The abandoned areas and sparse landscape are compelling, Allen said. That's because Muza lives in Cisco, a ghost town without running water located in the Utah desert, entirely by herself. "That's how you learn right? Eileen Muza is the sole resident of Cisco, a former ghost town in rural Utah. Then they can go home to running water and a job. Combining Muzas appeal with the mystique factor of the landscape the dry and dead ground, with no ability to grow anything and intrigue about how once-thriving small towns die out, Allen was convinced that she should make a movie. There were no neighbors within miles. I cautiously stepped into the dark to find her in trenchcoat and underwear, standing next to her friend Nick on a boardwalk shed built to avoid the gumbo mud that the earth became each spring. The work was seasonal, and her house was a rental in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. I like Farlands thought that they like to peek into the future of humanity, she said. The person behind the desk brought out a desert-born, dingo-looking little thing, with crooked ears, mysterious scars and a limp. Its a challenge, but also its a punishment. Artist. 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. Booster walked up to Muza in a moment Allen wasnt filming, but the filmmaker captured Muzas nervousness the rest of the day. BY NOW, MAYBE YOU PICTUREEileen as a weathered old hermit lady with her mouth set in a grim line, who is suspicious of strangers and keeps a gun by her front door. 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. Eileen Muza didn't mean to buy a ghost town. A few days into one of my visits, fed up with the heat, Eileen, her sister Claire, and Claires friend, Amy, piled into an SUV and bumped overland to find a spring that someone had told Eileen about. Keeler: Chris Paul got dirty. The referendum signaled the regions new direction: A near-complete dependence on tourism, its own form of extraction. 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.. In her work, Woods aims to reclaim space on the screen by investigating microhistories and challenging conventions of storytelling. What Eileen has done isnt restoration. Another, Eileen looked up to discover two men shooting in her direction from the window of a white pickup. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); She didnt like strangers trespassing on private land that absent neighbors couldnt defend, or taking things for their own use. Eileen stepped gingerly through the cattails. Climate change forced me to leave the place that I love, Addressing climate grief makes you a badass, not a snowflake. Original illustration by Sarah Gilman Eileen fought this the best way she could think of: She let them think she owned the whole town, so they would listen when she told them to stay on the road. (EKA Pictures) Eileen Muka works on the Utah ghost town they own, in a moment from director Emily Kaye Allen's documentary "Cisco Kid," which is slated to premiere at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. Follow. (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 U.S. premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City. She became the places unofficial archivist. // . The Unknown was not why Eileen moved to Cisco. One weekend, we took off with Rima to look for water a cake of soap wrapped in brown paper balanced between us on the dash of her little sedan. A woman named Farland Fish stopped in town one day to let her dogs chase the rabbits that lurked amid the junk and was surprised to find Eileen there, too. Sarah Gilman writes and draws from Portland, Oregon. While we are busy working on updating our residency space, doing T.V. Eileen is a visual artist and sole year-round resident of Cisco, Utah. She serves on the boards of directors for the Moab Arts Council, and the Rocky Mountain Community Radio coalition, and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Intrigued, Muza decided to check it out. Linda worried about Eileen being a young woman alone out there, and about Eileen being lonely. "I'll always try something rather than not, otherwise it'll drive me crazy.". Later, she stayed for nearly a month. Courtesy of Eileen Muza. Cisco is not abandoned, she often points out: "I live here." The La Sal Mountains rise up south of Eileen's home, and Cisco stands in the Cisco Desert, in an exposed, waterless low spot that one book describes without irony as "a hole." But Eileen has her own names for things, her own landmarks. I realized after going there that I had sort of driven through it [while] on a river trip at Green River, she said. Eileen imagined it as a deep pool and brought a bar of soap. View the profiles of people named Eileen Muza. He moved his family house from Green River to a spot west of Cisco and assembled an attached service station from the pieces of a building he bought in a ghost town called Sego. These connections helped build Eileen a foundation that property and self-reliance alone couldnt give: a boosted faith in her own vision, and a kind of community. This story was funded with reader donations to the High Country News Research Fund. As a filmmaker, Allen loved the duality of that combination of safety and solitude. It can be hard not to, once you work your way into that feeling of empty space and no one to hold you accountable. Another passenger on the plane told her about Cisco, so Eileen stopped there, as many do, en route to her actual destination. The habit continued after she returned to the Midwest, where hard times had left old factories yawning with dark invitation, industrial cathedrals of brick and stained glass. About 80% of the guests there, Muza said in the film, are female and ask Muza about safety out in the middle of nowhere. She tended the garden in her yard until it overflowed with color. After diesel train engines replaced steam in the 50s, the town leaned on its role as a stopover for east-west automobile traffic. The town was created in the 1880s as a fill . Cisco, Utah sits about 30 miles west of the Colorado border. 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. But she is only 34. She wouldnt be getting another dog, she finally insisted. Muza first discovered Cisco when she was taking a trip to Canyonlands National Park. She was raw that afternoon, when I arrived for a visit, her face shadowed under a broad hat, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses. One time, a lake of oil leaked from a pump jack inside town limits. Donate above, follow us instagram, share a post, tell a friend! Her long term dreams of starting an artist residency are being challenged by the immediate need to rebuild the town. Donate to the newsroom now. And she justified her own salvage of bits and pieces from the ruins by explaining that what she took stayed where it belonged: in Cisco. He loaded the limp body onto his trailer, blood running over his hands and drove it to her house. 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. A post office opened in 1887. The Denver and Rio Grande Western traveled through, and visitors mingled with local ranchers . Where is this recession weve heard so much about? If you work hard, she likes you even more. Joe Bell gave me an explanation for the phenomenon that seemed as plausible as any. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Why would everybody just leave? There is running electricity, but no running water. Muza isnt totally off the grid they have wi-fi and their devices, which for Allen makes it a more modern experience. 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. 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. Tony Kanaan on his final Indy 500 and first episodes, Multiple dead after IL dust storm causes pileup, At least 6 dead after dust storm causes crashes in, Abbott to Lightfoot: Tell Biden to secure the border, BestReviews.com - Top gifts to make everyone happy this spring, Surprise your mom with one of these Mothers Day, Mothers Day inspo: This foot massager has 20,000, Drew Barrymores Walmart collection is perfect for, Best Mothers Day gifts for the budding plant mom, Best Mothers Day Gifts for moms obsessed with books, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Since launching Home of the Brave in 2019, Muza has had a rotating cast of artists stay with her, as well as friends who use the space for their work.

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