Freaky Friday Files: Ghost Towns

Ash
2 days ago
9 min read

Hi friends. Happy Fri-YAY! For this week's edition of Freaky Friday Files, I thought we could take a look at "Ghost Towns". It felt fitting as last week's edition was about "Paper Towns", which are "fake towns" purposefully put into maps to serve as copyright traps. In contrast, Ghost Towns are abandoned settlements that usually still have some remains left behind (e.g., infrastructure such as roads and buildings). A town usually becomes a ghost town due to economic activity going bust (e.g, mining towns post 1850s-90s gold rush era). I also think it's interesting that some people have shared collective false memories of towns that never existed whatsoever - a Mandela Effect, if you will. It makes me wonder about collective consciousness a lot. I think it may have been a Paper Town but I remember reading about a town people thought was real and they all believed it.

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Ghost Towns

Ghost Towns are an interesting phenomenon because many scholars debate what actually constitutes a Ghost Town. According to Wikipedia, "Some [scholars] restrict the term to places deserted for purely economic reasons, while others require visible remains of buildings, and still others allow for a small remaining population. Common causes of abandonment include the exhaustion of natural resources such as minerals or timber, the rerouting of railways or roads, dam construction that floods settlements, armed conflict and forced displacement, and environmental contamination." The Spanish Flu and Black Death Epidemics have also depopulated communities, as well as long-term exposure to hazards such as lead and asbestos. Ghost Towns can be found on most continents, even including Antarctica - Wilkes Station, Deception Island, and Leningradskaya Station. For the purpose of this blog, a ghost town can be any town that has been abandoned/has little population left.

What are some examples of Ghost Towns?

I haven't included every single one here, just some that I thought were interesting and relevant to where I live in the world (Melbourne now, but born in NZ).

Antartica

Wilkes Station - An abandoned Australian base covered in ice. It's a major problem due to the asbestos and leaking fuel barrels.
Deception Island - A former whaling station and British base was abandoned due to volcanic activity (eruptions).
Leningradskaya Station - An abandoned Soviet-era base.

Australia

Gwalia, Western Australia - A former mining town that closed in 1963.
Silverton, New South Wales - Silverton is like half-ghost town, half-real town IMO. It's about 25 KM's from Broken Hill and is where they filmed Mad Max (I think Luke has even been here). Anyway, it's considered somewhat of a ghost town as it used to have a rich silver mining industry. Now, there are fewer than 50 residents, and it is basically just a tourist town (and filming location).
Farina, South Australia - Farina is an abandoned town in SA, and as of the 2021 census, fewer than 15 people live here. There is an underground bakery that runs during the winter for about 8 weeks. Farina used to be a thriving grain town (Farina = Latin for flour), but ended up being abandoned due to drought (so bad conditions for certain grains to grow). Farina is now a popular camping spot.
Kuridala, Queensland - A former copper mining town that was popular for fossicking for amethyst. It was renamed from Friezland after WWII, and Kuridala is an Aboriginal word for eagle-hawk (though this is not written down anywhere, and I find that sad).
Stieglitz, Victoria - A well-preserved ghost town that is between Ballarat and Geelong, which was booming during the 1850s gold rush era and had 1000+ residents. Once gold became harder and harder to find, the town was abandoned.

New Zealand

Waiuta , West Coast - A former mining town around 58 KM's north of Greymouth. It was a great place for gold until 1950, with economic downfall following the collapse of the mine.
Denniston, West Coast - A former coal settlement near Westport and is named after R. B. Denniston (who was the first manager of the mine). The town is also known for how steep some parts of it are.
Macetown, Otago - A historic gold mining settlement that has no one living there, but you can visit as a tourist. I haven't been to this place, but it reminds me a lot of the Chinese village in Arrowtown nearby.

USA

Thistle Ghost Town, Fairview, Utah - Thistle, Utah, was a town established in 1883 and was a flourishing farming and ranching community. In April 1983, a massive landslide dammed two creeks and flooded the whole town. Only a few structures remained. Then, in 2018, a fire broke out following a storm. The town is now completely destroyed.
Silver City Ghost Town, Bodfish, California - "Just south of Lake Isabella in Bodfish, California, sits a collection of old mining buildings arranged around a large courtyard. These ramshackle structures date as far back as the 1850s. They hail from an era when gold fever struck the region. The towns all quickly became abandoned as gold deposits dried up. The various buildings were collected by the Dave and Arvilla Mills family and were relocated to this site." The photos look pretty cool, and I think going to this place would be like stepping into a time capsule.
Burke Ghost Town, Wallace, Idaho - This town was constructed in such a narrow canyon that the railroad passed directly through the hotel lobby, which is crazy. Burke was a mining town that thrived after the gold and silver rushes of 1884. The Tiger Hotel was erected in 1886, and in 1906, the railroad tracks were laid right through the hotel lobby. Sadly for Burke, by 1990, the town's population had dwindled to just 15 residents, and by 1991, all the mines had shut down. Now, no one remains. I reckon this would be a cool place for photos of creative architecture.
Red Oak II, Carthage, Missouri - I find the story of this "fake" ghost town very interesting, hehe. There was a man called Lowell Davis who grew up in the OG town of Red Oak, Missouri, which was a town that faded into obscurity following the end of WWII (due to urbanisation, i.e., people moving into bigger cities). After moving away from his childhood town, Davis returned only to find his childhood town nothing more than a mere memory. So, in 1987, Davis recreated the town on his farm called Red Oak II. It's very cool. I know it doesn't fit the definition of "Ghost Town", but I just think that what Davis did was awesome.
Elkmont Historic District, Gatlinburg, Tennessee - This place looks like it's straight out of a horror movie or a place where a horror movie would be filmed, OR even a cabin that Ron Swanson would own. Anyway, this place exists near Elkmont Campground and not a lot of people know it exists. Atlas Obscura says, "What began as a logging town in 1908 for the Little River Lumber Company eventually morphed into a vacation village for those who enjoyed fishing, trapping, and hunting. The lumber company logged most of the northern slopes of what is now [the] Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the early part of the century. Eventually, it created a railroad between Elkmont and Townsend to move the enormous logs out to the sawmill. The current road to Elkmont is the roadbed of the old rail line. The first owners of the original homes were employees of the lumber company and spent their days cutting and dragging down the huge trees that covered the mountains that surrounded them." Once the lumber had been finished, a group of businessmen from Knoxville began buying the properties and expanding the area. A social clubhouse and a 50-room hotel were built. Then, the federal government wanted to create a national park in the area around 1925 and didn't want to have a privately owned village in their park, so a deal of lifetime leases was made. People who were within the boundaries were forced out. By 1952, the government decided to change the leases again to 20-year leases of mostly senior citizens. By 1992, the homes were set to be demolished; however, they were placed on a historic register. There were also a few fires, and the buildings didn't stay maintained, so it's now just a Ghost Town for people to find (if they know where it is).

Other Notable Ghost Towns

Pripyat, Ukraine - Yep, this is the town that was abandoned following the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. I remember watching David Farrier on his Dark Tourist show go here, and also wanting to go here for some reason (morbid curiosity probably). Anyway, what happened here was awful. Pripyat was a city that housed nuclear workers from the 1970s to 1986. In 1979, the city had over 49,000 workers living there and was abandoned in 1986. I remember watching a documentary about this, and that they didn't get some of the people out in time, and now, so many years on, they're still suffering from radiation damage. Like it took them 3 days to evacuate the city following the explosion (come on, man)! Now, it's this weird preserved ghost town that people can visit, but you can only go for a certain amount of time, and you gotta sign waivers and stuff. I feel like I am not explaining this very well. I do remember watching a horror movie, I think it was "Chernobyl Diaries" that was inspired by this location. If you want to see some pictures, check out "this blog". I think there are lots of YouTube videos of people going here as well, and images of that Ferris Wheel and slide haunt me.
Craco, Italy - Craco is a ghost town located in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. Following an earthquake in 1980, the town was abandoned.
Hashima Island, Japan - Hashima Island, commonly known as Gunkanjima, which means "Battleship Island", is an abandoned island just off Nagasaki, Japan. It was a thriving undersea coal mining town from 1890 to 1974 and was abandoned when Japan switched to petroleum. It is now a tourist attraction.
Centralia, Pennsylvania, USA - I think this ghost town has to be my favourite out of all the ones discussed in my blog, and that's because this town is LITERALLY on fire. In 1980, this town had 1000 residents and by 2020, only 5. Centralia has had a coal mine burning fire since 1962. In 1992, the town was condemned, and in 2002, the postcodes were discontinued. However, the last of the residents came to an agreement with the government (I think) to remain living there until they pass away. It is thought that the fire began as a controlled burn of rubbish and just kept going from there; not everyone can agree that this was the direct cause. I am not 100% sure why they can't stop it, but logistically, authorities think it's better to let it burn - for another 250 years. Crazy.

Sociological Context

Now that we've explored what Ghost Towns are and some examples of them, I'd like to discuss the sociological context behind them. We have touched on this a little bit in the introduction, but let's get into some more detail here. Some key factors that contribute to the rise of Ghost Towns are as follows:

Economic Collapse/Resource Depletion - We see this with the former mining towns that were flourishing during the gold rush era. When resources were exhausted, people left, and money dwindled.
Failed Urbanisation - Ghost towns can emerge due to excessive construction, where towns are built without solid social or economic bases, leading to significant vacancy rates.
Human Intervention/Policy - Government actions like building dams can lead to flooding, war can lead to people leaving, and redirecting infrastructure can also lead to economic downfall and a decrease in population.
Environmental Disasters - I feel like I don't have to explain this one. Earthquakes, Nuclear Disasters, Floods, etc. People tend to leave straight after a disaster - a lot of people following the CHCH quakes left in 2011 (not the whole town, but a few people).

Ghost Towns can be tied to the theory of hauntology because they act as reminders of the fleeting nature of human efforts, the rise and fall of industrialisation, and the implications of capitalism. I recommend reading Derrida's 1993 "Specters of Marx" if you want to read more about this theory.

Thank you for reading,

Ash x

PS: Let me know in the comments if you have been to any of these Ghost Towns or which one you'd like to visit.

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