This is Matildaville. Little remains of this early 19th Century settlement built to serve the “Patowmack Canal” in what is now Great Falls Park. It sits the Virginia side of the Potomac River. I wrote a whole lot more about Great Falls and its history previously. But that’s besides the point.
I got on a tangent as I researched my recent story on Aurora, Nevada. That’s the little ghost town that once served as a county seat in two states simultaneously. Conflicting boundary led to all sorts of issues.
Anyway, I lost a couple of hours after I stumbled across an enjoyable site that I’d like to share with you. It’s called Ghost Towns and History of the American West. This website has apparently been around for a decade or more but somehow I’d never manged to run into it until now. I’m not sure how often the author updates it. The site has sort of an old-school feel to it but the forums are active and current.
I found the number of ghost towns identified to be rather surprising. Also I certainly enjoyed reading through a good number of them. While the site concentrates on the American West, it also contains materials for other locations throughout the United States as well as Canada. I’d expect abandoned towns in places like Arizona, but in Rhode Island? Yes, ruins exist practically everywhere. They’re ripe for discovery, visiting, or documenting.
The little town I mention above does not appear on the website. Maybe I’ll have to do something about that.
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