Hi all,
In about 4 months I'm going to be moving to Virginia (near the Staunton area most likely). I am from southern California so it is quite the move for me haha. I wanted to know if anyone knows of any dangers specific to Virginia I should watch out for when urbexing, or if there are any specific cities I should look at to find abandoned places.

Excited to move here though! Tired of California, most of it is dead plants (where I live anyway), no actual nature.

VA has some very odd laws that date back to its relationship with England as a colony. You can be trespassing on someone's stream or river. Just look into it to be safe. My brother runs a restaurant called Chicano Boy in Staunton, check em out. The Shenandoah Valley is a great location to move to!

please don't ruin the area you are going by voting blue.

Posted by RescueMe1060 please don't ruin the area you are going by voting blue.

Haha, I'm not political anyway.

I appreciate that answer

Posted by Turd Furgusen VA has some very odd laws that date back to its relationship with England as a colony. You can be trespassing on someone's stream or river. Just look into it to be safe. My brother runs a restaurant called Chicano Boy in Staunton, check em out. The Shenandoah Valley is a great location to move to!

I'll make sure to check it out if I come across it, and I'm not too sure where Shenandoah Valley is, but I'm most likely moving near the Shenandoah trail I think it's called, the one in the mountains.

There's quite a bit in Staunton. Virginia is great for rural spots. I think driving around the area will help you find a lot of possibilities.

Another Cali transplant, interesting. There's been a lot of developments popping up in the valley, and I keep wondering who the heck would actually choose to move into Staunton.

There's a lot in Virginia, just be wary of cops, cameras, and Karens.

Oh, and poison ivy. I know a California transplant that didn't know what it was and she spent all day pulling it by hand off of her property. Didn't end well.

Enjoy.

From what I heard Staunton, VA is very cool and kind of small. You could visit the Abandoned Sanitarium!

Posted by lonely_spino From what I heard Staunton, VA is very cool and kind of small. You could visit the Abandoned Sanitarium!

It was a state hospital, not a sanitarium, and it's no longer abandoned.

https://www.blackburn-inn.com/

Posted by Jeremys556 Hi all, In about 4 months I'm going to be moving to Virginia (near the Staunton area most likely). I am from southern California so it is quite the move for me haha. I wanted to know if anyone knows of any dangers specific to Virginia I should watch out for when urbexing, or if there are any specific cities I should look at to find abandoned places. Excited to move here though! Tired of California, most of it is dead plants (where I live anyway), no actual nature.

Hey, This is SSTippy,

I currently live in VA and have only gone out a few times but i'll try my best to give some tips to the area. If you are moving more north near the DC area there are a lot of cool places but most of them are not abandoned. I would recommend checking out construction zones along with any buildings being renovated. There are a lot of cops on this area and they don't allow radar detectors so be wary if you use one or were planning on something like it. If you want to chat more just reach out.

- SSTippy

Posted by becckeez Oh, and poison ivy. I know a California transplant that didn't know what it was and she spent all day pulling it by hand off of her property. Didn't end well.

Any intelligent West Coaster should know it as Poison Sumac.

Posted by Jeremys556 Hi all, In about 4 months I'm going to be moving to Virginia (near the Staunton area most likely). I am from southern California so it is quite the move for me haha. I wanted to know if anyone knows of any dangers specific to Virginia. Excited to move here though! Tired of California, most of it is dead plants (where I live anyway), no actual nature.

Some suggestions:

1. As you make new local friends, etc. try not to talk about California a lot, instead, talk to them about your new local community. There is a stereotype about Californians that you do not want to live-up to... Switch to a VA drivers license & license plate ASAP!
2. Definitely get a feel for the local culture & attitude -- if you're caught trespassing somewhere, you DON'T want to be thought of as "Some guy from California, here to cause crime," ideally the thought is "He's a new resident, very curious about things, and maybe didn't know he was trespassing.
3. A lot of the history is more along the lines of the Civil War, original 13 Colonies, etc. "Old" in California often meant early to mid 1900s, whereas in the VA/MD/WV area, "old" can often mean 1700s.
4. During the Cold War, all Washington DC area federal government agency HQs had to establish emergency relocation sites for 'continuity of operations' in-case of a nuclear attack on DC. Many of these secret ERS locations were established in rural parts of VA/PA/MD/WV/NC, because they were in-range of helicopters or ground transport. Many ERSs were somewhat 'disguised in plain-site,' meaning that in addition to a 'secret bunker,' the site had an overt, daily mission. Plenty were small colleges, because they had housing, food production, etc. I certainly am not going to steer you towards anything that may still have a secret mission, but in your travels in the area, if you see something that just doesn't make-sense, maybe it's an ERS... Often, the local old-timers know that something strange was going-on, because when the building was constructed, the basement was really deep, they used lots of extra cement & rebar, the access road gets priority for snow-plowing, they occasionally saw/heard gov't helicopters landing near the place, etc.

For example, look at:
https://www.flickr...72157617578295401/

Also, while it's not real close, this once-massive, once important site is now apparently a county park, with ruins of some of the old Navy structures:
https://www.flickr...72157714543335256/


/-/ooligan

Posted by RescueMe1060 please don't ruin the area you are going by voting blue.

Hey, save it for the Politics board.

And in regards to tips for Virginia, you're in coal country. Assume that every derelict mine in the state is full of highly explosive poison gas unless proven otherwise- and even then, conditions can change rapidly. I highly recommend a gas meter if you're mucking around with coal mines.