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I am entering this in the Desolation Contest. It replaces the other photo. I took this photo with my Canon AE1 SLR, so it's old and grainy. But please enjoy anyway.This is the door and stairway to the Hotel Meade in the ghost town of Bannack, Montana. This was a thriving hotel in a town that was the first town to discover gold in 1862 in Grasshopper Creek. The Civil Was was raging from 1861-1865. Yet people filled this little goldmining town to the brim. The hotel had a huge clientelle and a even larger old iron stove to bake and cook for everyone. The Hotel still stands, and the stove sits alone, unused in the kitchen, as does the once beautiful stairway where many a fine dressed lady went up to beautiful rooms in her dancing dress.When Bannack began its gold rush, there was a population of 500 to beginwith, and by 1863 there were over 5000 people!~ Then the hard cold winter hit, people got ill, many died, many children lived only hours after birth. Things began to shut down. The town became desolate, and by the early 1900's there were only 400 people living in the forsaken little town of Bannack. It's now a ghost town and was named a State Park in the 1950s.The few little homes are kept up so visitors can walk slowly thru them and feel at peace here. And who knows, there might still be a bit of gold in that gurgling Grasshopper Creek!