9.
Bodie, USA
The image of an American gold rush town is a familiar part of Wild West history.
Surprisingly, you don’t have to head to a movie set to get a taste of this fascinating
period of history.
While a handful of Gold Rush-Era towns still exist, they’re generally abandoned.
Despite the lack of population, they serve as a fascinating reminder of when times were
hard but the potential rewards of mining for gold were plentiful.
Bodie, an abandoned town in Mono County, California, is the perfect example of a gold rush ghost
town.
Bodie was established in the mid 19th century, thanks to prospector William S Bodey.
He’d travelled to the east of the Sierra Nevada mountains to look for gold.
Unfortunately, William Bodey perished in a snowstorm that same winter, and never saw
the town that was his namesake.
Over time Bodie became very successful.
It took a couple of decades, but by the late 1870s the miners were uncovering millions
of dollars’ worth of gold.
The population ran into the thousands.
Main Street in Bodie was reportedly a mile long and hosted no less than 3 newspapers.
There must have been a lot going on over in Bodie, right?
Some of the events there make for grim reading though.
It was a famously dangerous place to be.
If you weren’t caught up in a gunfight, you were dying from disease or perishing in
a mining accident.
We said it was a hard life and we were not kidding.
Bodie suffered from various fires and mining incidents, along with it’s crime rate over
time.
In 1932 a disastrous fire destroyed nearly all of the town, including 95% of the buildings.
The Great Depression and Prohibition had major impacts as well on a town that was largely
driven by saloons and wild living, and eventually the population dwindled further.
The town remained populated until the 1940s, by which time the boom period for gold mining
had long since passed.
A mysterious air hangs over the town, due to what are thought to be various ghosts who
haunt the place.
Only 6 people remained in Bodie by the end and they suffered nasty fates.
A husband shot his wife dead, then he in turn was killed in a revenge attack by 3 of the
others.
He apparently became a ghost!
The rest then succumbed to diseases which were apparently unusual, so all very strange,
right?
Another ghostly presence is the Angel of Bodie, a 3 year old child who was killed by accident.
Her grave is marked by an elaborate carved stone.
The place is now a state park and it’s probably just as well.
You wouldn’t want to live in a haunted town, gold or no gold!
8.
Sathorn Tower, Thailand
Somebody call the Ghostbusters!
This looks just like a location from the classic movie, right?
Back in the late 1990s, it was actually a cutting edge concrete skyscraper designed
for wealthy types to drink champagne in, whilst looking out over Bangkok.
However, something went very wrong with the so-called Sathorn Unique.
The skyscraper went up.
However, unfortunately the economy went down.
A crisis of the financial kind left this epic project only 80% finished according to reports.
This was after a massive 7 years of work.
How frustrating!
The building is now known as the Ghost Tower, with its creepy qualities accentuated by wild
graffiti.
Another eerie detail is the fact it’s apparently haunted.
Tragically, a deceased backpacker was found on the 43rd floor a few years ago.
Because it was abandoned, the structure simply stands there as time takes its toll.
Visitors are most definitely not encouraged.
That said, a fair number of urban explorers and the generally curious feel compelled to
explore, despite being warned off.
This place is surely an accident waiting to happen.
And to think, it was going to be a super luxurious condominium.
Now it’s the total opposite.
7.
Devil’s Mountain, Germany
Okay, so you can get your chuckling out the way before we delve into the history of this
somewhat eye-catching structure in Berlin.
It’s called “Teufelsberg”, which translates as “Devil’s Mountain”.
As well as looking a little lewd, this intriguing looking place was at the epicentre of American-Communist
hostilities.
The National Security Agency figured the man made hill would be a great spot for a listening
station.
Perched atop their scenic vantage point of the Grunewald forest in the West, they trained
their equipment on the East, to see what those Communists were up to.
Did they find out anything?
Well, they did get a surprise when they realized a ferris wheel in the locality was helping
to boost their signal.
Talk about all the fun of the fair, right?
This wasn’t an innocent location before the Americans turned up with their surveillance
kit.
In fact, before the hill was there, the place was originally used to build a Nazi college!
Of course, we all know how the war turned out.
With Berlin reduced to rubble, the Germans piled a ton of concrete and such over the
college to create a ski slope.
Then the US took it over till the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Can you go in there?
No.
Does it stop people trying?
Absolutely not.
Thrill seekers access the mountain so they can check out the bird’s eye view of Berlin.
There’s also talk of tunnels constructed by the NSA.
We don’t recommend that you venture inside to see for yourself, but the exterior alone
is worth the trip, right?
In fact you could say the place appears to be in rude health.
Very rude!
On a surreal note, the filmmaker David Lynch wanted to use the location for a meditation
school but, after contemplating the idea, authorities turned down his request.
6.
Peace Village, North Korea
North and South Korea don’t like each other and that’s an understatement.
They had a war in the early 1950s which was never quite resolved.
Sure there was an armistice but to this day the DMZ, or Demilitarized Zone, lies between
the two.
No-one lives on this hellish patch of land, right?
Well actually, some people do.
There are a couple of villages in fact!
Daeseong-dong, aka “Freedom Village”, is on the South Korean side.
Just over 200 people live there, though in fairness it was apparently around before the
conflict broke out.
Meanwhile, the North Koreans decided to build a whole new village.
They named it Kijong-dong, or “Peace Village”.
Though it also has another name…
“Propaganda Village”.
What's the motivation behind that name?
Because it looks like no-one lives there.
The place has been compared to a deserted movie set, owing to the fact that no-one has
been seen living in what’s supposed to be a well to do area.
Maintenance folk show up to keep the village tidy.
But this appears to be the ultimate case of “the lights are on but nobody’s home”!
In a bizarre development, the North Koreans blasted their neighbours with audio propaganda,
which led to the South turning up the volume on some K-Pop by way of retaliation.
Things get even stranger when you read about their flag poles.
South Korea erects a flagpole, so North Korea has to erect one.
And at 525 ft (160 m), theirs was naturally bigger!
All this attention grabbing behaviour not only puts North Korea firmly in the public
eye, it also makes people wonder just what goes on over there.
If the Peace Village is really a fake, then what is the actual reality like for those
living under Kim Jong-un…?
5.
Movie House, Sinai
A desert is the last place you’d expect to find a movie theatre.
Fancy a scorpion in your popcorn?
I mean, it doesn’t make much sense to us.
However, someone decided to build one out in the Sinai Desert.
It was soon abandoned, but as you can imagine it was a fascinating location.
We say “was'' because unfortunately it doesn’t exist anymore.
Approx 20 years ago an individual named Dynn Eadel from France hit on the somewhat out
there notion of having a big screen experience under the stars, while sitting on the sand.
This involved the purchasing of wooden seats, not to mention a projector, a huge screen
plus a generator to power the whole deal.
Unfortunately the venture didn’t get beyond opening night.
According to accounts, the generator failed.
The plot thickens because it’s thought that locals objected and made sure the big night
went under.
Years later the abandoned outdoor cinema was found again and posted online for the world
to see.
It would be the last showing for this unique and strange location.
Shockingly, the place was destroyed by persons unknown afterwards.
4.
Holy Land Theme Park, USA
A faith-based theme park experience?
It happened.
Back in the 1950s, one John Baptist Greco had a brainwave that led to the creation of
Holy Land USA in Waterbury, Connecticut during the 1950s.
It seems instead of roller coasters and other death defying rides, there were recreations
of Biblical scenes, together with a 56 ft (17 m) high cross that became a local landmark.
And in case the idea didn’t come across, a series of big letters spelling out “Holy
Land USA” were erected.
If you’re thinking it looks like the Hollywood sign, then you’re not wrong.
Looks like the business wasn’t above having a little fun amongst all the religious activity.
Not that it was boring.
Far from it, by all accounts.
The place was actually pretty popular and there were plans to renovate and expand in
the mid-1980s.
When Greco passed away around that time, everything went on hold.
Then the park was cared for by nuns, though it must have felt abandoned.
There just wasn’t the money and resources to get the place ship-shape again.
That was until 2018, when reports started coming in of an effort to restore Holy Land
USA back to its former… well, glory.
A volunteer group has put some faith, and a lot of hard work, into clearing out the
remnants of past visitors.
Not remnants from guests at the theme park, you understand, but vandals who trashed the
park.
Sadly a murder took place there in 2010, so it’s probably way past time to shine a light
on Greco’s vision again.
What do you think?
Is it about time to rehab Holy Land, USA and reopen for business?
Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to like, subscribe, and ring the bell
so you stay in the loop with all our latest vids!
3.
Dome Houses, USA
This looks for all the world like aliens landed but in fact you’re checking out domes that
were built by humans at Marco Island in Florida.
They were on dry land in 1980, when oil man and inventor Bob Lee constructed them as a
getaway.
Yep, you could live in these things and they didn’t always look so rickety and run down!
It wasn’t the greatest place to set up some domes - picturesque for sure, but problems
literally arose as the sea level got higher and higher.
Lee passed away, and the domes were lived in until the early 1990s.
The cutting edge solar powered property proved the perfect place to be when Hurricane Andrew
came in owing to its unique design, and the home survived the devastating storm with little
damage.
However, after hurricane Wilma in 2005 further eroded the beach and surrounding homes were
abandoned, ultimately authorities wanted the domes torn down.
The owners disagreed with the decision, so they wound up abandoned and standing in the
wet surf.
Rising sea levels and wild weather seemed to put out Bill Lee’s dream of a space age
holiday home.
All that remained was the prototype, built back on home turf in Tennessee.
2.
Craco, Italy
If you thought the dome houses of Florida had it tough with the natural elements, then
you should see what happened to the historic location of Craco in south Italy.
The population had everything thrown at them, from earthquakes to landslides to floods.
Eventually it got too much, and the place was largely abandoned.
This brought to an end centuries of human occupation.
Thought to have been around since approx 1060 AD, Craco - formerly Grachium, a Latin word
meaning “ploughed field” - saw a few changes in ownership.
It’s situated on a cliff which is 1,300 ft (396 m) high.
This was a good thing and a bad thing.
On the plus side, great views and somewhat difficult for enemies to climb up and attack
you.
On the negative side, you really are out there for any kind of nasty weather or natural disaster
such as famine to befall you.
Also, the place wasn’t high enough to escape the dreaded Black Death, which raged across
the world during the mid-14th century.
Still, the village and its remains lasted pretty well.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that structures really began to crumble, due to cave ins.
Also, if you think the place looks familiar then you might have seen it in the Bond movie
Quantum of Solace, or Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ.
Speaking of the latter, Craco is known today as the venue for religious festivals.
1.
Czestochowa Railway Station, Poland
Travel by train certainly isn’t what it used to be.
Yet look back across the centuries and you’ll see that using the railway was a truly grand
experience.
This is encapsulated in the final entry on our list, the abandoned station in the Polish
city of Czestochowa.
The routes available to its citizens were expanding because of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway,
which started operating in the mid-19th century.
Sure, these days everything is rusted and covered in graffiti.
But this is a fascinating snapshot of times past.
The lines are overgrown but the trains stand on them as if waiting for the signal to give
them the green light.
Maybe someday the place will be renovated so people can get a flavour of what it was
like to be part of the Russian Empire a century or so ago.
In the meantime it’s the epitome of an abandoned and mysterious location that draws the world’s
attention.
Trainspotting has never been more interesting.
Thanks for watching!
Are there any mysterious and abandoned places you think we left out?
Let us know in the comments.
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