your copy today!
122 pages, Paperback
Published June 13, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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December 12, 2025I respectfully refuse to give this a star rating because I did not appreciate some of the ways the author spoke of the people in these "Ghost Towns". (I'll get to that.) I know people who worked on this book, or who know Howe. Wyoming is a small town with long streets. When one of us gets hurt we all get hurt. Which is why I don't endorse some of the sentiments the author seemed to have.
I come from a village of 20, and as a result I feel protective of ALL villages. Howe, though she missed my town, was still writing about my people.
Some of the offending statements include: "Opal Wyoming, is a place as desolate and ugly as it is beautiful." Imagine if that were your hometown, or the ruins of your grandparent's homestead. Then about the Virginian, Medicine Bow's pride and joy; "Less synthetic velvety wallpaper and fewer dusty, fake flowers would be an improvement." The hotel's interior is modeled after Victorian interior design. They don't call it "the guilded age" for no reason. Every opulent Victorian space is visually intense. I found myself more hopeful with Howe's Jeffery City entry but capping off a paragraph about Monk King Bird's pottery shop with "It is worth a stop in this tiny ruin of a town." stung. There is of course, more that makes me uncomfortable, but for that, you'll have to see for yourself.
I wish that the author truly loved the places she wrote about. Some of them are incredible. Some of those places where there's nothing left but rocks, wind, rotting boards, and rusted nails are testaments to the human spirit. I think we can acknowledge that history, AND the history of the indigenous people, without insulting either party.
Though I'm happy to see someone is writing about Wyoming, I'd love to see it done with more affection for Wyoming. Not just the parts of Wyoming with Starbucks.
I come from a village of 20, and as a result I feel protective of ALL villages. Howe, though she missed my town, was still writing about my people.
Some of the offending statements include: "Opal Wyoming, is a place as desolate and ugly as it is beautiful." Imagine if that were your hometown, or the ruins of your grandparent's homestead. Then about the Virginian, Medicine Bow's pride and joy; "Less synthetic velvety wallpaper and fewer dusty, fake flowers would be an improvement." The hotel's interior is modeled after Victorian interior design. They don't call it "the guilded age" for no reason. Every opulent Victorian space is visually intense. I found myself more hopeful with Howe's Jeffery City entry but capping off a paragraph about Monk King Bird's pottery shop with "It is worth a stop in this tiny ruin of a town." stung. There is of course, more that makes me uncomfortable, but for that, you'll have to see for yourself.
I wish that the author truly loved the places she wrote about. Some of them are incredible. Some of those places where there's nothing left but rocks, wind, rotting boards, and rusted nails are testaments to the human spirit. I think we can acknowledge that history, AND the history of the indigenous people, without insulting either party.
Though I'm happy to see someone is writing about Wyoming, I'd love to see it done with more affection for Wyoming. Not just the parts of Wyoming with Starbucks.
June 12, 2017
What a great read! We are traveling to Wyoming for the first time this summer and I truly enjoyed this way of writing with the story, poetry, then pictures. The content was great with the history of the communities and what they are like now. This book is completely different than so many I have read. Loved it.
March 26, 2020
I wanted to like this, but it needed a lot of editing, in my opinion.
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2020 Extreme Book Nerd Challenge - Book with light in the title
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2020 Extreme Book Nerd Challenge - Book with light in the title
July 5, 2016
Part travel guide, part poetry collection, Voices at Twilight brings to life a disappearing part of the American west. Covering twelve ghost towns in Wyoming, the book illuminates rare shards, showing the fickle nature of human history. Author Lori Howe devotes a chapter to each ghost town. In each chapter, she includes directions on how to reach the dwindling or abandoned settlement, a brief history, and a poem. Color photographs by Erik Molvar create further texture. Howe’s approach allows readers to wander the all-but-forgotten outposts from an armchair, in person, or both.
According to the author, Jeffrey City, a town that grew up in the 1950s in response to the Cold War quest for uranium, was blotted out almost as quickly as it disappeared when the demand for the mineral faded: “In Jeffrey City, / the sky is clean because the wind / meets no resistance.” The poem describes “ . . . empty streets / paved to last / so much longer / than anyone could live here.” Despite the construction of a high school and a recreation center with an Olympic-size swimming pool in the 1970s, the town’s population all but vanished within thirty years of the town’s founding, according to Howe. At the 2010 census, the population numbered 58. Among the remaining residents is a potter who specializes in Red Canyon ware vessels and whose shop you can visit should you choose to make the physical pilgrimage to the sites Howe chronicles.
One town I might choose to visit through Howe’s writing alone is Bosler, “a place where your imagination may whisper to you that someone is watching your every step. Chances are, someone is.” In 2010, the town library burned down, Howe states. In 2013, arsonists burned some additional buildings, and the corpses of skunks are scattered through the streets to deter tourists, she writes. The poem details the town’s fate:
Bosler’s people changed into antelope,
locusts and rain ate the paint from her walls.
Now vacant stores sell beds for ghosts,
and the school instructs winter
in the habit of crows.
Voices at Twilight makes for an interesting journey that gives readers passage to the power of perspective and time.
According to the author, Jeffrey City, a town that grew up in the 1950s in response to the Cold War quest for uranium, was blotted out almost as quickly as it disappeared when the demand for the mineral faded: “In Jeffrey City, / the sky is clean because the wind / meets no resistance.” The poem describes “ . . . empty streets / paved to last / so much longer / than anyone could live here.” Despite the construction of a high school and a recreation center with an Olympic-size swimming pool in the 1970s, the town’s population all but vanished within thirty years of the town’s founding, according to Howe. At the 2010 census, the population numbered 58. Among the remaining residents is a potter who specializes in Red Canyon ware vessels and whose shop you can visit should you choose to make the physical pilgrimage to the sites Howe chronicles.
One town I might choose to visit through Howe’s writing alone is Bosler, “a place where your imagination may whisper to you that someone is watching your every step. Chances are, someone is.” In 2010, the town library burned down, Howe states. In 2013, arsonists burned some additional buildings, and the corpses of skunks are scattered through the streets to deter tourists, she writes. The poem details the town’s fate:
Bosler’s people changed into antelope,
locusts and rain ate the paint from her walls.
Now vacant stores sell beds for ghosts,
and the school instructs winter
in the habit of crows.
Voices at Twilight makes for an interesting journey that gives readers passage to the power of perspective and time.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews