Atsion
Yet another ghost town within Wharton State Forest. But unlike most of the others, there are many remnants of the town to be found.....actual buildings and not just foundations. We checked this place out late summer/early fall of 2002. We went there 2 days in a row.
Some new pics from 2003 are at the bottom.
Day 1
My friend Mark gave me a tip about an old town or development off Rt. 206. Using his directions, I headed out to my goal. On the way there, I stopped off at Bamber Lake to see if anything had changed since last time. I found the strange stuff on Route 532.......The Sex Plant and the bus in the woods. I finally get to Rt. 206 and quickly realized something......there were a bunch of dirt paths going into the woods. I couldn't figure out which one was the right one. I went up and down the road 2 or 3 times trying to guess which road was my goal. I was getting frustrated, but then I realized I was pretty close to Indian Cabin Road. I figured I'd go there instead, but then it started to rain. Now, taking a car on a wet dirt path is not a good idea, and the fact that I really had no idea where I was going made it worse. I decided to go back home and get better directions for next time.
Day 2
2 days after my first attempt, me & Andrew went back out to give it
another shot. This time I took him to Bamber Lake and showed him around. After
that we went straight to 206. We took what we thought was the right dirt road.
It wouldn't be the right one, but it would yield great results for me anyway.
After driving about a half hour and seeing nothing but deer, we started to
wonder if we should turn around. Up ahead we saw something through the trees.
After going around the bend, we ended up at Hampton
Furnace. We mistook this for the town we were after, and we started walking
around looking for other buildings. Since it was getting dark quickly, we
went back to the car and agreed to go further into the woods for only another
20 minutes or so. Further in the woods, I found the remains of an old railroad.
Night was quickly approaching. We hauled to get out of the woods. Somehow we ended up on a paved road out in the middle of nowhere (I soon figured out this was Carranza Road). I saw something odd on the side of the road and jumped out to check it out. We were at the Carranza Monument, something I thought I'd never see. After getting a few pics, we picked up Rt. 70 and headed home.
Day 3
2 days after the 2nd trip, we went out on the final voyage. This time Bonnie went with us. There were no stops this time; we went straight to 206. This time, we actually got the right path. Mark mentioned a church on the dirt road that's still used. It's pretty creepy, considering this is an old dirt road with nothing but a park office and abandoned buildings. So having a church out here is just......odd.
We continued past the church and followed the trail ahead of us, looking on the side of the road for the building foundations Mark told us about. We eventually ended up at a bridge, which I would later learn is the Quaker Bridge. We went over the bridge and drove for a short while. Since 2002 Chevy Cavaliers suck on sand, we had to come back. We looked for the buildings a few more times, but after driving up & down the trail a few times, we decided to leave. On the way out, we stopped at the church to look around the graveyard. Andrew found and old building in the woods. So we went to check it out.
Behind it, we found what's either a chimney or furnace. There was rubble all around it, probably from a building. To the side of this furnace/chimney, we saw a car in the woods. We noticed another old house behind the car. We walked to the house and realized people still live in the house. There were cages all over the backyard. In the rabbit pen was a cat! We were shocked and were going to let it out. We turned around for a second to get some pictures, and when we went to free the cat, it wasn't there! It somehow got into the old house and was looking at us through the window....all in maybe a 5 second period. And yes, there's a pic of the cat. We snapped a few more pics and then decided it was time to leave. It was apparent that someone was still living in this house. We didn't know if they were home or not, but we didn't want to find out. We headed back to the graveyard and left.
Here's the house (yes, someone actually lives in it):
A small old bridge
Another bridge
Approaching the furnace
The furnace
The car in the woods
Now if they actually took care of the
house like they did this...
Kitty cat of DOOOOOOOM
Cages n' junk
Old school! Outhouse!
New pics (added 5/27/03)
Ruins & Foundations of buildings 1
2 3
Old railroad bridge