Ballarat, CA.
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We have been through Ballarat a few times now on the way to Death Valley. This
particular time it was near sunset hence the long shadows but wonderful lighting
and colors. George Riggins from Australia named the town after a town in his
homeland in the middle of Australia's gold country. The vehicle to the left
was left by Tex Watson when he and Charlie Manson were passing through on their
way to Barker Ranch. |
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The Manson "family" left graffiti in the town. Wikipedia says on Easter
weekend in 1971 a thousand people attended a Hippy celebration and a
couple hundred of them contracted hepatitis A from contaminated drinking
water. Today Ballarat has two permanent residents year round. In it's
heyday, 1897 to 1905 it had about 500 residents. |
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The building to the left was the jail and morgue depending on the needs at
the time. There is a woman who comes in the summer that lives in this
structure. There was a scene in Easy Rider filmed in Ballarat where Peter
Fonda removes his Rolex watch and throws it away then he and Dennis Hopper
ride off to New Orleans. When we heard this I had to buy the movie and
watch to see if this was true and it is. Yeah, I could have looked it up
on IMDB.COM but it was more fun to watch the movie again,. |
click photo to enlarge |
click photo to enlarge |
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