Abandoned in Rural Appalachia

While traveling and coming across abandoned properties, many questions come to mind. Why were these homes and buildings left vacant? I am not alone in my wondering why, and I have had my ideas about why places end up uninhabited. Recently, someone posed this question in a Facebook group I follow, and the responses were not only numerous but very informative. There were nearly 450 responses to the question before the group admins decided to shut off commenting. I decided to make a list of some of the most common reasons mentioned about why homes sometimes end up abandoned.

• Major structural issues such as foundation problems.
• Built a new home, often on the same property.
• Lack of funds for maintenance, upkeep and/or bills.
• Inherited but not needed or wanted.
• Moved away.
• Sudden family illness of parent of family member that lives out of town or state.
• Children moved away, parents died, and children never came back.
• Foreclosure.
• Nonpayment of taxes.
• Purchased property for land use, didn't want or need existing home.
• Being used for storage.
• Owner died without heirs.
• Purchased with intent to fix up.

Clearly the list is long and property abandonment is no just limited to these things. Each has their own individual story about how it came to be vacant. For the record, I did not see any responses related to anyone abandoning a home because it was haunted, although I am sure it has been known to happen. 

Abandoned properties are not just limited to Appalachia, but the region does have a large number of them. Travel down any back road in the Appalachian region, and you likely find some remnants of the past sitting alongside the road, rotting away. Many Appalachian regions are known to be very poor economically. Often residents of small rural towns will struggle to find jobs close to home. Many of the industries that once provided a good living in the past are quickly on the decline. This alone has likely led to many abandoned properties. 

Among the abandoned homes, you can also find fragments of old industry, long forgotten, the in the hills of Appalachia. Many old coal mines, coal towns, and railroads that were busy industrial hubs have been closed for many decades. Overgrown and in almost inaccessible locations, the ruins of old coal operations still exist in some regions. Old railroads and rail tunnels have been converted into roads, walking trails and sometimes just left fully intact to never be used again. You can find old bridges and tunnels in unexpected places, odd and ends of mine equipment and even long-lost cemeteries have been discovered in these old hills.

If you have ever imagined what it was like to live in a different time and place, these old abandoned places have some insight to offer. It saddens me that properties have been left to fade away, but I also find tremendous beauty in these abandonments. Each time I photograph a forgotten location, I am capturing a piece of the past in present day. Someday, that property may be gone,and I will have a remaining memory that I can keep for myself.