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Among The Ruins


Dinoprophet

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Spawned from a thread in Off Topic.

 

Many of my favorite caches are hikes in the woods to long-abandoned foundations, stairways, dams, graveyards, etc. When I visit an area, these caches are high on my to-do list. Post any you know of. Include spooky pictures if you like.

  • My own Pinnacle Point and Hadley Hills Ruins - these woods were quite built up 70 years ago; you almost can't tell anymore (pics by Lake Boy and Jellyfish)
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  • Sand Quarry - yes, sand is mined. What's left behind is impressive
     
  • Old Sorcerer's Castle - one of the many iron furnace caches in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia (picture by ppro)
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  • Scattered Remains - One of the best examples of this kind of cache. The pictures don't do the chimney justice; the sight of it literally stopped me in my tracks (pics by Wandering Bears)
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  • Power Lady - a creepy old summer camp (not really much of a hike, but the sign that remains is so cool I had to include it. Pic by ME3Ohio)
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Edited by Dinoprophet
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There's little stone used for building in central and north Florida, a bit more futher south, where Cochina rock is sometimes laid up - wooden structures burn or rot down pretty fast ... but I own a cache near this Old Cracker Cabin

 

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and there was a multi cache with a stage that brought you to these farmstead remains on the edge of a small lake

 

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Edited by Isonzo Karst
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Now this is my kinda thread! I love exploring old ruins and ghost towns.

 

One of my favorite stops along I-40 in Arizona was Raven's Nest - Rt. 66 Gift Shop-Get Your Kicks #1 a few miles north of the meteor crater. From the interstate, you can see the ruins several miles off. You might expect it to be the ruin of some old west settlement, or something older, but it isn't either one- it's the remains of an old Route 66 tourist trap.

 

Since I neglected to upload a picture of my own, here's one taken by dunscott and uploaded to the cache log a few months ago:

 

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Now this is my kinda thread! I love exploring old ruins and ghost towns.

 

One of my favorite stops along I-40 in Arizona was Raven's Nest - Rt. 66 Gift Shop-Get Your Kicks #1 a few miles north of the meteor crater. From the interstate, you can see the ruins several miles off. You might expect it to be the ruin of some old west settlement, or something older, but it isn't either one- it's the remains of an old Route 66 tourist trap.

 

Since I neglected to upload a picture of my own, here's one taken by dunscott and uploaded to the cache log a few months ago:

 

2430f11c-1060-4f2c-8b6a-433407d05d8c.jpg

My favorite one, too!

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Okay, since the OP said hikes in the woods, :D I'll post back to back to share another personal favorite. Windsor Ruin was one of the most magnificent antebellum homes in the south, and even survived the Civil War mostly undamaged. Then, in 1890, it burned down in a fire sparked by a cigarette. All that remains today are the columns which supported the porch.

 

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edit: dang. That link worked when I previewed it.

Edited by DavidMac
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Okay, since the OP said hikes in the woods, ;) I'll post back to back to share another personal favorite.

:D Well, I did, yes. Speaking from experience. Desert ruins are very cool too.

 

Nice pictures all around! I'll have to add some to my OP.

 

This cache is so close to me, yet I haven't gone out to log it. I know the area well, though. There used to be a mill with a dam and railroad bridge across the creek. Not much left but a little shack and some graffitti'ed dam remnants.

 

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Edited by Dinoprophet
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Now this is my kinda thread! I love exploring old ruins and ghost towns.

 

One of my favorite stops along I-40 in Arizona was Raven's Nest - Rt. 66 Gift Shop-Get Your Kicks #1 a few miles north of the meteor crater. From the interstate, you can see the ruins several miles off. You might expect it to be the ruin of some old west settlement, or something older, but it isn't either one- it's the remains of an old Route 66 tourist trap.

 

Since I neglected to upload a picture of my own, here's one taken by dunscott and uploaded to the cache log a few months ago:

 

2430f11c-1060-4f2c-8b6a-433407d05d8c.jpg

My favorite one, too!

 

Just 4.4 miles away is MY favorite of the caches in the Flagstaff area. ;)

 

Canyon Diablo~Two Guns, AZ~Get Your Kicks #2

 

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Here's a classic, now archived:

Scattered Remains

 

"This cache will be found amongst scattered remains.

 

I came across this place many years ago by accident when I got lost on the way to White Rocks. It is a really strange place to find way back in the woods. I half expected Rod Serling to walk out from behind a tree and tell me I had entered the Twilight Zone. I eventually figured out where I was and found my way back to my car but nobody believes my stories about this place. I’ll offer some directions and GPS coordinates so that you can go there to see it for yourself.

 

The cache is in the scattered remains of an abandoned industrial complex. It seems as though they pulled out of here in a hurry and left everything behind. There are numerous structures, rail lines, and other stuff spread out over this vast area of about 100 acres. I made a trip to the local library to see what I could find out about this place. I learned that the DuPont Company owned the site and that it produced gunpowder during the World Wars. It was an extremely dangerous place to work given that several men lost their lives in various accidents at the plant. There were three major explosions in the World War I era and at least one more during World War II. On the morning of November 20, 1942, two men who were packing silk bags of rifle powder into steel kegs were "blown to bits" in an explosion that rocked Fairchance and shattered the windows of nearby homes. Look for wooden structures filled with dirt along the sides of some of the buildings. These structures are ramparts designed to contain the blast in the event of an accident like this one. They must have worked as advertised because none of the other workers at the plant were seriously injured. I do not know why or when production at this facility ceased. I'm guessing that it had outlived its usefulness when the war ended and that was that for that. One can only wonder about what all this stuff was for and what this place might have looked like when the plant was in full operation."

 

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These are all great pictures, I wish I could figure out how to load a picture here. ;) I have a neat picture of a old well I cached at.

When you are at the Reply window, click on this little icon . . . image.gif. Then, paste the URL from the photo you want to post. You get the photo's URL by right-clicking it.

 

I love the caches that take you to ruins. Around here their is a series of "Stone Ruination" caches. Another favorite of mine is Hidden History in Bridlewood. :D

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Great Thread! We love finding places like these. ;)

 

We have one of our own, called "The Twilight Zone" GC13EYT

 

This is the first structure along the Gambo Gunpowder Trail.

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Here is what it must have looked like "back in the day"

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There is a cache near this structure. Ours is further along the trail. There are several foundations left from the buildings of that time.

Here is an exerpt from the cache listing, taken, in part, from the local historical society webpage.

 

"The Gambo Gunpowder Mill trail, which contains remnants of the historical Gambo Powder Mills, built in 1824, incorporated into the Oriental Powder Mills in 1859 and which later became the Dupont Powder Mill, which ran until 1905. This complex was once the fourth largest powder mill in the country and produced gunpowder that was exported all over the world. During the Civil War the mill ran day and night producing two and one half million pounds of gunpowder per year, which represented 25% of the gunpowder used by the Union forces. The gunpowder was loaded in boats and shipped down the river along the Cumberland and Oxford Canal to Portland where it was then sailed to Boston.

 

Wooden wheelbarrows made with non-sparking copper alloy nails were used to move the gunpowder around. All of the buildings were placed far apart so that any explosion at one building would not affect the others. Despite these measures, there were many explosions at the mills, which led to 46 unfortunate deaths between 1828 and 1924.

 

As you travel along part of the old canal towpath, you will see some of the massive stone foundations left behind from this time."

 

The last time we visited the cache, we ran into the local Eagle Scout Troop, which has been clearing some of the overgrowth around the foundations and have erected a nice sign at the trailhead. :D

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Great thread, thanks for starting it. ;)

 

One of the best around here is Forbidden Tower. It's in the town of Butner, NC which used to be a staging ground for troops training for WW II. When the Army abandoned the area after the war, the state took over the management of the town. There are ruins of buildings and bunkers throughout the woods, and my buddy nctreker has a few caches in and around them.

 

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Another favorite find is near my parents vacation home in the Berkshires in western MA. The Aspinwall Hotel opened in 1902. This 400 room hilltop resort with its broad lawns and spectacular vistas quickly became the Grand Hotel of the Berkshires.

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I also visited a great ghost town in the Nevada desert on my last trip to Las Vegas. I need to find the pics of that one. There were a few caches there too.

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The cache is in the scattered remains of an abandoned industrial complex. It seems as though they pulled out of here in a hurry and left everything behind. There are numerous structures, rail lines, and other stuff spread out over this vast area of about 100 acres. I made a trip to the local library to see what I could find out about this place. I learned that the DuPont Company owned the site and that it produced gunpowder during the World Wars. It was an extremely dangerous place to work given that several men lost their lives in various accidents at the plant. There were three major explosions in the World War I era and at least one more during World War II.

 

Interesting. If you look at the Dupont Ruins cache I linked to in my earlier post, it is among the ruins of an old Dupont gunpowder plant that produced powder for WWI. It also had a huge explosion that I'm told eventually led to its closure.

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The cache is in the scattered remains of an abandoned industrial complex. It seems as though they pulled out of here in a hurry and left everything behind. There are numerous structures, rail lines, and other stuff spread out over this vast area of about 100 acres. I made a trip to the local library to see what I could find out about this place. I learned that the DuPont Company owned the site and that it produced gunpowder during the World Wars. It was an extremely dangerous place to work given that several men lost their lives in various accidents at the plant. There were three major explosions in the World War I era and at least one more during World War II.

 

Interesting. If you look at the Dupont Ruins cache I linked to in my earlier post, it is among the ruins of an old Dupont gunpowder plant that produced powder for WWI. It also had a huge explosion that I'm told eventually led to its closure.

I noticed in your post that it was also DuPont.

 

By the way, the "Scattered Remains" cache is archived on gc.com, but it is still active (as are most of Quest Master's outstanding caches). Even if it wasn't, I'd highly recommend visiting the area.

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Ruins! Probably the scenario we enjoy the most. Here's some photos.

 

Anta de Entre Águas – Serra d´Ossa - GC158MK

 

Remains of a perfectly preserved megalithic monument.

 

2bc9cec4-5c6e-446b-9432-b7a00c81878e.jpg

 

Torre Velha [Margem Sul] - GC136QE

 

A wonderful piece of history revealed to us by geocaching. These are the ruins of a defensive tower in Lisbon, dated from the 1500's. Unique.

 

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Apocalyptic Visons - GCC353

 

Cache set on an abandoned mine. The complex is amazing. One of our favorites ever!

 

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We have plenty of photos taken. Check our gallery. See also the caches pages of the ones I indicate. There are loads of photos, too.

 

Portugal has a lot of ruins. Our history goes a looooonnnnggg way back. :unsure:

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My uncle (Rookie49), who got me into this, told me about tomulus' Pre-Columbian Relic shortly after he'd started caching. He hadn't done it yet, but the cache description got me hooked. It wasn't exactly what I expected, but it was still cool. Photo along a former stretch of MD-175 on the way to the cache:

 

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Falcon Loader's AED Racing's Freestate 32.3 was another of my early favorites along these lines. Not much of a hike, but a significant MD ruin...

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Me and JuniorNimrod at mdpaul's Bush Forest Ruins:

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Ohters:

JFigel's Riverside Ruins (still working on this one) and Riverside Ruins II.

Crashmore & Zutaleau's Bunch of Savages in this Town.

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I love the world of abandoned structures anad abandoned/derelict infrastructure... Folks have posted some very beautiful pictures in this thread so far. Thanks!

 

Our Psycho Urban Cache #13 - Impossible! Give Up Now! is located on the concrete apron atop a sheer vertical stone pier -- one of four abandoned piers remaining from an old bridge which had spanned the river -- in the middle of the Potomac River. Here is a photo which I snapped from above the cache and a bit upstream from it one day while doing a maintenance visit by helicopter:

 

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Here is a photo of Woodlit -- a cacher from NJ and the only cacher who has found this cache (solo, to boot!) without the aid of a large team -- at the top:

 

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And here is a photo of the base of the pier, shot from a nearby riverside hilltop bluff:

 

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Our Psycho Backcountry Cache #3 - Bitch Creek Crossing, is located on the steel infrastructure beneath an abandoned railroad bridge which sits 134 feet above the river below in a wilderness area near the ID/WY border; here are some fotos:

 

Here is a photo of the bridge:

 

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And here is a photo of my friend Greta, a backcountry guide and artist, who helped me place the cache, holding one of her dogs on the riverbank with the bridge in the background:

 

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One last item of note... A local MD cacher named jfigel has a great series of three caches placed in riverside ruins of old mills and waterworks buildings, called the Riverside Ruins series. They are great fun!

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And, moving on to cover even more abandoned structures and derelict infrastructure, our Psycho Urban Cache #8 - Ghost in Ancient Citadel, is located in a 150+ year-old abandoned fort south of Baltimore. It is a multi, and each stage is hidden in abandoned structures onsite. Here is one foto of the site:

 

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and another:

 

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And, our infamous Psycho Urban Cache #10 - Derelict Grunge Acropolis, is located in another abandoned fort in the same area. Here is a foto of the site:

 

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And here is a foto of part of a team of 25+ cachers who tackled the cache one day; one of the abandoned bunkers can be seen in the background:

 

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Some local cachers, members of the team mentioned just above, have also placed video footage and slide shows of their hunt at the two forts in the video section of MySpace and also at YouTube.

 

.

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Another thumbs up for Scattered Remains. That place is awesome! I'd have liked to have seen it before a lot of it fell down. This is the only building I found still standing:

 

rusty2.jpg

 

I spent a lot of time poking around in there. I love ruins. I have more pictures here:

 

http://news.webshots.com/album/559203316gPNWUQ

 

Another one I really enjoyed was "The Mothman Returns". It was in the ruins of the old TNT plant in Point Pleasant, WV where mothman was first seen. Unfortunately, it has also been archived.

 

tnt2.jpg

 

That one needs to be revived.

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Portugal has a lot of ruins. Our history goes a looooonnnnggg way back. :unsure:

 

Yeah, but I don't think caches from Europe, Asia, Africa, South or Central America count here. You guys have too many of 'em, and they're all too old. You probably don't even think OURS are ruins! You just wonder why we'd let such a perfectly good place go all to hell like that. :D

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While doing a cool virtual this summer, I stumbled across this abandoned pool. Does anyone know in the name of the park that you might find this? It provided a haven during the Great Depression. It was big enough for 3000 swimmers and had a sand beach. The Art Deco Style of the pool became this park's new look.

img4517to8.jpg

Hint: It's in Maryland....

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While doing a cool virtual this summer, I stumbled across this abandoned pool. Does anyone know in the name of the park that you might find this? It provided a haven during the Great Depression. It was big enough for 3000 swimmers and had a sand beach. The Art Deco Style of the pool became this park's new look.

img4517to8.jpg

Hint: It's in Maryland....

 

That is just too cool, TrailGators! I found some information about it:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caryscott/639236416/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Echo_Park_(Maryland)

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While doing a cool virtual this summer, I stumbled across this abandoned pool. Does anyone know in the name of the park that you might find this? It provided a haven during the Great Depression. It was big enough for 3000 swimmers and had a sand beach. The Art Deco Style of the pool became this park's new look.

img4517to8.jpg

Hint: It's in Maryland....

 

That is just too cool, TrailGators! I found some information about it:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caryscott/639236416/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Echo_Park_(Maryland)

Correct! I actually went to this park while it was still operating when I was a kid. If you ever get near DC you should stop by and see it.

 

Here is an old carousel in the same park:

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Here's a spot where I want to hide a cache. I haven't been there, but the hiking group I sometimes venture with posted this photo after a recent hike. It's the remains of a lodge, and there's a swimming pool there out in the woods.

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I can no longer edit my OP, but here's a photo from Sand Quarry. That's a cave behind us; the top is out of the frame somewhere. Not exactly a ruin, but a remnant of man's presense.

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And one I forgot had ruins on the way, Collier's Walk, about an hour west of Philadelphia.

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I don't know, but I assume it was part of the furnace complex nearby. We were commenting how it had been there long enough to go to ruin, have a tree grow up in the middle of it, and the tree to die and fall.

Edited by Dinoprophet
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Great thread!! Love these places. Here's two of my hides:

 

Dr Strangelove's Bomb Shelter

'This site is on the national historic register of the Atomic Energy Commission: a real 1950's bomb shelter.

 

OK. I'm pulling your leg. Actually, according to the nice folk at the Eagle Creek Park office, you are standing in the basement of a former homestead, and if you look around you will see the remains of the foundation, broken clay pipe and a storage barrel or two. The 'shelter' was likely a basement cold storage room, before there was such a thing as refrigeration, or perhaps it was for drainage. If you use your imagination, it could be anything. Like maybe a bomb shelter.

 

This much is certain: the house has been gone for a long time, as those cottonwood trees growing on top of it are at least 50 years old.'

 

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2K 4 J&K in 2K6

 

'Thirteen years ago, this location was under water. This was Beanblossom Lake in Morgan Monroe State forest until 1993, when a huge storm system dropped more than 6 inches of rain in a few days, the man-made levee collapsed and the lake drained into Greasy Creek. Beanblossom Lake was left dry, and now it's interesting to see what 13 years of God's own restoration project has done to reclaim what man had dammed and drowned.

 

On the way in, you will pass through a large closed parking area and visit the decaying remains of the shelter house, playground, pcinic areas and BBQ pits. As you stand under the young sycamores and sign the cache log, that pretty meadow you see opening up before you was the lake bed. Now it's so thick with opportunistic scrub, wild flowers and tangled briars that this was all the farther I could go without making the casual cacher hate me in the green seasons.'

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