Some of these houses still stand, minus the outbuildings. At least they no longer have trains roaring through their back yards, but this is now a depressed town. This view looks North along Portland Street from the 11th street bend. There seem to still be industrial-looking storage buildings present at the camera site.

If you look closely at the aerial view on Google maps you can make out the remnants of the RR track path near where the cow was standing. It runs midway between 10th & 11th streets and parallel to them.

The remnants of the other tracks can be seen running between the two 9th streets depicted on the map. It is now labeled Hancock/Calumet Trail. The train station, or whatever it is now, can be seen just above Oak Street and to the left (behind) St. Paul the Apostle Church at the corner of Oak & 8th Streets.

I am trying to figure out how the photographer got such a high vantage point. Using Google Street view and looking West on Portland it doesn't look like the terrain rises sufficiently to provide the high vantage point that was used for the original image. Maybe he rented a "Cherry Picker", oh wait we are talking 1905 here. Maybe there was another smokestack at this end of Portland Street.

I can't wait to see the complete series of images.

[Click on the link! - Dave]

Boxcars still look the same now as they did then.

I hope that cow knows how to read.

I was here a few years ago, and it still looks remarkably similar. Most of the brick buildings are still standing unchanged and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the wooden houses are still there, too.

We've got a cow on one street and what looks like a man walking a dog in the other.

The left-most spire, directly in line with the smoking stack above it, was part of the clock tower to the extant, but now spire-less, Calumet Theater, at 340 6th Street.

http://www.calumettheatre.com/

This view shows the window details matching the 1905 image.

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Using Google Maps' street views, it's apparent that the area has a real hill shortage. Given the closeness of some houses, etc. my guess would be a balloon. Any better ideas out there?

[The view is from a shafthouse. Other parts of the mine are in the preceding sections of the panorama. The tailings under the shafthouse are in the last section (below). - Dave]

The main road looks east down Portland Street. The closest church on the right is here

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The big church closest to the front on the left is St. Paul the Apostle on Oak and 8th. There is a "new,", i.e., newer than 1905 train station west of the church in this image.

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Did the cow get out when a tornado touched down in the back yard of the house in the foreground? The back of the house next door looks pretty bad as well. Holey moley, what happened?

Chamber pots, anybody?

Besides, I wonder how well indoor plumbing would have worked during a harsh winter, anyway. After all, (central) heating at the turn of a valve or the throw of a switch for everybody and every room was also somewhat in the future.

[Central heating, whether convection or radiant from coal-fired furnaces and boilers, was well established by 1905. - Dave]

There are lots of privies and outhouses visible in backyards of the farmhouses in the foreground. It was probably not very comfortable in the winter with a state that has a lot of snow and a cold climate.