New England Ghost Towns
My interest in and research on abandoned places is highlighted in this article, Abandonment Issues, by Josh Archer in the April issue of Bangor Metro magazine.
Book by David Fiske, Forgotten on the Kennebec: Abandoned Places and Quirky People.
Now available on
Amazon
Press Release for Forgotten on the Kennebec
Read a review of Forgotten on the Kennebec by Michelle Souliere on her Strange Maine blog.
Read a
description at www.wegoplaces.com. Plus, find other fun places to go!
Purchase an autographed copy, just $18.95 (free shipping). See my ad on Uncle Henry's online.
Watch a video Swan Island, A Maine Ghost Town, based on material from the book.
Watch a video A Visit to Fort Baldwin (Phippsburg, Maine), based on material from the book.
New England Ghost Towns is on Facebook!
Also on Facebook, companion page: Abandoned Maine
Also, please take a look at the
New England / Northeast Scenic Photographs Facebook Page
Press Release for Forgotten on the Kennebec
Read a review of Forgotten on the Kennebec by Michelle Souliere on her Strange Maine blog.
Read a description at www.wegoplaces.com. Plus, find other fun places to go!
Purchase an autographed copy, just $18.95 (free shipping). See my ad on Uncle Henry's online.
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Watch a video Swan Island, A Maine Ghost Town, based on material from the book.
|
Watch a video A Visit to Fort Baldwin (Phippsburg, Maine), based on material from the book.
|
New England / Northeast Scenic Photographs Facebook Page
Buy now
This photo, taken in the summer of 2012, shows the new and old bridges near Bucksport, Maine.
The old one is now in the process of being dismantled. This view no longer exists!
Get this image on note cards for as low as $1.90 each (in packs of 25).
The cards are customizable--you can adjust the photo size and enter your own text for the inside of the card!
Ghost Town Hiking
by David Fiske ( )
I developed an interest in abandoned places in New England after seeing a television segment in the 1970s which described a book called Abandoned New England. This book, by William F. Robinson, describes many abandoned places in the New England states. In addition to providing historical background on some of the places, locations and listings of structural remains are proviced for most of the sites.
An earlier book, Fessenden S. Blanchard's Ghost Towns of New England: Their Ups and Downs (1960), is an excursionary guide to abandoned places, and is partly a local history of the places covered, and partly a travel journal.
Both books are long out of print, though copies may be available at libraries or through the used book market.
Some of these abandoned places were settlements, some were military installations, and others were industrial sites. The reasons for the demise of such places are varied: sometimes a farming settlement died out due to low agricultural yields; mills, mines, or quarries suffered from exhaustion of natural resources or economic changes; military forts outlived the purposes for which they were constructed.
An example of a failed industrial site is Furnace Grove, on the eastern outskirts of Bennington, Vermont, where crumbling remains of old iron furnaces adjoin classic buildings which housed homes and offices for the iron workers. The remaining buildings are now quaint residences.
Remains of iron furnaces at Furnace Grove in Vermont.
Read more about Furnace Grove.
Deserted residences are another sort of ghost town. One that is often visited is Madame Sherri's Castle, in the Madame Sherri Forest in West Chesterfield, New Hampshire. Today only ruins remain of a unique castle-like house built according to Madame Sherri's wishes. She had been active in New York City show buisness, but relocated to rural New Hampshire, where she amused the locals with her show buisiness ways.
Read about Madame Sherri on the Happily Blended blog.
Read about Happily Blended's Brandy visit to Madame Sherri's Castle (includes photos).
Photographs Available for Purchase
Please take a look at my profile on fineartamerica.com, where you can order prints or cards featuring some of the photographs I took while traipsing around the northeastern U. S.
Profile url is fineartamerica.com/profiles/david-fiske.html?tab=artwork
Crown Point Photographs
Though outside of New England, the ruins of Fort Crown Point in New York are very interesting to visit. Here is a link to the official page for the historic site. I also have a collection of photographs taken at Crown Point that can be viewed/purchased.
Other Historical Photographs
There are plenty of interesting historical photographs, taken by me and other photographers, available at fineartamerica.com: historical photos .
New England Ghost Towns on Facebook
My Ballston Spa, NY, History Articles
My New York History Blog articles
(and Twitter, too: @davidfiske1)