It’s been a long time coming, but the day has finally arrived. Orphaned Heritage: The East Coast’s Disappearing History is here. Pick up your copy of Orphaned Heritage from publisher Brandylane Publishers, Amazon or Barnes & Noble, along with numerous … Continue reading →
In honor of Black History Month, Abandoned Country is republishing the following article, which originally appeared in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press on August 21, 2021 as “It’s been 190 years since Nat Turner’s Rebellion. Brutal mysteries remain unsolved.” One … Continue reading →
Not much happens in Croaker, Va., a rural expanse named for a noisy fish. Yet there on a sprawling property, amid mountains of mulch and tidy lines of row crops, is a curious assemblage of United States presidents. The 43 … Continue reading →
This is the last in a six-part, yearlong series called Disappearing Virginia in Distinction magazine. This story originally appeared in the December issue as “The Vanishing Melody of Swamp Music.” WET NOSES poke excitedly through the steel bars. The hounds are … Continue reading →
This is the fifth in a six-part, yearlong series called Disappearing Virginia in Distinction magazine. This story originally appeared in the October issue as “Prying a Living from the Water.” There’s no mistaking a place tied to water, even in … Continue reading →
This is the fourth in a six-part, yearlong series called Disappearing Virginia in Distinction magazine. This story originally appeared in the August issue as “The Treasure of the Tide.” The boxy old building hides its importance well. Its weathered clapboard siding is … Continue reading →
This is the third in a six-part, yearlong series called Disappearing Virginia in Distinction magazine. This story originally appeared in the June issue as “The Sons and Daughters of Slabtown.” The letter was bureaucratically frank. “I have been advised that you have refused … Continue reading →
This is the second in a six-part, yearlong series called Disappearing Virginia in Distinction magazine. This story originally appeared in the April issue as “Ghosts on the Water.” The Simon Lake was a vital pillar in the good working order of the United … Continue reading →
This is the first in a six-part, yearlong series called Disappearing Virginia in Distinction Magazine. This story originally appeared in the February issue. Pamunkey tribe member Kathryn MacCormick. Photo by Keith Lanpher. Tangier Island may be secluded, but it’s hardly alone. The … Continue reading →
When Melcenia Fields failed to retrieve her groceries, railroad workers knew something was wrong. Fields, inexplicably to all but herself, lived in the ruins of Beury, WV, one of dozens of company towns in the New River Gorge that residents … Continue reading →
No telling what compelled John Lawson and his gang to strip naked and wade through tangled underbrush and into the murky water, but we know with the benefit of three hundred years’ hindsight that if he’d moved north or south … Continue reading →
The listing and rusted vessel is what you’d expect to see at a scrapyard. What’s not readily apparent, though, is that beneath the cracked paint and broken windows lies an epic tale of disaster and riches, disappearance and discovery, greed … Continue reading →
A fire smolders in an abandoned coal mine deep underground. Gases seep to the surface through fissures in the earth. A blue-collar Pennsylvania town vaporizes, chased away by the blaze. But this is not Centralia, where subterranean seams of anthracite have … Continue reading →
Ahh, the Carolinas. Known far and wide for barbecue, conservative politics and…nuclear near-misses?? That’s right, the Carolinian legacy you’ve likely never heard of missed annihilating vast swaths of the East Coast’s countryside by just a whisper. Indeed, the only two … Continue reading →
To hear William Byrd II tell it, these springs made wet dreams, allowing his exploring party’s “appetites to mend, our slumbers to sweeten, the stream of life to run cool and peaceably in veins, and if ever we dreamt of … Continue reading →
Great things have been accomplished in pursuit of drink. The Pilgrims made an early exit from the Mayflower because their beer was running low. New England may be the most prominent example of landmarks that exist because of the need … Continue reading →
Three remain. Not three villages, but three people. That’s of thousands who once counted themselves among the believers, scattered in two dozen communities from the Deep South to New England to the Midwest. Now just two women and a man–the … Continue reading →
I’m often asked for tips by folks who want to find and explore abandoned history, and the discussion always circles around to trespassing. “Do you ever ignore ‘No Trespassing’ signs?” they ask. My answer? No. There’s no reason to, especially … Continue reading →
New York City has its share of abandoned history, but none quite like the Renwick Ruin on Roosevelt Island. With its Gothic facade, the Smallpox Hospital, as it was once known, looks like some forsaken castle lost in time, better … Continue reading →
The white clapboard house hides in plain sight on a short city street lined with recycle bins and compact sedans. Nothing on the exterior betrays what happened within those walls long ago, that officers engaged in the nation’s greatest crisis … Continue reading →
