GHOST HUNTERS

It's rare that people leave a home with belongings intact. It takes a special set of circumstances for this to occur. Let's have a look at what it's like to perform urban archaeology. It makes one wonder about the people who lived there, the dreams they had, the reasons they left... .

  I'm ushering in the spooky season with some photos of abandoned places and short flash fiction beneath to give my readers an afternoon thrill. Enjoy! Church of Purgatory  Along a dusty untraveled road sat the decaying skeleton of a once grand church. The curious wanderer stopped at the entrance to squint into the darkness. "Come in," spoke a disembodied voice. "Come, boy, don't be afraid. We have cast out all the sinners. Repent boy and join our legion in the ether of this cathedral." The mental ward shut down and the exhausted and financially strapped owner opened the doors and let the patients free.  They wandered the marshes around the bay, some finding shelter under a suspension bridge, others being captured by the townsfolk and sent to other facilities.  But, the stubborn ones remained in the facility's pantry, determined to stay no matter what.  One day, months later, the bank sent someone to slap a sign on the door. The curious worker entered a...

There are so many types of abandoned buildings in America, but there is something so vulnerable and sad about an abandoned church. In perhaps one of the most "divine" interventions, Julie Ferguson and I were working on our book Abandoned Places: Abandoned Memories (Appalachian Edition) and we wanted to include a church. We were driving around West Virginia and I saw an exit for a town called "Sharon." I said,  "we gotta stop here!"  We exited and turned and there on the hill was a church. A man was on a ladder, taking down the letters. We asked him about it and he said they were taking a wrecking ball to it next week.  He got his wife, who showed us the rectory house and then the church, allowing us to photograph for the book. If that wasn't enough irony, it was Methodist - the religion I was raised in.  Then, on our way from Charleston up to Point Pleasant, we passed this abandoned church in the middle of nowhere with a creepy abandoned cemetery acro...

There is something nostalgic about the empty mid century motels along the highways in the west. They remind of us a time when baby boomers were toted from one end of the US to the other in search of epic family fun in huge fast cars by the WWII generation of parents who could afford things their parents never could. They brought their families out to see Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, maybe Disneyland. And, along the way the west provided ultra-modern looking facilities with air conditioning and swimming pools for the family gangs.  With the advent of easier air travel and dual working couples, such road trips were a luxury afforded only by a generation who actually took 2-week vacations during the year. The leftover buildings are a reminder of the "Jetsons" era or all the modern conveniences, sadly drying out in the blazing sun. Here are some abandoned such motor courts and motels.  These photos below are from Picacho, AZ along the I-10. This little strip of motels, church,...