Friday, February 15, 2019

Collecting Ghost Towns

(My apologies, since this is a longer than usual post, the photos might take a minute to load.)

Ghost towns! The very name evokes images of abandoned mining towns in the Old West, with dilapidated buildings lining the deserted Main Street, where once gun-slingers faced off and fought their battles.

Classic ghost towns often exist in frontier or mining areas, but in fact they are everywhere; they abound in all states and all countries. You likely drive past them without realizing that something different once existed there. In a more general sense, we all live upon layers of civilization—that is why we have archaeologists.

Defining the term “ghost town” is complicated. There are two major types: 1) the classic ghost towns which were simply abandoned and whose decaying sites you can visit, and 2) places whose original names are no longer in use—places renamed or merged with another city.

As a collector, I like to gather objects marked with the names of ghost towns, and made when those places were still populated and active. What follows is a sampling of the variety of items that survive to document communities that have otherwise disappeared.


Udell, Pennsylvania:

Mining can be thirsty work, as this bottle from the Udell ghost town testifies.

The Western United States is famous for its mines, but mines existed everywhere, including the coal mines in the Eastern part of the country. Many of these mining towns are now abandoned, such as Udell, Pennsylvania, from whence came this Byers Brothers bottle that once held beer or mineral water. Because it was not made in an automatic bottle-making machine, it likely dates from the 1890’s or possibly around the year 1900.



Old Letters from Ghost Towns:
Many communities that became ghost towns were too small to manufacture goods with their names on them, but the pioneers were active letter writers, and early letters and documents are fertile areas to look for lost place names.

In Cleveland, Ohio City is a west-side neighborhood replete with history and old architecture. However, Ohio City was once an actual, independent city, that officially ceased to exist when it merged with rival Cleveland in 1854. Here is an old letter from 1846 with the official Ohio City postmark, and another letter mailed from Connecticut in 1852 to one William L. Foote of Ohio City:
1846 letter with Ohio City postmark.

1852 letter mailed to Ohio City.

While the name of Ohio City may still be familiar, few have even heard of Charleston, Ohio, the original name of the city of Lorain, now a steel town to the west of Cleveland. Information is indeed scarce concerning early Charleston, a small boat-building center on the Black River in Lorain County.

The village of Charleston was so unlucky and floundering that it decided to jettison its very name, and rename itself after the county in which it was located. Here is part of a legal document form 1863 which reads: “Described as follows being lot Seventy in the Village Plot of Charleston in the said Black River Township.”

This Charleston document actually counts as a double-ghost town item, because Black River Township itself is now extinct, a process described in more detail below.

In 1855, a suspension railway bridge was built across the Niagara River near the Falls, connecting the United States and Canada. On the U.S. side, the village of Suspension Bridge, New York quickly grew up, where in 1870 grocer Thomas Vedder made out this invoice. His handwriting is rather difficult, but I can spot  sugar, beets, raisins, and vinegar among the line items.
If blogger Mariette is reading this, please note the name of the grocer!

Interestingly, the bill is made out to Devaux Coledge, which is actually Deveaux College, initially a charity and later a preparatory school near Niagara Falls, which only closed in 1972. Suspension Bridge the village ceased to exist when it merged into the U.S. city of Niagara Falls in 1892, and the bridge itself was torn down in 1897.



A lithographed view of the actual Suspension Bridge below Niagara Falls, courtesy of Wikipedia.
 
While some localities take pride in their odd names, some former place names were discarded because of their meaning or peculiar sound. During World War I, many American places with German names renamed themselves out of patriotism. Among these was New Berlin, Ohio, home of the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner company.

“Boss” Hoover himself was behind the movement to change the city name to North Canton, which officially took place in January, 1918. That is why this order confirmation from Hoover, dated March, 1918 is rather odd. The New Berlin name is repeated five times on the form and envelope! The Hoover company might have wanted to use up its old stationery (although after all his bombast, Boss Hoover could have sprung for some fresh printing). Even the postmark is still New Berlin—how hard could it have been for the post office to order a new rubber stamp?

If New Berlin changed to North Canton in January 1918, why were the envelope and postmark still using the former name in March?

I remember North Canton well, because when I was young we used to drive through North Canton and past the Hoover Factory when visiting my grandparents living in Canton, Ohio.

The classy-sounding Bluemont, Virginia only sprang into existence in 1900. Before that it was called Snickersville (and even earlier, Snickers’ Gap) after Edward Snickers, a ferry operator on the Shenandoah River. If Dr. Turner wanted to live in a tonier sounding city, he still had to wait ten more years when he wrote this letter in 1890.

Snickersville was still a more memorable name than Bluemont!

Defunct Post Offices:
In the 19th century, as the population pushed west, the Postal Service was hard pressed to keep up with the new centers of population. Many branch offices in out-of-the-way locales later closed when area became a ghost town or the population shifted, and are now known as Discontinued Post Offices, or DPO’s.

It is sometimes difficult to know the relationship between settlement names and post office names, and how one influenced the other. Here is an 1840 letter addressed from Cleveland to the defunct Jay Post Office near Huron in Erie County. The letter inside is quite interesting, and will form the subject of a future post.

It is difficult to research the Jay Post Office, but it was there in 1840 to receive this letter.
  
The post office at Parisville existed from 1827 to 1890, but in 1846 when this letter was mailed, it was apparently did not have a cancellation stamp, so a handwritten cancellation was used instead. Parisville Post Office served Paris Township in Portage County, but the township is pretty empty today. However, small places do not imply that little of interest happened there, and this letter is also worthy of a post on its own.

In 1846, naming a wilderness town after glamorous Paris or Rome showed big dreaming.

Extinct Townships:
Now we come to perhaps the lowest level of ghost town, the extinct township. In Ohio and other places with the township system (every state has its own rules), the entire state is divided into counties, which are further subdivided into townships, which contain the land. If a community forms within the township, it can incorporate as a village, and later grow into a city.

A township provides services and has officials, but after all of the land in a township in assimilated into villages and cities, the township becomes extinct and is said to be a Paper Township, and basically becomes just an historical place name without any real official meaning or duties. The Black River Township mentioned above is a paper township in Lorain County.
   
Warrensville township was settled by Daniel Warren, son of Moses Warren who gave his name to the city of Warren in eastern Ohio.

Another extinct township is Warrensville Township in Cuyahoga County. This township is of particular interest to me because that is the area where I was born and grew up, in the Village of Beachwood, which was incorporated in Warrensville Township in 1915. This somewhat earlier 1833 letter to Mr. Leonard Paige was simply addressed to Warrensville, Ohio, a rather large place, but sparsely settled at that time.    

Territories later renamed:

Dakota Territory.

The United States started out as the original thirteen colonies, and as the country gained land, the population moved west into what were officially territories that eventually would form one or more states. Items marked with the names of defunct territories are of interest.

This 1882 letter from the town of Bridgewater hailed from Dakota Territory, or D.T. At the top of the letter it is spelled out Dakota Ter., but the postmark goes with a succinct DAK. No mention of North or South, but Bridgewater ended up in South Dakota, and is still located there. However, there is today no such place as Bridgewater, Dakota Territory.

Ghost Towns on Documents:
Although they may today be empty fields and woods, or submerged under a new name, ghost towns were real places, with normal people and business in them who left behind a paper trail which can still be followed today.

Here is an unused check from 1880’s, printed by the Day Mining Company in the long-defunct mining town of Royal City, Nevada. Royal City is also a double-ghost town, because it was renamed Jackrabbit in the 1890’s, but even that was not a lucky charm;  the town was eventually abandoned completely, and is now just a mass of collapsed buildings.

The high hopes indicated by the regal name of Royal City did not pan out.

Chicago, Ohio fared better with its name change. On the same railroad line as Chicago, Illinois, some confusion naturally resulted, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad requested a name change. Chicago, Ohio promptly obliged by renaming the village Willard after Daniel Willard, the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The people in Chicago, Ohio knew on which side their bread was buttered. Obviously, Chicago, Ohio was already a smart place, because in 1898 the Huron County Teachers’ Institute held its annual meeting there:

Chicago, Ohio gave Chicago, Illinois some competition for a while.
 
Photographs:
Some people today make it a hobby to visit and photograph the sites of ghost towns, but I prefer photos taken when the towns were still inhabited, or at least those taken shortly after the town’s demise.

This photograph comes from Tacoma, W.T. (Washington Territory), before Washington became a state in 1889, but shows a civilized mother and her young son all dressed up for the occasion at William P. Jackson’s photographic studio, which seemed to have the same basic props and backgrounds as any studio back in ‘civilization.’
Washington Territory—the Pioneers evidently clung to the proprieties.

Even in pioneer towns, daily life went on and kids had to go to school. Here is a photo of the schoolhouse in the now-ghost town of Edith, Texas. I like the variety of subtexts in this 1913 photo—the guy goofing off with his arm around the stern-looking old man, presumably his grandfather; the boy with a protective arm around his little sister, the man at the right who looks bored with it all, and the obedient dog who knows how to pose for the photographer.

Probably most of the former population of Edith, Texas turned out for this photo.
 
Photographs are also good at revealing what we think of as the true derelict ghost town with decaying buildings. Take a look at these 1927 pictures of Scotia, Pennsylvania, a mining town that had obviously been abandoned some time before, and with Pennsylvania’s winters, was probably not much longer for this world.

Ruined houses in the abandoned town of Scotia, Pennsylvania.

The old mill at Scotia.

An ore pit at Scotia, the reason for the town’s existence.

Miscellaneous:
Many towns sprang into existence as mining or logging camps, lasting as long as the natural resources held out, and then quickly abandoned. Often these companies paid the workers in scrip, a kind of token that was only redeemable at the Company Store of legend, so that the company further profited from its workers. Some of these scrip systems cheated the workers, but I have read that others were fair.

I like the appropriate pine tree on this 5-cent token form the Kinzua Pine Mills.
Kinzua, Oregon (named after Kinzua in Pennsylvania) was a sizeable logging community for many years. When the company did not want it any more, it simply bulldozed the townsite and planted it with new trees for future harvesting. Thus Kinzua is a literal application of the phrase “dust to dust” or at least “trees to trees.”

Pioneer territories, logging camps, and coal mines might give the impression that these ghost towns were rough-and-ready places, with little evidence of civilization. However, that was simply not the case, as letters, artifacts and memories amply show.

In the Victorian period it was popular for businesses, even those in the Wild West, to give out colorful lithographed trade cards, often later given to children and pasted into scrapbooks. The Winsor House hotel in Huron, D.T. (Dakota Territory) gave away this humorous example. Huron, like Bridgewater above, later became part of South Dakota.

The joke is explained in faint letters at the bottom: A Cold Water Man.

Some Victorian trade cards were fancier and better printed than the Winsor House one.

Kittitass (now usually spelled Kittitas) County was the location of Burge.

As printed at the bottom, this advertisement for Dr. Jayne’s Expectorant was given away by the postmaster at Burge, Kittitass County, Washington Territory. Apparently, Dr. Jayne's medicines were insufficient to save Burge, as research reveals that the post office at Burge was active only from 1883 to 1888, which fairly well dates the card, and that George W. Pressy was the postmaster referred to. The location of Burge within Washington Territory makes this yet another double-ghost town item.

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The ancient Egyptians believed that people and their souls were immortal as long as their names were repeated, and this appears to be true of places as well. Exciting novels and films give us one view of the stirring and sometimes lawless life in these forgotten towns, but actual artifacts give us a truer picture of how real people once congregated and lived their daily lives there, working and making plans for the future.

The fact that people blazoned these objects with the name of their community means that those names will never entirely be forgotten. We all have a strong sense of place, and it is this that gives ruins and extinct towns their pathos and interest. Have you ever visited a ghost town or heard of one in your area? No matter where you live, you are probably within a stone’s throw of a ghost town!



(All photos and original items, except for the lithograph of the Suspension Bridge from Wikipedia, are the property of the author.)



36 comments:

  1. What a fascinating thing to collect! It would never have occurred to me. We have many ghost towns in Canada too. In my own lifetime, I've seen small villages and hamlets on the prairies dwindle away to nothing and achieve ghost town status. My father was born near a village in southwestern Manitoba that now no longer exists except in historical records and in the fading memories of people.

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    1. Hello Debra, I imagine that Canada, with its open spaces and its mining and logging operations, would have generated many ghost towns. I am not sure whether I have anything in this line from Canada--this involves checking every small town with which you are not familiar.

      Interesting about your father--I know that there are websites devoted to photos and memories of these disappearing towns, either for one town or all the ghost towns in a region. --Jim

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  2. Dearest Jim,
    That was a very interesting post and by surprise, stumbling here upon the name Vedder!
    There are many in the US and in Canada as we have quite often checked the phone books at hotels and always found Vedder listings.
    As for the items purchased back in 1870 at Thomas Vedder's grocery store, we both peered over the name that appears under 'Raisins' and it looks like beginning with a B and ending with a small 'L' but the word before it, there is no way. What a puzzle this remains!
    We do have lots of ghost towns or hamlets that completely deteriorated. We often wonder why they never did anything about saving it, or some of it. Especially when not taking the Interstate for traveling, you come across such sections. Certain industries ceased to exist and so did the homes...
    Thanks for sharing this and I wish we could have helped you decipher this grocery list puzzle.
    Hugs,
    Mariette & Pieter

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    1. Hello Mariette and Pieter, Yes, I have come across the name Vedder a few times, although it is by no means a common name in the U.S. As you often state, the Dutch had a widespread influence. I have found my own surname on a number of old items, and they are fun to add into the collection.

      The Vedder grocery list was just a close-up of a much longer list. Those poor students had to eat a lot of beets! I tried looking at the entry between raisins and vinegar and perhaps it is "syrup barrel"? Although $1 seems too cheap for a full barrel and a little pricey for an empty one--I guess it depends on the size.

      The thing to do with bad handwriting is to read as many words as you can, then you get familiar with it and can start to make out some other words, but often you are left with a lot of mysteries. My own handwriting is worse than this, so I shouldn't be the one to complain!
      --Jim

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  3. I can understand that during and immediately after the brutal WW1, many American places with German names would want to get rename their towns and wipe out any reminder of the enemy. And if my town was the home of the booming Hoover Vacuum Cleaner company, I would particularly not like the name New Berlin, Ohio.

    So now items marked with the names of defunct town and territories are of great interest, espcially in auction houses.

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    1. Hello Hels, Another reason little towns changed their name to things like North Canton or East Cleveland was for business. As Mr. Hoover pointed out, few people knew where New Berlin was, but Canton was well known, so people had an idea where their product was shipping from, or if their representative was going to be in the area.

      If a seller points out the history or features of an item, of course the price goes up. The trick is to do your own research, and then you can pick up bargains. However, a place's continued existence can produce a collector base--for instance, Kalamazoo's better items are very pricey for a city of that size and type, because collectors from Kalamazoo compete to collect that city's history.
      --Jim

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    2. Note: East Canton name changed from Osnaberg at time of WWI

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    3. Hello Anonymous, So sorry that your comment got lost. Yes, Osnaburg did indeed change to East Canton, although the Osnaburg name can still be found in the region. I have been to Canton many times, but I have not gotten yet to East Canton, even thoughI want to explore there because there are still some attractive historic buildings remaining from its Osnaburg era. Thanks for pointing this out. --Jim

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    4. You are right about WWI, but I decided to check the exact date. The Osnaburg post office ran from 1827 to 1918 (until 1891 spelled Osnaburgh), and the East Canton post office opened in 1918, so the same time as the change from New Berlin to North Canton. --Jim

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  4. Hello Jim - Ghost Towns often represent a sad human phenomenon when you consider the lives that once shared that space together, and the circumstances which likely bought about the town's decline. However, it is something that historically has always happened. One only has to think about to the various ancient civilisations that once flourished successfully in different parts of
    the world.
    Here, we tend to have what are known as 'lost villages' especially in the Highlands and Islands due to the infamous Scottish Clearances during the 18th century. All that remains of many of them are piles of stones now overgrown with moss. The same is true of some Welsh and Yorkshire valley mining areas once the mines were shut down.
    This post reminded my husband of a visit he made to Cape Verde soon after its independence from Portugal. He sent a post card which bore a Portuguese postage stamp, as no stamps had yet been issued for Cape Verde itself. If we could find it then maybe that would be considered collectible.
    I think that it is rather special that you collect ephemera relating to the 'ghost towns' in the States - good luck with your continued collection. It is a fascinating subject to collect.

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    1. Hello Rosemary, England is certainly famous for its layers of civilization. Roman England alone is endlessly fascinating. I have several books on Roman Britain, and they are one of the reasons I wish I could spend several years in England to visit these spots. There are professional books like those by archaeologist Ivor Noel Hume, and less serious efforts such as some of E.F. Benson's fictional characters who collect Roman pottery with questionable results. I have read too of the various events that affected Scotland and Ireland, and these all leave their physical remnants. And all this doesn't even begin to touch on the Anglo-Saxon era!

      As often revealed in your blog, British ancient sites have a special verdant beauty, so different from the look of Wild West ghost towns or the bare rock and marble of the Classical world.

      Your Cape Verde postcard is a perfect example of recording an historical transition through an artifact. We can read of Cape Berde's history, but the postcard brings the event to life, as well as records some of the practical considerations that surrounded the event. --Jim

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  5. What a very interesting and informative post Jim! Are those fabulous old letters in your own collection?
    This reminds of my own favourite post on my To Discover Ice. (Which you commented on over two years ago!): https://todiscoverice.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-wonderful-story-of-agloe-new-york.html

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    1. Hello Bazza, Yes, I remember that post, and it is the opposite and perfect complement to this one. Instead of real towns becoming imaginary, it is the story of how an imaginary town became real, but then faded away again!

      If people missed that Agloe blog, they should take a look at it now.
      --Jim

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  6. Hello, Jim,

    I've always wanted to visit a ghost town, but never had that pleasure. Maybe "pleasure" isn't the right word, but I imagine enjoying the eeriness of the atmosphere. As someone who's interested in architecture, I've always looked at the false store fronts of those towns as both bravado and pathos.

    On another note, I just afixed a Star Trek postage stamp to a letter. On the other hand, your posting depicts five different stamps, and they're all of George Washington. What a difference in times.

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    1. Hello Mark, There are ghost towns in Florida, but you really missed your chance when you were in Pennsylvania, which has lots of them. Even Scotia, in this post, I believe is due north of Pittsburgh. Although false fronts characterize ghost towns, you can also commonly see them on small town Main streets, and even on modern buildings.

      Leave it to you to notice all the Washington stamps, which I never thought about when compiling these pictures. The invoice and land document stamps are revenue stamps, not postage stamps, but feature Washington just the same. The letter mailed from South Glastenbury to Ohio City in May of 1852 has a three-cent stamp, an early use since the three-cent stamp was only introduced late in 1851. --Jim

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  7. Hello Jim,
    What a fascinating post! I've typically associated ghost towns with the abandoned settlements of the western frontier of the US. Then I discovered we have one about an hour north of where we live in Massachusetts. It's called Dogtown on Cape Ann near the fishing ports of Rockport and Gloucester. Settled in 1693 and then vacated around 1830, there are no living survivors although stories still circulate. There are no structures remaining, just plenty of boulders left during the glacial Ice Age and over 3000 acres of hiking trails. Interesting, there are numbered markers for the cellar holes of the original settlers. It was formerly called "The Commons" and earned its strange moniker from the dogs that women kept while their husbands fought in the American Revolution.
    Best,
    Karen

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    1. Hello Karen, How lucky you are to live near historic Cape Ann, a place I have always wanted to visit. I have many photos of historic buildings from that area. I read more about Dogtown and would love to explore around there. In the place where I grew up, there were some wooded areas with many of those old cellar holes, which always fascinated me. I looked them up on old plat maps from the 19th century, which showed the house and building locations that corresponded to all those cellar holes. It really brings history to life when you can associate names of people with those meager remains of their dwellings. --Jim

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  8. MY parents were married in VIRGINIA CITY, NEVADA!A GHOST TOWN NOW FOR SURE!
    I live about 4 hours away from the NEVADA GHOST TOWNS.........as a child I LOVED VISITING THEM and was so fascinated with them!My first collection was OLD BOTTLES!!!!!!!!
    THANK YOU for sending I red flagged YOU than it got BURIED in all the other emails!!!

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    1. Hello Contessa, Nevada ghost towns are classic because there you can see the remains, often substantial, whereas in the East there may be nothing but the cellar holes that Karen mentioned. Besides, in the Western ghost towns you can dream about finding lost treasure! You were very lucky to be withing driving distance--do you still have your bottle collection?

      Virginia City is one of the most interesting of these towns, because in its heyday there really were a lot of important people and events there, and it is even the setting for Mark Twain's enjoyable novel Roughing It. --Jim

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  9. What an interesting thing to collect - I never heard of anyone else doing it. I wonder what gave you the idea. Here in Britain we have abandoned villages, but they usually date from medieval or earlier times, so didn't have the luxury of postal stamps or grocers shops that issued bills. I am not sure there are many places which have been abandoned. Some of our counties have been renamed or merged into others, a few decades ago when there was a local government reorganisation. I get the impression that settlement names are quite important here. Anyway, thanks for a fascinating post!

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    1. Hello Jenny, I love finding out the history both of places and of things that I have collected. When the places turn out to be ghost towns, that makes it doubly interesting.

      I am sure that London must have absorbed many smaller towns, the way Cleveland did with Ohio City and other places, so those British towns would quality as ghost towns if you could find something marked with their names before they merged with London. Great Britain has so much history that you could choose a spot at random and uncover a fascinating story. --JIm

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  10. Your collection is great. People have kept economic development by way of scrap and build, with their glittering eyes to fortune. I reminded of "My lost city" by Fitzgerald.

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    1. Hello rtc, You are right that people are equally as likely to scrap as to build--but when it comes to scrapping an entire city, it does get rather strange. I am adding "My Lost City" to my list of books to look for next summer. I see it is a collection of essays, and essays are my favorite form of reading! --Jim

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  11. March has come.
    故人西辭黃鶴樓 煙花三月下揚州 This is one of my favorite poems. The city Yangzhou in Tang dynasty is under the ground now, having been covered with earth and sand carried by rivers. Old Yangzhou city is a ghost town in our memories.
    Have a nice weekend.

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    1. Hello rtc, Yes, March (representing early spring) is a special month. The earliest spring flowers are often solitary, but as spring advances the effect of 煙花 (a mist of flowers is one possible translation; "fireworks" is perhaps a little too powerful for this gentle season)is seen in many flowers filling in the bare branches, especially the rose-type flowers, such as roses, cherries, apples, blackberries, etc.

      There is an prehistoric aboriginal site very near where I live in Taipei, where pottery and stone tools were found from this earlier civilization. --Jim

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  12. 我佩服你。我没想到你對日本歷史這麼精通。

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    1. Hello rtc, You are too kind! Japan has a long and interesting history, as all of your posts on your blog amply demonstrate to us! --Jim

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  13. 清明時節雨紛紛 How is the weather in Taipei now? I wonder you would be enjoying cherry blossoms now. 年年歲歲花相似 歲歲年年人不同 Ephemeral matters always make us think about eternity as well as instant. Time has passed 1000 years. We still have the same emotion toward our lives with those in Tang dynasty. Let's enjoy today as Chinese say 今朝有酒今朝醉.

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    1. Hello rtc, We did have a few days of springlike weather, but now it is raining again. Actually, this spring has been quite hectic, with little time for poetic thoughts, other than when looking at your blog. I do have some new posts planned, a little different from earlier ones, and perhaps will have time to write one up next week. --Jim

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  14. Your tin foil covered laptop lead me here. Very interesting post and very well researched. When I think of ghost towns I do think of the western states. You make a good point about many types of ghost places. We have ghost shopping malls. Often they are eventually torn down. Recently I discovered via google maps the location "Hell for Certain" in KY. It doesn't seem to have become a village or town but there is a road and creek with that name.

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    1. Hello Bill, Thank you for your nice remarks. We've had a few of those ghost shopping malls near Cleveland, and you are right, they either get torn down or turned into Amazon distribution centers. Your comment about Hell for Certain, KY, reminded me of a similar river-with-settlement called River Styx, Ohio, which while small, is still very much there! --Jim

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  15. I too just landed here following your most amazing tin foil hat from Debra's place. Your blog looks good too! I will be back to have another look-see. I enjoy ghosts so this should be fun.

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    1. Hello Ur-spo, A thousand pardons! I try to respond to comments the same day, but sometimes Blogger sends comments to a weird comment-limbo without informing me, so I never saw this until just now. If you enjoy ghosts, you might like my Halloween article, especially the (true) part titled "The Ghost in the Attic."

      https://roadtoparnassus.blogspot.com/2017/10/halloween-on-hemlock-lane.html

      --Jim

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  16. Hi. How have you been? We have a long holiday of ten successive days now in Japan. You may see more tourists from Japan in Taipei.Are you still busy in business? Please take care. 台灣能看見日式鯉魚旗嗎?The tale of 登龍門 was introduced into Japan. After that, May 5th was thought as a special day of wishing young boys healthy growing and a successful future.

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    1. Hello rtc, I live near the section of Taipei where Japanese businessmen go, so I see lots of people from your country. I have not seen any carp banners recently, although I don't get out too much these days. I don't know that we especially celebrate Children's (or Boys') Day here, but by coincidence I am preparing some gifts for some young friends, so we can call it a double celebration. --Jim

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I would love to know what you think. Please feel free to comment--no tricky security words required! Any difficulties or questions, email at: clavicytherium@yahoo.com