Abandoned Cities

[Rardy]

Where do you get a population of 28,000 for downtown memphis? Even at 5 sq. mi. Memphis' core has less than 20,000.

[hudkina]

So just how big is downtown Memphis then? 10 sq. mi.?

[Rardy]

So just how big is downtown Memphis then? 10 sq. mi.?

[hudkina]

Adding up the census tracts that make up the downtown area gives a population less than 20,000 sq. mi. and that's in an area of 5 sq. mi. Aside from the fact that I was being sarcastic having a population of 28,000 would indicate that the boundaries of Downtown Memphis according to whoever derived that number is larger than 5 sq. mi.

[Allison Slater]

I heard that back in the 20s, some developer 'created' a city in Missouri and advertised it in St. Louis newspapers with an incentive so great, the city attracted a lot of people. Route 66 either ran through it, or very near it. After only a few years, it was discovered that a chemical being used to control dust on its dirt streets was hazardous to health, and the entire city was forced to vacate. I read about this in a Rand McNally Road Atlas that had 2 pages dedicated to Route 66. I think the year was 1992. I don't remember the city's name, but I know it was mentioned in that 2-page article.

[davidals]

I heard that back in the 20s, some developer 'created' a city in Missouri and advertised it in St. Louis newspapers with an incentive so great, the city attracted a lot of people. Route 66 either ran through it, or very near it. After only a few years, it was discovered that a chemical being used to control dust on its dirt streets was hazardous to health, and the entire city was forced to vacate. I read about this in a Rand McNally Road Atlas that had 2 pages dedicated to Route 66. I think the year was 1992. I don't remember the city's name, but I know it was mentioned in that 2-page article.

[GR8scott]

Times Beach, in SW St Louis County. More of a planned community than a "city", though still devastating. The dioxins in the soil were leached out by a river flood in the late 70s or early 80s, poisoning the entire town, which was bought out in the mid 1980s, and became a ghost town. Don't have the URL handy, but there's a "Ghost Towns Of America" site with a state-by-state index, and it's on there.

[davidals]

^

According to http://www.ghosttowns.com/ghosttownsusa.html, not much is left - a few dirt roads to nowhere, and a building; the townsite (abandoned in Dec 1982) has been rehabbed into Route 66 State Park. No pics on the site unfortunately.

At the time, it was a BIG news story, coming 3-4 years after the Love Canal thing in Buffalo.

[GR8scott]

^

According to http://www.ghosttowns.com/ghosttownsusa.html, not much is left - a few dirt roads to nowhere, and a building; the townsite (abandoned in Dec 1982) has been rehabbed into Route 66 State Park. No pics on the site unfortunately.

At the time, it was a BIG news story, coming 3-4 years after the Love Canal thing in Buffalo.

[Allison Slater]

Yup that's the one. I remember trying to find it on Google Earth but never had any luck.

I also just remembered when I was in grade 3 or 4, hearing from a local historian about a small town that was burried beneath sand dunes. According to what I remember, one man who lived in the town refused to leave as the sands continued to bury the city. He eventually moved into a hotel and every so often would move up a floor when the time required him to do so. I don't remember if he left when the sand forced him out or if he went down with the building. And in browsing that site, I see it mentioned as Singapore.. nothing about the man though.

Apparently the entire town still exists (as I had heard way back when) but is still beneath the sand dunes.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/mi/singapore.html

It would be very cool to excavate the dunes and uncover a late 1800s city preserved in time.

[davidals]

^

I that site mainly for the openness of their definition of "ghost town": places under artifical lakes, chemical despoilation like Times Beach and Love Canal, abandoned colonial sites found up and down the E Coast, places like Rosewood FL that were subjected to racial pogroms...it brings up a lot of the complex difficulties in American history, far beyond the narrower "wild west" definition...

[MZT]

IMO it's not a proper ghost town without structures. You're describing towns that disappeared, were destroyed or removed. Different concept.

I think a lot of the "ghost towns" identified on maps of the west don't qualify for that reason too. They're simply gone.

[orulz]

can someone post pics of gary, indiana?

I've heard from so many people that it's a blighted, industrial wasteland... yet I'd like to see for myself if it really is THAT bad.

[Randy@Tacoma]

Im sorry to say, you can try all you want, but that city has no money, and they squander the bit they do on a baseball stadium. Thats bull$hit. Come on.... Im really starting to get fed-up with this country. This stupid place (The US as a whole) is still SO infested with racism, and its obvious in the urban decay we have. I hate to point it out, but Detroit = 80% Black, 30% Poverty. Cleveland = 50% Black, 30% Poverty. For Comparison: San Francisco = 50% White, 35% Asian, 7% Black, 8% Poverty. Seattle = 65% White, 10% Black, 15% Asian, 10% Poverty. And Portland = 75% White, 7% Black, 7% Asian, 10% Poverty.

Thats why I fed up with everyones bullcrap, no matter what race you are! I thought we were taught a lesson in the 60's by MLK... Man..... sometimes my blood can boil. We seriously need to learn to live together as humans, harmoniously, and quit thinking about race this and race that. Ok, Im done. Sorry for the explosion.

[Randy@Tacoma]

Im sorry to say, you can try all you want, but that city has no money, and they squander the bit they do on a baseball stadium. Thats bull$hit. Come on.... Im really starting to get fed-up with this country. This stupid place (The US as a whole) is still SO infested with racism, and its obvious in the urban decay we have. I hate to point it out, but Detroit = 80% Black, 30% Poverty. Gary, IN = 90% Black, 35% Poverty. Cleveland = 50% Black, 30% Poverty. For Comparison: San Francisco = 50% White, 35% Asian, 7% Black, 8% Poverty. Seattle = 65% White, 10% Black, 15% Asian, 10% Poverty. And Portland = 75% White, 7% Black, 7% Asian, 10% Poverty.

Thats why I fed up with everyones bullcrap, no matter what race you are! I thought we were taught a lesson in the 60's by MLK... Man..... sometimes my blood can boil. We seriously need to learn to live together as humans, harmoniously, and quit thinking about race this and race that. Ok, Im done. Sorry for the explosion.

[GR8scott]

Im sorry to say, you can try all you want, but that city has no money, and they squander the bit they do on a baseball stadium. Thats bull$hit. Come on.... Im really starting to get fed-up with this country. This stupid place (The US as a whole) is still SO infested with racism, and its obvious in the urban decay we have. I hate to point it out, but Detroit = 80% Black, 30% Poverty. Gary, IN = 90% Black, 35% Poverty. Cleveland = 50% Black, 30% Poverty. For Comparison: San Francisco = 50% White, 35% Asian, 7% Black, 8% Poverty. Seattle = 65% White, 10% Black, 15% Asian, 10% Poverty. And Portland = 75% White, 7% Black, 7% Asian, 10% Poverty.

Thats why I fed up with everyones bullcrap, no matter what race you are! I thought we were taught a lesson in the 60's by MLK... Man..... sometimes my blood can boil. We seriously need to learn to live together as humans, harmoniously, and quit thinking about race this and race that. Ok, Im done. Sorry for the explosion.

[Miesian Corners]

Centralia, PA is abandoned. It was a decent sized coal mining town, but one of the mines caught fire in the 1960s and sections of town started sinking into the earth. It has since been emptied of all but a few households. BTW, the coal should burn for the next 250 years.

[memjax2187]

I know what you mean. Memphis' downtown urban core alone has 28,000 residents and it's hoppin on a Monday night, not to mention the weekend. We're projected to have 40,000 residents downtown by 2010. Super cool!

[davidals]

Centralia, PA is abandoned. It was a decent sized coal mining town, but one of the mines caught fire in the 1960s and sections of town started sinking into the earth. It has since been emptied of all but a few households. BTW, the coal should burn for the next 250 years.

[nowensone]

Im sorry to say, you can try all you want, but that city has no money, and they squander the bit they do on a baseball stadium. Thats bull$hit. Come on.... Im really starting to get fed-up with this country. This stupid place (The US as a whole) is still SO infested with racism, and its obvious in the urban decay we have. I hate to point it out, but Detroit = 80% Black, 30% Poverty. Gary, IN = 90% Black, 35% Poverty. Cleveland = 50% Black, 30% Poverty. For Comparison: San Francisco = 50% White, 35% Asian, 7% Black, 8% Poverty. Seattle = 65% White, 10% Black, 15% Asian, 10% Poverty. And Portland = 75% White, 7% Black, 7% Asian, 10% Poverty.

[davidals]

There may be a correlation there, but not as much as one would think, it is much more a class thing than a race thing. I'll just use my home state as an example so as not to cause offense to others - in western NC, in the heart of southern Appalachia, some people live in the kind of poverty you see on television when Sally Struthers asks you for just 30 cents a day.. they could be the same children, the same families. Some have housing of sorts, crumbling to pieces, and some don't, and even among the some that do, they still live in filth, and murder is as common as a bad inner city ghetto, if not more so. And we're talking about white people, who face a considerable degree of discrimination themselves, and for whom a bath and a suit don't really make it all go away. I think people don't quite realize how common this "other" demographic is, probably because they are hidden away in the rural areas of the country where most people don't go anymore.

[nowensone]

^ They are definitely "forgotten" places and people, it is frankly a wonder that Asheville can exist so close to some of these areas, and yet remain the positive cultural anomaly that it is.

[davidals]

Asheville did go through a very long decline period however, with some 30 years of stagnant growth and industry (Asheville barely grew during a few decades, and had a slight population loss during the 1970s), before a big comeback, which I would guess comes down to a combination of thinking outside the box, retirees, maybe the university...and there are other pockets of life, like Boone, Waynesville and Hendersonville, though it's all about either App State or retirees in those places. In all four cities, the economy is over-dependent upon the service sector, and in at least some of those places there is a desire to diversify away from that but it remains to be seen how successfull they will be.

[Lance Winslow]

One of the most interesting modern ghost town cities I have visited was in Jeffers WY. I think that is the name. Old Uranium mine town, closed. Nothing there now by a few squatters and lots of buildings, school and a side road cafe for those traveling by.