Interstate (Almost) Ghost Town Control Cities.

Started by thenetwork, August 16, 2022, 05:21:21 PM

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thenetwork

From Grand Junction, there are still one or two I-70 West BGS that still use Green River, UT as the official control city.

Green River has a BL-70 routed through the town along the old US-6/50/191 alignment, with several fuel, food and lodging options at each exit.

However, if you travel BL-70 into the center of Green River, you'll quickly notice that it quickly looks like a few steps ahead of a ghost town.  There are so many abandoned building ranging from gas, food and lodging facilities that operated decades ago to abandoned banks, bars and hardware stores.

Honestly, the only thing that keeps this town afloat is that it is pretty much the only traveler's services area within a 60-mile plus radius -- 100+ if you stay on I-70 west and the melon crops that are grown there.

What other interstate control cities are either on life support or simply ghost towns?

I have another one in mind, but let's see how quickly someone else names it...


Max Rockatansky

Green River isn't a ghost town nor really meets any accepted definition of one unless you are also counting Elgin siding.  Having managed a ghost town site in the past the generally accepted definition of ghost town tends to be one of the following:

-  A total ghost town completely void of population (like Giles on UT 24).
-  A community which has almost totally declined from it's peak population and has only a handful of residents left (Thompson Springs and Cisco tend to be on this list for I-70).
-  A dead or nearly dead community has been absorbed into a city (like Elgin).

Green River is actually not too far from the peak population the community had through the 1960s-1980s.  I would be interested to see if we can get a good example going, but Green River really going to pass muster.

US 89

Quote from: thenetwork on August 16, 2022, 05:21:21 PM
I have another one in mind, but let's see how quickly someone else names it...

Tucumcari, NM?

Limon is small, but hasn't really declined in the same way Tucumcari has.

TheHighwayMan3561

self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

ilpt4u


SkyPesos


lepidopteran

Are there any control-city BGSs on the eastern I-76 listing Lodi, OH (population around 2700)?

US 89


thenetwork

Quote from: lepidopteran on August 16, 2022, 11:42:48 PM
Are there any control-city BGSs on the eastern I-76 listing Lodi, OH (population around 2700)?

Once you get out of the Akron/Barberton area, it's just Lodi on WB I-76/US-224.   But Lodi has been consistently your Smalltown USA village.   Compared to Green River in my OP, there you don't see an unusually high abundance of abandonment in Lodi -- except, perhaps, by the Outlet Stores at OH-83.

thenetwork

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on August 16, 2022, 05:39:46 PM
Green River isn't a ghost town nor really meets any accepted definition of one unless you are also counting Elgin siding.  Having managed a ghost town site in the past the generally accepted definition of ghost town tends to be one of the following:

-  A total ghost town completely void of population (like Giles on UT 24).
-  A community which has almost totally declined from it's peak population and has only a handful of residents left (Thompson Springs and Cisco tend to be on this list for I-70).
-  A dead or nearly dead community has been absorbed into a city (like Elgin).

Green River is actually not too far from the peak population the community had through the 1960s-1980s.  I would be interested to see if we can get a good example going, but Green River really going to pass muster.

I agree to disagree with you to a point.  The only thing that's keeping the majority of the population staying in Green River is the interstate traffic and the needs of the travelers -- gas, food and lodging, because that is what a lot of their population works.  And that is what is vibrant on both ends of BL-70 through town. The middle 2-3 miles of BL-70 through the original part of town has more closed, boarded-up and crumbling buildings than open ones. 

Do a Google Street View through town, and look at all the decay that still stands.  It may not be a ghost town, nor a zero population town, but it is certainly a town that if it weren't for travelers coming by on I-70, they really don't have an other year-round industry to fall back on -- Especially when the next sizeable cities are 50+ miles away.

skluth

Quote from: thenetwork on August 17, 2022, 09:57:29 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on August 16, 2022, 05:39:46 PM
Green River isn't a ghost town nor really meets any accepted definition of one unless you are also counting Elgin siding.  Having managed a ghost town site in the past the generally accepted definition of ghost town tends to be one of the following:

-  A total ghost town completely void of population (like Giles on UT 24).
-  A community which has almost totally declined from it's peak population and has only a handful of residents left (Thompson Springs and Cisco tend to be on this list for I-70).
-  A dead or nearly dead community has been absorbed into a city (like Elgin).

Green River is actually not too far from the peak population the community had through the 1960s-1980s.  I would be interested to see if we can get a good example going, but Green River really going to pass muster.

I agree to disagree with you to a point.  The only thing that's keeping the majority of the population staying in Green River is the interstate traffic and the needs of the travelers -- gas, food and lodging, because that is what a lot of their population works.  And that is what is vibrant on both ends of BL-70 through town. The middle 2-3 miles of BL-70 through the original part of town has more closed, boarded-up and crumbling buildings than open ones. 

Do a Google Street View through town, and look at all the decay that still stands. It may not be a ghost town, nor a zero population town, but it is certainly a town that if it weren't for travelers coming by on I-70, they really don't have an other year-round industry to fall back on -- Especially when the next sizeable cities are 50+ miles away.

Highlight mine. When you say the only thing keeping people in a town, you are agreeing that people are staying; that means it's not a ghost town by definition. Is it a town that has seen better days? Yes. That doesn't make it a ghost town because it's the same level of past glory with abandoned buildings like other older cities from Youngstown OH to Lafayette LA. And this part of Main St looks fine for any Great Basin town.

Decay ≠ ghost town

hbelkins

Quote from: thenetwork on August 16, 2022, 05:21:21 PM

I have another one in mind, but let's see how quickly someone else names it...

Breezewood? It's no secret it's a shell of its former self.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: thenetwork on August 17, 2022, 09:57:29 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on August 16, 2022, 05:39:46 PM
Green River isn't a ghost town nor really meets any accepted definition of one unless you are also counting Elgin siding.  Having managed a ghost town site in the past the generally accepted definition of ghost town tends to be one of the following:

-  A total ghost town completely void of population (like Giles on UT 24).
-  A community which has almost totally declined from it's peak population and has only a handful of residents left (Thompson Springs and Cisco tend to be on this list for I-70).
-  A dead or nearly dead community has been absorbed into a city (like Elgin).

Green River is actually not too far from the peak population the community had through the 1960s-1980s.  I would be interested to see if we can get a good example going, but Green River really going to pass muster.

I agree to disagree with you to a point.  The only thing that's keeping the majority of the population staying in Green River is the interstate traffic and the needs of the travelers -- gas, food and lodging, because that is what a lot of their population works.  And that is what is vibrant on both ends of BL-70 through town. The middle 2-3 miles of BL-70 through the original part of town has more closed, boarded-up and crumbling buildings than open ones. 

Do a Google Street View through town, and look at all the decay that still stands.  It may not be a ghost town, nor a zero population town, but it is certainly a town that if it weren't for travelers coming by on I-70, they really don't have an other year-round industry to fall back on -- Especially when the next sizeable cities are 50+ miles away.

But a town with a tick under 1,000 residents and still close to 90% it's peak population is not a ghost town make.  The decayed parts or Green River are largely tied to the 1880s railroad siding of the community.  How many cities founded as railroad sidings in general are still thriving in their plotted core?  Elgin across the Green River is far closer to being actually dead.

US 89

Elgin is dead because the current business route bypasses it to the north.

Henry

Quote from: SkyPesos on August 16, 2022, 10:19:26 PM
I-75, I-94, I-96: Detroit

(/s)
While it's true that Detroit has lost half the population for several years (as have Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, etc.), the fact remains that it's still the largest city in MI by a long shot.
Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today!

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: Henry on August 17, 2022, 12:54:53 PM
Quote from: SkyPesos on August 16, 2022, 10:19:26 PM
I-75, I-94, I-96: Detroit

(/s)
While it's true that Detroit has lost half the population for several years (as have Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, etc.), the fact remains that it's still the largest city in MI by a long shot.

More like two thirds.  Definitely not a ghost town, but Detroit is unmatched for ruins porn and urban exploration.

Rothman

Quote from: US 89 on August 17, 2022, 12:12:52 PM
Elgin is dead because the current business route bypasses it to the north.
No.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

SouthEast176

#17
Ludlow, CA appeared on a mileage sign from I 40 although it isn't the primary control city nor does it appears on a BGS

hotdogPi

Not quite a ghost town, but rather a place that never existed to begin with:
Quote from: cjk374 on March 27, 2011, 10:36:27 PM
I can't believe I forgot this one:  on I-20 here in Louisiana, the control point for exit 78 is "Industry".  There is a glass plant, machine shop, particle board plant, and 2 closed down Weyerhaeuser plants (LVL/I-joist mill and a lam-beam plant). 

Nov. 30, 1996, a tornado hit us here in Simsboro.  It went over the school, ripped the bricks off of the glass plant (not breaking a single mason jar  :wow:) and went over I-20, turning over an 18-wheeler and an RV, and destroying the BGS at the exit ramp.  The local fish wrap (The Ruston Daily Disappointment  :sombrero: ) refered to this area as the "community of Industry".  I don't know why, but it was fingernails on a chalkboard to me.  I wanted to find the writer of the story and just   :pan: :pan: :pan:

GSV of I-20 BGS, since it wasn't in the quote:
https://goo.gl/maps/xnJaycUqzvnUeCQa9

Yes, I know this isn't actually a control city, but rather an exit sign. But since there are probably zero examples in existence in the US that the OP wanted, we have to stretch things a bit.
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jaehak

Hennepin?

I was recently in St Joseph, MO and the downtown there certainly qualifies

US 89

Quote from: Rothman on August 17, 2022, 04:15:36 PM
Quote from: US 89 on August 17, 2022, 12:12:52 PM
Elgin is dead because the current business route bypasses it to the north.
No.

Uhhh....yeah. If the road through town still went through Elgin all of those hotels and whatever else east of the river would be down there.

keithvh

Quote from: US 89 on August 17, 2022, 12:31:08 AM
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on August 16, 2022, 10:04:34 PM
Elko, NV?

Elko has 20,000 people and increasing in the city proper. It's doing fine.

Yeah - Elko, is actually thriving (in a relative sense).

It's the biggest city for 140 miles around, there's a lot of mining opportunities nearby and those pay relatively well, there's a lot of recreation in the increasingly popular nearby Ruby Mountains, there's a significant Basque community that has settled in the city and they host a big Basque festival every year, and their are a number of "governmental" institutions (a National Weather Service office, the Northern Nevada community college) that provide a steady-state number of decently paying jobs.

Elko's not going to hit 100,000 population anytime soon, but it has absolutely no chance of becoming a ghost town soon either.

kirbykart

Quote from: jaehak on August 18, 2022, 12:16:58 PM
Hennepin?

I was recently in St Joseph, MO and the downtown there certainly qualifies
To be fair, what else could you sign?

US 89

Quote from: kirbykart on October 03, 2022, 09:44:09 AM
Quote from: jaehak on August 18, 2022, 12:16:58 PM
Hennepin?

I was recently in St Joseph, MO and the downtown there certainly qualifies
To be fair, what else could you sign?

Peoria

paulthemapguy

I don't think we're going to dig up any actual ghost towns marked as Interstate control cities.  So we can probably give that a rest.  There might be a discussion about which Interstate control cities are relative ghost towns.  But we'd have to decide if a relative ghost town is defined by a small population or a declining population (probably the latter).
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