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Our first tentative experiences with “ghost towns” were during our “Great American Roadtrip” in 2010 when we were criss-crossing the U.S.A. by Jeep for two months. Our ideas about \u201cghost towns\u201d came from old films and stories of the American west. We imagined Hollywood stage sets of western streets with eerily swinging barroom doors on creaking hinges. The reality, as we discovered, is something else\u2013more like an archaeological journey through other people\u2019s misfortune than a romantic hollywood film. Still, the ghost towns became an important history lesson for us, tying together past and present, and illustrating the destruction \u201cchange\u201d can sometimes wreak on a vibrant community. “Ghost-towning” and backcountry exploration can be a great combination for anyone attracted by historical curiosity and the opportunity for interesting photography. Our first tentative experiences with “ghost towns” were during our “Great American Roadtrip” in 2010 when we were criss-crossing the U.S.A. by Jeep for two months. Our ideas about \u201cghost towns\u201d came from old films and stories of the American west. We imagined Hollywood stage sets of western streets with eerily swinging barroom doors on creaking hinges. The reality, as we discovered, is something else\u2013more like an archaeological journey through other people\u2019s misfortune than a romantic hollywood film. Still, the ghost towns became an important history lesson for us, tying together past and present, and illustrating the destruction \u201cchange\u201d can sometimes wreak on a vibrant community. HOW TO RECOGNIZE A GHOST The “ghost town” of Oatman, AZ with it\u2019s western mining town period-architecture is actually a bustling and thriving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":407,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar_right.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4342"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4342"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4975,"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4342\/revisions\/4975"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/usnomadstudio.com\/usnomads\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHOW TO RECOGNIZE A GHOST<\/strong>
\nThe “ghost town” of Oatman, AZ with it\u2019s western mining town period-architecture is actually a bustling and thriving site thanks to tourism and the creative attempts of community members to revive an amazing ambiance. Near Barstow, CA the \u201cpay-to-visit\u201d Calicotown, is more disney-esque. Though it was once a \u201creal\u201d ghost town with an authentic history, it is now so \u201cfabricated\u201d it has lost its soul. These touristic \u201cghosts\u201d are fun to visit, but it is pretty much like visiting a \u201cmuseum\u201d \u2014 clean and safe and educational, with a place to buy trinkets.
\nThen there are the \u201creal\u201d ghosts, sometimes nothing more than ruins\u2026
\nTechnically, a ghost town is simply an abandoned town or city. The reasons for its abandon vary. Boomtowns that were built up around some single activity or resource (like mining) can go \u201cbust,\u201d often decreasing in size as fast as they initially grew \u2014 with nearly the entire population deserting the town in a very short period of time. When a road or rail line is re-routed, a town can be \u201cby-passed,\u201d causing it to \u201cfade\u201d away slowly, as was the case for many places along the historic Route 66 itinerary. Sometimes an epidemic decimates a small town\u2019s population, and the place slowly disappears, or a disaster, like the land contamination at Times Beach (which has since been cleaned up and turned into a Route 66 Park just west of St. Louis), forces people to move away.
\nBut across much of the American west, rural communities have lost roughly a third of their population since 1920, as young people moved to urban and suburban centers, allowing many small towns to fade into ghost- or semi-ghost status.
\nExperts have come up with two \u201cguidelines\u201d for determining what qualifies as a \u201cghost.\u201d First, \u201cthe town\u2019s reason for being must no longer exist.\u201d This criteria allows for the inclusion of semi-abandoned sites that maintain only a skeleton population. Second, \u201cthere must be tangible remains of the town for visitors to see\u201d \u2014 ruins, boarded up buildings, or even just a town cemetery qualify.
\n\u201cGHOST TOWNING\u201d\u2013 THE ADVENTURE<\/strong>
\nIt seems that visiting, writing about, and photographing abandoned towns has become a minor industry. There are books and websites dedicated to this quirky offshoot of adventure tourism.
\n\u201cGhost-Towners\u201d basically just set out to locate a \u201cghost town\u201d and visit it. The southwest is full of old mining towns with crumbling relics, rusting railroad engines, roadside ruins and remnants of lives lived on the fringe. Still, finding a place that is no longer \u201con the map\u201d and exploring the abandoned ruins can be an adventure. \u201cHard core\u201d ghost-towners pride themselves on finding completely abandoned sites in the most desolate locations.
\nPreparing for a ghost town visit, enthusiasts research the history of the town to learn how and why it became a \u201cghost.\u201d Next the town must be physically located \u2014 there are lots of lists with GPS coordinates on the internet, but the old-fashioned method of asking around at the closest inhabited town may lead to some colorful folklore or practical advice about security and access to the site.
\nSerious ghost-towners try to find the U.S.G.S Topographical map that includes the town they are searching for. With the name of the mine, the county and the town itself, anyone can search the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public records which will offer up enough precise information (township, range, and section number) to identify the correct Platte map, which in turn will provide the topographical map name. (For more on ghosts town exploration, and also how to read topo maps see ghosttowns.com<\/a>)
\nEMERGING GHOSTS<\/strong>
\nExploring the crumbling sites of an eeriely abandoned community can be a wonderful experience in discovery, but equally interesting are the \u201csemi-ghosts.\u201d These are towns with \u201ca markedly decreased population from its peak, and whose initial reason for settlement (such as a mine or railroad) no longer keeps people in the community.\u201d Sure signs of an \u201cemerging ghost\u201d are scattered rubble where nature has reclaimed the land, partially demolished or abandoned buildings, and little or no population.
\nAs they fade, the towns may still have a post office, and sometimes even a bank, surrounded by a permanently shuttered businesses on a lonely Main Street. If the community is close to major highway, it may also still have a gas station\/convenience store.
\nIn the west, many of these more recent \u201cghosts\u201d are victims of agriculture\u2019s downward spiral in America\u2019s \u201cheartland.\u201d Once thriving small farming towns are dying a slow death, as the younger population simply moves away, leaving their parents and grandparents to watch over crumbling buildings, old trucks and tractors, paint-peeling houses, boarded up buildings, and decaying barns.
\nTheir decline can be traced to the 1930\u2019s when many families lost their farms due to debt or the dustbowl. Thousands of acres of abandoned land was eventually scooped up by a few remaining farmers who consolidated it, using complex machinery, hybrid seeds and large irrigation systems to create massive agricultural operations. A far cry from the \u201cfamily farm,\u201d the agribusinesses didn\u2019t require the same kind of manpower, and the children, freed from the obligation to participate in the family\u2019s livelihood, went in search of their own interests as they came of age.
\nFewer customers for the grocery and hardware stores, the doctors and lawyers, churches and schools, forced them to shut down or move to larger population centers. Houses became impossible to sell, because there were no buyers, and when elderly folks pass on, their precious homesteads are boarded up and abandoned.
\nBE PREPARED<\/strong>
\nHardcore ghost-towning can take you to some pretty out-of-the-way places. Harsh environments and difficult terrain means you should always be well-prepared with the same kind of supplies you would take for any off-road back-country camping.
\nGhosttowns.com recommends you take two vehicles, if possible. And if not, make sure you have communications that will work in the location you are going to. Also, make sure someone knows where you are going and when you should be back (and who to call if you are not back on schedule). Besides a cell phone, you might want to take a radio or even a satellite phone, depending on the remoteness of the site.
\nKnow where you are and where you are going. A GPS is always a good thing to have, in case you get disoriented and need to determine your exact position. It\u2019s also good to have a simple, but reliable, magnetic compass and topo maps of the area you are exploring. Binoculars can be a useful tool (especially when you think you might see something on the next ridge only to spend 2 hours hiking to find out it was a big brown rock!)
\nExpect the unexpected. In addition to the obvious (sunscreen, chapstick, sunglasses and a hat), take a first aid kit, and extra food and water. You should have at least one gallon of water per person per day in the desert \u2014 and always carry an extra day\u2019s supply if you are going somewhere off-road or very remote. It\u2019s also a good idea, when headed to those out of the way locations, to throw some MREs or other food that needs no preparation and no refrigeration into your pack.
\nFinally, don\u2019t forget to take a camera to record your discoveries!
\nUnfortunately not everyone who visits these locations takes the hobby seriously, and many sites are completely vandalized. Please remember to \u201cTread Lightly\u201d when visiting so others can enjoy the same discovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"