Ghost Towns

Not quite a ghost town, but nearly so.... Thurmond, deep in West Virginia's New River Valley, was long the busiest point on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, but those days are long past and it's now a not-quite-ghost town. On any given day, you'll see a few trains rumble through, and a few railfans taking pictures. I've got all those pictures; you'll likely see more from time to time. A fascinating place, stuck in time. Photo taken in July, 1997.

130 or so years ago this was a dock, shipping iron ingots down the Great Lakes. Snail Shell Harbor, Fayette State Park, Michigan.

One last look--for now--at the abandoned iron processing town at Fayette State Park at the northern end of Lake Michigan. This harbor was once a loud and busy place on the edge of a wilderness, but that stopped over a century ago. It's survived, mostly as a tourist attraction, largely because of its beauty, and its interesting history.