by Sharon Hall | Jan 1, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
The story goes that this Route 66 ghost town got its name in 1883 when the Southern Pacific Railroad named the station after Baghdad, Iraq (sans the “h”) because of its similar inhospitable climate. Curiously, the railroad named two other nearby towns “Siberia” and...
by Sharon Hall | Dec 25, 2013 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
The first mining claim was filed in 1878 in Gila County, Arizona and another one was filed in 1882, but both were invalidated in 1884 when it was found the claims were located within the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. Enterprising miner George B. Chittenden...
by Sharon Hall | Dec 18, 2013 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
Route 66 – it was called “The Mother Road” – stretching from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. The 2448-mile road opened in 1926 and wasn’t completely paved until 1937, crossing eight states and three time zones. The Dust Bowl refugees of John...
by Sharon Hall | Dec 11, 2013 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
The land in Carbon County, Montana which eventually grew into this company mining town was purchased in 1903 by Fred and Annie Bartels. Carbon County had been created out of portions of Park and Yellowstone Counties in 1895, and so named for the rich coal deposits in...
by Sharon Hall | Dec 4, 2013 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
Obadiah Higginbotham and Jonathan Randall and their families moved from Cranston , Rhode Island to the land situated on the outskirts of Pomfret, Connecticut in an area called “Ragged Hills”. Obadiah and Jonathan were both of Welsh descent and named their settlement...
by Sharon Hall | Nov 27, 2013 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
The area around today’s ghost town was settled thousands of years ago. All along the Kodiak Archipelago the Alutiiq people lived, and like most other natives they hunted marine mammals (sea otters) and fished. The community was well organized – men and women both...
