The art of film holds a very special place in many of our hearts. Transporting us to unique and creative worlds that capture our attention and our imaginations. No film would be complete without a great set to further immerse its viewers in the setting that it’s trying to sell us. Most films are brought to life on a backlot, only to be torn apart after filming. What happens however, when the production wraps up on films that are shot on location? More often than not, these sets are only partially torn down, if they’re torn down at all. All over the world, relics of cinema past litter abandoned and remote areas, acting as relics of the movies and their crews that once inhabited the area years before. Here are ten movies sets that were left abandoned by their crews after filming wrapped up.

See Also: 10 Notorious Film Sets That Injured, Maimed And Killed

10 Intolerance: Babylon Set

Back during the earliest days of Hollywood, no one really knew that movies would become anything more than a novelty, or if the medium would even stick. Due to this, there was a lot of experimental stuff going on. Cue W.D. Griffith who in 1916 decided to make a three and a half-hour long epic titled “Intolerance”. Griffith really tried to push the limits of filmmaking and even opted to put 1/3rd of the budget (Nearly 2 Million in today’s dollars.) towards creating a movie set of the ancient city of Babylon. This was constructed right off of Hollywood Boulevard and is an impressive set even to today’s standards. However, the film slowly turned into an ego trip for the director, who strived for perfectionism, and spent large sums of money on individual scenes really going for the visual aspect of the film. This caused for the film to become an absolute production nightmare, and after it’s release and lackluster reviews, nearly bankrupted Griffith. Due to this, the ancient Babylon set was left to rot right in the middle of downtown Hollywood as no one really wanted to dedicate the time or money into tearing it down. It sat this way for years, acting as a bizarre eyesore that anyone could just wander into until finally in 1922 it was razed by the city. The set still exists today in a different form. In 2001 a shopping mall opened near the original set, in which a semi-replica of the original set was constructed. While not complete, it features the stairs, some buildings, and a few statues in the exact scale of the originals that were torn down 80 years prior.^[1]

9 The Ten Commandments: City of the Pharaoh

As was the style at the time, creating massive sets for your film was a no-brainer if you really wanted to wow people with visuals. In 1923 Cecil B. Demille did just that while constructing the “City of the Pharaoh” for his version of the “Ten Commandments. He constructed the set in the desert outside of the small town of Guadalupe, California. The set consisted of an 800 Ft. wide temple complete with twenty-one giant papier-mâché sphinxes lining the way to its entrance. It’s impressive size left the production team with the dilemma of cleaning up the set after filming, and transporting its pieces. DeMille instead hatched the idea to simply bury the entire thing right in the sand where it stood, and they did exactly that. The set sat for nearly 90 years in the desert until in a strange twist, archeologists decided to try to dig up its remnants. They discovered near-intact sphinxes as well as remnants of buildings and pottery all from the original sets of the movie, untouched for nearly a century.^[2]

8 Big Fish: Spectre movie set

Tim Burton is well known for his love of pushing the boundaries of cinema with special effects. In his 2003 film “Big Fish” he opted to physically create the town of “Spectre” in which the main character visits multiple times throughout the movie. Built on an island in the middle of the Alabama river, the crew decided to leave the town after filming wrapped up. What remained was a dilapidating and sagging small town made of facades fake trees and rocks. Over time, the set began to fall apart, and a fire destroyed many of the buildings. However, today six of the buildings still exist as well as some remnants of the others, acting as a living testament to the movie that was shot there nearly two decades ago.^[3]

7 Star Wars: Tatooine Set

No one knew that Star Wars was going to be a hit when it first premiered in 1977. Not even George Lucas had too much faith in his own film. Regardless, much effort was put into trying to create the illusion of the exotic worlds featured in the film. The desert of Tunisia was chosen to be the location of the desert planet of Tatooine. Here, sets were constructed, and props were left. Including the exterior of Ben Kenobi’s home, and a skeleton of a fictional Krait Dragon. When cast and crew returned in the late 1990s to film the prequel film “The Phantom Menace” they were shocked to see that although locals had picked over these sets, they remained almost fully intact. The sets expanded as they created an entire village in order to make the “Mos Espa” set. This set still stands in full, a tourist attraction by the Tunisian government who realized it could be marketed as a pilgrimage site to any Star Wars fan wanting to bring themselves a bit closer to the film.^[4]

6 The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Regarded as the greatest western of all time, The Good The Bad and The Ugly is usually pretty high up on lists of people’s favorite movies. Primarily filmed in and around Almería, Spain many of the “Old West” style buildings were left on location, and used in various other “Spaghetti Westerns” as time went on. In 2014 restoration procedures began on the site of the “Sad Hill Cemetery” location of the film’s iconic final standoff. The cemetery had been constructed solely for the film, and fell apart after filming wrapped up. However, a near replica now exists on the exact site of the former set thanks to some dedicated film enthusiasts.^[5]

5 Popeye village

Some films are baffling that they ever got made. 1980’s Popeye, featuring a young Robin Williams, is one of these films. Even more baffling is that for such a bizarre film concept, they created an entire village complete with fully constructed buildings, in the island country of Malta. Such a large set would be very expensive to destroy and they instead opted to leave it there, with the government of Malta deciding to turn it into a tourist attraction. It’s still open to this day complete with its own website. I don’t know exactly who is going out of there way to visit the village featured in the old Popeye movie, but it does look like a neat little Mediterranean getaway regardless of its significance to cinema history.^[6]

4 Patriots Day

The 2016 Mark Wahlberg movie, Patriots day, features some exhilarating scenes recreating real life firefight between the Boston Police and the Boston Marathon Bombers. Shooting on location in actual urban Massachusetts would be not only extremely expensive, but also possibly harmful to the community as the actual tragedy had only taken place three years prior. Due to this, sets were constructed on the grounds of now defunct South Weymouth Naval Base. These sets were used to recreate the Marathon finish line on Boylston street as well as a residential street that was featured in the film’s climactic shootout. Although they were just facades of buildings, they still exist on site today, easily accessible for anyone who wants to check them out.^[7]

3Field of Dreams

If you build it, they will come. That’s exactly what they did. Just as Ray constructed his own baseball field at the edge of a cornfield in the 1989 classic “Field of Dreams” so did the construction crew for the movie. Built in the small town of Dyersville, Iowa, this set consists of the baseball field itself, as well as the house of the film’s main character. Once all over the field and home were left there, and not unlike other locations on this list, quickly became a tourist attraction. Today you can visit the site, take a tour of the house, and occasionally watch a baseball game. In fact, Major League Baseball has even decided to have a game played on the site in 2020. Although it loses a bit of its novelty when you realize they’re constructing another additional field on the other side of the cornfield in which the teams will play, and not the actual set.^[8]

2 Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

Despite this movie being a cliched, horribly written, and just all around awful movie, the creators of 2013’s Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, opted to create a physical set for the movie’s town setting. Built in Augsburg, Germany right outside of Berlin the small and highly detailed medieval village was constructed and left to rot. Almost completely accessible to the public, the site remained as no one knew at the time whether or not the film would ever garner a sequel. Luckily for us, it never did.^[9]

1 Schindler’s list

The most chilling and eerie set on this list. Spielberg aimed for brutal accuracy in his depiction of the Nazi concentration camp “Plazlow” in his 1993 historical drama Schindler’s list. The actual camp had been torn down years ago, and would’ve posed an ethical dilemma to film there, so instead Spielberg opted to build a replica in a nearby quarry in Poland complete with seven watchtowers, 34 barracks, and replica officer villas. Once filming wrapped up, they left the replica camp to rot in the old quarry. Although it’s just a movie set and nothing really happened there, doesn’t make it any less sobering and terrifying to visit due to the real life counterpart it represented. ^[10]

About The Author: Dylan Hallett is a Journalism Student at the University of Maine with an interest in Sociology and Film. Twitter.

Ancient cultures have been practicing healing arts for as long as we have written historical records. Many of these practices eventually led us to the modern medical standards we appreciate today. Although they paved the way for modern medicine, some of those practices were not only counterproductive and harmful, but they were often quite odd. Thankfully, all of the following have fallen out of use.

10 Cutting Teeth
France

The term “cutting teeth” isn’t only an idiom that means learning basic skills in a new line of work; it used to be a medical practice. When a baby starts to grow teeth, we call this teething, but this word comes from a medical practice that began in France in the 16th century. When a baby’s teeth would begin the process of coming through the gums, doctors would take a scalpel and slice open the tissue over the teeth to allow them to come through. Cutting teeth began in France but eventually spread throughout Europe and into the United States.

The practice began with French doctor Ambrose Pare, who examined the corpse of a child in 1575. “When we diligently sought for the cause of his death, we could impute it to nothing else than the contumacious hardness of the gums . . . when we cut the gums with a knife we found all the teeth appearing . . . if it had been done when he lived, doubtless he would have been preserved.” Unfortunately, the practice of cutting teeth was performed until the early 20th century, though it was a hotly debated medical topic. It is unknown how many children died from teething, but the lack of sterile tools and the trauma inflicted on the young children often resulted in death.

9 Mouse Paste
Egypt

In ancient Egypt, many people who suffered from common ailments such as toothaches or earaches found that mice were the best answer to their problems. Toothaches were especially common in Egypt due to the prevalence of sand in their diet. Sand would get into almost everything, including food. Because of the grittiness of the sand, eating it would often wear down the enamel covering the tooth, which exposed the nerves and blood vessels.

For some reason, the Egyptians decided that dead and often festering mice were an effective remedy for this problem. The dead mice would be mashed into a paste and applied to the afflicted area. For serious toothaches, a whole dead mouse would simply be applied directly to the tooth. Common sense tells us that this treatment cannot have worked in curing the aching tooth, and it most likely caused more problems. Applying rotting tissue to exposed nerves and blood vessels is a pretty good way to turn a tiresome pain into a full-blown infection.

8 Clay Consumption
Greece

In ancient Greece, it was a common practice to consume a particular type of clay that was found on the Greek island Lemnos called terra sigillata. Disks of clay were exported and sold as a medical remedy for stomach problems and diarrhea.

While some people do still consume clay today for their own strange reasons, most people don’t recognize clay consumption as a viable medical practice. That being said, the clay found on the island of Lemnos contains kaolin and bentonite. These two elements are used in modern medicines to treat patients suffering from diarrhea. People like Hippocrates wrote about the benefits of ingesting this type of clay, and as it turns out, the most famous classical physician was correct—at least in the identification of healing properties through the consumption of the special clay. Similarly, bark from the willow tree is used today to make aspirin. This was also likely identified by the likes of Hippocrates, so while it is good that we don’t eat clay all that often, we do benefit from the ancient practice any time we have a touch of Montezuma’s Revenge.

7 Retribution Or Compensation
Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia around 1700 B.C., King Hammurabi created a codex of laws, some of which may already be familiar, like “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Interestingly, when a surgeon performed a successful operation, he was awarded an appropriate amount of shekels relevant to the patient’s standing in the community. A failed or botched surgery might result in the loss of the doctor’s hand if the patient were of high standing and did not survive.

There were several types of doctors in ancient Mesopotamia. The ashipu, or sorcerer, would identify the patients’ ailments and determine which evil spirits inhabited them. They would then either prescribe spells or charms to expel the evil spirit or refer the patient to an asu, a physician. These physicians would apply herbal remedies and plaster casts to wounds.

The Code of Hammurabi directed retribution or compensation for surgeons only if they used a knife in their practice. This limited surgical options due to the understandable reluctance of a surgeon to cut a patient for fear of succumbing to the same fate. Since there was no prescribed retribution for non-surgical attempts, the asu treated their patients homeopathically more often than surgically.

6 Have Some Poo
Egypt

When we get eye infections these days, our first thought isn’t to rub animal dung into our eyes. The ancient Egyptians couldn’t say the same. The treatment for many ailments was, in fact, to rub the dung of various animals onto a wound or infection. Additionally, a mixture of dung and other ingredients was administered orally for myriad diseases and ailments. The dung of pigs, donkeys, lizards, and even children was used as an ingredient in various medicinal salves and oral treatments throughout ancient Egypt. One of the goals of Egyptian physicians was to create pus, which they believed was therapeutic in treating an infection. We now know that pus is merely a sign of infection, but the Egyptians were quite pleased with its presence.

Fortunately, we no longer rub poop into our eyes and wounds, but modern physicians do use feces in several medical treatments. To combat Clostridium difficile, which causes severe diarrhea and thousands of deaths per year, doctors implant feces into a patient’s bowels to replace the beneficial microbes lost during the course of the infection. New developments in this practice have led to the creation of frozen poop pills, which allow for the same treatment without the need to collect feces from a willing donor at the time of the procedure.

5 Partial Tongue Removal
Europe

Hemiglossectomy is a medical procedure that involves the removal of part of the tongue. It is practiced today for patients suffering from ailments such as oral cancer. The treatment works well in removing cancerous tissue, though it results in a visible deformity of the tongue. Fortunately, there are plastic surgeries and methods for improving the quality of life of patients who undergo hemiglossectomies.

Unfortunately for patents in 18th- and 19th-century Europe, the treatment was less about dealing with cancer and all about correcting a stutter or stammer. That’s right—doctors thought that the best way to treat someone with a stutter was to cut off half of his or her tongue. Since this clearly didn’t work to fix a stutter and many patients died as a result infection and blood loss, you have to wonder how many times this was done before someone decided that it just didn’t work.

4 Tobacco
North America

For Native American societies, tobacco was considered one of the best medicinal remedies for anything from chronic pain to tuberculosis. The leaves were smoked, eaten, or ground up and applied topically. Today, we don’t think of tobacco as a healthy thing. We have known for decades that smoking tobacco leads to ailments like lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases, but the tobacco in cigarettes is laced with an incredibly high amount of chemicals. The tobacco used by the Native American population for medicinal purposes was pure.

Even pure, tobacco is still a dangerous plant and can be hazardous when used medicinally. Doctors in the 19th century believed that the plant was capable of treating a number of ailments—ringworms, constipation, hernias, infections—when taken orally or rectally, or applied externally.

That being said, nicotine and tobacco are addictive substances. We don’t advocate their use, especially for medicinal purposes. If you would like to quit smoking, research smoking cessation and ask your doctor for help.

3 Grub Salves
Aboriginal Australia

The ancient Aboriginal Australians would grind up the grub worms of the witchetty moth (Endoxyla leucomochla) and use them as a salve for skin lesions and wounds. They would pack the crushed worms into any cut or abrasion that required healing. The paste made from the grub worms would actually help in the healing process. Once packed into a wound, a bandage would then be applied and the combination would keep out air and bacteria, which aided in healing.

Today, the grub is not used medicinally like it used to be, but it has become a staple in many aboriginal diets. Present-day Aborigines harvest and cultivate the moths. “Moths were cooked in sand and stirred in hot ashes, which singed off the wings and legs. Moths were then sifted on a net to remove their heads. In this state, they were generally eaten, although sometimes they were ground into a paste and made into cakes.” The grubs are considered a delicacy and if you ever visit one of these tribes, expect to be offered one. It is considered rude to refuse, so be prepared to chow down on one of these little buggers!

2 Counter-Irritation
Worldwide

The practice of counter-irritation makes a little bit of sense. When you scratch an itch, you are producing a counter-irritation to your skin; essentially causing a new irritant which is less painful or annoying than the initial itch you needed to scratch. In ancient medical practice, counter-irritation was far more nefarious. When someone sustained an injury, it was common practice to cut into the injury further and often reopen the wound on a daily basis to pour various concoctions into it—all in the hope that the new irritant would help to relieve the patient of the old irritant.

There are some modern examples of counter-irritation in medicine and homeopathy, like acupuncture. “Some proponents argue that the needles may stimulate the release of pain-killing natural chemicals, relax tense muscles, or inhibit the conduction of pain through counter-irritation. “

Additional examples of counter-irritation that are no longer recognized as medically viable are inserting a patient’s inflamed limbs into anthills. If no anthills were available, practitioners used to create blisters with a hot iron or acid. Another method of “Counter-irritation involved making a saw-shaped wound and inserting dried peas or beans into it. The doctor would then ensure the wound remained open, keeping it from healing, from weeks to months, replacing the peas and/or beans as necessary.” Leeches were also used as a means of bloodletting topically, orally, and vaginally to relieve “sexual excitement” in women.

1 Castration
Assyro-Babylonia

Medicine wasn’t always a science. In ancient Assyria and Babylon, it was more of a magical and spiritual exercise. Castration wasn’t a normal practice of the Assyrians or Babylonians outside of medicine. Generally, the removal of the testes was performed by a physician for one of a number of reasons, but the most common was to allow men to work in the harem as eunuchs. This wasn’t always voluntary. Unlike the harems in Turkey, which required the removal of both the penis and testicles, the Assyrians and Babylonians only required the removal of the testicles. Removal wasn’t necessarily always done and on occasion, “testicles were crushed or damaged in such a way as to destroy the function of the seminal ducts.” (Getting them removed is one thing, but the idea of having them crushed ought to make your stomach turn.)

The practice of castration was solely done by medical professionals only as a last resort and almost entirely for the creation of a eunuch. The Assyrians and Babylonians were very concerned with the nature of male genitalia because they were aware that they were integral in human reproduction.

In Assyria, it was a severe criminal act to damage a man’s testicles. If a woman were to crush a man’s testicle in a fight, she would have a finger cut off. If both testicles were damaged, both of her nipples would be torn off.

Castration isn’t normally performed for medicinal purposes any longer, but it has been administered via chemical castration as punishment for sexual crimes.

I am an amateur graphic artist, illustrator, and game designer with a few independently-published games through my game company, TalkingBull Games. I enjoy researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects.

Amusement parks are built to be place of thrills and entertainment, wonder and awe. They should give fond memories and bring smiles to faces. But, some parks are shrouded in mystery and misfortune, causing fear and shivers instead. In this list, we will discuss ten parks that have a past dark enough to ruin any fun.

10 Lake Shawnee Amusement Park

The rusted and overgrown rides of Lake Shawnee Amusement Park serve as a reminder of the failed West Virginia attraction, but its eerie past lives on in folklore for the area.

To start, the park was built over a Native American burial ground, with an archeological dig uncovering thirteen bodies, mostly children.^[1]

But that’s not the darkest history of the land.

In 1783, Mitchell Clay was the first European settler to make a home in the area, which was heavily inhabited by the Shawnee Native American tribe.

While Clay was gone to town one day, the Shawnees surrounded three of the Clay children, who were working in the fields. Bartley was shot first. Tabitha, hearing the gunshot, ran to her brother, where she was attacked and cut by a knife, her body dismembered. Both of their scalps were taken by the Shawnee group. Their brother Ezekiel was captured and burnt at the stake.

A historical marker on the road leading to the park commemorates their memories.

One could wonder if the tragic history of the grounds is the reason for the six deaths that occurred at the park, eventually leading to it being closed down in 1966, and many locals, including the park’s new owner Gaylord White, claim the park to still be haunted.

9 Holy Land, USA

With a Hollywood-style sign and a cross marking its entrance, Holy Land in Waterbury, Connecticut is hard to miss as you drive along Interstate 84.

Originally opened in 1960, the theme park contained replicas of famous biblical scenes, including the Last Supper, Garden of Eden, and an inn featuring a “no vacancy” sign. The park saw more than 50,000 visitors each year while it was open until owner John Baptist Greco closed the park in 1984 in order to expand it. Before he could reopen the park, however, Greco died, and the park was bequeathed to a group of nuns who maintained the grounds but never reopened it.

People still found a way in, though, and vandalism and trespassing occurred, destroying many of the parks statues and attractions.

In 2010, Chloe Ottman and her friend Francisco Cruz decided to explore the park. The two had been friends for a couple years, and Chloe clearly thought they were just in for a night of creepy fun and underage drinking at the old park. Cruz, however, had different motives, and after Chloe refused to have sex with him, he raped and killed her, stabbing her in the neck, under the giant cross before throwing her body and belongings in the woods.^[2]

Though he initially helped with the search to find Chloe, Cruz confessed to her death and led police to her body.

He was charged with capital felony, murder, and sexual assault and sentenced to fifty-five years in prison for his brutal act, leaving the park with a more sinister reputation.

8 Gulliver’s Kingdom

Japan is known for having some interesting ideas when it comes to parks and architecture, and one of their most interesting, and largest failures, was Gulliver’s Kingdom, located at the base of Mount Fuji.

The theme park, based on the Jonathan Swift book, cost $350 million to build and featured a forty-five meter long statue of Gulliver himself, with the main attraction being a bobsled ride, making it not exactly your typical amusement park.

The location of the park, however, makes it even stranger.

Right next to the park is Aokigahara Forest, better known as “suicide forest,” which is considered the second most popular suicide location after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, the group behind the Sarin gas attacks^[3] on the Tokyo subway, also had their headquarters and nerve gas production facility in the nearby village of Kamikuishiki. Residents and park goers claimed they could smell the chemicals when they were on the park grounds.

The park was thoroughly demolished in 2007, leaving nothing behind except for the strange memories and photographs and the questions as to why anyone thought it would be a popular attraction.

7 Rocky Point Amusement Park

Rocky Point Amusement Park in Warwick, Rhode Island was one of the most popular attractions in the state, drawing crowds to its over twenty-five attractions and the famous Shore Dinner Hall and Palladium Ballroom. Most Rhode Islanders have a fond memory of visiting the park while it was open.

Through all the happiness and memories, there is a dark mark on the park’s past.

In August of 1893, Maggie Sheffield, a five-year-old girl, was killed by her father Frank while they attended the park. Frank had suffered a head injury shortly before Maggie was born, making him incredibly mentally unstable. Though it is not known exactly what made him flip on that late-summer day, after a meal at the Shore Dinner Hall, he took his daughter to the shoreline, where he smashed her head in with a rock, killing her.

Frank was found not guilty of his daughter’s murder due to reason of insanity.^[4] Maggie’s death is the only murder in the park’s long history.

The thrills of the park left Maggie’s murder quickly forgotten, and Rocky Point carried on for over one hundred years.

Unfortunately, due to financial issues, the park was forced into foreclosure and closed in 1995, ending over 150 years of family fun in Rhode Island.

6 Joyland Amusement Park

When it opened in 1942, Joyland was considered the biggest amusement park in the southwest, featuring a train, Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, Tilt-a-Whirl, and a roller coaster, it’s main and most infamous attraction.

The park would eventually grow to include a log flume ride, a haunted attraction ride, swings, bumper cars, and many other carnival-type attractions, as well as host concerts and outdoor festivals.

Though the park experienced a handful of ride-related deaths, the murder of a park employee would throw some shadows over the park in 1982. Michael King, an employee, would get into an altercation with four men, aged 17 to 21, after the men snuck into the park after hours. King was stabbed to death, and police arrested the men responsible, letting the two underage boys go, and brought charges up against Dwight Sayles and Victor C. Walker.

Sayles would plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and given five to twenty years in prison, with the eligibility of parole in eight years.^[5]

After the murder, the park would continue to operate and grow in size, adding another rollercoaster, but tragedy would continue to plague it. A park maintenance employee would be killed after getting hit by a rollercoaster and, in 2004, a thirteen-year-old girl would be injured after a thirty-foot fall from the Ferris wheel, which would lead to a series of financial issues and disputes that would eventually bring the park to close.

The 57-acres of Joyland were purchased in 2018 by Gregory and Tina Dunnegan, tent company owners who plan to bring new joy to the abandoned park by making it into an outdoor event venue for weddings, concerts, and traveling carnivals.

5 Kejonuma Leisure Land

Kejonuma Leisure Land was once a thriving amusement park in Tohoku, Japan, boasting the typical park rides such as a train, Ferris wheel, and carousel, as well as a driving range, and a campsite. Today, however, nature has taken over the structures, leaving the park to look like a ghost town, and ghosts are what it is more infamously known for.

The legend of the park begins with a beautiful woman who lived near the lake that sits on the site of Kejonuma Leisure Land, which was well-known for housing an abundance of snakes. The woman became pregnant, and when she gave birth, the baby was a serpent who escaped into the water. Every night, the woman could hear her serpent-baby cry, driving her mad, and she eventually committed suicide by drowning herself in the lake. It is said her and the baby’s cries can be heard at night.

The translation for “Kejonuma” is literally “ghost woman,”

With how superstitious the Asian culture can be at times, it is no surprise the story of Kejonuma Leisure Land is mentioned in every article about the park, but it did not stop nearly 200,000 people visiting the site each year while it was open, leaving many to question the validity of the curse.

The park officially closed in 2000, citing a drop-off in visitors due to Japan’s declining birthrate and economic crisis, but the notoriety of the curse keeps the legend of the park alive, and those interested can buy the park,^[6] as it is currently up for sale.

4 Dreamland Park

Dreamland Park began with a dark past that would continue to get darker. Built in the 1930s, the park would be open for less than two decades before it was shut down for rampant gambling and ties to the mafia.

Then, in 1969, Dreamland Park would make headlines again when two decomposing bodies would be found in the woods on the grounds of the park.

Due to the wooded and secluded area surrounding it, the park was a popular destination for couples to have a romantic drive and a little private time. On the night of August 12, 1969, Marilyn Sheckler, 18, and Glenn Eckert, 20, would set out for a drive to the park and never be seen alive again.

Their decomposing remains would be discovered feet from each other, in shallow graves, nearly two months later by state police. Autopsies would conclude that Marilyn had been raped repeatedly, and beaten, her head severely fractured, while Glenn had been shot in the forehead and side of the head and had also been beaten.

Investigators immediately suspected members of the Pagan motorcycle gang, as they had arrested ten members of the gang for beating and stabbing three men in the parking lot of Dreamland Park on the same night Marilyn and Glenn were last seen. Robert Martinolich, 22, and Leroy Stoltzfus, 24, would ultimately be arrested for the murders of the couple.

Martinolich and Stoltzfus would both be found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Each wold maintain their innocence and appeal their cases until they each died while incarcerated.^[7]

3 Magic Harbor

Just four miles south of Myrtle Beach, Magic Harbor Amusement Park had all the makings of a fun attraction — a roller coaster, bumper cars, Tilt-a-Whirl, arcade, hedge maze, Ferris wheel, and other all-ages rides, but it never really succeeded. Financial issues, changes in ownership, and deaths attributed to the park’s failure.

After the park closed on Labor Day, 1976, Franklin Loftis shot and killed the park’s owner Harry Koch and his sixteen-year-old stepson Carl Derk outside their trailer on the grounds of the park. Koch’s wife Carol survived the attack by hiding under the trailer. For years, the case went unsolved, making it the oldest cold case in Horry’s County history, until Loftis was charged. It was determined Loftis shot Koch over a wage and workman’s compensation dispute after Loftis, a carpenter for the park, was injured on the job.

Loftis was given two life sentences for the murders and was denied parole multiple times. Koch’s surviving wife had no desire to keep up Koch’s plan of expanding Magic Harbor, and the park went into foreclosure, was bought back by the bank, and then changed hands multiple times until it was sold to Geoffrey Thompson, president of the largest amusement park operation in Europe.

It seemed like the park’s luck was about to turn around with Thompson managing, but in 1984, tragedy would strike the park again.

Thirteen-year-old Sherri Lynn Depew was launched out of the park’s Black Witch rollercoaster. She died from her injuries, and her father sued Magic Harbor for $12 million, claiming negligence by the park for failing to supervise the ride properly.^[8]. Thompson tried to claim the girl had failed to stay seated and follow safety guidelines for the ride, but the bad publicity alone was enough to hurt the park’s reputation once again.

In the mid-1990s, the park was closed and the land was bought by the neighboring campground, resulting in all of the buildings and rides to be completely demolished.

2 Brandywine Springs

Brandywine Springs Amusement Parks was a Wilmington, Delaware attraction from 1886 to 1923, and a solid example of early twentieth century fun.

There was a castle house, train, wooden rollercoaster, restaurants, pavilion, and a magnificent archway leading into the park.

In 1916, tragedy would strike the park when Catherine Bouidecki was shot and killed and Areti Nichols was shot by Samuel Gongas, who then set fire to the park’s restaurant, railway, and photography gallery, as well as some concession stands. Gongas was infatuated with Bouidecki, who was a waitress at the restaurant, and was apparently upset she turned down his advances, prompting him to snap and kill her.^[9]

The park would close in 1923 when automobiles made it easier for people to travel and the park admission declined. Concrete slabs and muddy pools are all that remains of the amusement park today, but local historians are working on excavating and marking sites of where the major attractions stood, putting up signs and photographs to educate those who walk through the site.

1 Pripyat Amusement Park

Maybe the most horrific history behind an amusement park is one that never came to be.

Pripyat Amusement Park in Pripyat, Ukraine was supposed to open on May 1, 1986, but five days before its scheduled opening, the Chernobyl disaster occurred nearby, resulting in thirty deaths in the months following the explosion.

The park consisted of attractions, bumper cars, swing boats, a swing-carousel, and a Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel still stands today, unfinished and towering over the scene of destruction and the bumper cars are the strongest area of radiation in the park due to the overgrown vegetation.

It is believed the park was opened early for one day, April 27, to calm people from the disaster before they were forced to pack up their belongings and be bussed out of the city, never to return.

Today, the whole city of Pripyat, including the unfinished amusement park, is a destination for “dark tourism,”^[10] guided tours through the Chernobyl ruins and abandoned towns.

Tracy spends her days writing and designing in a tourist town where she lives with her dog.

Animal parks and zoos are supposed to be a source of happiness and entertainment. Ideally, they’re places for people to be educated and enriched, witnessing animal species they normally would not encounter. It doesn’t always work out that way, however.

Lack of funding, opposition by activists, and severity of elements are all reasons that animal parks have closed. The once-thriving locales are left empty, their structures and cages abandoned and overgrown.

10 Warner Brothers Jungle Habitat

One would think an animal park run by Warner Brothers would be an instant success, but animal attacks, escapes, and opposition from locals would eventually lead to the park being shut down within four years of it opening.

Designed in two parts, the Warner Bros. Jungle Habitat contained a zoo which families could walk through, including a petting zoo, reptile house, camel rides, and snack area, as well as a safari area they could drive through. The safari area featured free-roaming elephants, llamas, lions, and tigers, giving guests an up close and personal view of the animals as they frequently stopped next to the cars and sometimes even climbed on top of them.

Shortly after the park opened in 1972, an Isreali tourist was attacked by two lions after he stuck his hand out of the car window and taunted them while driving through the safari attraction of the park. Two wolves escaped their enclosure and wandered into the local town of West Milford, New Jersey. A local television host was scratched by a six-month-old tiger cub while filming a television special. Then, a couple of years later, a woman was bitten by a baby elephant. Finally, a rhino mounted a gray Mercedes-Benz, believing it to be a mate, causing great damage to the car’s rear end.^[1]

Jungle Habitat did not have any rides, and when Warner Brothers tried to expand the park to include a wooden roller coaster, a carousel, and various other rides for adults and kids, they were met with opposition from locals, who did not care for the noise and traffic, and narrowly missed the vote for the expansion. Warner Brothers decided to shut the park down when they were denied the expansion, realizing that without a way to expand, they would not be able to build revenue.

The year after the park closed, all but 400 of the original 1,500 animals in the park had been sold. Unfortunately, nine of the animals contracted tuberculosis and had to be euthanized, leading an investigation into why 19 other dead animals on the property were not buried or disposed of.

The park grounds are now a popular place for people to hike and bike through, with many of the old cages and structures still standing.

9 Catskill Game Farm

Though it opened after World War II as a fun zoo for families to connect with wildlife by petting and feeding the animals, the Catskill Game Farm would quickly get a dark reputation.

Started in 1933 as a private animal farm and first opened to the public in 1945 in Catskill, New York, the Catskill Game Farm was the first privately owned zoo in the United States and was the biggest zoo for some time. It consisted of deer, bison, yaks, llamas, camels, zebras, and antelopes, with an area guests could walk through and hand-feed the animals.

The zoo was a great success when it opened, as the Catskill Mountains were a popular tourist destination, and the zoo’s founder, Roland Lindemann, spent much of his time expanding the zoo to include rare and endangered animals, growing its population to 600 wild animals and 200 tame animal species.

But in the early 1990s, the zoo would receive bad publicity when a news article reported that animals there were being sold to game hunters for “canned hunts,” when an animal is put into an enclosed area, giving the hunter a sure chance of killing it. Inspection records from the Texas Animal Health Commission stated that over 150 animals were shipped to Texas, and no one knows what happened to them after they entered the state. Before the park closed in 2006, protestors swarmed the gates of the zoo to try to get the owners to donate the animals to sanctuaries. When it came time to auction off the animals after the park’s closure, activists tried to buy as many animals as possible, but many still went to the highest-bidding game hunter.^[2]

In 2012, the property was purchased by Ben and Cathy Ballone, with hope to restore the grounds and turn the buildings into an inn and campsite. Recently, they opened the Long Neck Inn in the renovated remains of the old giraffe enclosure, giving the abandoned park a new life and a, hopefully, brighter future.

8 Alligatorland

One would think that in the land of Disney World and Universal Studios, attraction parks in Florida would be of the highest standard, but such was not the case for the Alligatorland Safari Zoo.

Sitting just behind the Gator Motel and a 38-meter-long (126 ft) alligator statue, Alligatorland was home to over 1,600 exotic animals and birds of various species. Guests could walk through the nearly 7 acres of land and view the animals up close.

But the trouble for Alligatorland started in 1982, when Gatorland filed a suit against them for having a very similar entryway to their park. The giant alligator jaws were too similar, Gatorland claimed, to their entry, which had been erected since the 1960s. (Alligatorland opened in the 1970s.)

Then, the whole state of Florida came under scrutiny for the way animals were treated. This led to Alligatorland getting a surprise inspection, during which it was found that enclosures were not up to standards, cages had an abundance of old animal feces, and animals were not being cared for properly. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued Darren Browning, the owner of Alligatorland, a $1,500 fine, which he refused to pay and instead decided to represent himself in court.^[3] During the two-day trial, he questioned the competency of the USDA inspectors and ultimately lost his case. For the next three years, he would continue to lose more court battles against the USDA, and he would eventually sell the property in 1995.

The zoo would reopen shortly afterward under the name of Jungleland Zoo, but after flooding, an escaped lioness, more failed USDA inspections, and the economic turn of the early 2000s, the zoo closed its doors in 2002.

The alligator statue in front of Alligatorland was destroyed in 2014, but the structures and walkways of the park still stand, with hopes to one day be renovated and turned back into an animal attraction.

7 Stanley Park Zoo

How the Stanley Park Zoo in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was founded is quite an interesting story: The superintendent for Stanley Park, Henry Avison, discovered an orphaned black bear cub on the grounds, so he chained the bear, like a dog, to a stump to keep him contained and safe.^[4] Over the coming years, he captured more animals on the grounds that needed help and treatment. By the time the zoo officially opened in the early 1900s, there were over 50 animals, both native and exotic, that Avison had taken in or discovered abandoned, and people kept donating animals to the zoo’s collection, even after Avison’s death.

In 1956, the zoo’s aquarium opened with penguins and otters, and in 1962, polar bears were donated to the zoo and quickly became the main attraction.

In the 1990s, animal activists picketed against the zoo, stating that many of the cages were too small and that Vancouver’s weather was too harsh for many of the animals. To resolve this, the City of Vancouver decided to expand the zoo, but citizens voted against the expansion and called for the zoo to be shut down, so it did in 1996.

Most of the animals were sent to the Greater Vancouver Zoo or relocated to the Stanley Park Children’s Farmyard (which was closed in 2011), but one animal was allowed to stay in the park—Tuk, the 36-year-old polar bear whose health was too poor to be moved. He died in 1997, and the zoo was officially closed.

To this day, the polar bear pit still stands on the grounds and is currently repurposed as a salmon hatchery. Guests can still walk through the overgrown vegetation of where the zoo once was.

6 Belle Isle Zoo

Though Detroit is in the midst of a citywide rehabilitation, there are still many remnants of the years of government corruption and economic depression the city has witnessed.

One such victim to the city’s troubles was the Belle Isle Zoo, closed in 2002 by then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who cited declining attendance and budget constraints as his reasons for closing the zoo, though locals overwhelmingly objected to the closure.

Belle Isle, located in the Detroit River between Detroit and Canada, was once a prominent attraction for locals and tourists, drawing them to the park’s beaches, nature paths, and stunning views, as well as its main attraction, the zoo.

Opened in 1895 with just a bear den and a deer pack, the zoo would grow to over 150 animals in just 15 years and would include tigers, seals, elephants, and exotic birds. When the Detroit Zoo opened, most of the animals were rehomed there, and the Belle Isle Zoo was turned into a children’s zoo before getting a full renovation in the 1980s and being renamed “Safariland.”

The renovation to the park would include the various hut-like structures, wooden paths and bridges, and metal cages that currently stand abandoned on the island, overgrown and graffitied, with fallen trees blocking the paths and vines growing around the metal. Currently, there are no plans to reopen the zoo,^[5] though the state is working on restoring other areas of Belle Isle.

5 Groote Schuur Zoo

Imagine being given a couple of lions and leopards. What would you do with them? If you were Cecil John Rhodes, you would create a zoo to house them.

In 1897, Rhodes created a private menagerie in Cape Town, South Africa, for his large cats, as well as other animals he received as gifts throughout the years. After his death, the state would inherit Rhodes’s estate and his collection of animals. New enclosures were built, and the site was called the Groote Schuur Zoo. Lions, emus, mountain goats, crocodiles, and other animals were kept in enclosures, and the zoo became a popular attraction.

The lions would always be the focus of the zoo, however, having the prominent spot and best enclosure at the back of the zoo. Zookeeper George Booker would be infamous at the zoo for having a special connection with the lions, being able to go into their cages and hand-feed them and even get them to do tricks for guests.^[6] Ironically, he died when he contracted tetanus after being bitten on the finger by a lion.

Sometime between 1975 and 1985, the zoo would close due to an increase in animal welfare standards and financial issues, but people can still roam the overgrown grounds, see the remnants of the concrete pools, pose with the cement lion statues, and view the infamous lion enclosure.

Interestingly, two tahrs, a breed of Himalayan mountain goat, escaped to Table Mountain and bred a large herd, and there is still a population of the goats on the mountain, though they are considered pests to the area, and measures have been taken to control the population, keeping Rhodes’s legacy alive.

4 Wildlife Wonderland

Rosie the Shark became a viral sensation when YouTuber and urban explorer Luke McPherson discovered her decaying remains in a large tank in 2018. The question many raised, however, was why was Rosie there, and who had forgotten about her?

Rosie was part of the Wildlife Wonderland in Bass, Victoria, Australia, a zoo and animal rehabilitation center for Australia’s native species, such as wombats, kangaroos, koalas, and various birds.

Unlike many of the other zoos and parks on this list, which were shut down for alleged animal cruelty, Wildlife Wonderland was shut down because they violated Wildlife Act 1975 and did not have a license to display native animals, meaning that they could not operate as a zoo, causing the owners to give away the animals and close down the park in 2012.^[7]

As to how Rosie ended up in the abandoned zoo, an artist preserved her body after she was caught in a fishing net and donated her to the museum. In 2019, due to vandals causing damage to Rosie’s tank, the shark was finally moved to another establishment in Victoria called Crystal World.

3 Walt Disney World’s Discovery Island

We discussed a failed park by Warner Brothers, but one might be surprised to find Disney on this list.

Discovery Island was a wildlife and nature attraction in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, that included many native and exotic birds and vegetation, as well as a sandy beach for guests to walk on. It operated from April 1974 to April 1999.

Walt Disney scouted the island while buying the land that would become Disney World and had big plans for its 11.5 acres. First named Blackbeard’s Island, he wanted it to be a pirate-themed attraction, complete with shipwrecks, forts, and an inn, but as construction on the park began, he decided to make it more tropical, introducing exotic birds and plants to the island and renaming it Treasure Island.

As the years went on, the island became more focused on the animal wildlife. An aviary was built on the grounds that would breed exotic birds, and the island was once again renamed to Discovery Island.^[8]

Controversy would hit Discovery Island in 1989, when a two-month investigation by state and federal officials led to charges being filed against Disney and five employees for firing rifles at hawks, beating vultures to death with sticks, and destroying nests and eggs. The state report indicated that many of the employees thought they were acting within Disney World’s permits and were carrying out the illegal activities under the direction of the park’s curator, Charlie Cook. Disney settled out of court.

After the bad publicity and with the opening of Animal Kingdom, Disney decided to close Discovery Island in April 1999, relocating the animals to the Animal Kingdom resort and letting the vegetation grow and take over the island.

In 2009, urban explorer Shane Perez and some friends swam, under the cover of darkness, to the island and took pictures of the abandoned buildings and overgrown greenery. They found leftover office paraphernalia and various specimens in jars. Though they did not press charges against the crew for trespassing, Disney did threaten to ban them from all of their parks.

Currently, there are no plans to rehabilitate Discovery Island, making it one of two abandoned parks at Disney World.

2 Southport Zoo

The official reason the Southport Zoo in Southport, Merseyside, England, was closed was because the city council did not allow the owners, Carol and Douglas Petrie, to renew their lease on the zoo, therefore allowing Pleasureland, a theme park attraction that abutted the zoo, to expand and create more attractions.

The more likely reason the city council didn’t renew the Petries’ lease was because they were tired of dealing with the protestors and picketers who opposed the zoo.

Though it was a smaller zoo, holding only 154 species, most of which were birds and invertebrates, the negative attention the zoo received was monumental, with it being listed as one of Britain’s worst zoos by the Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS). Opposers to the zoo claimed they had recorded comments from hundreds of zoo visitors and former keepers that the animals suffered ill treatment, isolation, and understimulation.^[9] The Petries denied these claims, and investigation of the zoo also found no evidence, bringing more scrutiny of how the government picks inspectors, as most of them have ties to the zoo industry.

At the forefront of the campaign against the zoo were chimpanzees Jackie and Jason, whose faces were plastered on pamphlets and posters to attract attention. It was stated that they lived in cramped, isolated cages with no interaction or enrichment. The animals were offered a home at a primate sanctuary in Dorset, but the Petries would not permit them being relocated, saying it was not in the chimps’ best interest.

The Petries would eventually lose their fight defending their zoo in 2004, and the animals would be rehomed to various zoos across England and Wales. The site was reopened in 2010 as “Battlefield Live Southport,” a venue for outdoor combat gaming using guns that fire infrared beams.

1 Nay Aug Park Zoo

The Nay Aug Park Zoo in Scranton, Pennsylvania, was once a source of pride for the community, with children raising money to purchase elephants for the zoo in 1924 and 1935, but before the century’s close, it would be a source of scrutiny and disgrace.

Though the zoo once saw up to 500 visitors in a day, bad upkeep to the animal houses would cause people to question the establishment’s operations. In 1963, the heating system for the zoo would fail, causing four monkeys to die from exposure. The same year, a faulty door in the lion cages allowed a lioness to enter the cage of two cubs, resulting in their death. Other incidents throughout the years included a monkey escaping and biting a zoo attendant, an elephant choking on a stuffed toy that had been thrown into her cage and having to have it removed, and, at different times, an alligator, a monkey, and two black bears escaping from their cages, resulting in all being shot and killed. Parade magazine would call Nay Aug Park Zoo one of the ten worst zoos in the nation.

Citing financial struggles, the zoo closed in 1988, with Toni the elephant being the last animal to be relocated.^[10] In 2003, the zoo would reopen as the Genesis Wildlife Center, but public outcry over animal abuse and the lack of changes to the structures would force the zoo to close again in 2009.

Though it no longer holds exotic animals, the main building of Nay Aug Zoo has been renovated and reopened by the charity Street Cats as a low-cost spay and neuter clinic for cats and dogs, with many cats living in the building while waiting to be adopted.

Tracy lives with her dog in a tourist town where she writes and creates.

When you walk through a ghost town, it’s usually easy to see why people would leave. There could be an eternal fire burning underground like in Centralia, Pennsylvania. France has at least six abandoned towns in ruins due to German raids during WWII. But if you’re walking through a ghost town with perfectly good buildings, a decent location, and a stable political environment, then why would someone abandon a perfectly good town? Here are the top 10 towns that people abandoned for no apparent reason.

10 Dudleytown, Connecticut: The Dark Forest

Atop of a hill in the quiet, forested Connecticut town of Cornwall is an abandoned village isolated from the rest of the world. Dudleytown, which sits in the now-private “Dark Entry Forest,” was settled in 1747 by the Dudleys. Not only is it abandoned, but according to local legend, cursed, as well. Dudleytown started like any early settlement, where people built homes, farmed land, and lived happy lives, even forging iron. But as time passed, it seemed as though the village was doomed to fail. As the local iron industry in Cornwall died down, so did the area’s population. By the late 19th-century, Dudleytown was abandoned, with the last resident giving up in the early 1900s.

Even though a decline in the local economy is the logical explanation for the settlement’s abandonment, there are more interesting reasons why no one lives there anymore. Because of a curse brought over from England by the original settlers, anyone who tries to live there goes insane. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren claimed Dudleydown to be demonically possessed in the early 1970s. Although the people who live in the neighborhood near “Dark Entry Forest” claim there’s nothing in the remains of Dudleytown, amateur ghost hunters who’ve trespassed insist that there is and that the ghosts and demons the settlers encountered were real.

9 Ordos Kangbashi, China: Ghost Town

Ordos Kangbashi was supposed to be China’s next modern city, with the capacity for one million people to call it home. The city’s goal was to have 200,000 people living there by 2020, but with delayed construction and high property taxes, they missed their mark by 47,000. Though technically not abandoned, it is the world’s largest ghost town. With beautiful architecture, plenty of real estate, and potential jobs, there is no reason Ordos Kangbashi should be as empty as it is.

8 Parksville, New York: Doomed to Depression

Editorial credit: John Arehart

There’s nothing wrong with Parksville, New York, but no one wants to live there for some reason. The first documented settlers of Parksville, Martin and Eber Hall, arrived in the 1800s, with William Park jumpstarting the hamlet’s community and industry. It was a prosperous community, bringing charm to the Catskills. The Ontario and Western (O&W) Railway that ran through the town made it easy for people to travel to Parksville for a peaceful summer getaway in the country.

The Great Depression drastically changed this vacation dynamic. A large number of Parksville’s 100 hotels and resorts had to close down. Still, a few of the town’s major hotels remained open, including Young’s Gap. Despite the town’s seeming resilience, the decline of the popularity of the O&W meant less foot traffic. The last trains ran through Parksville in the 1950s. Hope shined on Parksville in the late-1980s and 90s, when Route 17 brought traffic through the town. But again, another travel hiccup got in the way of Parksville’s true return. New York converted Route 17 to Interstate 86, which redirected traffic out of the town. This change rendered Parksville, once again, without its main source of people. Local business owners have tried a few times to bring the once-bustling town back to its former glory, yet it remains abandoned.

7 Thurmond, West Virginia: Haunted Train Town

Another train town turned ghost town, Thurmond, West Virginia is a well-preserved slice of American coal mining history. But what led to the population’s decline from 500 in 1930 to a mere five people in 2010? Some people believe the decline is due to Dun Glen’s burning, one of the town’s famous hotels. The Dun Glen was the site of the world’s longest-lasting poker game. No, it wasn’t just a few hours, not even a few days. It lasted 14 years! But between the collapse of the Dun Glen and the near inaccessibility to the town’s commercial zone until 1921 by a single road, the town could never regain its footing. Now, outside of claims that ghosts of the past haunt some of its structures, the old Thurmond train depot acts as a visitor’s center for the New River Gorge National River.

6 Adaminaby, Australia: The Drowning City

You can leave your town forever for several serious reasons: crime, war, economic depression, etc. Then you can decide to leave your town because it was relocated. This was the case with Adaminaby, Australia. The people abandoned their town for no reason of their own; they had no choice. In 1957, the government relocated 700 people to make way for the manmade Lake Eucumbene. Some homes were physically moved, but the lake drowned most of the town’s original structures. Only about 250 people decided to stay—a major drop in population. After a 2007 drought dried up the lake, the ruins of the first Adaminaby surfaced.

5 Roanoke Colony, North Carolina: Disappearing Act

This Roanoke Colony, also called the “Lost Colony,” is one of the U.S.’s oldest mysteries and still draws speculation from historians. 115 English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island in August 1587. The next year, the governor of the colony, John White, sailed back to England for fresh supplies. When he returned three years later, he couldn’t find a single soul—not his wife, daughter, or any of the other people who came over with him. All he found was a post with the word “Croatoan” carved into it. This leads some archeologists to believe that the colony relocated to what we now call Hatteras Island.

4 Glenrio, New Mexico and Texas: Roadside Rubble

“Get your kicks on Route 66.” That’s what kept this former border town alive. When Route 66 fell out of favor, so did Glenrio, New Mexico, and Texas. Even though the population never hit over 30 in its heyday, it was still an important stop on Route 66. In 1938, film crews filmed John Steinbeck’s adaptation of his novel “The Grapes of Wrath” for three weeks in Glenrio. And with the post-war economic boom in the 1950s, Glenrio’s location along Route 66 put it in a perfect position to prosper—until the Rock Island Railroad depot closed and the government built Interstate 40. The new interstate rerouted traffic, meaning tourists no longer passed through the small town. By the 1980s, only two people lived there. It now sits abandoned, The Little Juarez Cafe boarded up, the town crumbling alongside one of America’s once greatest highways. Still, there’s no reason for it to stay abandoned. Perhaps one day, we’ll see its revitalization.

3 Johnsonville, Connecticut: Twilight Zoning

Yet another Connecticut town that found itself unoccupied. In 1846, Emory Johnson built both his homestead and the Triton Mill on a 64-acre plot of land. As a result, the surrounding area was named Johnsonville. The story of what we know as Johnson Village in East Haddam, Connecticut, is one of terrible mismanagement. In 1965, Raymond Schmitt purchased the Neptune Mill from the Johnson family. He also bought the town’s other buildings, including the Victorian chapel. Schmitt’s goal was to turn Johnsonville into a historical tourist attraction, but it never panned out.

On top of that, lightning struck the Neptune Mill in 1972, and it burned to the ground. A problem with zoning laws in 1994 ultimately shut down Johnsonville, and the town fell into disrepair. A hotel company tried to revitalize Johnsonville in 2001 and turn it into a living community but failed. Several auctions later, a Christian organization based in the Philippines Iglesia ni Cristo bought the property in 2017. They are currently restoring the buildings and turning Johnsonville into a center of worship.

2 Rhyolite, Nevada: Glass Bottle Buildings

If you need proof that prospectors can build a booming town, then head over to Rhyolite, Nevada. Residents may not have stuck around for long, but it doesn’t discount Rhyolite’s colorful history. In fact, you’d think that, even after the financial panic of 1907, people would have stuck around. There was a Stock Exchange, Board of Trade, basketball games, a well-known red-light district, schools, electric plants—the list goes on and on. In 1906, the town built the Kelly Bottle House, made from the 50,000 discarded beer and liquor bottles from local saloons. Unfortunately, all those bottles ultimately meant nothing. With the steady decline of millwork, the population was zero by 1920. Today, the Bottle House is one of the only complete buildings still standing.

1 Inis Cathaigh, Ireland: Forgotten Island

It’s not every day you can have an island all to yourself, so why would you want to leave? In 1842, a handful of families called the island home. They were mostly Shannon Estuary Pilots and thrived during the famine. Inis Cathaigh also has a long ecclesiastical history and boasts St. Senan as its first bishop. It is a Catholic hotspot for tourists, and the Office of Public works runs a visitor center. Should you visit, you’ll find an old artillery building, a ruined monastery, and an Irish round tower. But you won’t find anyone living there. By 1969, the last people left the island.

So why do people leave these towns for no reason? Well, the answer is that there’s always a reason, even if it’s not obvious at first.

Buildings are abandoned for several reasons including financial woes and environmental disasters. The shells that remain often make for beautiful pictures, even if a somewhat eerie atmosphere persists. On this list are just some of the many abandoned structures on Earth, deserted for a variety of reasons and sometimes visited by those looking for a thrill.

Top 10 Towns People Abandoned For No Reason

10 Cape Romano Dome House

In 1980, Bill Lee started work on his dream: an eco-friendly and self-sufficient home on Cape Romano on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It took three years and a lot of hard work, but by 1982 he had built himself a home able to sustain hurricane-force winds. The house included solar panels, a well-thought-out gutter system that allowed rainfall to be used as running water inside.

The home resembles a series of futuristic-looking domes and the Lee family enjoyed it as a vacation house for a while. Rumors soon started making the rounds that the dome house was guarded by people with machine guns, among other wild stories including that the structure was built by aliens.

Lee sold the house in 1984, but where the new owners ran into financial difficulties in 1987, Lee repossessed the place and stayed there until 1993. That same year Hurricane Andrew hit Florida but the house stood strong. Erosion on Cape Romano was a big problem however, and the firm sand began to sink into the ocean water. Lee had no choice but to evacuate permanently.

Today, concrete pillars are the only support system keeping the structure above water.

9 Lapalice Castle

In 1979, artist Piotr Kazimierczak started work on an over-the-top studio, in the form of Lapalice Castle. He wanted the ‘studio’ to be a huge estate comprising of twelve towers and a ballroom. Unfortunately, Kazimierczak soon ran out of funds and had to leave his dream behind.

Today Lapalice Castle stands abandoned in a small Polish village, occasionally visited by the brave at heart who don’t fear its ghosts or the fragile state of its 52 rooms. Kazimierczak hasn’t given up hope though. As recently as 2017 he was still fighting against plans for the castle to be demolished, hoping that it would have some legal protection after standing for more than 20 years.

8 Power Plant IM

Resembling something out of an apocalypse movie, Power Plant IM sits abandoned in Charleroi, Belgium. When it was first constructed in the 1920s, it was one of the largest coal-burning power plants in the country. By 1977 it was the main source of power in Charleroi and could cool down 480,000 gallons of water per minute. New components were introduced then, which meant the power plant could also use gas power.

All was not as great as it seemed however, and when a report found that the power plant was to blame for 10% of all CO2 emissions in Belgium, it was shut down in 2007.

A decision was taken to demolish the structure soon after, but it still stands in 2021, greenery slowly but surely lining its insides.

7 Macassar Beach Pavilion

The False Bay coastline in South Africa is one of the most spectacular sights in the world and incorporates the magnificently scenic Clarence Drive. It is along this coastline you will find a sight that is out of place with the bright sunshine, blue ocean and bustling beaches. Hidden amid sand dunes in Macassar lies the Macassar Beach Pavilion, an abandoned water theme park.

The park was built in 1991 and was once a hugely popular beach resort. Financial difficulties led to the park being abandoned and the shifting sand dunes has all but claimed the structure. The park’s buildings are now filled to the brim with sand, its walls covered in graffiti and its atmosphere is almost one of despair.

6 Atlantis Marine Park

As Perth’s economy boomed, Alan Bond dreamed up a plan to built a resort that would grow tourism in Western Australia. The result of his ambition was the Atlantis Marine Park, built in 1981. It was a hit with families in particular and the park was packed with people wanting to see dolphin shows and have a swim in the pools.

Sadly, the stock market crash of ’87 put a halt to the economic boom and Atlantis closed down in 1990. Since then, the complex has been left abandoned with only old statues to greet those who still walk their dogs there. A massive statue of King Neptune was eventually restored after an online campaign by locals who also took it upon themselves to clean up the park. The statue and surrounding areas are open to the public on weekends, but during the week the shell of what used to be a busy marine park remains abandoned.

5 Stack Rock Fort

Between 1850 and 1852 at least 150 soldiers were stationed inside Stack Rock Fort in Wales, with the goal of defending the Royal Naval Dockyard against invasion. Stack Rock Fort was disarmed in 1929 and now remains perched on an island off the West Wales coastline, isolated and surrounded by a thick atmosphere of eeriness. Ghost hunters have visited the fort and claimed to have heard voices, rumbling sounds and loud bangs emanating from the structure.

It went on sale in June 2018 and is believed to have been sold for £400,000. It was sold again in 2020 to an anonymous buyer who is supposedly planning to make the location accessible to the public again.

4 Al Madam

An old legend has it that a ‘jinn’ drove away the residents of a small village situated along the old Dubai-Hatta road, two kilometers away from Al Madam. The village is made up of two rows of houses with a mosque at the end and all of these buildings were so well constructed that there is hardly a crack or paint peel to be seen.

However, residents did not contend with the nature of the sand in the area which ended up invading the houses and burying their bright rooms halfway up to the ceiling. Some of the buildings have been swallowed up entirely by the sand. Surrounding the sunken houses are abandoned shops and building sites overlooked by stunning sand dunes.

3 Burj Al Babas

What was supposed to be a dream Disney castle valley, turned into a wasted development of over 250 thousand square meters at the foot of the Mudurnu hills in Turkey.

732 castles were built here as luxury vacation homes for rich tourists. The developers went bankrupt in 2018, causing investors to quickly pull out of the deal. Now the French chateaux-style castles stand empty, some with half-finished rooms.

What’s more, the residents of Mudurnu abhor the construction project as it is not in keeping with the traditional architecture in the area including Ottoman wooden houses, Byzantine buildings and a mosque dating back 600 years.

2 Reschensee

In 1950, the construction of a dam that unified 3 lakes led to the flooding of the small village of Graun. The village was completely submerged with the exception of the church bell tower that still sticks out of Reschensee or Lake Reschen. The lake lies in the western portion of South Tyrol, Italy and is near the border of Austria and Switzerland.

The bells of the church tower that remains in the lake were removed before Graun was flooded, but legend has it that when winter blankets the area in snow, the sound of church bells ring out from the lone tower. When the water of the lake freezes over, it is possible to reach the bell tower by foot.

1 Rummu prison

The Rummu prison in Estonia was constructed next to a limestone quarry in which its prisoners were forced to work. Estonia regained its independence in 1991, forcing the Soviets and their institutions out. The prison and the quarry were both abandoned as a result.

Soon, underground water created a new lake, submerging the mining machinery and even whole buildings. These days, only some parts of the old prison are still visible on land while others are half-submerged in lake water. For this reason, the area has become somewhat of a popular diving spot with divers curious to explore the prison structure under water. That is when on-site security guards don’t chase them off, that is.

10 Abandoned Places Being Reclaimed By Nature

We’re currently living through an apocalypse: the Retail Apocalypse. Over the past two decades, as e-commerce has rapidly evolved to be the default form of shopping for most consumers in most industries, physical stores are dying by the thousands. This has transformed malls from go-to shopping spots and social hubs into empty, abandoned shells. And these shells are massive.

With hundreds of vacant spaces and acres of isolated shelter, these ghost malls have become meccas for criminals, the homeless, and allegedly even paranormal entities. Time is only making things worse; every year, these monuments to obsolescence decay further and play host to more shady activity. Abandoned malls are just plain creepy, and this list gathers together ten of the creepiest.

Related: 10 Eerie Abandoned Animal Parks

10 The Acropolis, Mexico City

The Acropolis was a shopping center in a suburb of Mexico City called Naucalpan de Juárez. The mall’s heyday was the late ’80s, but by the end of the ’90s, low traffic numbers had caused the mall to close altogether. It has sat abandoned ever since. Though abandoned malls are all a little bit the same, the Acropolis has developed a particularly unique creepiness among all those on this list.

The mall was designed as a tribute to Ancient Greek culture, as its name suggests. Visitors would enter through towering white Greek columns, intentionally designed to look dilapidated like their real counterparts. The theme continues inside, with columns placed throughout. Open, agora-like storefronts and stucco walls that look straight out of Spartan homes in 300 try to bring you closer to the Greek ruins. That’s why its current decay is so haunting; a place deliberately alluding to ancient ruins is itself becoming one. The combination of artificial rot and very real rot atop it is a poignant reminder of humility.

9 Hawthorne Plaza Shopping Center, Hawthorne

Hawthorne Plaza is located in Hawthorne, a city just outside of Los Angeles (not New York). The mall was open from 1977 to 1999, and during that time, it slowly succumbed to crime and a changing economy. Since its death, it has found new life as a movie shooting set. No, not just for student films or YouTube videos, but rather numerous movies and television shows, including Teen Wolf, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Despite the occasional use, the area sits vacant most of the time, and over the years, it has deteriorated rapidly. Looters have stripped the mall of seemingly everything not drilled down—plus some pieces that were. Much of the mall is without handrails, windows, or doors. Walls are smashed inward, and windows shattered. Staircases lead nowhere, and as for its gaping holes in the floor—you might not want to know where they go.

8 Wayne Hills Mall, Wayne

The Wayne Hills Mall in Wayne, New Jersey, was open from 1973 to 2015, and over that impressive 42-year run, the mall came to be seen by its community as more than a mall. A series of articles and video essays on the mall all paint it as a warm place, social center, and an exceptionally popular Christmas destination. Memories of Wayne Hills are warm, fuzzy, and nostalgic. And then there’s the hellscape it became after closing.

The New Jersey weather took its toll on the building, and wet, heavy snow collapsed portions of the roof. The result was an interior that spent half of every year alternating between flooding, icing over, and filling with snow. The inevitable mold and rot then had all summer to spread. Before demolition, the Wayne Hills Mall became a damp, sludgy cesspool that looked about a century older than it was. 

7 Rolling Acres Mall, Akron

The abandoned Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio, was so dangerous that the mayor of Akron made a public statement about its safety. He urged people to steer clear of it. The mall was no stranger to violent crime while open, and things did not improve while it was closed. Which, you know, we could expect since it was empty.

Most famously, in 1986, the field behind the mall was the site of the brutal torture and murder of Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery. The details of the case were horrific, and it achieved nationwide fame. Coupled with varying degrees of theft in the area, Rolling Acres gained a poor reputation. This reputation, as it should have, is thought to have played a role in the mall’s demise. Honestly, it just seemed like it was cursed from the beginning. After the mall closed, the body of another murder victim was discovered there. If that wasn’t enough, a man was electrocuted and fatally caught fire attempting to steal copper wiring inside, among others.

6 Randall Park Mall, North Randall

When the Randall Park Mall opened in 1976 in North Randall, Ohio (what’s going on with you, Ohio?), it was the largest mall in the entire world. Between 2013 and 2015, just a few short years after its closure in 2009, photographer Johnny Joo took a series of photos showing just how far the mall had fallen.

Every photo is more tragic than the last. Many are due to hasty closures in the months after Christmas; a lone Christmas tree, still decorated, stands among the mud, glass shards, and plaster crumbles of the center courtyard. Perhaps even worse, a now-famous image shows a lone Christmas teddy bear, left posed in front of a long stretch of filth and decay.

5 Old Town Mall, Baltimore

Baltimore, Maryland, has a less-than-stellar reputation for safety as it is. Add to that a 200-year-old outdoor mall the size of a neighborhood, and you have a combination ghost-town/crime-den.

Originally named the Bel Air Market, Old Town Mall was built in 1818 and has a long history of decline and failed revitalization attempts. By the 1980s, it had deteriorated into a dangerous wasteland that now has almost nothing to boast about—unless you count the fact that its violent crime rate is about five times the national average. Yikes.

4 Dixie Square Mall, Harvey

The Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois, was open from 1966 to 1978. After closing for good, it was used as the setting for the famous mid-mall car chase scene from the 1980 movie Blues Brothers. Since then, it has fared worse than possibly any other ghost mall.

In the years after its closure, the mall was featured in multiple national news reports about the level of trespassing, vandalism, and theft within its walls. As a result, its deterioration was better documented than most, noting when the last window had been broken and when someone stole its trademark “Dixie” sign. Since then, conditions have only worsened; the ruins have caught fire twice, and the mall was the site of at least one brutal murder. Honestly, this seems like one “historical” site that needs to go.

3 Gwinnett Place Mall, Duluth

Chances are, you’ve seen the inside of Gwinnett Place Mall, whether you know it or not. The abandoned mall was used as the filming location for StarCourt Mall, the main setting for Stranger Things season three. Despite such a recent and high-profile use, the mall wasn’t able to shake its dark reputation.

The empty mall has been used for a laundry list of crimes over the years, and a search for news reports about the mall will reveal several charges involving drugs, prostitution, and violent attacks. Most notable among these is the 2017 discovery of Georgia State University student Silling Man, murdered and left to decompose in the back room of the food court’s Subway.

2 New World Mall, Bangkok

The New World Mall In Bangkok, Thailand, gained worldwide notoriety after its closure, as its fate was unlike that of any other ghost mall in the world.

The mall closed in 1997 after The Thai Supreme Court ruled that seven out of eleven of its floors violated safety standards. Two years later, a fire caused its roof to cave inward. Due to rainfall, the mall’s bottom floor flooded and became a mosquito breeding ground. In response, the locals introduced various species of tilapia, mango fish, carp, koi, and catfish to eat the mosquito larvae. Before its eventual drainage in 2015, the mall had become one deep lake filled with over 3,000 fish.

1 Metro North Mall, Kansas City

It’s hard to find an article on abandoned malls that doesn’t include Metro North Mall in Kansas City, and with good reason. If there is one definitive source on ghost malls, it’s photojournalist Seph Lawless, who has explored countless dead buildings and published books on his findings. That definitive source once told HuffPo that “the abandoned Metro North Mall in Kansas City is by far the creepiest place I’ve ever stepped foot in.”

You can’t argue with that and seeing his pictures, you wouldn’t want to, anyway. Most of the mall sits in total blackness, and the few beams of light that pour through the roof show spots that are yellowed, moldy, warped, and graffitied. Truly, Metro North Mall no longer looks like a mall, but a creepy, bygone, haunted sanitarium.

Would you like to read the good news or bad news first? The bad news is that millennia of warfare, death, and obsolescence have left behind a world full of abandoned and dilapidated buildings and other structures. The good news is that the enterprising among us get to make some wild new homes if we want to.

Thanks to time and the ever-present march of progress, many old buildings currently sit vacant, just waiting to be cleaned out, cozied up, and converted into that far-out house that everyone talks about. Guaranteed to surprise you, this list brings together ten of those abandoned buildings that a creative and resourceful person turned into awesome new homes.

Related: Top 10 Repurposed Nazi-Era Buildings

10 A Public Bathroom

Looking at the photos of architect Laura Clark’s sleek, modern one-bedroom apartment in London, anyone would assume it is a lovely, ordinary home. Until, that is, they find out that it spent most of its days as a public bathroom off of a main street in a crowded city.

Clark has said, “For me, that’s about saving sites with an interesting history, but which have been abandoned and forgotten,” and her dedication is apparent. It took six years for Clark to convince housing authorities to let her redesign the space. And redesign it she did, converting the old stalls and sinks into a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom (probably the easiest part of the process). It even has its own terrace/patio.

They say don’t s–t where you eat. I guess the loophole here is that you need to convert the john into a home first.

9 A British Castle

The Astley Castle in Warwickshire, England, has stood since the 1100s. Over the past millennium, the property went from manor house to castle, crumbled and was rebuilt, acted as a troop garrison in the English Civil War, and crumbled again. Luckily, in 2012, the remains of the castle’s walls were incorporated into a new, modern home.

Nowadays, the house is rentable, and anyone staying the night is treated to a gorgeous blend of ancient stone and modern brick. Instead of leveling the eroded stone or repairing it outright, the renovators kept it where it lay, filling in empty sections with new brick. The result is entirely unique and a whole new level of cozy. I’m sure it’s structurally sound, too, right? Even though the walls are made in part with crumbling stones…

8 A Water Tower

There are dozens of water tower homes across the globe, each with its own personal take on home renovation. But perhaps the coolest of them all, if only for its location and view, is the Sunset Beach water tower in Sunset Beach, California.

The 87-foot-tall tower was built in the 1890s, and it wasn’t until the 1980s that the tower became a home. All four stories of the house take advantage of its circular frame with wraparound windows and even a wraparound porch. Located just a block from the Pacific Ocean and the titular Sunset Beach, its view is stunning.

7 A World War II Railcar

In Fort Collins, Colorado, one couple built their own tiny home from the most unexpected shell: a salvaged railcar from World War II. They decided to keep the railcar’s exterior the same, and it still boasts every scratch, ding, and dent it accrued throughout its long life. That only serves to highlight by contrast the exquisite new interior.

The space inside looks like Bob Ross would call it home. The furniture is vintage, the hardwood is exposed in many spots, and the remaining walls are hand-painted and muraled. Flowers and blankets abound throughout the space and, combined with the surplus of light brought in by the vaulted roof, make it hard to imagine a home more deserving of the word “charming.”

6 A Bridge

The river that used to run beneath the covered bridge just outside Nevada City, California, has long since run dry, rendering the bridge useless. Useless, that is, until the building was converted into a chic loft-style home and hotel.

The interior is decorated with contemporary European taste and comes together nicely. Perhaps the best part of the interior is that the entire 100-foot-plus length is visible from any spot inside. The whole house is long and narrow (it was a covered bridge, after all), and it creates the unique and surreal impression of an average house’s room all separated and arranged in a row, all walls between them removed. Though the building operated as a hotel for years, they have removed their website, and it seems likely only one family now enjoys the Historic Covered Bridge House.

5 An Elementary School

A Canton, Ohio, resident named Kynsey Wilson purchased a 45,000-square-foot home for only $35,000. Her secret? She bought an abandoned elementary school.

Wilson is currently working to make the old building into a home, but only a piece of the second floor. The rest, she is converting into “a public space, co-work environment, some conference rooms, my home office…(and) as many as 15 guest rooms for visiting family and friends.” Wilson has so much space beyond what she needs. I mean, it is a full-sized elementary school. In fact, she is open to suggestions from anyone on how to use it. In her own words, “If somebody has a really great idea and is motivated and wants to come partner up with me, I’m open to it. I’ve got a lot of square footage.”

4 A Half-Abandoned Mall

Built way back in 1828, the Arcade in Providence, Rhode Island, is the oldest indoor mall in the United States. Like so many malls across the globe, the Arcade was powerless to prevent the loss of much of its business in the latter half of the 20th century. It closed during the ’70s and was reopened, only to close again in 2008. When it reopened again in 2013, it made a seemingly wise decision: while its first floor is still a mall, developers converted its second and third floors into apartments.

There are 48 apartments within the mall’s bounds, all of which are small studios. Though small, the units are well-lit and open into a massive interior courtyard. A little sunshine and some green can go a long way. These features open up the apartment and don’t feel as cramped as they otherwise might seem. And given that the Arcade is located right in the heart of downtown Providence, the units are popular enough to require a waiting list to rent one.

3 A Jail

In 2020, a house was put up for sale in Fayette, Missouri, that could easily be mistaken for a completely average home. The outside is as ordinary as can be: one door, two stories, old red brick, a lawn, and a fence. The inside is ordinary, too, until you reach the end of a hallway that leads to your own personal jail.

That is because the building, built in 1875, spent decades as the Howard County Sheriff’s Office. When they renovated the house, nearly all of it was updated and made modern. Only the jailhouse was left as it was, and all nine cells still sit as they used to, complete with locks and bars on the doors and windows. It’s probably worth asking why someone would want that particular house. And yes, we are implying that they use the jail cell as a Fifty Shades of Grey playroom.

2 A Lunatic Asylum

Though several mental health facilities have been abandoned and converted into housing, perhaps none have transformed more than the notoriously cruel New York City Lunatic Asylum. It is now the luxury apartment complex known as The Octagon.

The former lunatic asylum was one of the most infamous in existence for its mistreatment of patients, mainly due to journalist Nellie Bly’s landmark 1887 exposé, “Ten Days in a Mad-House.” Bly had faked mental illness enough to be admitted to the facility, and during her ten days there, she witnessed beatings, torture, and an appalling lack of hygiene. When the facility finally closed in 1955, it sat vacant until 2006. Then it was renovated and made into the swanky living spaces it now is, complete with a private gym, rec room, and pool.

1 A Private Island Fortress

Spitbank Fort was built in 1878 on a private island just south of Portsmouth, England. It served as an active naval base for England until 1956, a whopping 78 years. Since then, it has been closed, renovated, re-closed, and re-renovated, and currently, Spitbank acts as one of the coolest hotels imaginable.

The island retains its strategic location and fortified construction and now boasts a casino, spa, pool, gym, and wine cellar. In addition, it takes advantage of its panoramic views of the English Channel with multiple observation decks and even a lighthouse-like crow’s nest. It’s been said repeatedly, but only because it’s so true: the combination of security and luxury brings to mind the lair of a James Bond villain. Luckily, the hotel is open for booking and also open for outright purchase, with a listing price of $5.2 million.

Gambling is a risky game of chance that results in an uncertain outcome, but we love it! People from around the world spend thousands visiting casinos to take care of that urge of wanting to gamble. Trying to run a casino is very similar to gambling. Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it won’t. Some casinos see amazing runs, but the luck eventually wears off. Here are ten casinos that crapped out and were left abandoned.

Related: 10 Abandoned Places Being Reclaimed By Nature

10 Penthouse Adriatic Club

In 1967, Yugoslavia opened its borders, and new laws allowed the existence of gambling and casinos for international visitors (locals were not allowed to gamble). This led to the construction of the Penthouse Adriatic Club at the Haludovo Palace Hotel on the Croatian island Krk. Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione dumped $45 million into the project in hopes of attracting international travelers to visit the casino.

The hotel complex opened on July 15, 1972. Penthouse “pets” served as hostesses to the visitors of the extravagant hotel. It didn’t take long to realize that there was money trouble because the locals couldn’t gamble, and the Western world wasn’t embracing the resort. The casino was bankrupt by the beginning of 1973. The resort was later transferred to a local enterprise, where it would see its last profitable year in 1990. The resort hosted its last visitors in 2001, and the buildings have been neglected since.^[1]

9 Constanta Casino

Sitting high above the banks of the Black Sea in Constanta, Romania, is the once-popular Constanta Casino. In the early 1900s, it was one of the most popular establishments of its kind, and the wealthy from all over the world frequented the casino. Unfortunately, during World War I, the casino transformed into a hospital, and ten people were killed when the building was damaged by bombings.

The building was remodeled but was again bombed during World War II. The end of the war left the casino abandoned. The casino was eventually renovated by the communist government to be used as a House of Culture, but in 1960 it was handed to the National Office of Tourism. Repairs were made to the casino in the 1980s, but it was abandoned until recently, when renovations started again.^[2]

8 Montgomery Pass Casino

The Montgomery Pass is a high mountain pass in Nevada with an elevation of 7,167 feet. Located near the curvy, mountainous road was a small casino that claimed to be the “world’s highest casino.” The Montgomery Pass Casino was once an entertainment oasis that fueled the small town’s economy. The casino also housed a thriving motel and restaurant for visitors.

The buildings of the casino have been abandoned since the 1990s when gambling began to decline. In 2010, most of the casino burned down. The remains of the casino now look like a ghost town with empty rooms and retro slot machines and gambling tables that sit in the area where the casino once thrived.^[3]

7 Casino di Consonno

Just outside of Milan sits the ghost town of Consonno. Entrepreneur Mario Bagno bought all the land in the village and forced everyone out so he could build the “City of Toys.” The city was to be filled with restaurants, shopping malls, a hotel, and a casino that would resemble Las Vegas. Many of the buildings were almost finished when the main road to the town was washed away. This kept customers from visiting the town and put a halt to the project.

The abandoned casino and town are now decaying after decades of neglect. The town has undergone a few attempts at being remodeled, but nothing has been successful. Busted windows, trash, and graffiti are all to be found. Visitors can access the city through public roads or walking, but many of the properties are private.^[4]

6 Jubilation Riverboat Casino

The Jubilation Riverboat Casino was originally known as the SS Nantucket and first set sail back in 1957. The ferry ship ran from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Nantucket. Years later, the ship was renamed the SS Naushon and was the last steam-powered ship in operation on the east coast before finding its new home in Mississippi.

The ship found new life on the Mississippi River, where it became the Cotton Club Riverboat Casino. The casino was open to gamblers in 1993, and bets were placed as the ship traveled along the river. The ship would soon find a new home in Lakeshore, Mississippi, where it became the Jubilation Casino. By this time, the ship wasn’t holding up too well, even after $1.5 million was invested into it for remodeling. The casino shut down in 1995, leaving the ship vacant with decaying interiors and scattered slot machines.^[5]

5 Kings Inn Casino

The Kings Inn Casino in Reno, Nevada, saw short-lived success. Reno hit a casino boom in the 1970s, which led to the opening of several new casinos. However, there were not enough locals or tourists to keep the bets coming in. The Kings Inn Casino was just one of the many casualties of this time.

After closing in the ’80s, the building was boarded up and left abandoned. After many years of just sitting vacant, the building was purchased in 2014 with new plans that would make the building “fit for a king” again. The building is now home to high-end apartment units spread out among seven floors, with retail units on the ground floor.^[6]

4 Key Largo Casino and Hotel

In 1974, the Ambassador Inn opened in Las Vegas, and a casino was added to the property one year later. The property swapped hands and changed names numerous times over the next 20 years, but in 1997 the property became the Key Largo Casino and Hotel. A $7 million renovation gave the casino and hotel a south Florida theme and was made up of 248 slot machines, three table games, and 320 rooms. There were also plans to eventually expand the casino and add a hotel tower, but the cheap rooms and food eventually lost their appeal and the doors closed to the casino and hotel in 2005.

The property would sit abandoned for years after shutting down. In 2008, a man started a small fire in the empty building after attempting to steal copper wire while the power was still live. A larger fire broke out in 2013, which caused more than $4.5 million in damages, and the cause of the fire was suggested to be arson. The casino and hotel were demolished months later.^[7]

3 Asbury Park Casino

The Asbury Park Casino and Carousel House were located south of the boardwalk in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The casino was just part of the entertainment complex, along with an arcade, concessions, and various rides. The district saw lots of success, but by the 1980s, the district was officially dead. Many of the buildings in the area were left abandoned, and the carousel was sold and moved to Myrtle Beach.

The casino building, along with other structures, still stands empty and reminds visitors of a busier time. The buildings look more haunted now, but the small town is working on a comeback. The Carousel House has seen small renovations, including new gates and a new roof, and serves as a venue for local bands. A mini skate park with a mini bowl has been installed inside the Carousel House, thanks to Red Bull and a local developing company.^[8]

2 Big Easy Casino Boat

The New Orleans-themed ship boasted a 30,000-square-foot casino consisting of card tables, roulette wheel, dice games, and slot machines after a $12 million remodel in Jacksonville, Florida. The Big Easy Casino Boat arrived at the Port of St. Petersburg as a temporary stop later than expected due to modifications and a rough hurricane season.

The owners would file for bankruptcy shortly after, causing the ship to stay at the port until 2010. The ship was then moved to Tampa to be remodeled into a new casino, but it was once again halted and eventually was demolished to be sold as scrap metal to help recuperate the costs.^[9]

1 Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino

The Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino was built in the 1920s in Cambodia and first started as a resort for French colonialists. The hotel was quickly added to the resort at the mountainous location. Due to the tough labor that was involved in building the resort in the remote mountains, more than 900 workers lost their lives during construction. The First Indochina War spoiled the fun for everyone on the mountain as the hotel had to serve as a hospital.

The resort and hotel were resurrected in 1962 with new buildings, including a casino. The casino, also known as Old Casino on Bokor Mountain, closed a short two years later when several visitors committed suicide off the mountain after their gambling habits cost them everything. Political instability kept the hotel and casino from opening over the years, and it was left abandoned in the ’90s. The large vacant building was ghostly as it sat alone on top of the mountain, and the locals claimed spirits of those who lost their lives during construction occupied the building. A few years ago, the property was purchased, and the owners remodeled the hotel with 36 luxurious rooms and added a few restaurants for visitors to enjoy.^[10]

For most inmates, imprisonment means being kept in one building for a determined number of months or years. Staring at the walls of a square cell each and every day. Listening to other prisoners scream, shout, fight, and even die. When prisons eventually become abandoned, the memories tend to hang around, permeating the atmosphere and releasing a stark chill in the air.

After viewing these ten images of abandoned prisons, you’ll likely agree.

Related: 10 Ghastly Prison Practices Of The 19th Century

10 Old New Mexico State Penitentiary

Hardcore criminals engaged in two riots in the Old New Mexico State Penitentiary before it moved in 1956. By the ’70s, the prison was severely overcrowded, and a newly instated “snitch system” enraged a large number of prisoners. On February 2 and 3, 1980, the inmates overran the prison building in a terrifying riot during which 12 guards were taken hostage, and 33 inmates were killed by other prisoners. Some of these inmates were tortured before being murdered in revenge for their snitching to prison wardens. The guards’ lives were spared, but seven of them were severely injured after being beaten and raped.

It took 36 hours for the police to regain control of the prison. Part of the building was shut down shortly after, and the inmates were moved to another prison. Today, the Old New Mexico State Penitentiary (Old Main) is mostly abandoned, with some parts used to store movie props. After all the horror, it is not surprising that many who visited the building after it closed reported seeing shadows and hearing unexplained noises emanating from the empty cells.^[1]

9 Sinop Prison

Sinop Prison is one of the oldest prisons in Turkey. It is located within the Sinop Fortress and was established in 1887. In 1939, a building with nine halls spread over two floors was added to hold juvenile prisoners.

Conditions were harsh inside the prison due to its location. By being so close to the sea, the air was always moist and cold, making it difficult to even light a match. Sinop is also well known for holding many intellectuals, including journalists, politicians, teachers, and poets.

The prison was abandoned in 1997, and the inmates moved to a new prison in Sinop. Today the prison is open for sightseeing, with plans in the works to convert the inner fortress into a maritime and justice museum.^[2]

8 Her Majesty’s Prison Pentridge

HM Prison Pentridge was established in 1851 in Coburg, Victoria, with the first prisoners incarcerated the same year. The building was split into several divisions using letters of the alphabet. For instance, A was for long- and short-term prisoners who displayed good behavior, B was for prisoners who displayed bad behavior, G was for psychiatric problems, and so on. By the time the prison shut down in 1997, it housed over 1,000 inmates. Australia’s most infamous criminal, Ned Kelly, was also imprisoned at Pentridge, and his remains were found in a mass grave at the prison in 2009.

While some parts of the abandoned building have been turned into housing developments, some of the old divisions remain and are used as a venue for ghost tours.^[3]

7 Candido Mendes

Ilha Grande is an idyllic island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro that draws thousands of tourists to its white sand beaches and tranquil waters. What some may not know, however, is that the island is also home to an abandoned high-security prison.

In 1886, Lazaretto Hospital opened on the island. The hospital was meant to keep patients with contagious diseases away from the rest of the public. It took only a few years for the wards to become overcrowded and the island to become overpopulated. A small prison was constructed to house troublemakers, and at the same time, Lazaretto morphed into a military prison. During wartime, it closed down and reopened in 1930. In 1942, Lazaretto was renamed Colonia Candido Mendes and was declared a fully functional prison. It was here that dangerous gangs established roots and planned to overthrow the wardens.

Gang violence escalated to the point where police couldn’t maintain control over the prisoners, and the prison was closed down in 1994. But one inmate stayed behind. Julio de Almeida was serving a 28-year sentence for murder, theft, and attempted escape but was released in 1994 for good behavior. He had nowhere to go and chose to stay at the prison, creating a unique home for himself.^[4]

6 Carabanchel Prison

Carabanchel opened in Spain in 1944 and saw its busiest time during the Franco era. Political prisoners built the panopticon-designed building and knew full well that it was inescapable. The prison became known for brutal practices, and few of those imprisoned there left their cells alive. There were rumors of executions, abuse, and torture aimed at unionists, terrorists, and those who identified as gay.

The prison was decommissioned in 1998, and its 2,500 prisoners moved to other prisons. Shortly after, the building was looted, and all doors, railings, and metal were taken. After becoming a shelter for drug addicts, undocumented immigrants, and homeless people, the old prison was eventually torn down in 2008.^[5]

5 Goli Otok Prison

Goli Otok was a political prison built on an uninhabited island in Croatia when the country was part of former Yugoslavia. It operated between 1949 and 1989. The political prisoners held here included Stalinists and just about anyone who exhibited sympathy toward the Soviet Union. Inmates were forced into manual labor regardless of the weather on the island, which sometimes reached temperatures of 40°C (104°F). More than 400 prisoners were murdered, committed suicide, or died because of exposure to the harsh conditions.

When the prison was abandoned in 1989, it was left to rot. These days it serves as housing for shepherds and as a tourist attraction for those looking to find the ghosts of the prison’s turbulent past.^[6]

4 Napier Prison

Napier Hill in New Zealand was the location of the Napier Prison between 1862 and 1993. It is the oldest prison complex in the country and the site of four hangings that occurred during the 19th century. The old prison hanging yard is depicted in this photograph.

The prison building was restored in 2002 and utilized as a backpacker. Currently, it offers the Escape Room Experience and Self-Guided Audio Tours, as well as the opportunity to get yourself locked up in solitary confinement or a padded cell before venturing into the hanging yard and visiting the graveyard.

Napier Prison is still considered to be one of the most haunted places in New Zealand, with many tourists reportedly seeing the ghost of the mass murderer Roland Edwards and experiencing ghostly occurrences such as disembodied faces floating before them and unexplained footsteps sounding in the dark.^[7]

3 West Virginia Penitentiary

The gothic-style West Virginia Penitentiary is still being used as a filming location for scary movies, and it also holds a museum. The prison was in operation between 1876 and 1995 and was constructed by the inmates. There was no rest for the prisoners here as they also had to work in a carpentry shop, paint shop, stone yard, blacksmith, bakery, and even a hospital within the prison grounds to help sustain the prison. The prison also received revenue from its very own farm and coal mine, which ended up saving the state around $14,000 a year.

While conditions were fair initially, it deteriorated to the extent that it became one of the most violent prisons in the U.S. A “designated” room within the prison known as “The Sugar Shack” was used for raping inmates, fighting, and gambling. In total, 36 murders took place within the walls of the prison. In 1983, Charles Manson filed a request to be moved to the West Virginia Penitentiary to be closer to his family. This request was denied.

At the end of its lifespan, the prison was overrun with riots and escapes. By the time it was abandoned, 94 executions had been carried out, adding to the ominous atmosphere inside the prison. Visitors can experience the prison cells for themselves during a guided visit and even stay overnight—should they wish to do so.^[8]

2 Holmesburg Prison

The Terrordome, as the Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia was known, was decommissioned in 1995. During its heyday, however, it was the site of controversial pharmaceutical, biochemical, and dermatological testing on inmates. In 1938, 23 prisoners embarked on a hunger strike and were placed in an isolation cell. The cell, known as the Klondike, reached temperatures of nearly 93.3°C (200°F) because of radiators and steam pipes, which led to the deaths of four prisoners who were basically boiled alive.

In addition, there were several riots in the prison in the 1970s. In one instance, 100 prisoners armed with knives and table legs destroyed the dining hall and attacked their fellow inmates and guards. It is believed by many that poltergeists now inhabit the building and that the ghosts of dead inmates charge at you when you’re not paying attention while inside.^[9]

1 Garcia Moreno Prison

In its more than 140-year history, the Garcia Moreno Prison in Ecuador held both petty thieves as well as politicians and ex-presidents. It is also the place where a jealous prisoner strangled his wife to death in front of their two children. The prison was abandoned in 2014 when its 2,600 inmates were moved to other prisons. Garcia Moreno was designed to hold only 300 inmates, so to say it was grossly overcrowded is a massive understatement.

The prison is now a tourist attraction, its creepy murals and messages left behind by the inmates, open for all to see.^[10]