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A yellow Columbia River bar pilot boat heading out under the Astoria-Megler Bridge, a crewman in red on deck
Landscapes

Crossing the Columbia River bar at Astoria

At Astoria, the Columbia River and the Pacific meet across a shifting bar of sand that every ship bound for Portland must cross.

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Latest from the road

September
Houses terraced up a steep canyon hillside above brick commercial buildings
History

The Town Bisbee Became After the Copper Ran Out

Bisbee, Arizona, was built on copper; after the mines closed in the 1970s, it rebuilt itself as something else.
A road tunnel cut through a canyon wall, in a toned early photographic print
On the Road

Cody and the Canyon Road to the Absarokas

Cody sits at the mouth of the Shoshone River canyon, where the highway to Yellowstone runs west through the Wapiti Valley into the Absarokas.
A town spread across a high valley below mountains and tall clouds, in black and white
History

Leadville, the highest city in the United States

At 10,152 feet above sea level, Leadville, Colorado, remains the highest incorporated city in the United States.
An orange International tractor parked on gravel below red mesas
History

In Moab, the uranium boom left more than a pile

A Cold War uranium boom made Moab a mining town, and its mill tailings stayed beside the Colorado River for decades.
A ruined masonry facade standing alone in the desert, a figure in its doorway, in black and white
History

The decade-long boom of Rhyolite, Nevada

Shorty Harris and Ed Cross found gold in the Bullfrog Hills in 1904; the town that followed had a decade of life.
An elevated interstate viaduct on concrete piers running above a creek channel
History

Wallace and the Interstate Above It

In Idaho's Silver Valley, Wallace refused to let I-90 demolish it, so the highway crosses above the town.
A long low shed with a curved roof across dry grassland, a dirt track leading to it
History

What Chinati Did to Marfa

In the high desert of West Texas, a minimalist art foundation turned a shrinking ranching town into a destination.
Weathered wooden buildings of a ghost town standing in summer grass, a wagon wheel in front
History

What the Wind Keeps at Bodie

In the high country east of the Sierra, a gold town from the 1870s still stands, held upright by wind, snow, and the policy of arrested decay.
A car buried nose-down and painted grey, beside metal animal sculptures in dry grass
On the Road

Cars Standing Still on the Nebraska Prairie

North of Alliance, a man rebuilt an ancient monument out of old sedans, and the small town that kept it learned to live with wonder.
A passenger train running along the base of eroded desert bluffs
Landscapes

The Green River Melon Fields

Where the Utah desert meets the Green River, irrigated fields grow a crop the red country has no right to permit.
A cream hotel building with red awnings standing on a steep hillside
History

The Copper Town Built on a Slope That Moves

Jerome still hangs off Cleopatra Hill above the Verde Valley, a copper town whose streets keep creeping downhill long after the mines went quiet.
Grain elevators above a small-town street, with a visitor centre in a former filling station
On the Road

The Middle of the Country Is a Field in Lebanon

In north-central Kansas, a small town sits at the exact midpoint of the forty-eight states.