Ghost Town: Difference between revisions
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=== North America === |
=== North America === |
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*Alaska |
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| ⚫ | * [[wikipedia:Centralia, Pennsylvania|Centralia, Pennsylvania]], built over a mass of coal (possibly lignite) that was hard to ignite but practically impossible to extinguish. The coal seam caught fire decades ago and the town was abandoned as unsafe, due to unstable ground and toxic gases. The seam remains on fire, and is predicted to continue to burn for 250 more years. However, there are still a few holdouts living there. Bill Bryson wrote a book about it, and the film version of ''[[Silent Hill (film)|Silent Hill]]'' was based on it. |
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** Anthracite coal, actually. There are still chunks of the stuff scattered all over the burning highway and the access roads for construction vehicles. And some of those holdouts still living there occupy a house next to a mound of anthracite coal which they use as a flagpole. They also have a "No Interviews" sign on their door. Many other former residents are expected to return in 2016 for the unveiling of the time capsule. |
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*British Columbia |
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* [[wikipedia:Times Beach, Missouri|Times Beach, Missouri]] became a ghost town because of dioxin poisoning. The town's buildings were razed and the soil burnt to rid it of the dioxin. It's now a state park. |
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** [[wikipedia:Cassiar, British Columbia|Cassiar, British Columbia]], once a thriving mining town of 1500, it is now devoid of life. The highway in that area retains the name of Cassiar. |
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*California |
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| ⚫ | * Dana Common and Prescott Peninsula in Massachusetts, the last significant above-ground areas of four towns ([[wikipedia:Quabbin Reservoir#Towns discontinued|Dana, Prescott, Enfield, and Greenwich]]) that were flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s. Despite the removal of all significant buildings in the area, Dana Common is still regularly kept up by the Massachusetts parks people as a waystation for hikers, parts of the old golf course in Prescott are still visible (but off limits to the public), and building foundations still dot the area, including under the water. |
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| ⚫ | ** [[wikipedia:Fort Ord|Fort Ord, California]], while still technically containing a military presence due to the Naval Postgraduate School, it is abandoned in the visual sense with a large number of boarded up buildings and overgrown plantlife. ** Now the Mythbusters second abandoned location to casually drive cars through. |
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*Illinois |
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*Massachusetts |
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** Now the Mythbusters second abandoned location to casually drive cars through. |
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| ⚫ | ** Dana Common and Prescott Peninsula in Massachusetts, the last significant above-ground areas of four towns ([[wikipedia:Quabbin Reservoir#Towns discontinued|Dana, Prescott, Enfield, and Greenwich]]) that were flooded to create the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s. Despite the removal of all significant buildings in the area, Dana Common is still regularly kept up by the Massachusetts parks people as a waystation for hikers, parts of the old golf course in Prescott are still visible (but off limits to the public), and building foundations still dot the area, including under the water. |
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*Missouri |
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* [[wikipedia: |
** [[wikipedia:Times Beach, Missouri|Times Beach, Missouri]] became a ghost town because of dioxin poisoning. The town's buildings were razed and the soil burnt to rid it of the dioxin. It's now a state park. |
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*Nevada |
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* [[wikipedia:Cassiar, British Columbia|Cassiar, British Columbia]], once a thriving mining town of 1500, it is now devoid of life. The highway in that area retains the name of Cassiar. |
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*New Jersey |
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| ⚫ | * The state of Oklahoma, which has gone through numerous booms and busts over the years (oil, coal, lead, etc) is littered with literally hundreds of these, to the point that there's actually an official state list and classification system for them. There are even several which are partially underwater due to the construction of artificial lakes, and many more which are ''entirely'' underwater but still visible from the shoreline. The most notable is [[wikipedia:Picher, Oklahoma|Picher]], a dangerously toxic and structurally unstable former mining town featured in an episode of [[Life After People]]. |
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** Picher is also notable because the few remaining residents (approximately a dozen people) flat-out refuse to leave despite the fact that the groundwater is undrinkable, the air is dangerous to breathe and the entire town could literally sink into the earth at any given moment. Mostly elderly, these few residents were all born in Picher and have expressed their wishes to die there. |
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*New York |
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** [[wikipedia:Love Canal|Love Canal]], a infamous neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York that was evacuated in 1979 after it was learned that it was built on a toxic waste dump. |
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*Ohio |
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** [[wikipedia:Wonderland, Ohio|Wonderland, Ohio]], the ruins of which are just off the end of one of the runways at Port Columbus Airport. |
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*Oklahoma |
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| ⚫ | ** The state of Oklahoma, which has gone through numerous booms and busts over the years (oil, coal, lead, etc) is littered with literally hundreds of these, to the point that there's actually an official state list and classification system for them. There are even several which are partially underwater due to the construction of artificial lakes, and many more which are ''entirely'' underwater but still visible from the shoreline. The most notable is [[wikipedia:Picher, Oklahoma|Picher]], a dangerously toxic and structurally unstable former mining town featured in an episode of [[Life After People]]. ** Picher is also notable because the few remaining residents (approximately a dozen people) flat-out refuse to leave despite the fact that the groundwater is undrinkable, the air is dangerous to breathe and the entire town could literally sink into the earth at any given moment. Mostly elderly, these few residents were all born in Picher and have expressed their wishes to die there. |
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*Pennsylvania |
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| ⚫ | ** [[wikipedia:Centralia, Pennsylvania|Centralia, Pennsylvania]], built over a mass of coal (possibly lignite) that was hard to ignite but practically impossible to extinguish. The coal seam caught fire decades ago and the town was abandoned as unsafe, due to unstable ground and toxic gases. The seam remains on fire, and is predicted to continue to burn for 250 more years. However, there are still a few holdouts living there. Bill Bryson wrote a book about it, and the film version of ''[[Silent Hill (film)|Silent Hill]]'' was based on it. ** Anthracite coal, actually. There are still chunks of the stuff scattered all over the burning highway and the access roads for construction vehicles. And some of those holdouts still living there occupy a house next to a mound of anthracite coal which they use as a flagpole. They also have a "No Interviews" sign on their door. Many other former residents are expected to return in 2016 for the unveiling of the time capsule. |
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*Utah |
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* Going into the future, large swaths of the American Midwest and West are expected to become ghost towns as water resources become more strained. Las Vegas and LA are two of the biggest concerns<ref> Neither city is remotely sustainable at this point in time, the LA area could support at best a couple hundred thousand people on its natural water resources</ref>, as either they and other cities will dry up, or they'll force areas of the Southwest to dry up. There's simply not enough water to support them both given current projections. Already the Colorado river is virtually a trickle by the time it leaves American soil. |
* Going into the future, large swaths of the American Midwest and West are expected to become ghost towns as water resources become more strained. Las Vegas and LA are two of the biggest concerns<ref> Neither city is remotely sustainable at this point in time, the LA area could support at best a couple hundred thousand people on its natural water resources</ref>, as either they and other cities will dry up, or they'll force areas of the Southwest to dry up. There's simply not enough water to support them both given current projections. Already the Colorado river is virtually a trickle by the time it leaves American soil. |
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