Cracked Ghost Towns

4/2/2018by

Ontario is sprinkled with ghost towns, places that started with big dreams that were ultimately dashed for one reason or another. These types of places are most common in the northern part of the province, but there are a few within a manageable drive of Toronto. Celluon Laser Key Cl850 Driver. Variously spooky, sad, and beautiful, these towns and camps have stubbornly refused to be erased from history.

Here are five ghost towns and abandonments to explore near Toronto. Located outside Perth on the Tay River, this small milling community reached its peak in the late 19th century before many of the original mills shut down or were sold to larger companies.

Cracked Ghost Towns

Driver Modem Huawei E303 Telkomsel Flash Driver. Some ghost towns are protected by parks departments. But Bodie, CA, protects itself—with a curse. For years, visitors to this ghost town have learned that bad luck.

What remains today (a mill, general store, and school house) are all well preserved. It's a bit of a hike to get to Balaclava (located just west of Renfrew), but the gorgeous old mill at the centre of the once thriving community here is worth the trip. The town was founded in the mid 19th century, but eventually faded when the supply of nearby timber was depleted. Only a few buildings remain of this now deserted town near Cayuga, but one of them is open to the public as a museum for those who like their explorations pre-packaged. Indiana's population was once over 300, but the community fell on hard times with the rise of the railway, which rendered canal shipping obsolete. Free Kp Prashna Kundli Software For Pc more. Built around a sawmill operated by Thomas Cooper, this now abandoned town near Washago was once a thriving community with a general store, cheese factory, blacksmith and school amongst other things.

Eventually lumber in the area was depleted and the mill closed. The other businesses followed. This is a great one to visit when visiting cottage country in Muskoka. The town was actually part of early efforts to settle the region. Located on the main road, it was a bustling community in the mid 19th century. Things fell apart when the railway arrived in the early 1890s. You can still see the ruins of the sawmill and other signs of former life.

Some ghost towns are protected by parks departments. But Bodie, CA, protects itself—with a curse. For years, visitors to this ghost town have learned that bad luck will befall anyone who makes off with an artifact—a curse that is lifted only when the piece of contraband is returned. Sure enough, park ranger Mark Langner says that a couple times a month, he gets something in the mail—“an old nail or a piece of glass, with an anonymous letter apologizing—they know they’ve done something wrong.” Curse or no curse, he says, “karma is karma.” And yet, people still can’t resist slipping off with a piece of history. It’s understandable. Abandoned towns exist all over the world, but there’s something uniquely American, even romantic, about ghost towns. Perhaps it’s because so many sprang up in the 19th-century Old West, when a rush to find gold and other minerals created an old-style economic bubble.

When the money or luck ran out, so did the residents, often leaving behind empty houses, saloons, and brothels. Of course, gold (or lack thereof) isn’t the only reason towns have failed. “There are as many reasons for towns dying as there are towns,” says Gary Speck, a ghost town expert and author of books including Ghost Towns: Yesterday and Today. “Some towns were bypassed when highways were built or, in one-economy towns, when production decreased, like in logging camps. If the need for the town was gone, the town went bye-bye—unless it could adapt.” He adds that while plenty of failed towns just got paved over by modern suburbs, finding the physical remains of little cities long gone makes for fascinating travel. When we looked for the most interesting ghost towns around the U.S., we found various states of preservation and decay. In Virginia City, MT, remaining buildings have been rehabbed to create festive tourist towns.

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