Woodland Ghosts

Wild daffodils? Only in McKinley, one of the Allegheny National Forest's finest old ghost towns. The best time to visit any ANF ghost town is in the spring, when bulb flowers are still in bloom. Almost all the buildings are gone, and cellar holes are usually filled, but the daffodils still give you a clear sense of where the houses used to stand. These yellow flowers are woodland ghosts, vestiges of happier times, still clinging to an illusion of domesticity, amid the encroaching forest, and reminiscing about bygone days when they graced broad, trimmed lawns in front of pleasant clapboard homes. Who cares that the towns are all gone, little daffodils? The show must go on! Just to the right of center, in this top photo, you can also see an old bath basin, rusting on the spot where an outhouse used to stand. If you get closer to the basin, you'll find the remains of the outhouse and lots of Depression-era metalware. Note the old power line, too.

Guffey and Windy City would also be worth a springtime visit in order to trace out the clues left by the daffodils. I don't know if daffodils, like roses, come in hundreds of varieties. But most of the yellow flowers I see in McKinley are unlike the ones you find in most yards today. They're lacier, more delicate. Are they "jonquils," or just an old fashioned breed that's fallen out of favor with the modern gardener?

The lower photo is the old "pump station" that gave the town of McKinley its reason for being. This rusting old industrial complex is one of three buildings remaining in the village. The ghost town is about six miles south of Kane. Near where the Twin Lakes Trail crosses PA66, find FR352 and follow it west (off PA66) into McKinley. Notice the ornamental trees lining the former Main Street, the yards, and the abandoned concrete steps leading to nowhere. As always, click on a photo to enlarge it.