Disorderly Content
Ghosts
There's something fascinating about ghost towns. California and the
Southwest are riddled with them: places that thrived once but now are
either empty or a shadow of their former selves. Bodie's an extreme
example; it was once the second or third most populous city in the
state, but went into a swift decline after the silver mines turned
unprofitable and shut down completely after a couple of fires took out
most of the place. Now it's a state park, and well worth a visit.
There are also the towns that avoided what seemed inevitable, former
mining towns like Bisbee, Arizona and Eureka, Nevada that prosper at
tourist attractions to a greater and lesser degree respectively.
I was on tour on the South Island of New Zealand when I encountered Avoca, a town that was down to one long abandoned house. It was on the route of the Tranzalpine Railroad, and was built to serve the railroad workers. As each section of the track was completed, the town and all its buildings were moved on to the next location. Finally it was done, and the remains of the town were dismantled. All but this one last house, which I guess nobody thought was worth moving. So it serves (or served) as a flop for the occasional squatter, and a reminder of a place that used to be.
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