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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 5 of 8)
paulette Oct 25th 2011 2:05PM
I have had the experience of traveling on route 66 in arizona there is a small mining town just out side of bullhead city called donkey town. I ove it there it takes you back to the old gold mining days, The donkeys roam through the city the houses are old and there are old buildings from way back when . most of the stores sell souveniers but you can just picture it back in the 40,s of earlier, if you are in the area be sure and check it out.
wf Oct 25th 2011 2:24PM
Yes, I agree. I feel sorry for the young generation. They have iPods and all kinds of technology, but they have totally missed out on life! And the way things are going, they never will have any kind of life.
BHarrison Oct 25th 2011 2:41PM
And what will the younger generation eventally have when they can no longer afford the latest I-Pod, I-Pads or whatever the latest electronic devices may be? there is going to come a time when so many of them will not be able to afford to "keep up with technology" . . . will they fall into the abyss of the impoverished, living pay check to pay check? That is what it appears to be for the future of so many of these young people.
Lou Oct 25th 2011 2:09PM
Very well said Shirley..i do hope you don't mind if i quote you on facebook..more people need to read your comments on the state of things in our nation..and the world. thanks so much for posting them.
Mandoist Oct 25th 2011 2:11PM
Eerie? Shocking? A must see? Nude? Graphic?
Doesn't your company's "Journalist Handbook 101" have any other adjectives?
Maybe it's time for "Journalistic Adjectives For Dummies".
seanmcl208 Oct 25th 2011 4:53PM
Dear Random Angry Guy (RAG),
I used none of those words in my post. Perhaps you need Reading For Dummies.
NORMA C. Oct 25th 2011 2:41PM
Shirley, u have a wonderful post. And I agree with u 100% I am a bit older than u also and have lived in several states over the years. I am now coming up on to the 86 yrs now so have seen so many changes.
Ed Roth Oct 25th 2011 2:23PM
I'm tired too.
Mallenroh Oct 25th 2011 7:25PM
I love old abandoned buildings, you just can't help but wonder what sort of family lived there, what they did for a living, if they were farmers, what sort of animals they raised and what sort of crops they grew, my bf and I had a discussion about a year ago, driving thru rural VA backroads, we couldn't help but wonder, what if money was put into restoring and reviving those homesteads that already existed instead of building crappy cookie cutter houses out of premanufactured kits, whether just restoring and updating a house would make homes more available to people for purchase vs. gov't subsidized houses and half-a-million dollar cookie cutter plots on a 1/4 acre. . .
quiltchase Oct 25th 2011 2:42PM
Cerdit Bill Cosby with what Shirley wrote. I received that speech 4 days before Shirley copied it to this thread.
WminPhoenix Oct 25th 2011 2:45PM
You don't have to look at ghost towns to see declining America. Just look at Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo for starters.
Shirley, I am sick and tired of people telling me I have to be "born again" to be saved. From what? I and sick and tired of churches and religions entering politics but refusing to pay taxes on their multi-million dollar real estate holdings claiming separation of church and state. I am sick of hearing so called US christian missionaries and pastors urging the government of Uganda to kill all homosexuals. Praise the lord and pass the bullets.
Yon Oct 25th 2011 2:47PM
Shirley, you are uttterly correct in your assessements. I feel sorry for my grandchildren too. But think of it: we are old foggies and what we think is not politically correct since the Honorable electeds use our money to buy sponges' votes.
Roy Oct 25th 2011 4:23PM
Right on Shirley! I'm 81 this year, I served in the USAF, worked in mid-management for major corporations, and operated my own small business for over 40 years, with one or more employees (and with no college degree) My children are all successfuly employed, as most of my grandchildren are. Its a little thing called "work ethics". No one seems to know what that is any more.
I think the time period that I have lived in was one of the best this nation has ever seen, and may never see again. What a shame!
Joe Oct 25th 2011 4:41PM
If these photo's are supposed to represent homes and businesses that have, within the current recession been vacated, then they are incorrect. I have visited several of these picture locations, and they have been vacant for many years.
While I agree that this economy has had dire consequences, this article is out of context and merely used to create sensationalism and fake nostalgia....Nice pics though.
Sean McLachlan Oct 25th 2011 4:55PM
This post was merely supposed to be a nostalgia trip. I said nothing about the current economic state of the nation. You might be thinking of Shirley, who wrote a long comment in this comments section. He's not me.
bpoz Oct 25th 2011 4:34PM
The negativity that this article bought out is, quite literally, depressing! I am an older person (retired) and My take about all that is discussed here, is that no one looks past what bothers them, and see's what is good and right about America! No one travels enough, out of their comfort zones, to truly see how good we have it in this country! Any person, going to Calcutta, would be horrified to see the conditions there! Any third world country, going through the genocide that occurs, at the drop of a hat, at the whim of some petty dictator,and the unbelievable suffering that ensues,would wake you up, promptly,to what we have here! The suffering of the poorest person we have in America, would be considered petty, compared to what those in the Sudan, or in Angola! Its time to actually see what we have here,and thank God, for where you were born, and how you are still able to control, some what, your destiny, and life's direction, with out the worry of some one telling you what to do! This is America, the home of the free,and if you are that depressed about it, you are free to go where ever to hell it is you think it is better! God bless America, and no one can tell me,or show me, any thing better!
Randall Rice Oct 25th 2011 4:35PM
Great article on Americana abandoned. Route 66 was always a dream and a road not taken, unfortunately. And I'm old enough to have dreamed taking that ride when it was still in full swing. As close as I got was watching it on TV.
And Shirley, thanks for the post but what the heck has it to do with a great article about America?
William Prince Oct 25th 2011 4:59PM
Come on people. The fat cat bankers and wall street gurus didn't do too bad this time around either. Retirement funds and 401ks of the middle class got trashed by who? There is blame enough to go around.
otis Oct 25th 2011 5:02PM
Rockstar what an ignorant A-Hole you are.........
TEXAN Oct 25th 2011 5:06PM
As another 70 y.o. I agree. Some clever people are going to make a lot of money removing tattoos from the stupids of the current era when they get older and realize what trailer trash they made of themselves. The most telling tattoos are on their backs, butts, and necks...clearly not for THEIR viewing pleasure at all. bunch of narcissistic brats. There will be hope for them all when they finally get hungry and no one feeds them.