Idaho

We pulled into Pocatello around lunchtime, after six hours on the road.

Six hours out of our way just to be able to say "We've been to Idaho."

We were tired, and we knew another six hours lay ahead of us.

So, we skimped on the fantastic ghost signs of Pocatello.

Shooting them through the windshield.

And not taking note of where they were were, or if there were more.

Which we feel confident there were.

But now, we can say we have ghost signs from every state that begins with I.

Ghost Signs of the Old West

On the eastern slope of Mount Davidson sits the town that won the Civil War for the North.

(The discovery of silver in the Comstock lode here in 1859 financed much of the war effort.)

Today, Virginia City's main street is a collection of souvenir stores and merchants selling everything from leather hats to knives to salt water taffy. (Seriously. There's a lot of salt water taffy for sale.)

There are also a number of restaurants and museums.

It's the first place Samuel Clemens used the pen name Mark Twain.

Few of the signs painted on the walls date back to the 1860s, because of a series of fires, including the Great Fire of 1875, destroyed much of the town.

Faded Ad Art Across the USA

In Colorado: we suspect the sign across the top is touched up, but original.

And just around the corner, by Denver's Union Station, (which is a beautiful structure by itself),

zoom in to see some true ghost signs:

Somewhere in Utah:

And in Ely, Nevada:

Let's get a close up on this one:

Not a ghost sign, and not even faded, but I liked this enough to include it:

I Have Found It

From Eureka, Nevada.

Illinois & Iowa

Hunting for ghost signs while riding on a train is not ideal.

But sometimes you take what you can get. 

The above is outside Chicago, along the Amtrak line.

The following are all from Burlington, Iowa.

More to come from our Western Campaign.