Blast from the Past: Disappearance of a Town

More fun with Google Earth.  Going out of town a bit for this one.

It's amazing to actually see an entire town disappear, but that's just what happened to the town of Tormey, just north of Rodeo.  A complete history is of course impossible here.  But the Tormey family has an incredible website dedicated to their history, including their namesake town in California.

Tormey and Hercules share similar backgrounds.  Both began as company towns.  Tormey's company was the Selby Smelting Works, later acquired by the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO).  The company owned the homes in Tormey and leased them to employees, as well as provided the town's utilities.  ASARCO closed down the plant in 1971, and with it, they closed down Tormey.  They notified the residents their leases would be terminated, and utilities stopped.

The accompanying photos are, in essence, a time-lapse of how Tormey just disappeared.  In 1939, Tormey was a thriving community with tree-lined streets.  By 1987, the homes were gone, and the streets were barely visible. By 1993, there was little evidence a town ever existed.  And by 2008, Tormey had become a parking lot.