Top Ten Interesting Abandoned Places

[SoCalDem]

http://listverse.com/2008/03/10/top-10-interesting-abandoned-places/

Bodie , CA is #10


Founded in 1876, Bodie is the authentic American ghost town. It started life as a small mining settlement, though found even more fortune from nearby mines that attracted thousands. By 1880 Bodie boasted a population of almost 10,000 – such was the boom. At its peak, 65 saloons lined the town’s main street, and there was even a Chinatown with several hundred Chinese residents.

Dwindling resources proved fatal however, and although greatly reduced in prominence, Bodie held a permanent residency through most of the 20th century. Even after a fire ravaged much of the downtown business district in 1932. Bodie is now unpopulated. The town was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and in 1962 it became Bodie State Historic Park as the few residents left moved on.

Today, Bodie is preserved in a state of arrested decay. Only a small part of the town survives. Visitors can walk the deserted streets of a town and interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods. Bodie is open all year, but the long road that leads to it is usually closed in the winter due to heavy snowfall, so the most comfortable time to visit is during the summer months.


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more pics & the other 9 at link

[InternalDialogue]

1. Cool story.

I love the history and mystery of it all. And there's something creepy about it, because we're so used to thinking that people and our construction define the world, when in fact we all fade away.

Thanks for the post.

[Adsos Letter]

2. Bodie is totally cool! A "bit" out of the way to get to, but worth the trip.

[JDPriestly]

5. Absolutely. Bodie is wonderful.

And the drive along the Eastern Sierras is great too. If you go to see Bodie, you might want to drive to Lone Pine. From there you can reach Death Valley and Mount Whitney. At the base of Mount Whitney are the Arizona hills where some of the early cowboy movies were made. I think the wild flowers are in bloom in the area maybe in April, maybe late March through April. They should be great this year.

There is another ghost town south of Bodie called Rand. It isn't as picturesque as Bodie -- not as abandoned since people still live there. But it is kind of interesting.

[SoCalDem]

6. Love Lone Pine.. We stopped at 4 AM for hot chocolate at a little diner

on my adventurous journey to Lake Tahoe with my boys.. We left home at 11PM and headed out in the Econoline F250 to visit daddy.. The wind was blowing so hard the street light on the main street of Lone Pine was horizontal to the street..

My husband was living on-site at the Season's Lodge at Heavenly Valley (it was under construction) Poor Dad..he was there in his little condo at the base of Heavenly Valley ski lift..with his hot tub..so Mom & the boys drove up for a visit:)

of course I don;t believe in maps, so when we got to a certain point, I saw a sign that said Reno 57 m,i..or South Lake Tahoe 24 miles.. I chose the "short" route..

not too far into the decision, I discovered that the road I picked was a logging/fire road..mostly gravel, and no place to turn around.. It took 4.5 hours to go 24 miles.. I had to ride the brakes a little to keep it under 50 on the down parts and had to floor it to get up to 35 on the up parts..

That was the roadtrip from hell..

[proudohioan]

7. It may have been the roadtrip from hell at the time,

But you and your boys will always remember it, and the memory of that trip will generate more smiles than all the "good trips" to Disney World combined.
That roadtrip from hell will become better with each passing year!

Thanks for the smile!

:)

[SoCalDem]

9. yep.. they are all past 30, and they still laugh about that trip

we stopped in Bishop (on the way back) to catch a few winks & drove into a circle of semis in an empty store lot..and when we woke up, all the truck were gone and we were the only vehicle in the lot :) and here I though the truckers would keep us safe :rofl:

[proudohioan]

10. OMG! A fellow insomniac!

Yeah, my kids and I have had plenty of trips like that ourselves. They just keep getting better (in the mind, anyway) as the years go by, don't they!

You have reminded me of a lot of good times "on the road". You don't get quite the same memories with air travel, that's for sure. For some reason, those memories of canceled flights, security checks and lost luggage don't seem to generate many smiles, do they!

:hi:

[SoCalDem]

11. Trips with Mom are adventures..trips with Dad are like military campaigns

I don't use maps & get "lost" a lot, but Dad has every stop planned out.. He's coming around to my way of thinking after nearly 40 years, but it still bugs him that I pack about a half hour before we leave & it takes him a day to pack :) the man took THREE pairs of shoes to Tahiti.. I wore sandals & packed flipflops :rofl:

[proudohioan]

12. I use maps and STILL get lost a lot!

Hell, I manage to get "lost" most every day navigating all the twisting, winding roads around Cleveland. I am consistently forgetting to make that "little veer to the right/left", etc. The kids know that riding with Mom is always an "experience"......

My ex always did complain that I was a human magnet for finding the absolute WORST sections of any town/city where we happen to be traveling.

My ex was always more of a "militant" traveler, too.

:toast:

[Justitia]

3. Thanks! Very creepy cool. The underground mine fire in PA was interesting. -eom

[la la]

4. thanks for this-

i've bookmarked the page to go back and check the other lists.

( i grew up about 10 miles from Centralia --back in the day before 'the fires'!

[proudohioan]

8. I'm bookmarking this one for later. Bodie looks really cool! n/t

[Princess Turandot]

13. Cool! Check out the second place, a ghost 'Pod Village' in Taiwan in Google Maps:

San Zhi, Taiwan:

http://maps.google.com/maps?source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=San+Zhi,+taiwan&sll=25.260459,121.476962&sspn=0.004046,0.007001&ie=UTF8&radius=0.22&split=1&filter=0&rq=1&ev=zi&hq=San+Zhi,+taiwan&hnear=&ll=25.260459,121.476962&spn=0.004046,0.007001&t=h&z=18

[Hannah Bell]

14. photos

http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2008/05/22/photo-journal-the-haunted-pod-village-of-san-zhi/


but i think this "abandoned island" is more interesting:



Hashima is one of the most remarkable of a series of hundreds of deserted Japanese islands. Once a thriving coal-mining city its population density grew to be the highest on the planet, with workers crammed vertically in ever-growing buildings and walked daily through ever-narrowing streets. Following a drop in coal production the entirely island amazingly shut down though most of its structures still stand. Currently the island is being renovated to create safe tourist paths through the rubble and tilting buildings but for now daring (and illegal) exploration is possible only by hiring a willing private boat driver to take a look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashima_Island

[Princess Turandot]

15. If you look at the island in GMaps, there are several dozen user posted photos as well..

go to these coordinates: 32.627496,129.738104

Then click on 'photos' under the 'More' menu.

[proteus_lives]

16. Bodie must be spooky after dark!

[depakid]

17. Not sure whether you can still get up there in winter...

They probably lose the road off these days.

There's a famous quote by a little girl in her diary, upon learning her family was moving there: "Goodbye God, I'm going to Bodie."

[SoCalDem]

18. In winter it's closed.. We always planned to go to Calico Ghost Town

but never got there:)
I think Bodie is a bit far from us..but it looks cool

[shugah]

19. detroit didn't make the list?

ghost cities - wave of the future.

[AwakeAtLast]

20. I've been to Centralia, PA

It is a bit eerie to say the least. Smoke is visible from holes in the gound and your lips start to dry out after awhile. The church had to have been magnificent in its prime. One of the main roads is obstructed from the fire, which I think was the death knell for the town.

I don't want to go back, but I was glad to see it once!

[Toucano]

21. Cool! Thanks. n-t

[Raschel]

22. EnglishRussia.com has some really great abandoned sites.

[hunter]

23. If you enjoy this sort of thing, try this blog:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/02/abandoned-places.html

They've got everything. The old Soviet stuff will creep you out and make you wonder what hideous skeletons we've got crammed into the deepest darkest closets of the U.S. empire.