Keeler -- Town of Lost Souls

Randy is drawn to dismal extremes. The movie "Bagdad Cafe" awakened his fascination for lonely, remote, end-of-the-world towns where lost souls go.

Keeler, CA is such a place, a ghost town on a ghost lake on the road to Death Valley. A local ranger called it "spooky."


Time and decay eating away this once-bustling train station.


Cars without hope also come here to die.


"Street homesteading" - Even lost souls need shelter and it can be had here for free.


We wandered this silent town, seeing no one, only the evidence of perhaps 50 people hiding hunkered in scattered abandoned houses behind 20-foot walls of bamboo. Randy ached for an interview, but no one came out.


Junk, artistically arranged, is a hallmark of dead-end towns, as are harsh and whimsical signs.


Elvis might have sung:

When yo baby's left you
And you're feeling way low down
Take the road down to Death Valley
And stop at Keeler town

We're all so lonely baby, we could die.

Everyone here has fallen
Off the ladder of success
We're all equally defeated
At our Keeler town address

We're all so lonely baby, we could die.

There is comfort at the bottom
It is peaceful way down low
So come on down to Keeler town
The place where losers go

We're all so lonely baby, we could die.