Midwest ghost towns

[tony longshanks]

A friend of mine recently came back from traveling all over the Midwestern USA on an extended road trip, & reported to me that there are TONS of abandoned towns there. "Town after town after town... completely empty," she told me.

So, having been born in Minnesota, I know how inhospitable the Midwest can be in winter; nonetheless, my naughty little squatter imagination lit up as soon as she mentioned this to me.

If there are so many entire towns that are abandoned in these states, what's stopping us from going & squatting them towns & taking the mover?

Of course there would be difficulties in figuring out how to provide heat, water, food, etc., but surely we could find a way.

Something I've been turning over in my mind & thought I'd share with the StP forum....

 

[Minky]

Sounds like there is a lot of living space going to waste! What are the Midwest squatting laws like?

 

[caffine addict]

Go onto ghosttowns.com, it's a website where you can check out states Where you can find ghost towns. (You can find some in Canada also)
Great tool if you need a place to squat at.

 

[caffine addict]

Pic related also

 

[tony longshanks]

Sounds like there is a lot of living space going to waste! What are the Midwest squatting laws like?

Good question! I had no interest in squatting at the time I left Minnesota at the age of 12 so I'm clueless, so I'll look into it. But regardless, if there's no one in town, that presumably means no police too, so... how much does it matter?

The epidemic of empty Midwestern towns helps clear up for me the mystery of the mass exodus of people to the West Coast urban centers that we've been seeing over the past couple decades, & especially recently. I think a lot of people just decided to move to a nicer climate. Me & my family were just years ahead of many of them.

 

[caffine addict]

Good question! I had no interest in squatting at the time I left Minnesota at the age of 12 so I'm clueless, so I'll look into it. But regardless, if there's no one in town, that presumably means no police too, so... how much does it matter?

Most of ghost towns that are in the middle of no where have no cops

 

[stephahknee]

This thread can't die.

Immediately dazzled with daydreams of a city build of a steam punkesq Rajneeshpuram <3

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneeshpuram

 

[tony longshanks]

Thanks! I have sugarplums dancing in my head, too.

 

[tony longshanks]

There is another thread on StP right now about a new Esquire magazine article on a California ghost town that's for sale. Cerrito Gordo. The Fat Little Hill.

 

[Deleted member 25988]

Most of ghost towns that are in the middle of no where have no cops

Amen. If you have a problem and call the cops, now you have two problems.

 

[Deleted member 29225]

I'm not a squatter by choice but I certainly do encourage those who would make the efforts and do the work to 'reclaim' any abandoned towns that are currently empty.

I agree with Tony that being realistic about the infrastructures (buildings, water, electricity, sewer systems, roads etc.) needs to be seriously looked into and considered before deciding on a place to move into. That said, having lived independently (electricity & water) for over 40 years now, those factors are reasonably do-able with a little self education and determination.

Regarding 'no police' - hey if there isn't anyone around, the problems disappear quickly because most of the problems are human ;-) Also only nitwits from urban areas don;t know the 'code of the boonies' - every person living 'out' tends to be ready to defend themselves. Hmmmm I have a cell phone (to call cops) and a gun to defend myself/property - which do you think I am most inclined to use first? I think it was Robert Heinlein who said - "An armed society is a polite one.'

Sad about the Rajneeshpuram which could have been interesting but it overstepped its ideals ONto others. Panarchy makes soooo much more sense. (as in live and let live)

I do hope that if anyone does roll up their sleeves and 'townsteads' that they blog and share their efforts to encourage others. The ratio of lawyers v. farmers is so way out of whack this could be the start of reversing that??

 

[Rabbi]

If anyone's serious about doing this some time, I'd be down

 

[Deleted member 29225]

Hi Rabbi, while I am not ready to do this myself (I am set up and content where I am), it sure seems like a BIG shame that with as many homeless and dispossessed people/families as there currently are, no one is either aware or ready to see if they could take advantage of such places.

Just thinking about what would be needed to be done as well as research before simply going to such a place would be well worth that. One thing I haven't found so far is a list of these places - town names/map locations etc. That would be a good starting spot.

Next step could be a (nteractive?) blog' where people could write questions and offer thoughts/suggestions for how to proceed.