The world is a very strange place indeed. There is no telling what lurks behind picket fences. Below are some of the very strangest locales across the globe, from a city mired in garbage to a community of retired circus freaks.

10Manshiyat Naser, Egypt
Garbage City

In the suburbs of America, people prowl neighborhoods on bulk collection day, picking up cast-off furniture and the like to flip for a profit. Sanitation workers, who develop a keen eye for this sort of thing over the course of their careers, call the valuable trinkets they manage to salvage “mongo.” But nowhere in the world is garbage as important a part of the economy as Manshiyat Naser, a ward of Cairo.

The people of Manshiyat Naser scrape together a life processing the trash of Cairo’s 10 million residents. It is a hard life: There is no running water, sewers, or electricity, and every spare inch of space is packed with towers of garbage. Those pigs that weren’t slaughtered during the 2009 swine flu scare root around in the filth.

Living in extreme poverty, the families of “Garbage City” tend to each specialize in a particular type of trash, with some relying on recyclable bottles, others on metal, and others burning what they can for warmth.

9Thames Town, China
Abandoned England

It seems strange that the world’s most populous country could have so many ghost towns, but China’s zeal for construction far outstrips demand. Entire cities sit mostly empty, with vacancy rates on even new homes nationwide approaching 20 percent.

One such empty city is Thames Town. Located about 32 kilometers (20 mi) from Shanghai, this town was built with an exacting eye for detail to resemble a quaint English market town, complete with rowhouses, cobblestone streets, a pub, and a fish and chips shop.

Completed in 2006, Thames Town sits mostly empty, leaving everything with a creepy Twilight Zone vibe. About the only thing that Thames Town is popular for is wedding photography: Newlyweds love the novel backdrop.

There are also other abandoned European style towns throughout China, including Tianducheng, built to replicate Paris, complete with a one-third scale version of the Eiffel Tower.

8Gibsonton, Florida
Where The Freaks Wintered

Traveling circuses and carnivals have always been a seasonal business, and during the bleak winter months, employees were forced to go south. One of their most storied refuges was Florida’s Gibsonton, a sleepy town outside Tampa. “Gibtown” embraced its part-time residents, adjusting zoning laws to allow people to keep exotic animals and carnival rides on their property. The post office even lowered their counter for dwarf performers.

The town’s famous inhabitants included odd couple Al and Jeanie Tomaini. Al was a pituitary giant. Jeanie, who was born without legs, was only one-quarter as tall as him, and Al carried her around like a baby. The couple retired to Gibtown, running a lodge and fishing camp and serving in the community.

Another resident was Grady Stiles, who suffered from ectrodactyly, a congenital disorder that made his hands and feet look like lobster claws. According to his family, “Lobster Boy” was a vicious and abusive man who murdered his daughter’s fiance a day before the wedding. Stiles himself was murdered in November 1992 by a man paid by his wife.

These days, most of the performers who once populated Gibtown have died, and the town mostly resembles any other, except for its bizarre ghosts.

7Zarechny, Russia
Closed City

In the wake of World War II, the USSR went into overdrive in its preparation to take on America. Many cities with research facilities and munitions factories that fed the Soviet war machine were “closed”—literally removed from maps, the lives of their residents severely restricted.

As Russia is slightly less terrifying than its predecessor, it has liberated many closed cities. However, several remain closed, including Zarechny, a city of just over 60,000 in the western part of the country. According to the town’s own website, Zarechny is a “closed administrative-territorial formation,” strategically significant as components for nuclear weapons are built behind its walls. The city’s biggest employer is Rosatom, a state corporation that regulates nuclear technology.

There is very little movement into or out of Zarechny, and the city is officially closed to outsiders with rare exception, fenced off with walls and barbed wire. However, there are benefits to living in closed cities, including better compensation.

6Rennes-le-Chateau, France
Church Conspiracy

Located in the French Pyrenees, Rennes-le-Chateau is a tiny Catholic village. Once an average little place inhabited by some 300 people, it was visited in 1885 by a preacher named Francois Berenger Sauniere. The impoverished priest soon began exhibiting fabulous wealth, rebuilding the local church, an 11th-century structure dedicated to Mary Magdalene. One of the most bizarre adornments that he commissioned was a statue of the devil clutching a holy water font. At the entrance of the church, he had the legend inscribed Terribilis Est Locus Iste (“This Place Is Terrible”). Next door, he built a fabulous villa for himself.

The source of his wealth generated significant controversy, with many believing that Sauniere was the center of a great conspiracy. People claimed that he’d discovered some ancient treasure dating back to the Crusades or else had shady ties with the Vatican. Others believed he’d discovered some secret about the life of Christ.

The conspiracy surrounding Sauniere would later inspire author Dan Brown to write the worldwide bestseller The Da Vinci Code. The book, in turn, led to an enormous influx of tourism to the area, with eager treasure hunters digging up graves. Things got so bad that Sauniere’s corpse had to be exhumed in 2004 and buried in a concrete sarcophagus.

Real estate prices skyrocketed, and a cottage industry grew around the novel’s legacy and the strange legend of Francois Berenger Sauniere. However, some consider this all for naught, ascribing Sauniere’s wealth not to some vast secret treasure or access to the Holy Grail, but rather good old fashioned fraud, accepting money for prayers and masses that he never performed.

5Chess City, Elista, Kalmykia
A Madman’s Fantasy

In Kalmykia, a republic of Russia, among the barren steppes sits a bizarre sight—a giant glass dome surrounded by a California-style neighborhood. This is Chess City, a mecca to the game of kings, dreamed up by chess-obsessed former president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Woven through the neighborhood are various chess-themed sculptures. The city held some major championship matches over the years, but Ilyumzhinov’s ambition was ultimately vanity. Today, the Chess Palace sits largely empty, and the neighborhood around it is sinking gradually into decay.

The city’s mastermind is even weirder than his creation. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov claims to have had contact with aliens and says his destiny was spelled out for him by a blind Bulgarian psychic named Babuska Vanga. Vanga told him he would become President of Kalmykia and also of the World Chess Federation (FIDE). Ilyumzhinov took control of the republic in 1993 and became head of the FIDE two years later, hatching a grand plan to turn his land into a chess wonderland.

Exactly where the money to construct the city (an estimated $30–50 million) came from is unknown—Kalmykia is desperately poor. However, the citizens of Kalmykia might not have much to worry about. According to Ilyumzhinov, the aliens will one day return and “pack us all into their spaceships and take us away from this place.”

4Noiva Do Cordeiro, Brazil
All-Woman Town

Many say the world would be better off if women were in charge. In southeast Brazil, it is possible to find out if that is indeed the case. Noiva Do Cordeiro (“Bride of the Lamb”) was established in 1891 by a woman named Senhorinha de Lima after she was driven out of her own community for adultery. This rural, 600-strong community is composed almost entirely of women. Only a handful have husbands, most of whom work in the city of Belo Horizonte some 100 kilometers (60 mi) away, only spending time with their wives on the weekends.

This community of Amazons is surrounded by rainforest and verdant farmland that the women tend. They are in charge of nearly every aspect of the town, from religious matters to planning events. However, many miss having romance in their lives. Unfortunately, they know that bringing men into the Noiva Do Cordiero could destroy the balance they have achieved. As 23-year-old resident Nelma Fernandes puts it, “I haven’t kissed a man for a long time. We all dream of falling in love and getting married . . . But first they need to agree to do what we say and live according to our rules.”

3Neft Daslari, Azerbaijan
Oily Rock

When oil was discovered in the Caspian Sea in the late 1940s, the USSR built the world’s first offshore platform. As there was no precedent, there was no set plan for this structure. Over the years, more and more was added, until it was a sprawling complex of oil rigs, roads, bridges, piers, apartment buildings, and even a cinema.

The labyrinthine structure is moored to the bottom of the sea by sunken ships and industrial debris. At one time, it was one of the major providers of oil for the USSR, but in the years since, new, more accessible oilfields have been discovered.

Today, Neft Daslari (“oily rock”) resembles humanity’s attempt to rebuild after some apocalyptic event. Much of the complex is unreachable, the bridges connecting it crumbling into the sea. Some of the apartment buildings are underwater.

The workforce has been reduced to a fraction of what it once was, but an air of secrecy continues to pervade the facility. For instance, if you go on Google maps to get an aerial view, you will find that it won’t zoom in. The facility has generated such intrigue over the years that it was featured in the 1999 James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough.

2Najaf, Iraq
The Necropolis

For those not given to superstitious leanings, living next door to a cemetery can be quite ideal. Your neighbors are quiet and probably won’t ask to borrow your lawn mower. But for those of a squeamish bent, life in Najaf, Iraq must be a nightmare. This city is home to Wadi Al-Salam, the world’s largest cemetery. Nearly double the size of New York City’s Central Park, the cemetery is the final resting place of some five million souls. Burials have been conducted on a daily basis for over 1,400 years.

As ISIS continue to slaughter innocents across the country, the resources of Wadi Al-Salam have grown thin. Some 200 corpses stream into this ancient necropolis each day. Desperate families have been forced to steal plots and even bury their loves ones beneath the sidewalks, as it can cost in excess of $10,000 to be interred in the cemetery.

1Auroville, India
The City of Dawn

Most experiments at creating utopias end poorly. One such stab at perfection was Auroville, India, founded in 1968 by Mirra “The Mother” Alfassa. Today, the city is home to over 2,000 people from all over the world. No one owns property, and almost no money is exchanged. There is no leader or any real set of rules.

According to their website “Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity.” The core of Auroville is a massive temple called “The Matrimandir,” symbolic of Alfassa. It is a geodesic dome (think Epcot Center) swathed in golden discs. The Matrimandir does not advocate any particular religion and is open to the public by appointment.

Auroville is quite open to tourism and features plenty of guest houses and restaurants should you wish to visit and find your spiritual center.

Mike Devlin is an aspiring novelist.

A town is generally accepted as any region bigger than a village and smaller than a city. It has its own government, name, and boundary, complete with marketplaces and people spread throughout the area. However, some towns have turned out to be very unique, including those built to look like other towns, and those built and then not inhabited. Some towns have only one resident, while the residents of other towns all live under one roof.

10The Villages
Florida

The Villages is a town in Florida that was built for retired people. It covers an area larger than Manhattan, and has over 100,000 inhabitants—most of whom move around in golf carts. In fact, it holds the Guinness World Record for assembling the longest golf cart parade in the world, with 3,321 total golf carts. The town—where children are forbidden—is also home to controversies and scandals. Old men and women have been caught making out in golf carts, and the men are known to fight over women. There is also a black market for Viagra, which costs about $12 for a single pill.

Unsurprisingly, the town—which has 10 women for every man—has also seen a massive rise in sexually transmitted diseases. In 2006, a gynecologist said she encountered more cases of herpes and human papillomavirus in the town than she did when she worked in Miami. Inhabitants are also known to drive under the influence (in golf carts), use illegal drugs, and engage in bar fights.

9Busingen Am Hochrhein
Germany

Busingen am Hochrhein is a German town in Switzerland. The town is separated from mainland Germany by a narrow strip of land, which measures about 700 meters (765 yards) at its narrowest point. Considering its unusual location, Busingen am Hochrhein is more of a Swiss town than a German one. It also enjoys public services from both Switzerland and Germany. It has a Swiss postal code (8238 Busingen) and a German postal code (78266 Busingen). It also has two telephone codes: +49 7734 (for Germany) and +41 52 (for Switzerland).

In case of an emergency, the Swiss or German police can be called in, although the Swiss police usually arrive first. Everybody living in Busingen is allowed to work and own properties in Switzerland, even if they do not possess Swiss citizenship. And, if a German citizen lives in Busingen for more than 10 years, he or she receives a special status similar to Swiss citizenship. The town’s football team—FC Busingen—also plays in the Swiss football league.

But the town never started off like this. Back in the 14th century, it was ruled by Austria. After the Lord of Busingen was killed by members of a nearby Swiss town, Austria vowed not to hand over the town to Switzerland. They later handed it over to a neighboring German town, and it was eventually claimed by Germany. In 1919, 96 percent of the locals voted to leave Germany and join Switzerland, but the Swiss wouldn’t offer anything in return, so the German government threw a fit and refused to let them go.

8Whittier
Alaska

Almost all of the 200-plus inhabitants of Whittier, Alaska live inside a single 14-story building called Begich Towers. The rest live in their vehicles, boats, or another, similar building. Begich Towers was built in 1956. Back then, it served as an army barracks, but today, it is a town complete with a police station, post office, store, church, video rental shop, playground, and health center—all located inside the building.

The only way to access the town is either via sea or through a 4-kilometer (2.6 mi) one-lane tunnel which has gates that open twice every hour, allowing cars in or out of the town. The tunnels close at night and do not reopen until the next day. Before 2001, the tunnel could not accommodate vehicles, and the only way to get to the town was a 100-kilometer (60 mi) train ride. Then, trains ran only few times a week. During summer months, Whittier gets about 22 hours of sunlight, and during winter, it could get covered in over 6.35 meters (250 in) of snow.

7Colma
California

The town of Colma, California has more dead people than living people, with 1,500 living inhabitants and over 1.5 million dead inhabitants. The history of the town can be traced back to the Gold Rush of 1849 which led hundreds of thousands of people to migrate to nearby San Francisco. They brought diseases and, subsequently, death. By the 1880s, the 26 cemeteries in the town had been almost filled and, by the late 1880s, cemetery owners began constructing cemeteries in southern Colma because it was easily accessible.

In March 1900, San Francisco’s government banned new burials within the city. They said this was necessary because the land was too valuable to be used as cemeteries. Later on, in January 1914, cemetery owners were ordered to remove all bodies buried in San Francisco. Politicians said that the cemeteries spread disease, but the cemetery operators believe it was because of the rising cost of real estate. Nevertheless, the operators removed the bodies, and moved them to Colma, leaving it sprawling with graveyards. Today, over 73 percent of Colma’s land is destined to become cemeteries.

6Monowi
Nebraska

Monowi was founded by Czech migrants in northeast Nebraska, and it has only one resident: 77-year-old Elsie Eller. Population-wise, Monowi is the smallest jurisdiction in the US. Elsie runs the town’s only tavern and library, which is made up of about 5,000 books owned by her late husband, Rudy. She also serves as the town’s mayor, clerk, and treasurer. She also runs the council. In the 1930s, the town had a population of about 150 people, but by 2000, it had two: Elsie and her husband, Rudy. Elsie’s husband passed away in 2004, leaving Elsie as the town’s lone resident. Every year, Elsie pays tax to the town to maintain its four streetlights and provide other basic amenities. Several abandoned buildings in the town are covered with grass, slowly fading into obscurity, while others have collapsed.

5Ordos
China

The city of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, has been called the largest ghost town in China. It was built to accommodate more than a million people, but only 2 percent of it was ever occupied. The remainder is unoccupied and was left to decay. The history of the town began more than 20 years ago during the coal rush of Mongolia. Investors soon began building apartments, hoping to rent them out. However, demand didn’t keep pace with the builders, and many investors pulled out or went broke before the buildings were even completed.

Today, streets are filled with incomplete houses. Even the completed buildings are hardly occupied thanks to their high prices. Many of the residents occupying the town are also leaving for elsewhere. In just five years, price per square foot fell from $1,100 to $470. To encourage people to come to the town, investors have reduced prices. Fresh graduates who move to the town to start a business are even given office space, Internet connections, and several other utilities for free.

4Longyearbyen
Norway

Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen in Norway is the northernmost city in the world. It contains the world’s northernmost church, ATM, museum, post office, airport, and university. In Longyearbyen, dying is forbidden. Anyone found ill or dying is immediately flown by airplane or ship to another part of Norway before he or she passes away. And, if someone suddenly dies there, they would not be buried.

Dying is forbidden because bodies buried in the town’s cemetery do not decompose thanks to its extreme cold weather. Scientists recently removed tissue from a man who died years ago, and discovered that it contained traces of a deadly virus that caused an epidemic in 1917. Aside from not being allowed to die, citizens are also allowed to move around with high-powered rifles, thanks to the over 3,000 polar bears hanging around. Cats are also forbidden because they pose a threat to the bird population.

3Asymmetric Warfare Training Center (AWTC)
Virginia

The Asymmetric Warfare Training Center (AWTC) in Virginia is an uninhabited town built by the US Army to train its soldiers. The town is complete with a school, church, mosque, train station, and a five-story embassy that’s likely the tallest building in Virginia’s Caroline County, where it is located. It also has a gas station, football field, bank, subway, and bridge. The school is built to replicate schools in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the subway resembles that of Washington, D.C. The trains even have the same logo as those found on trains in Washington. Costing $90.1 million to build, it is run by the US Army Asymmetric Warfare Group.

Another similar town is called Yodaville. It was built in the middle of the Arizona desert by the US Air Force. The uninhabited town, built to look like towns in Iraq and Afghanistan, is meant to teach Air Force pilots how to carry out bombing runs.

2Marloth Park
South Africa

Marloth Park is close to the Kruger National Park, which is filled with wildlife including lions, hippopotamuses, and crocodiles. What makes the town unique is that, despite the dangers of having these wild animals close by, residents are not allowed to build fences around their houses. The only fence that separates the townspeople from the park is a small 1.2-meter (4 ft) fence that was built more to keep humans out of the park than to keep the animals in.

It is not unusual to see wild animals walking about the town. Baboons are known to enter houses through windows to steal from the refrigerators, and giraffes and elephants are known to block the road. Lion attacks on humans are also not uncommon. Eyebrows were raised when a lion attacked, killed, and ate a burglar fleeing with his loot, leaving only his head and a foot. Even after the deadly attack, most of the town’s occupants want the lions to remain. Some said the burglar was shot while escaping, and his corpse was eaten by lions. Others said the lions would serve as a form of crime control for the town, which was seeing a rise in burglary.

Cyclists are often the victims of attacks. This belies underlying race issues in the town, as most of the town’s residents are white and have cars, while the bicyclists are mostly black people who commute there for work. One cyclist managed to escape an ambush staged by four lions, abandoning his bicycle and fleeing to safety. Townsmen have nicknamed people riding bicycles at night “meals on wheels.”

1Hallstat
China

The real Hallstat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Austria. The Chinese Hallstat is a similar mock-up town built in Guangdong province, China. The town, which cost about $940 million to build, looks like the real Hallstat, including its roads, church tower, and wooden houses. The town’s construction was sponsored by a Chinese millionaire, and it caused quite a stir among residents of the real Hallstat who were not aware of the project.

Residents of Austria’s Hallstat (including the mayor) later visited the town. They said they were proud that their town was copied (it wasn’t like they could do anything about it), but they did not like the way the Chinese went about it. They were supposed to have met with the owners of the buildings they copied and asked if they were comfortable with the idea of replicating their buildings elsewhere, rather than just building them. The company that built the mock-up town, called Minmetals, had sent several of its workers to Austria’s Hallstat where they took pictures of places to replicate.

Elizabeth is an aspiring writer and author.

Much like NFL season tickets, or an ultra-expensive sports car, “a house by the beach” is one of those commonly desired albeit unobtainable luxuries. . . or is it? Thanks to SmartAsset crunching some numbers on various different aspects, we have managed to come up with the 17 cheapest beach towns in the entire country:

17. Deerfield Beach, Florida

Median cost of home: $124,900.00

Located between Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, this city provides easy access to nearly all of South Florida. The beach itself is large and wide and is somehow never, ever too crowded. It includes some of the state’s best breweries such as 26 Degrees and Holy Mackerel.

16. Lake Worth, Florida

Median cost of home: $151,100

This place was once only populated by University of Miami football team recruits and old folks. Now downtown is dominated by culture and the arts. The city has numerous art galleries and holds one of the country’s largest street painting festivals. Stop in at the popular Mulligan’s Beach House, too.

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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.

Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who has set your eyes on the world’s largest ball of twine, located in Kansas. Maybe you’ve even seen aliens on the highway as you’ve passed through Roswell, New Mexico, at night. Could it be that you can even brag to your friends about attending the world’s largest spinach festival in Alma, Arkansas? Or perhaps it’s always been your dream to see the world’s largest ketchup (catsup?) bottle in Illinois.

Whatever strange, silly, or (in)famous things you have seen on your travels throughout the United States, you cannot possibly see every wacky thing in every wacky town across this wacky country often simply referred to as “America.” That’s why this list of small towns famous for weird things is here for you. From the weird to the spooky, from the pointless to the dangerous, from the historic to the futuristic, this list of ten strange towns below might just make you want to go on a road trip in search of them all!

10 The Flavor Graveyard

Everybody loves ice cream, especially Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. If you stop in Waterbury, Vermont, and take a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream factory, you’re sure to get a sweet and fun experience. However, a more gruesome part of the tour leads you to a hill in the back of the factory surrounded by white picket fencing and some ghostly trees. But don’t worry, it’s just the Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard, where ice cream flavors go to die!

The Flavor Graveyard is there because of the company’s constant experimentation with weird and wacky ice cream flavors. However, some flavors are just too strange, which ultimately means they did not turn a profit. Every year, around ten or so flavors are eliminated due to low sales and become unfortunate inductees into the Flavor Graveyard. While the sweet cemetery makes for a serene setting for some of the oddest ice cream flavors to rest, only 34 graves have been dug so far out of the over 200 flavors that have been killed off as of this writing. If you can’t find your favorite ice cream flavor in your local supermarket, maybe it’s time to pay your respects at the Flavor Graveyard in Vermont.^[1]

9 The Lost Luggage Capital

Alabama may be famous for college football, Southern food, and Forrest Gump, but if you’ve ever wondered where unclaimed airline baggage ends up, and you happen to be in the northeastern part of the state, make a stop in Scottsboro. When an airline cannot track down the owner of a lost item or piece of luggage, it is sent to the Unclaimed Baggage Center there. At the center, you can browse through and purchase a myriad of lost luggage items.^[2]

Strange items have been found in this bizarre retirement community for suitcases. Ancient Egyptian artifacts, secret documents, and even a 5.8-carat diamond ring have been reportedly been discovered. The Unclaimed Baggage Center has even been given awards for retailer of the year.

8 Birthplace Of Captain Kirk

Riverside, a small town in Central Iowa, once had a town slogan saying “Where the best begins,” honoring its laid-back lifestyle and small-town Midwestern values. However, the town’s slogan is now “Where the trek begins,” as it is the self-described future birthplace of James T. Kirk, captain of Star Trek ‘s USS Enterprise.^[3]

While Kirk has not yet been born, the town celebrates his future birth date of March 22, 2228, with a festival called Trek Fest (formerly River Fest). Note that Kirk’s birth year was established as 2233 in the Star Trek series. The 2228 date is from a book, The Making of Star Trek, published in 1968. While no Star Trek novels, television series, or movies have made clear what Iowa town Kirk was (will be?) born in, Riverside, during the mid-1980s, said, “Why not us?” Perhaps this small town truly has gone where no small town in Iowa has gone before!

7 The Devil’s Crossroads

According to lore, when blues legend Robert Johnson was a young man, he sold his soul to the Devil himself in the small town of Clarksdale, Mississippi. As the pioneering state of American blues music, Mississippi has been the home of blues greats such as B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters, to name but a few. However, Robert Johnson was said, in exchange for playing wicked blues, to have made a wicked deal with the Devil himself at what is now known as the Crossroads, where US highways 61 and 49 converge in Clarksdale.^[4]

As a young man, Johnson wanted desperately to be a blues guitarist. “Voices” told Johnson to take a guitar to nearby Dockery Plantation at midnight and wait. He did, and a tall, dark man emerged, took Johnson’s guitar, played it, and then handed it back to Johnson. Immediately, Johnson was able to play blues guitar like no other ever had. If you desperately need to make a pact with the Devil anytime soon, perhaps a trip to the small town in Central Mississippi is what you need.

6 World’s Largest Time Capsule

In the small town of Seward, Nebraska, a man named Harold Davisson liked the year 1975 so much that he made sure to preserve everything he could in the world’s largest time capsule. Today, his time capsule, which is largely underground, is a tourist attraction for those passing through. With a pyramid built on top, the 45-ton vault holds more than 5,000 items from the 1970s!

The large vault made Davisson somewhat of a local celebrity in Seward, and his time capsule was sealed on July 4, 1975. Two years later, The Guinness Book of World Records certified that his time capsule was the largest in the world. However, Seward’s most famous resident received backlash from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia, which argued that their “Crypt of Civilization,” sealed in 1940, was the world’s largest time capsule. Controversy followed, but Davisson was granted the title. His capsule is due to be opened on July 4, 2025.^[5]

5 The Last Sideshow Town

Gibsonton, Florida, with a population of around 14,000, is America’s one true “Carny Town.” During the early 20th century, when roaming carnivals traveled the land, many carnival workers, also known as carnies, took the summer holiday in the small town of Gibsonton, about 19 kilometers (12 mi) north of Tampa. Gibsonton is fabled for a large portion of its population having been former carnival workers and so-called “sideshow” human attractions. Gibsonton was known as a place for many such people to retire or spend the off season in a warm locale.

Many “carnies” called the place town Gibtown. In the past, the local police chief was a dwarf, and the fire chief was a 244-centimeter-tall (8′) carnival performer. As one can imagine, the carnie population in Gibtown was a closely connected community, and over time, the former carnival workers even developed their own secret language called (yes, you guessed it) carny. Additionally, the International Independent Showmen’s Association runs a very specific welfare system for retired and out-of-work carnies. These days, however, the number of former carnies in Gibsonton has greatly dwindled, and the town is more or less like any other.^[6]

4 On Fire for Decades

Centralia, Pennsylvania, has been on fire since the 1960s. In the early 1980s, around 1,000 people lived in this small Pennsylvanian town about 100 kilometers (60 mi) north of Harrisburg. Centralia is more of a ghost town now; by 2010, less than a dozen inhabitants called it home.

Why is Centralia on fire, you might ask? Since 1962, there has been an intense coal mine fire burning not above but below the tiny town. Toxic smoke venting from the cracked ground, sinkholes, and underground gas explosions are pretty good reasons to avoid living in Centralia at all costs. Nevertheless, a few (brave?) residents still hang on.^[7]

In 1992, the Pennsylvania government seized all properties in Centralia and condemned them. However, the handful of inhabitants in and around the town are currently allowed to stay. However, once they pass, the town of Centralia will officially be no more. In fact, some scientists believe the fire underground will go on for at least another 250 years!

3 Meet ‘The Slabs’

Residents of Slab City, California, are creatively known as “the Slabs.” This tiny town is popular for recreational vehicling in the Sonoran Desert, but, situated 240 kilometers (150 mi) northeast of San Diego, the bizarre Slab City remains a self-described city without laws. The residents, or “Slabs” as we should refer to them, share one communal shower in this dusty part of the California badlands. As many as 4,000 people may live there in the winter, when it’s cooler, but it gets quite hot in the summer.

Often occupied by hippies, the homeless, drifters, drug addicts, artists, adventurers, and local weirdos, Slab City’s residents brag about their “town” being “the last free place in America.”^[8] In this lawless land, a city with no rules, some arguments have resulted in absolute chaos, with tents and RVs set ablaze and even shoot-outs and duels.

Today, Slab City is managed by the state of California, but in the past, the site was known as Camp Dunlap, a former World War II base. But why is it called Slab City? The name comes from the large concrete slabs that remained after the Army abandoned the area. The site was returned to the state of California in 1961. The state eventually destroyed the remaining slabs.

2 The Bell Witch Cave

What makes this small town of Adams, Tennessee, so scary? Well, during the 19th century, the area was said to be haunted by a demon-like witch!

The legend goes that the Bell Witch’s original name was Kate Bates (or Batts). As rumor has it, Kate entered a poorly planned land deal with the neighboring family, whose name was the Bells. Kate promised to haunt the Bell family after learning she had been tricked. She seemed to keep her scary promise after one of the Bells’ daughters appeared to show signs of possession and strange aggression toward spirituality during the time. Some rumors hold that even former US president Andrew Jackson encountered the Bell Witch after investigating the cave that Kate’s spirit now seems to inhabit as she terrifies all who go near.^[9]

For roughly two centuries, people in the area have told of experiencing strange feelings when they go anywhere near the cave. Despite her being known locally as a not very kind spirit, a major dare is to repeat the Bell Witch’s original name in a mirror three times. No thanks!

1 A Town Under One Roof

In Whittier, Alaska, nearly the entire population of 218 people resides in a single building! This 14-story condominium was originally designed as an Army barracks during the 1950s and was made a residence in 1969, about five years after the Army moved out. The building, now known as Begich Towers, doesn’t just have people living in it but is nearly a fully functional tiny town under one roof. The building also serves as a church, the police station, a convenience store, and the post office for the town, 100 kilometers (60 mi) south of Anchorage.

In this so-called “town under one roof,” keeping secrets is much more difficult than in other small towns. However, since Whittier is situated between mountains and the sea, the town, or rather building, can mostly only be accessed by boat from long distances. Or, you can take a very long one-lane tunnel that runs one way underneath the mountains for certain portions of the day. While this setup might look strange, isolated, and perhaps even uncomfortable, Whittier’s residents seem to get along quite well and are a very close-knit community.^[10]

A lot of media tend to view news and history through the lens of countries and their big, powerful cities. Though that makes sense from the standpoint of simplicity, too often, it leaves out the ground-level turmoil that boils up in small towns and villages.

We know about the Boston Tea Party, but what about Grey’s Raid at Fairhaven? We all remember the Alamo, but how many remember Gonzalez and Goliad?

Sometimes, small towns play host to the biggest calamities, tragedies, and misfortunes to ever occur. As such, a lot of little places have developed large reputations for darkness and horror. Here are ten of the darkest, small settlements whose dubious pasts place them in the history books right next to their big-city cousins.

Related: Top 10 Ghost Towns Inside Or Near Famous Cities

10 Burke, Idaho

Today, Burke, Idaho, is an abandoned ghost town. Most of its buildings still stand, though dilapidation is slowly taking hold as the decades go by. Founded in 1887 as a prosperous mining settlement, Burke began its life strong but was rapidly overpowered by violence and natural disasters.

Within just four years of its founding, Burke was the site of a deadly avalanche, a shootout between miners and mine owners, and an accidental mine explosion. By 1892, the governor of Idaho had declared martial law in Burke and sent hundreds of soldiers to restore peace. It was short-lived. Over the next two decades, Burke was subject to a deadly hotel fire, another mine explosion (this one intentional and malicious), another fatal avalanche, another fire, a flood, and one last fire. If anywhere on Earth is cursed, it’s Burke.

9 Liberty & Independence, New Jersey

Liberty and Independence are two small, neighboring towns in New Jersey that are unremarkable for the most part. A road that snakes through them both, aptly named Shades of Death Road, earns them a spot on this list.

The road earned its name through a series of dark and violent incidents that occurred along its length, running the whole gamut of human suffering. The site was home to a deadly malaria outbreak, a string of lethal wild cat attacks on travelers, repeated robberies and murders by highwaymen, the lynching of said highwaymen, three unrelated brutal murders (including a beheading), and an above-average amount of fatal car accidents. And that doesn’t even include the various paranormal sightings along the road and neighboring Ghost Lake.

8 Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat may not be a household name in America, but its neighbor Chernobyl definitely is. Though Pripyat swelled to almost 50,000 residents at its peak, pushing past the boundary of a small town, it now spends every day with a total population of zero.

Pripyat was a functioning city for 16 years before it was hastily abandoned during the nearby Chernobyl disaster. After 16 years of habitation, it has now spent 35 years as an irradiated, decaying ghost town. One of the most famous photos meant to highlight the tragedy of Chernobyl is actually from Pripyat; it shows the Pripyat Amusement Park and, in particular, its towering Ferris wheel, now blanketed in rust and standing eerily still. As the whole population was evacuated in only two days, the ruined city buildings still hold much of their former contents—schoolbooks sit open on desks and sheets still lay on their beds, half thrown off in haste.

7 Attica, New York

Attica is a tiny town just a short drive from Buffalo in upstate New York. In its 210-year history, hardly anything of note has occurred in the quaint little country town. That is, aside from some of the most notorious torture of prisoners in U.S. history and its single bloodiest prison riot.

The Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison famous, in part, for housing some of the most high-profile criminals in U.S. history, including Mark David Chapman, Joel Rifkin, and Son of Sam. The facility is also famous for its mistreatment of its prisoners, including overcrowding, over-liberal use of solitary confinement, and race-based punishment from guards. This led to the Attica Uprising in 1971, a mass prisoner rebellion that ended in over 40 people (almost all of them prisoners) dead.

6 Elaine, Arkansas

Elaine, Arkansas, is one of those tiny towns that nonetheless play a big role in revealing the systemic issues that plague America. Even now, its population is less than 700, so it’s easy to imagine how small and deceptively sleepy it must have seemed in 1919 before it became the site of one of the worst racial conflicts in U.S. history: the Elaine Massacre.

In 1919, dozens of sites across the U.S. saw racial violence during what came to be known as the Red Summer. The most violent of these incidents was the massacre in Elaine, which claimed the lives of an estimated 100 to 240 local black farmers. The attack was carried out by a combination of local white mobs, the KKK, and federal soldiers. Immediately following the incident, the Arkansas state government began to cover it up, though luckily, the truth eventually found its way out. It has left the town with a permanently scarred reputation.

5 Centralia, Pennsylvania

Centralia, Pennsylvania, used to be home to over 1,000 residents. As of 2017, it had five. The town isn’t haunted by any murders or massacres. Even its acquisition from the Indigenous population was peaceful by American standards. Instead, Centralia is nearly abandoned and nicknamed “Hell on Earth” for one reason: the whole town is on fire and has been for 59 years.

In May 1962, local firefighters were hired to clean up the town dump as they always had: by setting it on fire. Except that this time, the fire didn’t die out. A passage beneath the dump connected to the labyrinthine network of coal mines beneath the town. The fire spread and, fueled by the immeasurable quantities of natural gas in the tunnels, burned and burned. It took 30 years for the majority of Centralia’s residents to evacuate the city, as sinkholes, open flames, and toxic gas clouds slowly engulfed the town, leaving it the fuming wasteland it is today.

4 Oradour-sur-Glane, France

Most towns on this list have histories built partially on murder; it’s a common inciting incident for ghost myths and dubious reputations. Rarely, however, are towns famous for the murder of the entire town in one incident. Yet that’s precisely what happened to the country village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.

In 1944, the leader of a Nazi SS regiment received potential intel that a fellow Nazi officer had been taken prisoner and executed by the local French resistance. In retaliation, the regiment carried out one of the most violent mass executions in history at Oradour-sur-Glane. After a few hours, 643 civilians, most of them women and children, were dead. The city was razed, and, in deference to the slain, it was never rebuilt, forever standing as a monument to the massacre.

3 Pine Ridge, South Dakota

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota has been a black spot on America’s record ever since 1890 when it was the site of the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre.

Leading up to the attack, local white settlers and army men became increasingly alarmed at Indigenous activity in the area. Their newly-formed Ghost Dance movement was seen as a precursor to war, and so the U.S. Army attempted to relocate local Lakota people and disarm them. Tensions were too high, the disarmament went tragically awry, and by the end of the day on December 29, 1890, 250 to 300 Lakota men, women, and children lay dead at the hands of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment. The incident has since become a symbol of past government-Indigenous relations, a rallying cry for Indigenous rights movements, and a dark stain in American history books.

2 Sharpsburg, Maryland

Sharpsburg, Maryland, is a village of only 700 with 281 years of almost exclusively peaceful history. There is almost nothing of note to say about the little village except for one fact: in 1862, it was the site of the single bloodiest day in American history, the Battle of Antietam.

On September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate forces met in Sharpsburg and battled from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm. In those 12 hours, more than 22,000 American soldiers died. No other day in the country’s history produced as many casualties, even in World War II, and that has made Sharpsburg famous in the most ghoulish of ways.

1 Salem, Massachusetts

No list of towns with dark, bloody histories would be complete without the most famous haunted town in America: Salem, Massachusetts (more precisely, Salem Village). Salem’s bloody and spooky reputation has made it a modern mecca for Halloween lovers and fans of the occult. But unlike Halloween, the events in Salem between 1692 and 1693 were not the fun, playful kind of dark. They were the malicious, insidious, please-take-a-lesson-from-this kind of dark.

The Salem witch trials were the deadliest witch hunt in U.S. history. In a little over a year, Massachusetts executed more alleged witches and conspirators than it had in the preceding century. At least 25 people died due to the trials and all of them, needless to say, were innocent of witchcraft. The incident has forever linked the town of Salem (and to a lesser extent neighboring Danvers, the modern-day location of Salem Village) to the dangers of religious extremism, unchecked groupthink, and the subversion of due process.

Local legends have a certain charm. They’re part of a town’s flavor, along with local businesses and food. They add a bit of spice to the area, a spooky undertone to an otherwise unassuming area. In this list, we look at ten urban legends that are localized in U.S. towns. Please enjoy, and if you have the urge to travel to any of these towns in the pursuit of local legends, please remember to do so safely.

Related: Top 10 Horrifying Urban Legends From Around The Globe

10 The Char-Man of Ojai, California

The story of the Char-Man has been passed down for decades in Ojai, California. In 1948, a large brush fire swept through the Ojai Valley, destroying most of the valley, including the homes. It took several days after the flames died down for anyone to enter the valley and assess the damage.

According to legend, a man and his son lived in a small house outside of town. The father was killed in the fire, and his son survived, badly burned. When someone finally reached their home in the aftermath of the fire, the son had gone insane from the ordeal. He’d hung the body of his father by his feet from the remains of a nearby tree and flayed the burned skin from the corpse. He then fled into the hills of Creek Road, where he continued to live, mad and charred.

Police have allegedly been called to investigate disturbances related to the Char-Man on Creek Road. Some versions of the story say that he haunts the Creek Road Bridge (locally dubbed “Char-Man Bridge”) and occasionally attacks those who walk across it at night.

A comedy-horror film was made in 2019 if you want to “experience” this urban legend.^[1]

9 The Blink Man of Ellicott City, Maryland

The entity that haunts the Ilchester Tunnel in Ellicott City goes by many names, including the Blink Man, Peeping Tom, the Fickergeist, and the Tunnel Man. Though for those of you worried about catching a glimpse of the Blink Man on a casual Saturday night, you’re probably safe, as summoning him requires one to accomplish the near-impossible task of staring directly down the Ilchester Tunnel for an entire hour, from midnight to 1 am, without blinking.

Should you accomplish this somehow, Peeping Tom will constantly be in your vision from that moment on, slowly growing closer to you every time you blink.

The Blink Man has also inspired a fairly decent found footage horror film called Butterfly Kisses.^[2]

8 The Black Angel of Iowa City, Iowa

This giant grave marker was constructed in 1913 and stands 2.7 meters (9 feet) tall, excluding the 1.2-meter (4-foot) pedestal that it sits on. It’s difficult not to be unnerved by the presence of a hulking 4-meter (13-foot) tall, jet-black hooded figure with a bowed head and one wing raised as if to beckon the viewer to shelter underneath it.

There are several versions of the myth, none of which tend to end well for those involved. One says that kissing or touching the statue will bring death and misfortune upon you. Another says that kissing someone beneath the statue will cause your death. One woman stated that her husband contracted a rare disease after kissing the statue’s foot.

The most interesting thing about Iowa City’s angel, however, is that we can trace its history back to a source. The statue was commissioned by a Bohemian (now the Czech Republic) immigrant named Terezie Karásek for the grave of her son, Eddie. After its completion, the statue did not at all resemble what she’d envisioned, and she fought the artist over payment but was eventually forced to settle. Less than a decade after its construction, the statue began to turn black due to the oxidization of the copper. Unfortunately, the stories of the curse began shortly after, while Terezie was still alive.^[3]

7 The Hex House of Tulsa, Oklahoma

This is not to be confused with the haunted attraction of the same name. The story of the Tulsa Hex House is based on a police report from 1944. Initially investigating ration book fraud during the WWII era, officers discovered two women confined to the basement of a house belonging to a woman named Carolann Smith. The two women, Virginia Evans and Willetta Horner, were allegedly “hexed” into giving their paychecks to Carolann and forced to live in horrid conditions in the basement while Carolann lived in excess upstairs.

Carolann was also known to have extorted $17,000 from Virginia Evans’ father, stating that it was going toward caring for his daughter. Carolann Smith was also shrouded by the mysterious deaths of those who were close to her and claimed life insurance policies left by her father, husband, and housemaid. For her crimes, Smith served only one year in prison (Link 7).

The original Tulsa Hex House was demolished in 1975, and the site was converted into a parking lot. However, there are still stories that the basement of the Tulsa Hex House still exists underneath the pavement.^[4]

6 The Beast of Bladenboro, North Carolina

The Beast of Bladenboro is one of North Carolina’s most famous urban legends. Reports of this local cryptid date back to the 1950s, when for nearly a week, the small community was held hostage by a large, cat-like, vampiric creature. This caused mass hysteria and an influx of vigilantes with guns searching for the elusive creature.

The first victims of the beast were animals totaling eight dogs, a family of kittens, and one lamb. Eventually, the creature moved on to human victims, attacking a woman on a night in January, who was reported to be startled but not harmed.

The hunt for the creature was a well-known affair, attracting hunters from as far as Tennessee to come to try their luck at killing the beast. At one point, the small town of 790 people had reportedly attracted anywhere from 800 to 1000 hunters at the height of the panic.

By the end of the month, a hunter had produced the corpse of an 11.5-kilogram (25-pound) bobcat, which seemed to appease the people of Bladenboro, who were content to assume that this had been the source of the problem.

Today, sentiments toward the Beast of Bladenboro have seemingly done an about-face, and the creature is annually celebrated at the town’s “Beast Fest.” The story was also the subject of a documentary as recently as late December of 2021.^[5]

5 The Stairway to Hell in Tagus, North Dakota

Tagus (originally called Wallace), North Dakota, is a ghost town founded in 1900, reaching a peak population of only 140 in 1900 and then slowly but surely drying up into a desert of abandoned buildings and only a few lingering residents. Unfortunately, the state of the town makes it a hot spot for vandalism.

The mostly abandoned locale has also made it a factory for local legends about satanic rituals and spirits. One of the main focal points of these stories is St. Olaf’s Lutheran Church. The church itself is no longer standing, as a fire consumed it in 2001, something that the remaining residents attribute to the previously mentioned instances of vandalism. A square brick memorial to the church stands in its place with the name of the church inscribed on it
.
According to legend, devil worshipers attended the church, and it was a place where sacrifices and rituals were carried out. The stairway to hell was said to be housed inside, a spiral staircase descending into the earth. Along with the rest of the foundation, any descending stairway has since been plowed over.

Anyone interested in visiting Tagus should keep in mind to respect the town and its locals. They’re reportedly very protective of their town and wary of outsiders due to the rampant vandalism cases.^[6]

4 The Haunted Kuhn Cinema in Lebanon, Oregon

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Kuhn Cinema in Lebanon is a still-operational historic theater. First opened in 1935, it was renovated and reopened in 2005. In 2013, Lebanon began the “Keep the Kuhn” project, which has provided the theater with funds to update its equipment and continue to provide Lebanon with the latest movie releases in the digital age.

Despite its renovation, remnants of the cinema’s past still remain, including one allegedly very active spirit. The spirit of a young girl who fell from a balcony inside the Kuhn is alleged to haunt the theater. Staff and visitors have reportedly heard her laughing, as well as seeing doors open and close on their own. She’s been known to enter the projectionist booth, with several staff members working the booth reporting to have been hugged from behind while alone.^[7]

3 Cumberland, Rhode Island’s Fingernail Freddy

As with most urban legends, there are several versions of how Fingernail Freddy came to be. In one version of the story, Freddy was a recluse who lived in the woods near Camp Ker-Anna, who grew his nails out long and sharp and would enter the campgrounds to claw at noisy campers late at night.

In other versions, the story of Fingernail Freddy has merged with another local figure called “Hot-Shot Charlie.” Depending on who is telling the story, a homesteader (either Freddy or Charlie) lived in a log cabin near Camp Ker-Anna and was tormented by rowdy campers who would harass his livestock and destroy his crops.

One night, at the end of his rope, Freddy fired at the kids with rock salt, chasing them away from his property. The kids returned later and set his house on fire, disfiguring him and killing his wife and children. His injuries were so extensive that he stopped going into town and became a recluse, living in the woods where his home used to be and growing his nails out long and sharp to kill those who trespass on his land.

As with most urban legends, there is a small kernel of truth hidden in the heart of the story. Near the local reservoir, there are pieces of a foundation that people claim to be his home.^[8]

8 The Well in Sabattus, Maine

Stairways to hell are supposedly found all over the world, but in Sabattus, getting to hell requires a much more treacherous method of descent. The story goes that a pre-teen boy was dared to explore a supposedly haunted well located in a derelict cemetery. He was lowered into the well on a rope by a group of his friends. After an uncomfortably long period of silence with no tugging on the rope, the boys decided to pull their friend up and check on him. When they hoisted him out of the darkness, his hair had gone pure white, and his eyes were wide and mad. For the rest of his life, the boy was confined to the county mental institution, never speaking another word, only screaming incomprehensibly.

As with most urban legends, there are many missing details. No names associated with the boys have been released, nor can an approximate date be pinpointed. The ’90s have been proposed as the decade of origin. The location of the well is also a mystery. There are ten listed cemeteries in Sabattus, though there may be smaller family cemeteries not accounted for.^[9]

1 The Curse of the Petrified Forest in Northeast Arizona

The Petrified Forest State Park is a beautiful expanse of nature, offering many activities for those looking to enjoy the great outdoors, including hiking, biking, camping, and fishing. Visitors are certain to have a lovely time and leave feeling refreshed, so long as they remember one of the cardinal rules of visiting historical sites: take nothing but pictures.

It’s illegal to remove any samples of petrified wood from the park, but visitors often find themselves on the receiving end of more than a fine upon doing so. As far back as the 1930s, visitors reported steady streams of bad luck after taking pieces of the forest home with them. The park receives a steady stream of mail every year that includes fragments of petrified wood being shipped back to where it belongs, often accompanied by letters that ask park officials to put the pieces back where they came from.

These rocks have been dubbed “conscience rocks” by the park staff. The park has maintained a 1,200-page archive of the letters accompanying these conscience rocks, dating back to the 1930s. The urban legend-induced penalty for stealing from the park has been cited to be anything from divorce to medical issues and the occasional death.^[10]

In the USA, ghost towns are primarily associated with the Old West. The idea is mostly that a town sprung up next to a mine or as part of some other form of speculation, and then eventually the business opportunity dried up and forced everyone to move away.

Around the world, the reality is very different. Communities have been abandoned for reasons that have nothing to do with economic busts, sometimes so quickly that personal belongings are left strewn about the house. Let’s trot the globe to those abandoned places that are often as fascinating as they are tragic.

10. Bodie

Bodie was named in honor of W.S. Bodey, a miner who found gold in 1859, and thus began a minor gold rush years after California’s most famous gold rush had died down. The town was founded in 1861, its namesake having frozen to death the prior winter. Bodie became the site of its own rush in 1875, when a mine collapse revealed a rich vein of gold. While Bodie is hardly as famous as San Francisco or Los Angeles today, for a time it looked like it might go on to be a major metropolis since, in 1880, it was the third largest city in California with 10,000 people. It was so cash rich that there were 200 restaurants and 65 saloons. It was also a rough crowd, and there were rumors the town endured six shootings a week.  

By the 1890s, the gold supply and population had already begun to dwindle. Adding to its troubles, a fire broke out in 1892 and burned down much of the town. By 1917, Bodie was so dead that its rail lines were raided for scrap. Then in 1932 another major fire burned much of the town down. Officially the town’s mine was killed off in 1942 when all mining not essential for WWII was banned. 

Still, in 1962, since the town was cleared out so completely, it was designated a preserved historical site, which ironically turned it into a tourist boom town again with as many as 1,000 visitors a day in summer. The winter, though, is a very different story. They get so severe in Bodie that in 1999 it was the coldest recorded spot in America 71 times, the largest number of anywhere that year. Even the hardiest snowmobilers will hesitate to put up with that. 

9. Ordaur-sur-Glane

In the wake of the Allied Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, the Wehrmacht massively stepped up its operations to put down French partisan activity. Ordaur-sur-Glane was one target in the sights of the 2nd Panzer Division, whose leader was freshly arrived from the Eastern Front, where standard procedure in the wake of a partisan attack was to kill thousands of civilians in reprisal whether or not they had anything to do with the attack. On June 10, 1944, the SS arrived in the town, where the population was 650 — roughly half of them newly arrived refugees. The soldiers gathered the population in the town square, then placed the women and children into the town church and set fire to it, including throwing in grenades. All but eight of the other residents were gunned down, with the rest of the village being looted before being put to the torch. Unusually for World War II atrocities, there was a subsequent public outrage that the Wehrmacht attempted to address with a farce of an investigation and a show trial, which inevitably concluded that the atrocity had been justified. 

In 1946, the mostly destroyed town was set to be preserved as a historical site by the French government. Ordaur-sur-Glane became so prominent an event that references were made to the massacre during the Nuremberg trials. Even as late as 2013, the German government was considering reopening the cases against the SS officers involved. 

8. Craco

More than 1,400 years is a good run for any community. Craco, a village carved out of rock in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata, was founded in the 6th Century AD. It endured such crises as raids and the Black Death. What ultimately did it in was a series of earthquakes and landquakes through the 1950s and 1960s that left the village utterly unstable. The government wasn’t willing to risk the roughly 1,800 citizens being crushed or plummeting to their deaths and moved them out, a difficult process which left many of them essentially refugees in tent cities for years. 

Given that the village is still there more than half a century later, that may have seemed premature, though who knows how much more wear and tear those citizens going about their business would have added to the terrain over the years. The feeling is further reinforced by the fact the village hosts biannual festivals. Not to mention that it was judged sufficiently safe that movie productions such as The Passion of the Christ partially took place there. Who knows how many of the displaced residents want to move back now. 

7. Hashima Island

Considering that it is situated off the coast of the infamous city of Nagasaki, it’s not surprising that Hashima Island is overshadowed. In the 1850s, the island was revealed to be a rich coal mine, and it attracted miners willing to go 2,000 feet under the earth. It was such a business hotspot that it attracted 5,000 people, which might not sound like many but considering that it’s a sixteen acre island that made it for a time the most densely populated location on Earth. It should be noted that many of the miners were prisoners of war from Korea and the UK. It wasn’t until 1974 that the coal mine went dry, and in short order everyone left the island town to crumble. 

Not to say that people stopped caring about it. Japan also tried to get the island declared a UNESCO Heritage site in 2006. Considering its history of slavery, it was a surprise to many that the application was approved in 2015. Today the site accepts tourists from Nagasaki, even though much of it is considered too structurally unsound for visitors.

6. Wittenoom

Speaking of ghost towns being unsafe, this Western Australia mining town about 500 miles from Perth was founded in 1950. At its height there were roughly 20,000 residents. It lasted until 1966, when it turned out that the asbestos mine that the company town sprung up to support was filling the air with so many toxins that an estimated 300 miners died from mesothelioma. The government shut down the mine and the population rapidly dropped off. Despite the evacuations, it wasn’t until 2007 that the town was struck from government maps.   

Despite the risks, as of March 2019 three people insisted on living in the town built for 20,000. What’s more, they would invite tourists to come see one of the most contaminated places in the Southern Hemisphere. Some tourists are even willing to go down into the deadly mine shafts. The government had to resort to expensive voluntary property buybacks to clear a few of them out, with costs for unsafe homes rising as high as $325,000, not to mention $50,000 for moving costs. If the threat of death by cancer isn’t enough to clear them out, money probably won’t do much better.    

5. Fordlandia

In 1926, Ford Motor Co. began work on a community deep in the Amazon Basin to grow and harvest its own rubber trees to ensure that the company’s rubber supply wasn’t vulnerable to trade embargoes. The town housed 5,000 people, of whom 3,000 were laborers. Within eight years, it would be abandoned by Ford.

Problems included, but were not limited to, the fact that the imported rubber trees were extremely vulnerable to all sorts of caterpillars, snails, and other pests of the Amazon to the point where the workers needed to try and pick them off by hand. Other animals caused more grievous harm, such as when a large river fish bit off the arm of the manager’s maid or when a jaguar carried off a baby. The homes the company constructed were prefabs built for the American Midwest and were much too hot and stuffy for the Amazon. Over the first three years, 28 Ford employees were buried in the town cemetery.

Meanwhile the local workers, being migratory people, were not eager to be tied down to the same grueling work for prolonged periods. Consequently most would work to receive high wages for a short period and leave, aside from the unhealthy and physically disabled that needed Fordlandia’s generous medical care. Fordlandia never came anywhere near its rubber production quota, and in 1945 Ford sold the land back to the government, having lost $7.8 million overall, though some sources put it as high as $20 million (the equivalent of over $200 million today). The Ford Company people were seemingly so eager to leave that they left behind many personal belongings, such as clothing. Who could blame them?  

4. Kolmanskop

When diamonds are so pervasive in a town that all someone has to do is sift through some nearby sand, it’s understandable to think that the supply will continue forever. In 1912, the mines in the Namibian city of Kolmanskop produced roughly 12% of the world’s diamond supply, which is especially impressive for a community where the population never went above 1,000. What had once been the kind of town that was founded because its namesake, John Coleman, abandoned his ox-cart there was changed forever when a Zecharia Lewala discovered the precious gems while doing railway work in 1908. The boom times ended unusually fast, and by 1930 the town’s mines had been picked clean, and by 1956 the last holdout had left the rapidly depleted town 

The fact the town ruins are located in sand dunes are turning out to be a little bit of a mixed blessing. On one hand, they’ve threatened the bury the town for a long time. On the other, the lack of vegetation and moisture has left the buildings so well-preserved that the paint on some of the walls is still brightly colored. It’s well-situated to be a long-lasting, if well hidden, time capsule.  

3. Tyneham

In December 1943 the 225 residents of this village near the Dorset Coast were ordered out because the Royal Armoured Corps Gunnery School wanted to expand its firing range, and this village was in the way. Even after the Great War ended the UK military claimed that they still needed the land for their firing range, and despite considerable protests the villagers were never allowed to move back. Despite the proximity to the firing range, the most significant form of structural damage the village suffered was a manor house being torn down so that the parts could be recycled. 

The village was noted as being unusually well preserved and producing a number of rare plants such as dark green fritillary due to lack of human activity, aside from tourists during military down times. Not that it is anywhere near perfectly preserved. In 2019 the Ministry of Defense closed tourist access to seven of the buildings since they had been judged unsafe. Hopefully the daredevil tourists who went to the Wittenoom asbestos mines don’t consider that a sort of challenge.  

2. Dhanushkodi 

For years, Dhanushkodi had the distinction of being near the only land border between India and Sri Lanka, specifically the southeastern section of Pamban Island. It also was near a location that possessed a bridge significant to Hindu history. It was a highly successful fishing community of several thousand. This success came to an abrupt end in 1964 when the community was hit by a cyclone, a night that left as many as 1,800 people dead. The village was left to the elements, and some of what used to be the village is now submerged as the sand eroded. 

Because of the village’s religious significance, many people wanted to visit the devastated town. Pilgrims that wish to perform a ritual of walking out into the ocean water and saying prayers have come in groups numbering as many as 1,200. As far as permanent residents are concerned, only a few fishing families cut off from modern amenities want to risk being in the path of another cyclone.  

1. Pripyat

It’s the most famous community that was evacuated in the wake of the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl Disaster. On the day after the core of the nuclear plant exploded, nearly 50,000 people were cleared out, a bit under half the people that used to live in the thousand square miles that comprise the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the area the government determined was still unsafe to live in. Due to the abruptness of the evacuation, the city became a particularly eerie place where numerous possessions, even half-finished meals, were merely left in an uncanny state as if their owners had simply winked out of existence. Since the radiation left the city so unsafe to visit, only the most daring could take photos of its creepy vistas.   

At least, that’s how it used to be. In recent years, Pripyat has become relatively lively with visitors, many of whom are quite obnoxious about it. The city has many instances of obscene graffiti that have been added in recent years, along with such curious rituals as people putting lockets around metal poles. Despite its harrowing content, the 2019 HBO/Sky coproduction Chernobyl actually increased visitors to the city. 

Even before curious people flocked to Pripyat, there was a small group that refused to stay away after the evacuation. The Exclusion Zone is estimated to be home to roughly 200 villagers. Few young people who leave the Exclusion Zone for education are willing to ever return, a situation likely all too relatable for many of our readers who live in rural communities.  

Dustin Koski is also one of the authors of A Tale of Magic Gone Wrong, a story about a village in danger of becoming a ghost town because everyone turned into monsters. 

As the story goes, in 1787, Catherine the Great embarked on a trip to view her newly conquered land of Crimea. Catherine’s lover, and the guy responsible for bringing Crimea into the Russian Empire, Grigory Potemkin, wanted to impress his mistress. But the land was in poverty and ruin. According to legend, Grigory, not wanting to disappoint Catherine, decided to build attractive-looking, yet fake, villages all along her route.

Grigory ordered freshly painted building facades erected. One herd of animals was transported along the way to make it appear the countryside was teeming with livestock, bags of wheat actually filled with sand were presented, and peasants were told to stand along the road with smiles plastered on their faces.

Supposedly Catherine passed by the show without any idea she was being duped, and the term “Potemkin village” was born. Historians have since debunked the myth as an over-exaggeration. However, the term stuck, and Potemkin villages are what we call these fake cities designed to look like real places.

Let’s take a look at ten of the most fascinating Potemkin villages in history.

10 Kijong-dong

Viewed from afar, the North Korean village of Kijong-dong looks like any other town. Built in the 1950s in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates North from South Korea, it appears to be a regular town filled with well-kept residential buildings. However, a closer look reveals the windows have no glass, lights are on timers, and the only people around are maintenance workers.

The village is a complete fake. Nobody lives there. It exists solely for propaganda. Its purpose is to make North Korea appear to be a charming and prosperous place to live. And if anyone had any doubts, the city blasts anti-Western hype (along with Communist operas and marching music) on speakers loud enough to reach the nearby South Korean town of Daesong-dong. The propaganda is played 20 hours per day in the hope villagers from South Korea will defect to the north. So far, the method hasn’t worked.^[1]

9 Doom Town in Nevada

It’s a good thing Doom Town is a fake place because who would want to live in a city named Doom? In the 1950s, during the Cold War, Nevada was an extremely popular place to test nuclear weapons. It’s estimated the U.S. government tested nearly a thousand atomic weapons in the desert so close to Las Vegas that the mushroom clouds could be spotted from the Vegas strip and became an unlikely tourist attraction for people who were blissfully unaware of radiation poisoning.

To see what would happen to a real town if an atomic bomb were dropped on it, scientists created fake towns to drop the test bombs. They built real houses, furnished them, stocked them with actual food, parked cars along streets, and populated the area with clothed mannequins. The idea was to find out what might survive a nuclear blast. The answer turned out to be… not very much.^[2]

8 WWII Airplane Camoflauge Town

During World War II, the U.S. government created a fake town on the West Coast over the top of a Boeing warplane factory. Boeing Plant 2, otherwise known as Boeing Wonderland, was built to disguise the factory from potential Japanese bombers. The Seattle factory was not the only one. Numerous fake towns were built, including one in Burbank, California, that protected the Lockheed plant.

Because these SoCal plants were near Hollywood and the country was full of patriotism for the war effort, the government had no trouble obtaining the best movie set designers and large-scale painters to create fake houses, sidewalks, fences, trees, and cars. From the sky, it appeared to be a real neighborhood. But in reality, the buildings were four to six feet tall, the trees were made from burlap and chicken wire, and greenery was painted on actual runways. The designers were so detailed they even painted some of the “yards” brown to make it appear the grass hadn’t been watered.^[3]

7 Theresienstadt, Czech Republic

This next entry is a terribly dark and sad one. Theresienstadt was a concentration camp run by the Germans during World War II. Designed to hold Jews as they waited to be deported to other killing centers and forced labor camps, the living conditions were terrible, and the people lived in constant fear of deportation.

Under pressure, the Nazis allowed the International Red Cross to pay a visit to the camp in June 1944. However, similar to Grigory’s legendary fake towns put on for Catherine the Great, a facade was created to disguise the dreadful ghetto conditions that lay underneath. Before the visit, thousands were deported to Auschwitz to reduce overcrowding, houses were painted, and gardens were planted. Once the visit was over, the good times ended, and conditions resumed as they had been.

In perhaps the most deplorable propaganda of all, the Nazis used a film of the dressing up of Theresienstadt to describe it as a “spa town” where elderly Jews could safely “retire.”^[4]

6 Apix, Florida

In the 1950s, the U.S. government researched liquid hydrogen as a means of fueling aircraft. This was during the Cold War with the USSR, and the U.S. wanted to keep their projects top secret, especially from the Soviets. Project Suntan was the code name given for the super secret mission of building a spy plane powered by liquid hydrogen.

But how to hide such a massive project as building liquid hydrogen-operated planes? You guessed it. Build a Potemkin village. The government made up a phony town named Apix, an acronym for “Air Products Incorporated, Experimental,” and chose a remote and swampy area in Palm Beach County. They even gave the town a fake population and plotted the land for residential development. Today, there is little information about the fictional town of Apix, although it occasionally appears on a map. Only a railroad signal box remains with the name Apix on it.^[5]

5 Fake Paris

During World War I, France wanted to create a phony version of Paris to fool German bombers. Paris was a prime target for Germany, and Zeppelins were regularly sent to bomb the city. French officials decided the best defense was to divert the Zeppelin pilots flying overhead at night by offering up a faux city to trick the pilots.

Though radar existed, it wasn’t advanced enough to be useful. All the French had to do was create a pretend city near Paris that looked like the real thing from above. The French designed the phony version just north of the real deal, complete with electric lights, replica buildings, and a train station. There was even a bogus Champs-Elysées.

We will never know if France’s Potemkin village would have worked to save Parisian lives. The war ended before it was complete, and now, only photos remain of the pretend city of lights.^[6]

4 Holland Town in Shanghai

Tourists visiting Shanghai might be surprised to learn there is a replica Dutch town complete with a windmill sitting in the middle of an industrial area in Shanghai. The town was designed to appear as if someone is walking along quaint cobblestone streets in a charming Dutch village—even though it’s located in Shanghai.

Holland Town was part of Shanghai’s One City, Nine Towns initiative. Each town was given a theme and designed to look like a city from a different foreign country. The goal of the project was to develop suburban districts throughout Shanghai to ease overcrowding.

However, these towns did not all prove to be popular living areas for the locals, and tourists visiting Shanghai tended to want to see Asian-themed architecture, restaurants, and attractions, not replicas of cities they may have come from. Only six of the planned villages were built, and like Holland Village, they sat mostly empty, used mainly for couples stopping by for wedding photo shoots. Fortunately, Holland Village has gained some traction and now houses many locals.^[7]

3 Mcity, Ann Arbor, Michigan

How do you test a driverless car? Self-driving cars need to be prepared for all kinds of unpredictable situations, like icy roads, pedestrians crossing the street, and other drivers. Yet, testing autonomous cars in the populated areas they are meant to be driving in could be dangerous. How else do you determine how the cars will perform in real-life situations?

The auto industry has come up with a solution. Build a fake town that recreates a regular American city. Mcity is a testing ground in Michigan used by car companies such as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and General Motors to test self-driving cars. It’s a fake city built with real streets, intersections, traffic lights, road signs, parking meters, and even a railroad crossing. And though we know it exists, and we know car companies use it for testing, it’s still pretty secretive as public demonstrations and visits are generally not allowed.^[8]

2 Ertebat Shar, the Fake Afghan Village in California

Fort Irwin is an army base located in the Mojave Desert. It’s a very large army base, about the size of Rhode Island, and it’s where U.S. soldiers spend a 21-day rotation at the National Training Center. While there, soldiers will visit the fake village of Ertebat Shar to get familiar with what it’s like to operate in an Afghan village.

The pretend village is a replica of an Afghan town populated with actors selling fake bread and meat along the streets. The town was designed using satellite imagery of Baghdad to get the accuracy of the width of actual streets. Though it may look real while you’re walking around in it, from above, it’s plain to see the village is an illusion. A view from the sky shows the buildings are facades held up by wooden frames.^[9]

1 Agloe, New York

The final entry is not a replica town or test site, nor does it exist for propaganda. It’s a paper town or trap town, and it was designed by map makers to catch plagiarists in the act of copying maps.

The city of Agloe was invented by map makers from America’s General Drafting Company to catch competitors who copied their maps. The imaginary town later showed up on a map by Rand McNally. Of course, General Drafting cried plagiarism. But McNally declared Agloe must exist, as there was a business located on the spot bearing the name, Agloe.

Sure enough, the Agloe General Store had been built at the fake location of the made-up town. The owner had seen Agloe on the map and decided to set up shop, despite the complete absence of houses or businesses in the area. Hence, a completely fabricated city became somewhat real, at least for a little while.^[10]