Way back in 2014, during my very first Stateside adventure, I embarked on a long overnight train ride. A ride which ended up taking 16 hours instead of the timetabled 10.5, but it's thanks entirely to the train being ridiculously late en route that I spotted this.
I had not long woken up from my slumber and was looking out the window at the morning light over the countryside of god-knows-where when we started passing a lake. Very pretty I thought, but then after a minute, I noticed something peculiar. The slow train started passing small abandoned wooden shacks almost hidden by undergrowth and, as always, my eyes were immediately on alert for a possible abandonment. I soon began noticing more of the shacks, and then much to my surprise I started seeing big metal trailers, the kind you see all over America in trailer parks except they all looked to date from the 1970s, and all were abandoned. At this point I was wide awake and immediately got out my phone to open the maps app and pin the location down.
I had pretty much forgotten about the place until earlier this year when I realised on my way back east from Detroit we would be passing very close to where I had seen the abandoned trailer park. I mentioned it to my friends who all were up for checking it out as even in America an entire abandoned trailer park is a rarity. I did stress to them that I had no idea if it would even still be there two and a half years after I spotted it but they didn't mind as it wasn't too far out of the way on the long drive back.
We arrived at the location and much to my relief and surprise it looked to still be there, as from where we parked in the old car park I could just make out the first of the wooden shack buildings. The park is situated on a thin strip of land sandwiched between a railway line and the lake and from doing some digging afterwards it appears to have been abandoned mostly in the early 1990s, although some structures showed evidence of occupation into the mid-00s. Presumably it was abandoned because the noise and vibrations from the busy railway line became too unbearable for residents. We were there about an hour and a half and in that time five or six huge freight trains must have rumbled past.
As a bonus, the trailer park also contained an abandoned marina which at one time would have had many boats moored at it. Part of it is partially sunk and the jetties are all slowly rusting away just like everything else.
There are 30 big trailers and about the same number of wooden 'cottages', all in varying states of decay. A couple of the wooden cottages have been burnt out, and a couple of the trailers are little more than metal skeletons but other than that it's a very cool place.
It's places like this, far off the beaten track and American explore 'tour bus' (much the same as we get over here) that make me love my adventures so much more. Even more so in this case considering I'd have never even known it was there if the train was on time.
Thanks for looking, more uploaded here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157683236859765
I had not long woken up from my slumber and was looking out the window at the morning light over the countryside of god-knows-where when we started passing a lake. Very pretty I thought, but then after a minute, I noticed something peculiar. The slow train started passing small abandoned wooden shacks almost hidden by undergrowth and, as always, my eyes were immediately on alert for a possible abandonment. I soon began noticing more of the shacks, and then much to my surprise I started seeing big metal trailers, the kind you see all over America in trailer parks except they all looked to date from the 1970s, and all were abandoned. At this point I was wide awake and immediately got out my phone to open the maps app and pin the location down.
I had pretty much forgotten about the place until earlier this year when I realised on my way back east from Detroit we would be passing very close to where I had seen the abandoned trailer park. I mentioned it to my friends who all were up for checking it out as even in America an entire abandoned trailer park is a rarity. I did stress to them that I had no idea if it would even still be there two and a half years after I spotted it but they didn't mind as it wasn't too far out of the way on the long drive back.
We arrived at the location and much to my relief and surprise it looked to still be there, as from where we parked in the old car park I could just make out the first of the wooden shack buildings. The park is situated on a thin strip of land sandwiched between a railway line and the lake and from doing some digging afterwards it appears to have been abandoned mostly in the early 1990s, although some structures showed evidence of occupation into the mid-00s. Presumably it was abandoned because the noise and vibrations from the busy railway line became too unbearable for residents. We were there about an hour and a half and in that time five or six huge freight trains must have rumbled past.
As a bonus, the trailer park also contained an abandoned marina which at one time would have had many boats moored at it. Part of it is partially sunk and the jetties are all slowly rusting away just like everything else.
There are 30 big trailers and about the same number of wooden 'cottages', all in varying states of decay. A couple of the wooden cottages have been burnt out, and a couple of the trailers are little more than metal skeletons but other than that it's a very cool place.
It's places like this, far off the beaten track and American explore 'tour bus' (much the same as we get over here) that make me love my adventures so much more. Even more so in this case considering I'd have never even known it was there if the train was on time.
Thanks for looking, more uploaded here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157683236859765
