Tippett is one of those places I never tire of visiting. It is isolated. It is beautifully situated. It is sadly returning to the earth.

First begun in the 1860’s as a stop for both the Pony Express and the Overland Stage, it became a ranch in the 1880’s. The original stone granary from that time still stands. In later years it was a road stop on the Lincoln Highway and had a post office until 1930. A general store and campground were here during the highway years.  I met the latest owners on a cold day in April 2012 during the spring roundup. The ranch had been abandoned as a living quarters some ten years earlier and shortly afterward vandals began to take away items such as tin roofs and building material. The following photographs show the state of Tippett as of 2012.

The first view of the ranch from the south stopped me dead. I saw in it those magnificent photographs of the older west.

Tippett

Tippett Main Building

The buildings are not in the best shape since the roofs are more or less missing.

Tippett Smithy

The interior of the smithy shows the use of rock walls without mortar. The hearth location is the corner.

Adobe End of Granary

Hay Field, Lincoln Highway, and Tippett Reservoir

Finally, here is a shot you have seen before but which I present again because it seems to sum up nicely the state of the ranch and the severity of the location.

Tippett Ranch Fence

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A note: I had permission from the owners to take all the photographs shown here. The fence is a demarcation line and trespassing is not permitted.

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A technical note: I generally bracket all my photographs and process in Photoshop using masked layers and other techniques. The aerial photographs I take using a small radio control camera plane mounting a GoPro Hero 2 or a small Canon P&S.

Hawkeye Camera Plane

Available from http://www.electricflights.com/
Next time: A roundup at Tippett

Until then travel safely in the desert,

Grover