Her long term dreams of starting an artist residency are being challenged by th. THE CISCO THAT DREW EILEENbears little resemblance to the Cisco that was. She told Insider that she just kept thinking and wondering about it.. Andrew Cogliano out for Game 7 with fractured neck after Jordan Eberle's hit leaves Avalanche miffed at lack of suspension. Original illustration by Sarah Gilman. She didnt like strangers trespassing on private land that absent neighbors couldnt defend, or taking things for their own use. [email protected] Our Mission Donate to the newsroom now. But like the Art Institute, it felt shaky. Then, in January 2015, Eileen traveled to Utah to see the Great Gallery rock art panel, where life-sized red-ochre figures loom on cream-colored sandstone. He loaded the limp body onto his trailer, blood running over his hands and drove it to her house. They acquired their land in Cisco in 2015 and began the arduous process of refurbishing and rebuilding various structures that had been long-abandoned on the property. A man who checked the oil pumps began looking in on Eileen. A second screening is set for Monday, 1 p.m., also at Treasure Mountain Inn. Cisco, Utah sits about 30 miles west of the Colorado border. Interested in volunteering? (EKA Pictures) Eileen Muza, the sole resident of the ghost town of Cisco, Utah, has a bath and a smoke, in a moment from director Emily Kaye Allen's documentary "Cisco Kid," which will have its. Eileen Muza is the sole resident of Cisco, Utah, a scattering of old buildings in the high desert 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of the Colorado line, KUTV reports. The company's filing status is listed as Active and its File Number is 10747857-0140. Eileen Muza didn't mean to buy a ghost town. While she doesn't mind visitors that are respectful and ask permission to take pictures, she says many engage in what she calls a "ghost town narrative" in which they think they can do whatever they want, like break windows because they see broken windows, or break into some of the buildings she's clearly fixed up that sometimes friends are living in. Muza first discovered Cisco when she was taking a trip to Canyonlands National Park. Everybody has to wander through the desert, right, in the Bible?. Correction, Thursday, Jan. 19, 10:29 a.m. In an earlier version of this story, the former neighbor who confronted Eileen Muza and filmmaker Emily Kaye Allen was misidentified. "The arts are one of the few things that redeem us as human beings," Muza said. According to one oft-told story, as a girl, Eileens grandmother brought a plate from the evening meal each night to an elderly neighbor and stayed to talk. Eileens mom, Linda, joined her for her first month there, and the two worked on Eileens two small parcels through bitter winter weather and bad head colds, burning debris in a metal barrel as they went. They acquired their land in Cisco in 2015 and began the arduous process of refurbishing and rebuilding various structures that had been long-abandoned on the property. So during the first two years, she tried to have friends camp there while she went home to Chicago for the temperate months to work her landscaping job and see the woman she was dating. For High Country News, Sarah Gilman profiles a modern-day pioneer: 34 year old Eileen Muza, who chose to settle in a tiny desert town of rubble and mostly abandoned buildings that outsiders treat as if it were public property. "It's a separate space away from your life that you can sort of change the way you think and be in a different environment," Muza said. The town, after all, doesnt look like much a desolate mess of ruined buildings on the scenic route from I-70 to the recreation mecca of Moab, Utah, just a few miles from the boat ramp on the Colorado River where rafters load up after running Westwater Canyon. In 2020 U.S. Census data, Cisco recorded a total of four residents. I like Farlands thought that they like to peek into the future of humanity, she said. Donate above, follow us instagram, share a post, tell a friend! Another passenger on the plane told her about Cisco, so Eileen stopped there, as many do, en route to her actual destination. Muza, who was 29 at the time, learned about the town (which was built in the 1880s and served as a railroad service station) from her seatmate on her flight from Chicago to Utah. While their work in Cisco is inherently imbued with their own style, Eileen also takes great care to preserve the heritage and unique character of the original town. This story was funded with reader donations to the High Country News Research Fund. Original illustration by Sarah Gilman When Eileen moved back to Chicago in 2007, she became so fond of a Korean spa that she and her girlfriend sometimes slept overnight in the nap room so they could soak in hot water for two days. what is a hypodense thyroid nodule; dr fetter grand canyon university; tattoo for best friend who died. Smiling children cluster in front of a school where there is now only a weed patch. Has Denver seen its last snow of the season. Courtesy Eileen Muza. She traded life in Chicago for living alone in Cisco, Utah, which has no running water, and summers that are as brutally hot as winters are freezing. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? Inside, Farland helped her peel back fake wood paneling, chickenwire and plaster, thick paint and layers of wallpaper. Eileens parents supported what she was doing. Its a separate space away from your life that you can sort of change the way you think and be in a different environment, Muza said. Eileen bought an acre of land with three cabins, a work shed, a tool shed, an Airstream, a Winnebago, and the town's shuttered post office each filled with garbage, or, as she saw it, material. She purchased it in 2015 and left her life in Chicago to move there. When Eileen was redoing the floor in the shack near the post office, she found two more signatures. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Hakai Magazine, BioGraphic, Adventure Journal Quarterly, and others. A cursory internet search will tell you that Cisco has cameoed in car chases in the movies Thelma and Louise and Vanishing Point, and may have inspired the Johnny Cash song Cisco Cliftons Fillin Station. Without fail, articles about Cisco will also tell you that its a ghost town. Intrigued, Muza decided to check it out. Cisco is isolated, a steady jog off Interstate 70 with no services and no running water. It was so cold when her dad, Richard Muza, visited that the paint he intended to use on Eileens little post office froze solid and he had to thaw it with a space heater. When Eileen Muza, 36, awoke one morning to the sound of a crying baby her first reaction was that she must be hallucinating - or hearing ghosts. In the end, even this faded. She eventually overcame her trepidation, though, and became fascinated by the town and its unique history. Ciscos population hit about 250 in 1940. The companys president attended county meetings in a polyester suit and diamond pinkie ring like the Dynasty-version of an old-time snake-oil salesman. She saw possibility in the junk, and supplies. Italian, Chinese, Japanese, African-American and Native American crews worked the railroad. // ]]>. Montana's first openly transgender lawmaker has sued the state over the Republican-dominated legislature's decision to ban her from the House floor. It happens everywhere.. Eileen named her Rima. Its the town, and the fascinating character who now owns it, that is the subject of Allens documentary, Cisco Kid, scheduled to show Friday and Monday at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City. Join us for an expanded Muza said that as an artist, all she could see was the town's potential, and the many materials she could work with. Serah Mead is the General Manager of KZMU Moab Community Radio in the high desert landscape of Southeastern Utah. Muza isnt totally off the grid they have wi-fi and their devices, which for Allen makes it a more modern experience. "You know when you travel and something strikes you? And Eileen laughed, her teeth flashing up at the slate-gray sky, tassled at its edges by virga that promised rain but never touched the earth. Her parents a mailman and a landscaper never had. Thanks to the distance as well as the coronavirus pandemic,she tries to limit her grocery runs to once a month. Natasha Woods was born in Iowa, and currently lives in Columbus, Ohio where she is in pursuit of her MFA at The Ohio State University. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. This is not just making a house. But even then, she would keep Cisco. The most challenging thing about Cisco wasnt the solitude, though. Despite Cisco being a private property with ample warning signs, Muza said she's surprised by how many people wander through town (the crying baby mentioned earlier was part of a group of tourists). Most of the buildings had collapsed or were in an advanced state of decay, leaning this way or that. Ghost towns may seem sad, Allen said, but theres a lot of stories, whether they be books or films, about people that choose to live off the grid.. Joe helped Eileen reroof the cabin with optimistic-looking red metal. She said some of the structures looked sort of new, and that she spotted a satellite dish: unusual considering the town was mostly abandoned by the 1970s, when Interstate 70 was built nearby. Perhaps that matters less than the fact that people choose to tell them, simultaneously recreating the town and adding its patina to their own histories. Immersion school," she said, adding that she just figured it out along the way since she didn't have electricity or internet at first. But instead of speeding away, the truck turned up the side road toward us. Late one frigid December night, I was reading in Eileens post office when I heard a gunshot a few feet away. Its a challenge, but also its a punishment. Its beyond beautiful of what weve been able to accomplish since we opened. The Unknown was not why Eileen moved to Cisco. "I had to keep telling myself, 'just because there's no one here right now doesn't necessarily mean that there never will be. Raft shuttlers brought her ice and oranges. Almost everything she might need, except water and soil. Eileen could have been one of the subjects. Margaret is a wetplate photographer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sarah Gilman writes and draws from Portland, Oregon. Muza first became fascinated by the town when she visited it while on vacation. If youre thinking of altering your workout routine, youre probably looking for new exercises and equipment to help you reach your fitness goals. Every family has a worrier, Linda told me, and Eileen was the Muzas. Those guys did the same thing. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. She got in touch with the owner of Cisco and agreed to purchase the ghost town for a price that, according to her, is similar to that of a used car. The town made a cameo in films like "Vanishing Point" and "Thelma and Louise," and Johnny Cash recorded a song named "Cisco Clifton's Filling Station" in 1967. The truck turned again and rolled to a stop between Eileens buildings, not 20 feet away from where we watched from behind the outhouse. Allens film shows Muza in the process of creating a life in Cisco. There's electricity and Wi-Fi now, but no running water; Muza says she collects rainwater and has a solar shower. She added, though, that she doesnt mind when people pass through and are respectful of her property. That's because Muza lives in Cisco, a ghost town without running water located in the Utah desert, entirely by herself. "I have to actually leave Cisco if I want to be alone. In the 1880s, Cisco was a water-refilling station for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, and amenities for rail workers a saloon, stores, hotels, restaurants built up around the station. The experience made her passionate about helping create a permanent place for artists in the ghost town. [CDATA[ Besides having a distraction-free space to get work done, Muza hopes visitors get a new perspective on life, from how many resources, such as water, they use in their-day-today lives, to "learning how to live outside in a way. Her grandfather died this spring, and she grieved from a distance, consoling herself by yelling at a bus full of Australian tourists. Part of me wants to just see how bad its going to get, she told me after a mutual friend introduced us. In this rapaciously dry year, a quiet question grows louder: What are we doing here? Someone inside played a high-powered spotlight over one old building, then another. When someone parked close to the cabin for too long, she blasted a recording of Charles Bukowski reading his grim poetry in a gravelly monotone. Through the manipulation of appropriated artifacts and performance, Woods considers larger ideas concerned with nostalgia, trauma, and memory. Andy Larsen: Heres where National Weather Service forecasts flooding, in the short term and the long term, Murray police officers were justified in their use of force against a 52-year-old man who died after arrest, Salt Lake County D.A. She loved the diverse cast of coworkers, gay, straight, every shade of skin, people from all over the world. Eileen was cautious, but undeterred by the abstract possibility of falling through a rotten floor, or of getting caught, Linda said. I'm more interested in building the things that are around and have some kind of presence," she said, adding that she loves the history everything in Cisco seems to have. The town was created in the 1880s as a fill-station for a railroad, but died off when Interstate 70 was built a few miles north.
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