Ghost town

Ok, gonna get away from politics and the usual here. I've always been fascinated with abandoned areas, part of that morbid curiousity thing. I usually can't resist the dangers of checking out an abandoned farmhouse or such. There's just something about the 'time' thing, when you go in and see a calendar on the wall from 1962, or an old toaster or can of beans. Still can't wait to do the 'old abandoned mental hospital' thing someday. I'm not a believer in ghosts, but when a certain place provides the right mental landscape, the mind provides the ghosts and makes the whole experience pretty intense. Throw in the risk of arrest from tresspassing and injury from having a ceiling fall in on you and it's quite the thrill.
So, for your perusal, I give you Centralia, Pennsylvania, a town that, although all of the buildings have been condemned, still has 11 residents. See, the deal is it was one of your typical PA coalmining towns, but in 1962, a fire started in the mineshaft that is still burning to this day, more or less making the town uninhabitable. Nasty coal smoke seems to be everywhere, leaking up out of the ground.

While digging around, I was surprised to find something on "Hermit's Grave" , in Irvington, New York. One of my earliest and best childhood memories was when my grandmother would take me for hikes in the woods to search for this grave. We never found it, though.


















There seems to be quite a community of people on the net into the abandoned places thing. Here's a few links to get you started.
http://www.graveaddiction.com/abindex.html
http://community.livejournal.com/abandonedplaces/
http://www.forgottenoh.com/Haunts/abhaunted.html
http://www.deathrock.net/ariadne/ruins.html (this one's really good)