Very interesting story…
EPECUEN, Argentina — A strange ghost town that spent a quarter century under water is coming up for air again in the Argentine farmlands southwest of Buenos Aires.
Epecuen was once a bustling little lakeside resort, where 1,500 people served 20,000 tourists a season. During Argentina’s golden age, the same trains that carried grain to the outside world brought visitors from the capital to relax in Epecuen’s saltwater baths and spas.
I’m sure I’ve shared this at one time or another, but I LOVE ghost towns. Mostly because they seem to capture everyday life and hold it in still-mode until nature takes over. I remember reading about a lot of ghost towns in the US where it appeared that people just got up and left one day. Lots of everyday items still in their homes. Kinda makes you wonder why they did that. Did they take anything? This is a ghost town in France with 15 photos on the original article so just follow the link under the quoted text. 🙂
The once bustling farming town of Goussainville-Vieux Pays just 12 miles from Paris has been abandoned for forty years after tragedy and modernization forced residents from their homes. In 1973, during the Paris Air Show, a small aircraft crashed into the village, flattening houses and killing eight people. The accident badly shook the village – but their nightmare was not over. A year later the Charles de Gaulle airport opened with its runways just two miles from the village. From then on the constant noise was a plague on the town and a constant remainder of the deadly crash. Residents soon moved away, tired by the noise pollution and living in fear of another plane crash. Now the small town, which survived both World Wars, is home to just a handful of residents.
In the Summer of 2011, we had a series about ghost towns from around the world. I wrote a story about a ghost town which actually takes up an entire island. Hashima Island, off the coast of Japan, was once the home to thousands of workers who were employed by Mitsubishi Corporation as coal miners. This year, the island is featured in the latest James Bond film Skyfall as the hide out for Silva and where Bond is taken to meet him for the first time.
You can enjoy my original write up about the island here: Ghost Towns: Hashima Island, Japan
Remains of the schoolhouse/church
When one talks of ghost towns, they usually aren’t referring to a town that’s haunted, but rather an abandoned town somewhere in the West. A town whose glory and population peaked with the gold and silver rushes of the late 19th century, though there were many whose rise and fall had little to do with these precious metals. Colfax, New Mexico happens to be a town which actually fits both descriptions.
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Diamonds.
Diamonds so plentiful they glittered in the moonlight. All one had to do was venture outside during a full moon and, on hands and knees, pluck the glittering gems from their sandy resting place. This was Kolmanskop, Namibia during the early days of the mine. But, those days are long gone and the elements have begun to retake the land as the wind has half-buried buildings in the Namib desert sand.
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The Witching Hour 