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Photo Gallery: Abandoned Americana
The old America is all around us. Americans used to be farmers. They used to go to drive-in movies. They used to think Route 66 was the greatest highway in the world. Some still do.
If you drive out of the city and leave the strip malls and cookie-cutter suburban homes behind, you'll find it soon enough. Head down a county road and you'll pass dilapidated farmhouses and overgrown gardens, the handiwork of people from our grandparents' or great-grandparents' generation. Like this old farm in Clay County, Missouri, near the Jesse James farm. I was with a couple of friends on a Jesse James road trip and we drove many of the back roads of western Missouri, places where Jesse committed his crimes and hid out from the law.
Everywhere we went we found this old Americana. On the outskirts of Kansas City we found a drive-in movie theater unchanged since the 1960s, and still open for half the year. To the west of Lexington we followed a potholed country road that led to a tributary of the Missouri River. Half a century ago there was a ferry at the end, popular enough that this road was lined with gas stations, hotels, and nice homes. The ferry disappeared when I-70 was built, and one by one the homes and businesses were abandoned.
Then there's route 66, half ghost highway and half tourist trap. And old boom-and-bust mining towns like Bodie, California, now a State Historic Park. Not to mention all the failed businesses, the empty big box stores and bankrupt shopping malls that are creating the new ghost towns of the U.S. Much of industrial Detroit looks like an archaeological site.
Next time you go on a road trip in the U.S., get off the Interstate and take a county road. drive slow and look around. You'll find the old America that hasn't quite left us.
Gallery: Adandoned Americana
Filed under: History, Learning, Photos, North America, United States
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 8)
Lassie Oct 22nd 2011 9:57AM
"When did the last customer leave?" Oh, he's still in there, my friend. He's still there. You can only see him at night....
These are wonderful pictures! I live out in the 'burbs and always notice abandoned houses, and there are still standing a few silos from old barns, surrounded by tiger lillies from a long-ago garden. There's an old, peeling silo in a patch of woods that looks a hundred years old - on either side, there's a Chinese restaurant and a Target.
retro Oct 26th 2011 4:52AM
listen , i usually don t reply to any post at all but you all have to know my generation did live the best of life in the 60`s and the 70`s simple plain every day life. As one other post mentioned that if they could go back they would. Compared to today`s standard, living condition and its issues shoot i`d turn back the hand of time and wouldn`t think nothing else of these times....whats even more ironic is that during the 60`s, racial tension and disturbance was up front and center news of this time but some how i missed it. I believed it was cause my family and i lived on the out skirt of the county and thankfuly not subjected to a lot of racial discrimination..Young people do some research, get your mema aunts and or uncle to talk and tell bout life back when. im sure you too will find we are in big trouble today and moving forward,,, very disturbing. Too bad you ll never get a chance to experienced the best of what this world had to offer back years ago. im always thankful when anyone put up pleasent pictures such as these of the past...Thxs
Thomas Peters Oct 22nd 2011 11:12AM
Dreams die first.
J.E.B. Oct 22nd 2011 11:34AM
Try visiting some of the many DOZENS of abandoned mental asylums in this country! Ughhhhh.....ultra-creepy!
Fred Lewers Oct 22nd 2011 11:45AM
The wife and I take two weeks every year and travel the back roads. We meet some really great people and get to see the real world.
Cheryl Oct 22nd 2011 5:41PM
You missed some terrific places....in Yucca, AZ along the stretch of what is now I-40, MOST of what was once a town is all abandoned motels and businesses. There are a few things there, but not much. Talk about a "dead" town...people still live there, but there's not much to live there for.
Barbara Oct 22nd 2011 6:33PM
I hope the train station in Ames, Iowa isn't left to rot like the other buildings. It is absolutely beautiful!! What a shame it would be to let it fall in to disrepair.
Terry Oct 25th 2011 12:46PM
The old railroad depot in my home town in rural Illinois became obsolete when the passenger trains stopped making a stop at that depot. For years it sat idle and the railroad wanted to tear it down to get it off railroad property. Finally the city decided to buy the depot, move it to private property and begin to restore it. Now it is a museum of railroad artifacts and a community meeting area. And this was all done with donations from a town of 5000 residents. So many of these old depots have classic architecture and should be preserved for the future.
Dan Oct 22nd 2011 7:47PM
Shirley, there is nothing in your article that I will disagree. It makes me sad though why these are happening and seems unstoppable.
BOOWAH Oct 22nd 2011 7:48PM
Better start taking pictures of Scranton, Pa. Our town will be dead in a year, slain by the greed of our Public Safety Unions!
Sin D Fetish Oct 22nd 2011 7:49PM
I would live in # 10 for free. I'll clean and rehab it...call me Mr. Trump m'kay...
Lou R Oct 22nd 2011 8:21PM
I have been doing this kind of photography on the east coast for almost 10 years. When I can, I revisit some of the places. Most get torn down, but there's a renewed interest in old houses that might otherwise also be destroyed and are, instead, lovingly restored.
Most interstates have secondary US routes ie; I70 can be left for US 40 or I81 for US11. Might take longer to get to the destination, but the finds more than make up for that.
As for the lead-in stating these are "stunning pics"...not really...
Larry Oct 22nd 2011 10:01PM
Nice cut and paste job there Shirly. Have seen the same thing many times over the last year but, you know? Everything in there is still true no matter where you got it.
Kevin Oct 22nd 2011 10:39PM
I'm 55. I've worked hard since I was 16. I have no qualms about not doing military service; old white men have been sending our youth to die for no good purpose in Gawdforsaken places my whole life. I called in sick when I had to have my gall bladder removed and when I had an abdominal hernia. With the exception of a short period of unemployment (I collected about 16 weeks of unemployment benefits), no one has given me anything. Sometimes I am tired; most of the time, I still have a lot of energy. I own my home and everything in it, I own my car(s), I have money in the bank, 401ks, a defined benefit retirement plan and I have in not 40 quarters, but soon, 140 quarters.
I've had such good fortune, I am happy to help wherever and whenever I can. A famous man once said, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, so you do unto me." I feed the homeless and downtrodden, including drunks and druggies. If you think they like that lifestyle, maybe you should get out of your tudor and check'em out for once.
Martin Luther King challenged us to measure folks by their character. We should treat peacable Muslims like any of our other neighbors. If anyone kills or maims Americans in the name of anything, we must kill them first. We can have overwhelming security without sending the American military all over the world. When you occupy countries, the people there hate you forever.
Anyone with an ounce of sense understands that global warming is directly related to obsessive, continual burning of fossil fuels. I would say however that the long term effects of global warming are yet to be determined.
Drug addicts dont have a disease. They have an addiction. I have no such addiction, but I help people often who have such addictions. It is a pathetic thing to see people who are eaten alive by such addictions. Most addicts are not violent and most of the thievery they commit is petty thievery. Let's tell the truth about this. Yes, they are drags on society; they are to be pitied and helped, not demonized and belittled. That guy I spoke of above also told us clearly that we are our brother's keeper.
You dont think the Robber Barons rip you off? Seriously? I mean, we're still responsible for our own well being, but you cant be naive enough to think that Big Business doesnt beat you like a drum. It is obvious that there are those amongst us who take far more than their share.
I can say that those who get all tattooed and have their faces all pierced do belong in the freak show.
Im still young enough that I hope I see my grandchildren's worlds. Something tells me that those children will get the same message I got and my children got at a certain age: a handshake, a hug, a congratulations and the following: " I love ya kid, make sure you come and visit often." I dont know about your children, but mine, who are 30 and 28 respectively, have their own homes, cars, money etc.
God bless us all.
Charmin Oct 24th 2011 9:58AM
It brought tears to my eyes. Those people also lost jobs and businesses. It remains to see what we are going to do with new industry... what will the technological companies of today abandon. Hopefully not nuclear station!!!
Tom Oct 25th 2011 3:13PM
Very nice photo essay.
Liz Oct 25th 2011 11:37AM
I live in Maine and the majority of Maine is like this. It's amazing the things you find while driving on the back roads. Most of Maine is back roads.
http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com/abandoned_woolen_mill_maine_1.htm
There are mills like this one all over the place. They have a quiet beauty about them. I adore it, being a photographer I got out searching for places like this. :)
Terry Oct 25th 2011 12:46PM
I'm 61 and grew up in a rural agricultural area of Illinois. There were houses and out buildings on almost every farm in the 50's. Everyone knew their closest neighbors up and down the road. Now almost all the houses and buildings are gone. The people moved to the city and rented the farm to a local farmer who needed more acrage so he could survive. It makes me sad to drive past the few remaining houses that are in disrepair and falling down. It is called "change" and life goes on. It is only as we grow older that we become more nostalgic for what was and not what is. All you can hope is that the best pieces of those times will be saved and repurposed.
William Oct 25th 2011 12:10PM
Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America’s future. He is the best thing ever.
Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America’s resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and looks to remain that way for most of a decade; legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to unsustainable levels, and there is a seething anger in the populace.
That’s why Barack Obama is such a good thing for America.
Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that has infected our society like a cancer for the last 100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism, Obama will go down in history as the face of unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to the point where it could no longer be ignored.
Average Americans who have quietly gone about their lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their favorite charities, going to high school football games on Friday night, spending their weekends at the beach or on hunting trips — they’ve gotten off the fence. They’ve woken up. There is a level of political activism in this country that we haven’t seen since the American Revolution, and Barack Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a restructuring of the American political and social consciousness.
Think of the crap we’ve slowly learned to tolerate over the past 50 years as liberalism sought to re-structure the America that was the symbol of freedom and liberty to all the people of the world. Immigration laws were ignored on the basis of compassion. Welfare policies encouraged irresponsibility, the fracturing of families, and a cycle of generations of dependency. Debt was regarded as a tonic to lubricate the economy. Our children left school having been taught that they are exceptional and special, while great numbers of them cannot perform basic functions of mathematics and literacy. Legislators decided that people could not be trusted to defend their own homes, and stripped citizens of their rights to own firearms. Productive members of society have been penalized with a heavy burden of taxes in order to support legions of do-nothings who loll around, reveling in their addictions, obesity, indolence, ignorance and “disabilities.” Criminals have been arrested and re-arrested, coddled and set free to pillage the citizenry yet again. Lawyers routinely extort fortunes from doctors, contractors and business people with dubious torts.
We slowly learned to tolerate these outrages, shaking our heads in disbelief, and we went on with our lives.
But Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest.
In the time of Barack Obama, Black Panther members stand outside polling places in black commando uniforms, slapping truncheons into their palms. ACORN — a taxpayer-supported organization — is given a role in taking the census, even after its members were caught on tape offering advice to set up child prostitution rings. A former Communist is given a paid government position in the White House as an advisor to the president. Auto companies are taken over by the government, and the auto workers’ union — whose contracts are completely insupportable in any economic sense — is rewarded with a stake in the company. Government bails out Wall Street investment bankers and insurance companies, who pay their executives outrageous bonuses as thanks for the public support. Terrorists are read their Miranda rights and given free lawyers. And, despite overwhelming public disapproval, Barack Obama has pushed forward with a health care plan that would re-structure one-sixth of the American economy.
I don’t know about you, but the other day I was at the courthouse doing some business, and I stepped into the court clerk’s office and changed my voter affiliation from “Independent” to “Republican.” I am under no illusion that the Republican party is perfect, but at least they’re starting to awaken to the fact that we cannot sustain massive levels of debt; we cannot afford to hand out billions of dollars in corporate subsidies; we have to somehow trim our massive entitlement programs; we can no longer be the world’s policeman and dole out billions in aid to countries whose citizens seek to harm us.
Literally millions of Americans have had enough. They’re organizing, they’re studying the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they’re reading history and case law, they’re showing up at rallies and meetings, and a slew of conservative candidates are throwing their hats into the ring. Is there a revolution brewing? Yes, in the sense that there is a keen awareness that our priorities and sensibilities must be radically re-structured. Will it be a violent revolution? No. It will be done through the interpretation of the original document that has guided us for 220 years — the Constitution. Just as the pendulum swung to embrace political correctness and liberalism, there will be a backlash, a complete repudiation of a hundred years of nonsense. A hundred years from now, history will perceive the year 2010 as the time when America got back on the right track. And for that, we can thank Barack Hussein Obama.
- Author Unknown
AJ Oct 25th 2011 12:09PM
Hands Up to Shirley, we are with you and we are tired too. God bless you Shirley for a great article.