ghost town

[breed12]

i belong to a metal detecting club and once or twice a year for 10 years our club went to a ghost town to metal detect last time we was there only two people the whole day found a couple of things now the state has came and took over the site of the ghost town but there is nothing left for them to dig up for once they came to late . or club managed to keep it quiet all these years the state doesn't win all the time.

 

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[K Zack]

Good Job on that one.

 

[lastleg]

Can you give us the state the ghost is located?

 

[JOE-DIRTDIGGER]

nice

 

[Tuberale]

There are thousands of "ghost towns" at least in my definition. I define a ghost town as a location that once had a post office, and later lost it. Some of the best places to research the history of the place are therefore postal and state records.

Using this simple definition, you should be able to find many many locations close to you. Probably in your own county. And with the recent attempt to consolidate services with the post office, expect several more shortly.

 

[breed12]

its in the state of oklahoma

 

[Tom_in_CA]

tuberale, I dunno about your state, but here in CA, a person could get a "post office" by merely applying and showing postal authorities that he represented a certain amount of neighbors. Ie.: if you could prove that a given # of households would benefit and pick up mail from a given location (ie.: if you had 10 families, or whatever, within a given # of miles radius of you), then presto, you could get a "post office". And bear in mind that often this "post office" was nothing more than someone's front porch, where neighbors would come collect their mail at.

So these are really not "towns" of any sort, but oftentime just someone's front porch. Yes some grew into commercial concerns (as wise persons threw out a shingle for other purposes too sometimes). But a lot of times, "post office" doesn't mean much here, in the sense of how we think of a "post office" in our modern vocabulary/usage.

 

[Tuberale]

To Tom_in_CA: that's EXACTLY what an early post office was, especially in the 1800's. A localized place where multiple people could all get the mail from the same back porch (sometimes front porch) instead of going into town and getting it. Often just small communities that let you know there were several families living nearby. Usually had what we would call a convenience store as well. At least that's how it usually worked here in OR.

Point is that's where the local people would walk to or ride to for their mail at least once a week. Trips to town that could take a full day were reserved for larger buying sprees. And most small farmers made their own food: wheat, oats, barley, eggs, milk, cream, chickens, cattle, sheep, etc.

For 4 years I went to grade school in one of those locations: Plainview, OR. The ultimate in small towns. Everyone knew everyone else's business, relatives, and personal attachments/affairs. It was either real cozy or real nosey, depending on how you viewed it. My dad used to walk to the same school when he was young: 5 miles cross-country one-way. Since there were lots of pheasants around then (the first Chinese Ring-Necked pheasants were successfully released in the US from Judge Denney probably in an old fruit orchard nearby) he would take a shotgun to and from school to back some fresh fowl for making pocket change during the Depression. Today he'd be jailed for bringing a firearm to school! But in the Depression that was called being a good shot and a good way to make some spending money.