Abandoned Village Deep in the Forest

all right well welcome to another adventure here on the wilderness I didn't start this one down where my truck is down the parking lot but I am currently well I was along the Appalachian Trail I parked down in Clarks Valley oh I'm here in Dauphin County Pennsylvania and parked out logging the Appalachian Trail in Clarks Valley and I made my way up to the top of Stony Mountain here it took me almost two hours to get up here a little bit a little bit of a long hike but uh I got up here and just finished eating lunch I was determined to wait to get up here to eat lunch it was getting pretty I was getting pretty hungry though but we made it up here so but I'm up here I'm gonna revisit a place I was here a place I visited um I don't could be like two or three years ago one of the abandoned coal mining villages that is down here and what's called stony valley one of my favorite places to hike and explore Stony Valley it's in northern Lebanon County over in the Dauphin County here in Pennsylvania but there's a number of villages and rattlin run was the last one going to West so like I said I was here a couple years ago but I'm gonna go back why why go back you know why not you know I love hiking in this area it's more my favorite places and like I said it was only really there once I'm up all the villages that you can explore isn't maybe we're most difficult to get to maybe I don't know maybe um Yellow Springs is long difficult as well but I'm just gonna explore it let's see what we can find there's some old stone foundations of houses and stuff there and not a whole lot but uh it's just an interesting place out here in the wilderness to explore so I'm gonna go back and see if we can't find something new so we'll see so like I said I took the Appalachian Trail up here but I'm currently on another trail on the Horseshoe trail it's gonna take me down into Stoney the alley here yes I'm not terribly far where the village is of course this village dates back to mid-1800s roughly they discovered coal in this whole area anthracite coal I think it's early 1820s maybe not this exact spot but the heyday of this valley with the coal mining stuff wasn't like the 1850s and stuff like that that time period so we shall see what we shall find again it's cool just to be in the ruins and imagine that people used to live out here all right we're closing in on our destination you get to see the trail goes on but right they're sharp now and there's kind of a gap in the mountains there and the old village is down in there but just kind of just something up out being out here in the wilderness like this realizing you're like it could be the only person out here within you know certain certain distance I did pass someone on the way up the mountain I did pass one person coming down so there are people out here but when you're out here just like this it feels like you're the only person out here I could be within like you know maybe half a mile or something maybe but anyway yeah I was this past weekend I was around a lot of people I was helping out with Anna walnut retreat but my church has every spring little kids little kids are great but they do they do wear you down especially over the week we get to spend a whole weekend you know keeping an eye on them and stuff and where's you know especially something like me I'm more of a introvert I like people but only for so long Anna they kind of wear me out so yeah so today's kind of like a mental refreshing day as well refreshment day or recovery day whatever they call it so that's the reason why I came chose to come out here today all right one keep on heading down the mountain here and will soon be down where the village was [Applause] and just like that here we are if you look right down there you'll see the foundations on one home looks like there's another one up there and of course they continue on here's no one right there it might be hard to see but there's a there's a trail like yourself out that way there's numerous houses all up along there so we're gonna I'm gonna explore around these homes again like there's a coal mining village so there's remnants of the mines over there a little bit more would be cool to find like a trash pit where they had some old old bottles or something but you know it's a long time ago so I don't know we'll find anything but I'm gonna see if I could find anything new here today and just kind of chill out here day for a while explore some more alright let's go check out some of these ruins and um I don't know we're just but if you want to if you want to know exactly where this is you can private message me I'm learning to not places like this maybe to not necessarily reveal the exact location because as my channel grows more people watch it and then there's people that watch these videos not just to learn but to come in do things maybe they shouldn't these places people because the one village I've been to goldmine is people just trashed last time was there someone was metal detecting and they just they just just rip the place apart look like a herd of wild hogs went through there so I I'm not against metal detecting I do it myself sometimes but some people just don't do it respectfully they just I'll just say just like ruin sites like this so anyway I'm learning too with some of these places to be a little more careful about anyway so if you want to know more details about where this is you can always message me so anyway I'm gonna get to explore in this site now then yeah here's a walk down a bit more here's the first first home here well would have been a home you guys see where the door was cuz this is just the foundation made of rock and as you can see there is plenty of building material here to build your home with all these rocks everywhere so there was no lack of materials out here to build with still there's still a lot of neat stone work out here it was clearly a home here here's the doorway get it going in look there's the remnants of the chimney I guess so you know the people that lived out here we're pretty poor though these were people digging coal out here in the mountains they weren't these we're not rich people living up here so see if you did come metal detecting I'm not sure you would really find much so cool I could live up here today actually yeah so just checking out this old foundation here it's kind of interesting to think that you know these foundations are almost you know potentially 200 years old just laying out here yet somebody just some neat stonework there I just found this interesting little cubby hole we're in between right over there's the ruins of the next house and we were just they can see that in there there's a bunch of poo in there I think it's porcupine poo there's little pellets in there zoom in on or not does you been on the poo there's spider webbing away there too you can see a spider all right probably porcupine that lives in there right comes out at night climbing trees and nibbling on bark but he probably lives in here during the day porcupines make a little dens like that I mean it they den in trees too but sometimes like a place like this where there's lots of rocks and stuff or these rock Denzil living there as well now here is a big piece of coal once you know two things that they were indeed digging coal out here this piece is probably up here cuz they're probably if I burned coal in the wintertime to stay warm so so some of it out here laying around there's something interesting right up here I don't know if I've ever seen this last time I was here or not different type of foundation here the houses are up all right right there's the last house I was poking around at see a foundation there there's this interesting foundation down here maybe a storage area or something and here's a look at it from another angle yeah can't quite save what this was maybe just who knows maybe they store it and it's like a little root cellar or something all right well I might poke around here just a little bit yeah we were just down there checking that out up there's the one house and there was another house right here it's hard to tell Evans pretty bad shape but over here is another one of these smaller little foundations you can't just like the one we were at the smaller square shape thing kind of interesting you can see up there there's another foundation of a house I think so I'm starting to wonder maybe each house has its own individual little thing like this this one this one was obviously much higher that it is now because all these all these stones are spilled we've been stacked at one point so who knows they stored something in here I guess you can let me know what you think on the inside another one of the homes here this is kind of interesting this is where the is the old chimney pile here look where the fireplace was it's kind of interesting there's two flat rocks this is kind of like well first ups looked like he was like what do you call the the mantel of the fireplace but I think it's a little too low for that maybe but you know they probably use these fireplaces for cooking too so this probably like the base you know cooked in there and stuff like that I don't think as I see her look at it forget there's - that looks pretty neat right there's two big flat stones sticking out there so back you know almost 200 years ago there was someone sitting in here maybe they had a chair yeah they're sitting here by the fire after a long day of working in the coal mines or maybe they were you know somebody was cooking here as well in there now now it's reverted back to this wilderness out here yeah some at some point in time where is it down there can't quite see anymore but some point in time someone was cooking back here or you know was just hanging out by the fireplace all right I see good I just think it looks pretty cool down there and we were just in there looking those two stones but we're off the main trail now this this right here was the main road through town you can kind of see how it's clear of stones on either side exit back there is an old home was in a foundation right in there I only see any foundations on this side I'm gonna be looking around with it yeah this was main road through town thought that it was a big town but still in that old road come right down through here Chris Last House Foundation is right there there's it's hard to tell that's the chimney pile right there that this foundation did not do so well through time the old road come right through here right to here I remember the first time I was here I realized that this was most likely the source of their drinking water there's a nice-sized spring that comes out and out in here so there's a probably where the townspeople came to get their water I'm gonna I'm gonna poke around here a little bit see what I can find because you're here you don't have to scratch wait a surface at all it's just uh he's already exposed but you know I'm not the first person to explore this place so there were any cool bottles and stuff I'm sure someone found them long ago already but I'm still gonna poke her a little bit flippin walk around here a bit looking generally finding the artifacts you sprang here but uh clicks it up there were some of the houses so the road did cross here because that um there are more house is on the other side its stream there's a chimney pile right there and I see several nice or foundations up there but uh I can say what's here a couple years ago and some of that starting to come back I do remember now that their warehouse is on the other side of the creek so we're gonna keep walk around just a beautiful day out here today I have no other plan today so I can just come out here enjoy this and still you know as you can see the foliage is starting to come out but still you're it's not overly thick yet mint you know which summer time comes and the foliage is completely out then you know looking for ruins gets a little more difficult but I think you're still visible today well keep making our way this way so it looks like there's maybe only two houses on this end spring is right down there but here's run this to the house and of course you can see another house here well here you can see coal ash this is burnt coal huh so they're you know interesting so they were thrown there you know coal ash outside here yeah it's kind of a mouth so they did there's a mound here right there was their chimney pile yes a lot of times outside these early houses there'd be a mail that's right through all the trash and coal ash so there could be some interesting stuff in there maybe but who knows maybe we'll poke we hunt just a little bit but I want to take a look the stonework back here oh yeah look at this still pretty well-preserved this is the backside of the chimney so you can see how it's kind of bowing out there from where the chimney fell the cool pink stone on the outside and on the inside it had a lot of smaller stones and mud fill up the voids and stuff all right well still here at this last house but I did poke around a little bit I didn't really find anything just more coal ash and coal cinders and stuff but I appreciate the last house on the street here but I know the coal mines are back that way I've been down there before but it might I might just I don't know what I'm gonna do here well I may just look around look more up here this way if we're head back down to the coal mines just to see if there's anything up this way all right I'll just take it out loud myself all right well I will get back to you either up here somewhere or down or the mines worth the mines are not opening where they've long ago collapsed caved in so unless something new opened up so all right I'll get back to you yes I'm back on that old road again we were just down there at that last house but the old road you can kind of see it going up through here and looks like it continues on this is also a trail so there's some red blaze marks on this trail I know this trail has a name I've never hiked the whole thing it does take you it does curve back up to the Appalachian Trail further up I know do you see here some coal waste so you're using this roads haul coal down the mountain so we'll just walk up here ways yeah and check this that looks like the road just kind of ends here you can see us all clear stones and then there they are almost looks like there was something over here can't wait Ellie yeah it looks like the road just ended that's why they built it [Applause] there's looking back and as you can see we've come to a nice little stream here let me go ahead pick way way across over this area is where the coal binding we've done so we'll go explore over there for a little bit before making our way back we've seen a lot of this darker colored rock was some to base the tree one leaned right up there that is little coal mine waste I call it and this rock that Kyle looks like coal but it's not really good cause there's a name for that I figured they call it Shelly coal or that's nothing that's it I guess a what somebody will tell me the Congress I'm sure but uh I know there's some mines down below here but I never went up there I think last time I was here was getting tired so considering it all this what I call waste coal is coming down here means it didn't go up hill it came from up there somewhere felt down hill I should say so I'm gonna climb up there see what's up there alright let's go up there maybe there'll be nothing maybe they'll will be something cool and dirt been up there so let's head on up there as I'm making a way up this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about this stuff yeah this came from in the earth well all right just tell me somebody was digging in the past up here whoops I should be filming there climb all right or have I been up here wait a second oh you know what this looks familiar I have been up here before interesting okay yeah this hill i climbed is all coal waste a Calton pile that's what this is it's an all man-made pile you su darkish color of it so this is the waste material that they were digging out of the mines that we're back in there so I'm I thought this area was Dowler further so but I was wrong so we are up we are up where the mines are okay all right well that makes sense now then sometimes we'll campfire thing here all right so I'm still standing on this artificial column pile and you can see some neat stonework there is actually some right there and it continues on down and last time I was here I was a little confused what that was but I'm thinking now that it is the D call the coal breaker was where they um they would sort the coal by size clean it wash it you know all that all that all that business most of these old coal mining villages have something like this and it would have had like a a wooden probably a wooden or sometimes a metal but know what they probably would in the troughing I went down a hole the way the hole weights down along it gonna be men working on it sorting to coal Washington door off of hidden stuff if I got that correct I'm pretty sure that's what this is and so the mines are most likely up there we'll go see if there's any remnants of that at all if I remember correctly there was not much then we will follow the coal breaker down so we can find down there [Applause] that's pretty cool to find just old stonework like this out in the middle of woods alright so I found something pretty cool here this old tree uprooted left kind of this pit here unless some artifacts here that looks interesting but that's a big piece of metal this is cool like an old spike that is pretty cool I'm guessing that's hand forged wow that's pretty hefty duty huh Coosh that's pretty cool so ever I find a little artifact like this I am tempted to take it home but I don't know I think I'll just leave it out here for other people to enjoy you know when you and you keep collecting artifacts you end up with so much stuff at home that you don't know what to do with it so I think I'll just leave this out here yeah I used to bring lots of stuff home but then I don't know you just end up with a lot of stuff at home anyway hey maybe someone else to take it home but you know leave it out here someone else can find and enjoy it so that's what I do rather than take carry rather taking home all right [Applause] so I think I'm coming up on the old mine sites yeah I'm pretty sure back kind of see that little cleft going back in there and you see a pool of water here more likely back up in theirs with the mines where I might make my way up there a little bit see what I can see yeah even up a ways more you can see another little cut there's probably a vein of coal sticking out of the hill here and they probably followed it up to some extent as much as they could before letting it go all right if I'm gonna go back and uh ouch whoops true ranch I'm gonna go back and make my way up in there see what we can find because that looks like that was where the main main diggings were I'm pretty sure last time I was here I did check that I'll set this to hurt to check again we had a lot of rain recently and sometimes that opens up thanks cuz even on the way up here I didn't film the three-mile hike up here but I found a new subsidence hole that formed at a place I'd explored before so you never know all right let's get up there there's definitely a little cut in the mountain here it goes on up taking the coal out here actually another one over there as well that looks interesting up in there holy may get out there let's follow this for just a little bit more whoops rocks alright I don't know if you can tell it may be a way over to another cut that came up it looks like they were digging surface digging to here and it looks like they stopped right there I think they may have tunneled under here and then they dug a pit you see this pit right here I'm guessing maybe they've followed the coal seam then into the mountain it's a bit it was probably at one time a tunnel going into there I mean I guess I'm thinking they down that way the coal seam was at the surface and then at this point it started going in the ground and then at this point you just decided to dig a pit down to it and then follow it like I said that's someone guessing so who knows if they jump down in there maybe I'd fall no I see rocks and their stuff so precious I'm pretty sure it's is all collapsed in so I'm still standing next to this pit actually hopped down in there looking down those little holes there but there was nothing there but to give you the perspective of where we are first down that we were just down there that's that old calm pile we climbed up and the village that we explored actually over that way so the work that people who lived in the village it I should come up this way to work the coal mines that's why they fight I mentioned earlier that's why they lived there I guess I called her that Villa I think I said what that village is called rattlin run is the name of that village who knows maybe I didn't say that begin to the video anyway I think is a perspective okay I'm gonna make my way down like I said I think I'm gonna follow that coal breaker down I think I did last time I was here but I don't know yeah I followed it down some extent but I'm going to anyway I'm just gonna keep walking I guess see what else is out here alright all right well that's kind of interesting yeah just on the other side there is that pit I was just at and I climbed down here look in there doesn't really go anywhere but I think it's all collapsed but you can't see yeah how cool does a Cody we're but still need to look at yes now I'm down to bottom that cut I just came down from that little cave like thinking that pit that was up this is where the coal vein was and you can see it's a man-made stone work here a little bit on the other side so this was the way leading up into the mine right there so who knows maybe they had I don't know if they had it war carts up this way or not I don't know if they had it kind of money up here to have like me Utley may have had some homemade ore carts maybe they had to haul the coal out and all this coal waste that they just come out here and dumped because they're back to that calm pile that waste pile a dumped all the waste stuff out here as well and here we are back at work I think the coal breaker was of course just right there that last stove work I showed you where the mine was so they would have hauled the waste material out here and dumped it and then the good stuff they would have brought here to the coal breaker and set it on down that way so we're gonna follow this one down I'll show you all the different art stonework this down this way so way up there was the first piece of stonework and here's the next level these coal breakers all have just these levels of stonework that go down down a hillside course these flaky little built up areas there what's supported that wooden or metal trough I talked about earlier the coal would come down cuz I'm just making my way down the hill there you see another coal breaker pier we'll call him here's another one and here's another one let's take us to kind of leftover building over here you can see there's one two and then there's one hidden in there of course we're just up further so just come all the way down [Applause] so I've made my way to the bottom here you can see those coal breaker piers a little bit better neat stonework it's kind of hard to get to talk overgrown but just some neat stuff is out here in the woods here's that other file read this was some kind of building maybe or I don't know what's this within the end of the coal breaker it would have come to here so hmm yeah think about that for a little bit [Applause] yeah actually I'm still looking this thing right up there where there's the last piers but this looks like almost like a ramp here keeps going all the way down so I'm thinking this is where they the wagons or whatever and I load the coal away I'm thinking they came up this way to the end of the coal break-up there's this way loaded up the good coal took it off to market maybe huh Christel up on top now we were just down there looking at the ramp but now that I'm up here this is really steep actually so I don't know it could be wrong about that but definitely goes on down let's go down with it so follow this ramp all the way down and you kind of cost you a stone work stone work for it there on the side this was the ramp so whether or not they took wagons up there I don't know but this is definitely where the the coal came down all the way down the hillside here we'll keep going I'm pretty sure I explored this before but I'm gonna keep exploring looks like there's some diggings over here too because they made up that stuff out to build a ramp here as well there's some pits over here looks like they were maybe four could be an use for building material I don't know cuz they had to get this material from the ramp from somewhere yeah check out this beautiful work of stone down here right there's that ramp that comes down the mountain so I think this is not a building this is just supporting the ramp to think of course there's a stream right there so yeah come in the start of a bridge that went across someone point maybe I don't know I'm just thinking out loud here like I said the ramp comes down out you can see it the old ramp Road we'll call it hits this once it came across this way we'll see that looks pretty cool there yes right through the ramp wretches that stonework so if I did come across the creek here at one time but with all the flash flooding that comes down here there's nothing left so I'm gonna make my way across the creek see what we can find over there [Applause] yeah enough we could see that I'm a big help Bigelow helicopter that's that's from the Fort Indiantown Gap the military reservation is right near here where once a while they fly real low through here that one was pretty low then out looking for me don't worry I'm not some escaped convict all right just put him good trying to make my way back to trail I came in on oh it gets pretty thick down here he sees all the rhododendron I'm not gonna I'm not gonna bust my way through all that so anyway see I can turn anybody make my way back up the trail if I can find it show me just up here and just like that we're back where all the houses were so um we may be wrapping this video up soon it's pregnant while hauling anyway but I'm gonna make my way back to the village again and I'll probably end this video when I'm back on the main trail all right who knows why I'm gonna keep my eyes open and keep looking a little bit yet so I was about to end my video actually and it's walking back right up there is the old road and there's a house foundation right in there because there's the chimney pile today I saw this it's like there's a you know foundation here right next to the right now here's the house foundation any of this one like a little arched walkway right here kind of interesting I'm not sure what it was I don't know maybe one of the people here just got creative looks like there's a little trail it's like I said right there's the chimney pile right there is the actual house and then you have this like little arched almost look like an arched bridge I know maybe it was something else you can let me know just cus all this all Sun here all right I'm gonna keep get on going here I think I'll go ahead and end a video here I stopped at the little spring again that we saw earlier but I followed it up further this is where it actually comes up out of the mountain here so I went ahead and filled up my water bottles here this waters probably cleaner than the water I got it get it home so I wouldn't doubt that but anyway I'm gonna it was a three-mile hike here so it's a three-mile hike to get back to the truck so I'm not gonna hike in the same way like a hike out the same way hiked in I'll take a different trail I think so anyway thanks for coming along with me on their little adventure here like I said know I've been here before but that was some years ago maybe some of you watch that video baby Sweden but it's high school to come back and see what else you can find I love just following the old trails and trying to decipher and figure out what you're seeing out here you know if you differ with me on what so these things are go ahead and you can give your own opinions on stuff so anyway I got a dog walk back so thanks for watching and I'll see you around the next video you

Channel: The Wandering Woodsman

Views: 68,322

Keywords: Rattling Run, ghost town

Id: zczSxu9dDms

Length: 40min 1sec (2401 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019