I’m fascinated by ghost towns and disused structures. In this vein, several years ago my wife and I visited the Skeleton Coast of Namibia (in Southwest Africa), littered by numerous vessels shipwrecked by rocks and fogs. Onshore, the ghost town of Klomanskop, once a thriving diamond mining center, beckoned visitors. In its heyday, the town featured a butcher, a baker, a post office, and an ice factory, and European opera groups came to perform sporadically. After the mines were depleted, the population left in droves and by the mid-1950s, the town was completely abandoned. According to a National Geographic Travel report by Paul Cooper, the dunes that once rolled over the railway tracks now burst through the ghost town’s doors and porches, filling its rooms with smooth banks of sand.
Here in Rappahannock County, VA, where we have settled since March, the mainstay of economic activity continues to be traditional agriculture and cattle and sheep farming, despite the emergence of boutique organic farms, orchards and wineries. Alongside working farms, barns and silos, the landscape is dotted with charming disused structures reminiscent of the days of yore.
