When I was a kid, dad liked to just get in the car and drive
around until he found something interesting enough to warrant getting out of
the car. So while the brothers and I would bitch and moan about getting into
the car (Taurus Wagon, baby!) to drive aimlessly for hours, we knew that there
was the possibility of the ultimate find: an abandoned place to explore. I
guess we kids knew it wasn’t really “legal” to go traipsing about on someone
else’s property, but we knew that dad (and mom, let’s be honest) was too drawn
to the siren song of old forgotten places to let a little ‘ol word like “trespassing”
keep him away.
Houses, hospitals, train stations, churches, dam houses, the list goes on and on…
When I was very young, I would ride on dad’s shoulder as we walked through these long-neglected buildings, in awe of how sunlight filtered through the dust onto the ancient floors. When I got older and got my very own camera, I walked near but explored on my own. Not too close, because I was a Big Kid, but not too far, because you can practically hear the voices of Those Who Have Come Before You in lost places like that.
My stepfather also has this interest in old places, and he showed mom and I one of the more fascinating abandoned homes I have ever seen just recently. This manor, right near my parent’s house, was built in the early 1900s by a man whose family owned a concrete block factory. The entire house (and it is three stories with at least six huge rooms on each floor) is built with these blocks. The family graveyard is right across the road. The house is truly amazing, and sitting right in the middle of a field. There is NOTHING near this place, yet the locals never even seem to notice this monolith up on the hill. (I hope to get pictures of it next time I go home)
It amazes me that so many of the really interesting modern ruins are in broad daylight, close to civilization yet completely overlooked, as if when the doors closed the final time the whole grounds became dim to people. Unless the people know what to look for, like dad and Johnny do. And now, like I do.
Check out these sites for more info and great pictures of
creepy abandoned places, if ye dare:
Abandoned Places - The pictures are worth the whole site, and this guy is hard-core.
Japanese Carnival - This site is all in Japanese, but this is apparently an amusement park that closed down. Worth the click just for the spooky roller-coaster shots.
Sub-Urban- Dedicated to exploration of manmade underground oddities. Check out the underwater ballroom!
Abandoned Asylum - Do you really need an explanation?
Defunct-Parks - Boarded-up amusement parks. Are there that you visited long ago?
Lost Destinations - Serving up slices of forgotten Americana
PS- Yes, this kind of exploration is potentially dangerous, especially around here where you are likely to run into a meth-lab operator or gun-toting landowner. Having said that, I am REALLY jonesing to go check out the old Cannon Hospital in Banner Elk. Anyone with me?
PSS- Thanks to Lost Destinations for my picture today. I'll update with one of my own soon.
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