Graveyard of Buoyant Hopes: Ghost Towns & Relics of the American West, a dual media exhibit with watercolors by Kevin Heaney and photographs by Lee Silliman, will be on display at the Park City Museum from February 15, 2025 through May 18, 2025.
This exhibit focuses upon the vestiges of ill-fated western enterprises. Its title was derived from historian W. A. Chalfant’s eloquent phraseology: “The site of an abandoned camp, the graveyard of many buoyant hopes, is full of interest.” These unintended monuments to man’s former strivings are the subject of Kevin Heaney’s watercolor brush and Lee Silliman’s view camera. Through their contrasting media, each artist seeks to connect the present observer to the surge and ebb of human endeavor. The watercolors depict real buildings in real towns, and the photographs testify to the continued existence of pieces of the past–pieces that the elements of time and weather seek to efface, and eventually will efface.
Throughout the history of the American West people have migrated to new localities and invested great labor in establishing embryonic communities—with fervent hopes that their seed will blossom into a thriving permanent colony. On the western frontier, however, such aspirations were often dashed upon the harsh rock of reality. Fickle forces, such as an ore vein depleting, a devastating fire, a prolonged drought, an uncontrollable flood, the discontinuation of a line of transportation, or most potently, the discovery of a richer lode of ore elsewhere, could singly, or in concert, sap the lifeblood of a burgeoning community. The town would wane precipitously or gradually, until only the shed snakeskin of a village remained.
Title image: Meade Hotel, Bannack, Montana