Posted by Air This should be stickied and made mandatory reading for everyone new much like forum rules.

I agree - it took me a while to find this thread, and it is super-duper!

I'm living in Lyon, France for the year, which is an incredibly old city with umpteen abandoned/not-open-to-the-public buildings around, but as I'm not experienced I wasn't even sure how to go about finding places to explore.

I disagree.

If you are using the internet to find locations, you're not truly exploring

Posted by Roo-kie I disagree. If you are using the internet to find locations, you're not truly exploring

Sure you are. The internet justs points you in the right direction sometimes- you still have to go and check out the places.

The best way to find abandonments around here is just drive down a country road and keep going. When out running an errand or grocery shopping or something, if you have some time or gas to kill, just take a side road you've never taken before. Hell, once you get to the rural parts of the major highways you don't even need to stray off the main route, they are all along the road.

This might sound hokey but I get a kind of tingling sense that "hmmm, I should take a turn down this road" when I am out driving aimlessly looking for abandonments. Every single time, I have struck gold, never fails.

I usually see this in more mountain areas around here, but look for a road stub. A spot where the pavement goes only about 10-15' off the road and stops. There might be a pile of dirt/debris but usually thats a road that has been closed. You would be surprised what you may find down them. I know I have been.

I have my own tricks for finding abandonments, and probably most of them wouldn't work in other countries. I try to take buses rather than subways, and for leisure I jump on my scooter and ride off in a different direction. Most of my discoveries come from travelling this way.

These are my standard things I'm looking for:

- buildings with missing windows or doors, or windows with tangled curtains
- temporary fencing, often made of plain sheet metal or green striped blankets
- construction sites, which often have condemned buildings along the perimeter
- spraypainted graffiti left by hired goons or banners left by protesters
- up on the slopes of mountains, where very housing is usually found

Posted by jeepdave I usually see this in more mountain areas around here, but look for a road stub. A spot where the pavement goes only about 10-15' off the road and stops. There might be a pile of dirt/debris but usually thats a road that has been closed. You would be surprised what you may find down them. I know I have been.

I have thought about this many times. We have lots of those around here. But they are mostly roped off or have signs posted. Most memorably, a friend and I were trying to find the ruins of a turn of the century resort that we'd Google Mapped. Google didn't tell us that the road stub was barred with a huge padlocked cattle gate and numerous signs yelling "ABSOLUTELY NO TRESPASSING VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW." Sigh!

Posted by Steed These are my standard things I'm looking for: - buildings with missing windows or doors, or windows with tangled curtains

I am always eyeballing the condition of homes to discern this. Unfortunately in rural Appalachia it's not always accurate. Some people just live that way. Especially in the really far-out parts where you can find homes that are literally pieces of metal and wood slapped together.

I visited a small town in NY state a few years ago where every single home looked like it'd been sitting untouched for decades. But they were all occupied. Apparently the story was that they were trying to keep their property taxes low by letting the outside of their houses go to shit so they looked worthless.

go to a crummy area and conduct dismounted movement, which allows you to see things in detail and traverse terrain a vehicle can not.

Posted by etchleon go to a crummy area and conduct dismounted movement, which allows you to see things in detail and traverse terrain a vehicle can not.

+1

http://wikimapia.org/

better than any google service!! you can select what type of location you want, they pin point them all, w the coordnates and if their active/abandoned

Here is a new one, if your on an interstate, and you see the exit services signs, you know the blue ones that list lodging, gas, food, etc. Look at it really close as you past, when something is closed or abandoned many times they simply remove the sign that is attached to the blue main sign. It usually leaves an out line. Ya see that, get off at that exist and look around. For those of you into motels, old restaurants, old attractions, etc, this can be gold.

I am pretty sure the whole stretch of Us-64 is abandoned near the TN-NC border and east.

It also helps to live near areas that are decrepit and falling apart that are economically downtrodden that can't afford upkeep on anything.

Get a copy of Access All Areas. Every place in your city that is urban-y, off limits and/or neglected can be explored with enough skill. Cranes, drains, dams, active or abandoned buildings of all sorts, bridge rooms, boats, utility tunnels, steam tunnels, construction sites, rooftops...

The point is, if you expand your horizons a bit, you'll notice there are a lot more potential locations around you. Just don't be stupid and try to get into the reactor of an active nuclear power plant or something. We don't need that.

Searching through historical databases always helps me out!

(First post!)
I unfortunately live in a small town like 45 minutes out of Cleveland. We really don't have any thing abandoned. In a couple years though when I'm driving I'm planning on spending a lot of time in Cleveland. Fucking goldmine. This is helpful though! Every time I'm in a big city I just look around, it's not too difficult to find places.

I'm with the rest of you. I use flickr (it's a great way to make contacts with your local UE community), Google Earth/Google Maps and good ol' Google search. Now that I've read this though I plan on using ACME Mapper and Flickriver, they're excellent sources, thanks guys!

Posted by barefootpoetry I am always eyeballing the condition of homes to discern this. Unfortunately in rural Appalachia it's not always accurate. Some people just live that way. Especially in the really far-out parts where you can find homes that are literally pieces of metal and wood slapped together. I visited a small town in NY state a few years ago where every single home looked like it'd been sitting untouched for decades. But they were all occupied. Apparently the story was that they were trying to keep their property taxes low by letting the outside of their houses go to shit so they looked worthless.

This. I personally have run into this many times living in southern WV. We are currently contemplating a op on a house, but we cant tell if its abandoned or if some low income person or hobo lives there.

Posted by Asher0719 I'm with the rest of you. I use flickr (it's a great way to make contacts with your local UE community)

When I went through NY last year, I posted about it here. Aside from derision, I received virtually no response.
The people that I would up meeting with were all found on Flickr, and after scouring that site I added maybe a half-dozen places to my list that I didn't know about before I left.