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Infiltration Forums > UE Photography > The Great Quarantine Ghost Town Hunt: Arrival at Ardmore (4/4)(Viewed 441 times)
Aran location:
Kansas City
 
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The Great Quarantine Ghost Town Hunt: Arrival at Ardmore (4/4)
< on 10/7/2021 1:27 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER ForumQuote
Part I: Twin Cities Tomfoolery
Part II: Remembering Vayland
Part III: Okaton Ironies

My journey across the Great Plains finally ended in a ghost town named Ardmore, where I rendezvoused with another explorer named JennyUE who was on her way to Chicago from the west coast.

Founded as an agricultural town in 1889 by European settlers, Ardmore was one of the many Great Plains towns that sprung up along the railroad. In Ardmore's case, this was a necessity for life in the town. The groundwater in this area is so acidic that potable water had to be brought in via railroad. The only thing the water was really suitable for was for refilling steam engines- not only was it too acidic to drink, it was too acidic to use for irrigation.



Due to the lack of available water for crops, farmers in Ardmore practiced a style of farming known as dryland farming. This (at the time) experimental style of farming focused on planting drought resistant crops and conserving soil moisture through tilling and aggressive weed removal.

For a time, Ardmore thrived, with its own general store, post office and fire station. The steam engines would stop to refill their boilers and drop off potable water in return. President Calvin Cooldidge stopped by for a visit in 1927, and Ardmore was so prosperous that it survived the Great Depression without a single family needing to collect welfare to survive. But you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and Ardmore was one of the eggs broken to cook the omelet of technological progress.



During WWII and the Postwar Period, the diesel locomotive gradually replaced the steam engine all across American railroads. Though less powerful than the steam engine, diesel locomotives are more fuel efficient, require less maintainence, and most damningly for Ardmore, don't require frequent stops to refill their boilers with water.

The railroad continued water deliveries to Ardmore despite no longer needing to stop for boiler refills, but those water deliveries slowly dwindled in frequency. Eventually the delay of stopping for water deliveries became enough of an expense that the railroad company stopped delivering water to Ardmore in the 1980s. Combined with a population that had already been slowly dwindling since a drought in 1936, this was the death knell for Ardmore.



The last time a census was taken in Ardmore was in 1980, listing 16 residents. Some argue that the town was abandoned when the railroad company stopped the water deliveries, but the town wasn't officially abandoned until 2004. In 2010 a town reunion was held at the old fire station and attended by many of the children who had grown up and moved away, but no such gathering has occurred since.



Despite being officially considered abandoned, this isn't quite the case. Ardmore is home to four or five hermits who live off the grid. JennyUE and I ran into one such hermit while wandering the town. She had leathery skin and a voice like gravel, with dirty and torn clothes hanging loosely from her thin frame. I couldn't even tell her gender at first until I saw a bra strap on her shoulder. She was the type of person who had clearly lived a hard life of toil.



As we stood outside her trailer she told us about how there were a few residents like her left, but one had recently died and a few others were only around in the warmer months. She also said that she owned the fire station and a few other buildings in town, and mentioned that the sheriff had to be called several times in recent months to deal with bored teenagers driving in from neighboring towns to smash things up. Then she told us we could look around as long as we stayed out of the buildings, and offered us a brick from a masonry pile in her front yard. JennyUE might still have that brick.





Unfortunately, the water tower ladder had long since rusted off, so it wasn't climbable. After taking our photos JennyUE and I departed back east. After we split ways, I swung by an occupied town called Kimball, which had a cool wooden grain elevator called the OG Bradshaw Grain Elevator. It's not large enough to warrant its own thread, so consider it a bonus to Ardmore.







And thus we reach the end of my ghost town hunt across South Dakota. Thanks for sticking with me through this long exposition, and I hope you found it as fascinating as I did.



"Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there.

mookster location:
Oxford, UK
 
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Re: The Great Quarantine Ghost Town Hunt: Arrival at Ardmore (4/4)
<Reply # 1 on 10/7/2021 8:36 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER ForumQuote
Oh my, the cars alone make me need to go here.



Infiltration Forums > UE Photography > The Great Quarantine Ghost Town Hunt: Arrival at Ardmore (4/4)(Viewed 441 times)
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