- These spots should make for an unforgettable and terrifying road trip.
Abandoned places are always fascinating. There’s something equally strange, beautiful, and creepy about places of civilization that civilization forgot.
We’ve previously looked at plenty of weirdly beautiful abandoned places all over the world. But you don’t have to be a globetrotter to find them — there are plenty of crumbling, long-forgotten structures right in the good ol’ USA.
Here are 7 examples of strange (and often creepy) abandoned places around America. You can even visit most of them — at your own risk, of course.
1) Six Flags New Orleans — New Orleans, Louisiana
The Six Flags theme park in New Orleans opened in 2000 under the name Jazzland. The famous amusement park chain bought it in 2003 and operated it for the next two years.
And then Hurricane Katrina hit.
The storm annihilated the amusement park and left it in ruins. Due to the extensive damage, the Six Flags company was left with a nightmarish pile of insurance claims that took years to sort.
Meanwhile, the now-abandoned park became a regular haunt for urban explorers, graffiti writers, and other temporary visitors. Despite multiple redevelopment plans, the park has remained in ruins to this day.
But if you’re planning to visit the wrecked amusement park, you might want to do it soon. Recently, a plan to turn the place into a shopping center was approved — and this time they say they’re really going to do it.
2) Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia, Pennsylvania, was once a bustling mining town. But in 1962, the vast underground coal reserves beneath the town ignited — and they’ve been burning ever since.
Now, more than 60 years later, the blaze under Centralia is still going. The town is for all intents and purposes abandoned and has been wiped from the U.S. zip code registry.
Yet, you can visit Centralia. There’s nothing stopping you from wandering in to admire the place’s eerie beauty.
And just how eerie? Well, Centralia inspired the famous Silent Hill horror video game and movie series. Enough said.
If you do visit Centralia, though, be courteous and stay on the streets. Many of the buildings are still privately owned — and there are even nine registered permanent residents in the town, despite it no longer officially existing.
3) Murphy’s Ranch — Santa Monica, California
You don’t have to travel to the heart of the Third Reich to visit an abandoned Nazi compound. As it turns out, you only have to go to California.
In the early years of WWII, a mysterious German called “Herr Schmidt” led Winona and Norman Stephens to believe Germany would inevitably win the conflict. He persuaded them to build a place where they and other Nazi sympathizers could stay safe until the Germans conquered the U.S.
Of course, that never happened. So, the supposed self-sustaining Nazi paradise now sits abandoned in Santa Monica.
It was a magnificent waste of $4 million. But at least the Stephens’ misguided flirtations with their Ubermensch masters left a cool set of ruins to explore.
4) City Hall Station — New York City
New York City’s subway stations look pretty post-apocalyptic as is. But if you’d like to know what they really look like after people are gone, the City Hall Station can show you.
The stop opened in 1904 and was abandoned in 1945 due to lack of use. Yet, it hasn’t been demolished and still sits underneath the city.
City Hall Station isn’t open to the public and we highly recommend that you don’t try to sneak into it. You could see a glimpse of it if you stayed on the line 6 train after it proceeds past its final stop at Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall, but it’s better if you don’t tempt the wrath of the conductors.
Also, you’ll probably get a hefty fine if you got caught, so don’t.
5) Santa Claus, Arizona
Santa Claus, Arizona, began with a bizarre thought experiment in 1937. What if we built a Santa Claus-themed holiday resort town in the Arizona desert?
Somehow, the idea didn’t die on the drawing board and Santa Claus was born. It’s a miracle the place lasted until the ‘70s before being abandoned.
Today, the town’s collection of buildings — including Santa’s “Land Office” — are still there. You can go see them, but the place is fenced off by barbed wire.
There would probably be nobody to stop you if you tried to sneak past, but we can’t recommend trying that. If you don’t slice yourself on the wire to begin with, the flimsy, decaying buildings are far from safe to be around.
6) The Dome Homes — Cape Romano, Florida
Off the coast of Cape Romano, Florida, a series of strange concrete domes rise out of the ocean. Rumors claim that they’re of alien origin, while others insist they used to be the base of a secretive cult.
They’re neither of those things. The Dome Homes are the remains of a bizarre single-family home built in 1980.
They were actively inhabited until 1993, after which the owners started visiting them less and less. By the time Hurricane Wilma wrecked them, the home was practically abandoned.
Nobody has ever demolished the buildings so they are still there, slowly being claimed by rising sea levels and sinking land.
7) Tillamook Rock Lighthouse — Tillamook, Oregon
Tillamook Rock Lighthouse is nicknamed Terrible Tilly. That should tell you right about everything you need to know about the place.
Working conditions at the lighthouse — in operation between 1881 and 1957 — were notoriously bad. The isolated building was constantly beaten by Pacific storms, cutting the lighthouse keeper off from all civilization for weeks or months on end.
Rumors say that at least one of them went insane.
The place hasn’t gotten much less eerie after its decommissioning. It’s now a storehouse for cremated remains and currently houses the ashes of 30 people.
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