Dewey-Humboldt

Small and fine.

The town of Dewey-Humboldt is home to under 4,000 in Yavapai County, AZ, slap bang in the middle of the state and easily missed on the drive from Scottsdale to Prescott.

From Wikipedia:

When a new post office opened in 1898, the community was renamed Dewey, probably to honor Admiral Dewey’s great victory that year at the Battle of Manila — this was the height of the Spanish–American War. Another post office was established at Val Verde (Humboldt) in 1899.

It’s worth a stop as picture opportunities abound, and you can only admire the early settlers of the west for their toughness and resolve. First settled in 1863, it would be many years before Willis Carrier invented air conditioning in 1902 making the desert livable.


Dewey-Humboldt Main Street.

Nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.

Another view of Main Street.

The town has seen better days.

How the West was colonized before the steam train.


All images on the Nikon F100 on Kodak Ektar 100 film. Nikon absolutely knocked it out of the park with the F100, which can be found mint for well under $200. The ergonomics are identical to any number of Nikon DSLRs which followed – I especially like the D700 – so there is no learning curve.

Ektar 100 film has exceptionally high contrast and while I underexposed these -0.3 EVs, -0.7 EVs would probably have been better, as it’s very easy to lose the highlights with over-exposure and the dynamic range of film is simply awful compared to that of a half decent digital sensor.

The lens used was the Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 AFD zoom, an excellent all-rounder. After sale of the filters this came with, my net cost was under $50. It comes with free barrel distortion thrown in, easily fixed in Lightroom when it matters.