Carol M. Highsmith Archive photos from the 2010s

Public Service Co. building in the distressed Appalachian Mountains town of Elkhorn in southern West Virginia

Promotional sign outside Idaho Springs, Colorado The claim is true, but the story of the Colorado Gold Rush has twists that are not easy to grasp at first

Purinton House, a historic home associated with the West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia

Queen Anne Victorian House in Ouray, Colorado

Queen of All Saints Catholic Church in Crested Butte, a town heavily populated during ski season located high in the Rocky Mountains in Gunnison County, Colorado

Railroad bridge over the Cacapon River in Morgan County, West Virginia

Railroad bridge over the Guyandotte River, Huntington, West Virginia

Rail yard in Weirton, West Virginia

Railroad crossing signal in the town of Holly, near the Kansas line in Prowers County, Colorado

Railroad siding at the Northern Ag Service Inc. grain elevator and related equipment in the town of Holly, near the Kansas line in Prowers County, Colorado

Rafters test the rapids of the Animas River, just below Durango, the seat of La Plata County in southern Colorado

Rafters enjoy the Colorado River rapids near Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Rail tracks within 1,500 feet of underground passages at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, a restored mine once operated by the Phillips Family in the late 1800s in what is now owned by the City of Beckley, West Virginia and located in the city's New River Park

Radio telescope and an outbuilding at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia

Radio telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia

Railroad-themed mural in the town of Gauley Bridge, West Virginia

Railroad tracks approaching the town of Holly, near the Kansas line in Prowers County, Colorado

Ray Vertovec, a longtime livestock farmer turned tavern owner, stands at the bar at Eiler's Place, a popular watering hole in the Pueblo, Colorado, neighborhood

Rear view of Joe Yazzie Toddy of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a Navajo whose tribe is centered in Arizona, was among the participants at a Colorado Springs Native American Inter-Tribal Powwow and festival in that central Colorado city

Raul Figueroa, right, and his son, Jarod Figueroa, two embers of the Northern Wind Dancers from Pueblo, Colorado, that performed at a Colorado Springs Native American Inter-Tribal Powwow and festival in that central Colorado city

Rear view of Tino Trujillo, left, of Pueblo, Colorado, and Skuya Fast Horse of Fort Frances, Ontario, who were among the participants at a Colorado Springs Native American Inter-Tribal Powwow and festival in that central Colorado city

Re-creation of the entrance to the nearby Alma Queen gold mine at South Park City Museum, a collection of historic buildings in Fairplay, Colorado

Ravenswood Bridge a two-lane, 2,710-foot-long cantilever bridge connecting Ravenswood, West Virginia, and rural Meigs County, Ohio, across the Ohio River

Ray Vertovec, a longtime livestock farmer turned tavern owner, and his wife, Cheryl, enjoy the ambience at the bar at Eiler's Place, a popular watering hole in the Pueblo, Colorado

Rear views of Rick Medina, right, a Yaqui Apache whose tribe is centered in Arizona, and his son, Miles Medina. They were among the participants at a Colorado Springs Native American Inter Tribal Powwow and festival in that central Colorado city

Reed Library, the campus library at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado

Red-rock spires on the grounds of the Glen Eyrie castle, an English Tudor-style home built in what is now Colorado Springs, Colorado

Remnants from the backwoods at the Hillbilly Hot Dogs stand along West Virginia Route 2 along the Ohio River in rural Cabell County. The stand is augmented by several displays that make light of the state's pejorative hillbilly stereotype

Remnants of an old "GE" (for General Electric) sign at the Johnson Electric Co. in Pueblo, Colorado

Relatively identical rural cabins in the unincorporated settlement of Czar in Randolph County, West Virginia

Remnants of a rare and dwindling old-growth, woodland along the Gaudineer Intrepretive Trail in the Mongongahela National Forest West Virginia

Remnants of coke ovens at Nuttallburg, a ghost town that was once one of about 50 places that sprang up in the deep West Virginia forests along the New River in the late 1800s in response to America's voracious demand for coal in the heart of the growing nation's industrial revolution Physical descr

Remnants of a cabin in Independence Ghost Town, just off State Highway 82 through the "Top of the Rockies" route through Independence Pass in Pitkin County, below the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rockies

Rehoboth Church, a historic log cabin-style Methodist church in the countryside of Monroe County, West Virginia

Remnants of the old C&O Canal in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Remnants of the old Eureka Mine in what is now the ghost town of Gladstone, high above Silverton, Colorado, on the dirt Alpine Loop

Remnants of the old Idarado gold mine operation along the "Million Dollar Highway" between Silverton and Ouray, high in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado

Retired Maryland contractor Rule Irwin takes a break on his hike across America outside the Wyoming Motel in Moorcroft, Wyoming

Retired Maryland contractor Rule Irwin takes a break on his hike across America outside a cottage at the Wyoming Motel in Moorcroft, Wyoming

Rick Medina, right, a Yaqui Apache whose tribe is centered in Arizona, and his son, Miles Medina. They were among the participants at a Colorado Springs Native American Inter Tribal Powwow and festival in that central Colorado city

Riding horses get a break in Pipestem Resort State Park in Mercer County, West Virginia

Reynolds Hall, a dormitory at Potomac State College of West Virginia University, a two-year junior college affiliated as a division of West Virginia University located in Keyser, West Virginia

Riders on horseback cross a lush meadow in Rocky Mountain National Park in the Front Range of the spectacular and high Rockies in north-central Colorado

Riders walk their bicycles throughBlue River Plaza in downtown Breckenridge, Colorado

River view of Fairmont, West Virginia

Riggleman Hall at the University of Charleston in West Virginia

Roadside art on an approach to New Cumberland, West Virginia

Rifle-themed advertising sign for a liquor and grocery store in Central City, Colorado

Robert and Terri Lynn TallTree of Colorado Springs, Colorado, were among the participants at a Colorado Springs Native American Inter-Tribal Powwow and festival in that central Colorado city

Rock and dirt pathway in Rocky Mountain National Park in the Front Range of the spectacular and high Rockies in north-central Colorado

Rock formation outside Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Rocky overpass and tunnel along the "Million Dollar Highway" below Ouray, high in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado

Rocky Mountain lake on the narrow dirt road from Marble, Colorado, up to the old mining town of Crystal

Rocky Mountain view in Gunnison County, Colorado

Rocky cliffs alongide the (sometimes) rushing Crystal River, one of Colorado's noted trout streams, in Pitkin County

Rodeo action at the Cheyenne Frontier Days celebration in Wyoming's capital city

Roiling clouds and a rainbow appear above the skyline of Pueblo, Colorado, the Arkansas River that flows through town, and its most unusual levee

Rooftop structure at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Rough sketch of a paddlewheel steamboat on a wall of what was the library for the Virginia Court of Appeals building in Lewisburg, West Virginia

Row of two-story houses in Follansbee, West Virginia