Showing posts with label The Disappearace of Old America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Disappearace of Old America. Show all posts

Monday, March 21, 2011

Ghost Towns and lost Americana



Ever wonder what's left after a community dies? A ghost town. I found the best ghost town ever in South Dakota (in the middle of nowhere). A "townie" from a local pub told me about it. I say "townie" because the population of the town the local was from was maybe less than 300.

It took a while to get here but was worth it. I ran into an older rancher out here who lived along the edge of this, and he told me the town fell apart during the Dust Bowl, that the last resident, the "Train Boss" whose house this belonged to, moved out in 1944. At least a dozen buildings survive, the bank, the creamery.

It's sad to see small town America die. Urbanization, mega-corporation/monopolies and the squeezing out of the American farmer and pop-n-pop business, I presume are the culprits.

I would rather have lived back then, to have had to work harder, with less appliances than we have now, few electronics (just a radio, electricity) a simpler time, yes. Harder, but in a strange way simpler.

Bet I'd not have troubles sleeping at night. And what kind of world was it back then that you could leave your doors unlocked, or leave your kids to play outside unattended?