Ghosts Obscure Google Street View

Eerily, there’s one place where Empire lives on. As of 2017, you could still go to Google Maps Street View, drop a tiny avatar on Circle Drive, and wander around looking at parked cars and lawn furniture and folks watering their yards uninterrupted... 

—Jessica Bruder

I take Bruder’s invitation and zoom in

to Circle Drive. The satellite image 

of Empire, Nevada, dates back to 2009 

(less than two years before the town shut down 

in December). Economists cite a simple 

supply and demand curve: Demand 

wasn’t high for what Empire made 

anymore, but Google casts the town

in spring light. In May of ‘09, the days 

grow long enough to fool us into thinking 

that time is on our side. A click trip 

to this ghost town compels me to test 

how unreliable memory can be. 

When I type the address of my childhood 

home, numbers on the side confirm the spot 

like a marker on a grave. Familiar banana leaves 

frame the building’s face, but when I click 

around the corner, they disappear. A silver 

Prius replaces my dad’s Mustang on the street. 

Back in Empire, a father parks his truck 

on Circle Drive, next to a child’s toy car. 

The satellite image blurs the front yard, 

as though to cover a soul. Could they see 

what was coming? When my father worked 

for Aerospace, little did he know 

what headlines would say in December 

of  ’98: Boeing Raises Layoff Target to 53,000.

On street view, I look through the second 

story window where my dad cursed God. 

On street view, I circle the memory 

of a mining town. Time is cruel in winter, 

when a plant manager must break the news.