So, I recently got back from a "ghost towning" trip in North-eastern New Mexico. Fantastic place to sift through the wreckage and detritus of bygone settlements. However, I will leave that for other bloggers to explore. (In fact, the ghost towns of New Mexico are the subject of many Internet sites.) Lesser known are the ghost towns that can still be discovered in the ferny glens of the Allegheny.
Around here, ghost towns don't usually have much in the way of abandoned buildings. Unlike New Mexico, the wet climate and bitterly cold winters of the Pennsylvania highlands quickly reclaim the territory once conquered by fickle humanity. You have to look a little closer to find an Allegheny ghost town because they tend to consist of rows of cellar holes, foundations, domestic trees in artificial rows, and overgrown lawns. When you're hiking out in the woods and you come across a non-native brand of tree, or ornamental shrubbery, or a patch of daffodils, then you just might be standing in a ghost town.
I've documented two abandoned villages on the popular website ghosttowns.com. Click here for a link to McKinley, and here for a link to Windy City. If you google either town, you'll get an online map of their whereabouts, and they still appear on official maps of the National Forest as if they were inhabited. (This is a snapshot of the main street in old Windy City, which is--as they say--gone with the wind.)
Around here, ghost towns don't usually have much in the way of abandoned buildings. Unlike New Mexico, the wet climate and bitterly cold winters of the Pennsylvania highlands quickly reclaim the territory once conquered by fickle humanity. You have to look a little closer to find an Allegheny ghost town because they tend to consist of rows of cellar holes, foundations, domestic trees in artificial rows, and overgrown lawns. When you're hiking out in the woods and you come across a non-native brand of tree, or ornamental shrubbery, or a patch of daffodils, then you just might be standing in a ghost town.
I've documented two abandoned villages on the popular website ghosttowns.com. Click here for a link to McKinley, and here for a link to Windy City. If you google either town, you'll get an online map of their whereabouts, and they still appear on official maps of the National Forest as if they were inhabited. (This is a snapshot of the main street in old Windy City, which is--as they say--gone with the wind.)
There are other ghost towns on the Allegheny, and I'll post them as I discover them. Does anyone out there know of ghost towns other than McKinley and Windy City?
PS: If you're interested in local ghost towns, see the November posts about Guffey.
ReplyDeleteNewtown is a large field along the Tionesta downstream of Kelletville
ReplyDelete