Just a few years ago there was a lot more there, I think the increased interest after Silent Hill drove all but the last few residents out. The government took down all their monitoring stuff, the mine fire sign, etc. and when the last guy on Locust street finally left last year, the bench and veterans memorial got torn out too, he was the only one maintaining them. Route 61 is COVERED in graffiti now. To really appreciate it now you have to read some of the books about the history of the fire, or if you drove through Ashland picture those dense row house streets on the empty land of Centralia, cause those towns were identical before.

Anyway if anyone is interested here's what it looked like in 2006
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/sets/72157608316423004/
One less house left in 2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/sets/72157608325357616/
Last time before the Locust street house was demolished in 2009, and one of the mine portals
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/sets/72157616004133719/
I need to put up some more recent pics, hm. Anyway, I'd also add Coalwood, WV to that list:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/sets/72157616319636039/

Testing to see if the bold font spills into the next reply

I went there back in the 1990s. I wanted to look around more but with the smoke seeping out of cracks in the ground and stories of people falling into holes that would randomly open under them I decided to leave.

It is of interest to researchers who want to see how concrete fares against sea & weather with nobody to mend or patch things up, so the whole thing IS falling apart.

Because the island was used as a mining facility I doubt you could even set up a farm or find any pure sweet water unless you rain collect. And the government of Japan would consider you a trespasser and beat you up for being a foreigner.
You may as well go find an abandoned factory in Chicago.

If you want to be a mad hermit the town of Craco looks nice. Fixing the roof of the big blocky building near the top may be possible for a small team. But really, finding charming abandoned houses in Europe is no big deal.

There's this train station in Andorra that has almost the exact shape of the Planet Express building.

Or if you know Russian and want to play, there are some very serious LARP groups near Pripyat. Real life STALKER and FALLOUT role playing.

They've recently built a observation deck there, but from what I've read, it's not a particularly good view. It's a day trip out of Nagasaki, which is pretty far off the beaten path tourism-wise.

I heard japanese sweetislandville was totally closed to the public and going there requires timing and bribing sailors. Id love to explore it.

On this note, there is an old abandoned mining town not too far from here. I saw it only once and the shells of buildings are overgrown but I'm going to try to find it again and take some exploration pics. It's way back in the mountains too so I doubt its been razed to the ground.

I always find abandoned farmsteads and other buildings out on hunting trips in KS. Found an old timey school house that had a big ass wood burning stove still in the middle of it, but it was completely caked in pigeon shit.

A cool place you can see in KCK is at 39.126735, -94.698517
Used to be Wyandot Swim club.

For you.

That city looks thriving viewed from Windsor, but it's a goddamn boarded up ghost town from the tunnel outwards. I think my spookiest memory of there was living in Windsor during that massive blackout a few years back (2005? 2006?). Everyone was out playing frisbee, walking their kids, enjoying the outdoors (to the point where I think the power should be shut off for one day every year just to remind people that there is a fucking real world out there) and when night time fell, Detroit was gone. Pure blackness. Detroit was distant noise across an abyss and looking out over the river was like gazing into the embodiment of oblivion.

Then there was a woodshop that caught on fire and I saw flames in a torrent that went at least a hundred feet in the air. The smell was incredible.

One of my favourite memories of living in Windsor.