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Infiltration Forums > US: Great Lakes > Ghost town(Viewed 2451 times)
Slim Jim
Noble Donor
 
location:
St. Paul, MN
 
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Re: Ghost town
<Reply # 20 on 3/13/2020 1:51 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER ForumQuote
A question oft asked but the answer will disappoint.

Basically, the answer is yes, very few, in remote locations, if you don't mind them being tourist-ized. There are places like Rush, AR with very little left that are basically turned into a park. One in Upper Michigan with more buildings but well-kept-up as a state park crossed my feed recently too. I can't think of any more offhand so it's a rarity in this region.

That's regarding complete ghost towns which still have houses but no residents.

There are townsites (former towns with no houses left) all over the place. Just pan around Google in farm country looking for town names and zoom in to see if any houses are left. But of course there's nothing left to explore.

Then there are a select few declining towns in certain specific parts of the Midwest that have more abandoned houses than active houses. And some that are close to that. I haven't really checked them out yet aside from driving around but hope to someday. I won't name specific towns since this is a public forum but the regions that come to mind based on my map surfing and then driving around are near the Iowa-Missouri border (generally on the Missouri side) and the western part of the eastern part of the Dakotas. Yep, that's right. Eastern ND and SD look similar and western ND and SD look similar while western ND and SD look similar. I've always been surprised they didn't make them East Dakota and West Dakota. The Missouri river basically divides the Dakotas east and west. West of the Missouri river in ranch country, there's very little left because there was so little there to begin with. East of the Missouri river you have towns a plenty. The western part of east of the missouri river is generally far from job centers so residents leave to get jobs or grow old and die. Here is where I've noticed the most half-abandoned towns. But every single one I've seen has some residents. The IA-MO state line is almost better to be honest, but they all have residents in close proximity too.

Look up a heat map of county-by-county income level or population gain/loss level. It'll narrow down where to look.

Then as you go into the legit west there might be a few more here and there. Generally with plenty of info out there if you do your research. Couple others kinda sorta in this region that I just thought of but again won't be naming names - the more people get caught there and the more word spreads and people cause damage, the more owners and authorities patrol, ticket, and eventually demolish or put up cameras. It's understandable that people new to UE may not be all that aware of the severity of this but I can't emphasize it enough. You can research and easily find both that I'm thinking of and probably more out west where they are more common.

As for the eastern Midwest (IL-IN-OH), what I've noticed all over the region is blight/abandonment gets more common as you proceed southward. It's surprising that no one really talks about this. Up here in MN-WI, there's very little abandoned. Not in the city, not in the towns, not in the country. They proactively demo or renovate. Northern IA and far northern IL generally looks like MN-WI. Then it gets more common as you proceed southward to southern IL and most of MO where many if not most towns have at least one small abandonment. But nothing like a full-on ghost town unless you include the park stuff. Something like Cairo which is not a ghost town but losing people fast is your best bet and even there they demoed most of their downtown buildings and there's not a whole lot left iirc.

Everyone loves to find ghost towns and abandonments near where they live. Explorers typically live in or near cities...because most people live in or near cities. No one really talks about this but for abandonments (not underground) there's generally an inverse relationship between the number of resourceful explorers in a given area and the number of abandonments (ghost towns included). Because resourceful explorers typically live in major cities and most notably booming cities like MSP, Portland, San Francisco, etc. while abandonments happen in declining areas like the Rust Belt, rural Missouri (away from its cities) the Dakotas (away from its cities). The opposite of booming. St. Louis has tons of abandonments but few explorers. It's a small-population metro. Detroit is an exception, potentially partially driven by how numerous and extensive its abandoments are. People there are more likely to become explorers because of that. But it's a big metro. There's a small city in Illinois that still has several decent-looking abandonments that I've never heard of anyone exploring. Either I'm that far out of the loop or it's simply too far (several hours) from every exploring community in the region. These places can be like low-hanging fruit because with few if any explorers in the area security is typically low. Although police may be more available and have more frequent patrols nearby, they're not looking for a "crime" that they haven't seen before. Conversely, all the famous locations in the cities full of explorers are typically watched or have security.

Anyway...frequency of abandonments varies drastically based on region which varies drastically based on population loss or gain. Bottom line is road trips open possibilities tremendously.

The other bottom line is do your research. It's fun and rewarding if you know which regions to look in and abandonments pop up really fast while map surfing in those regions. No one will provide handouts. History repeats itself and this consistently results in trashed locations or stepped-up security, both of which eventually result in losing what few abandonments we have left to easily explore in this day and age.



I want to be different. But I want to be different just like everybody else, because if I really were different, everybody would think I was crazy and weird.

Iowa is Minnesota's bitch. There's an art to pooping.
Radio2600 location:
On the Road to Wellville
 
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Re: Ghost town
<Reply # 21 on 3/14/2020 7:26 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER ForumQuote
Posted by Slim Jim
A question oft asked but the answer will disappoint.



Good to see you here!



In order to use your head, you have to go out of your mind.
R426 location:
Everywhere
 
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Re: Ghost town
<Reply # 22 on 3/15/2020 12:10 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER ForumQuote
Posted by Freak
What a Great Lakes region ghost town might look like.

http://drainfreak....ies/air/air15t.jpg

http://drainfreak....cities/air/air.jpg


1950s Grandma houses as far as the eye can see.


Kinda looks like the first story in this YouTube video.....

https://www.youtub...atch?v=whcSmxtV3w8




dark alley cat lost in the shadows
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