Exploring the Forgotten Town of Thurmond (Abandoned Ghost Town)

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] today we visit one of the united states last remaining ghost towns today we will explore the forgotten town of thurmond [Music] incorporated in 1900 named for confederate captain william dabney thurmond thurman moved to the area in 1844 after he had surveyed land and was given land for payment the cno railroad was completed through the area in 1873 just one house was built in thurmond at that time throughout the years of the 1870s to the 1920s more than 26 mines were established around thurman the surge was so great that during the first two decades of the 20th century thurman handled more freight per year than richmond virginia and cincinnati ohio combined at its peak nearly 95 000 passengers traveled through its depot each year in 1901 the 100 room dun glen hotel was constructed and opened for miners and town visitors boosting the town's economy the hotel which became infamous for hosting the world's longest lasting poker game at 14 years long by 1910 thurman was producing 4.8 million dollars of freight revenue for the cno railroad this was thurman's peak in 1922 a large fire destroyed parts of thurman and in 1930 the dun glen hotel burnt to the ground mysteriously and most businesses left by the 1930s as the great depression overtook the country thurman did have a second wind for a short time being the center for coal for the efforts for world war ii before the discovery of diesel fuel over the years though the population decreased in 1940 there was 339 people living in thurmond and in 1990 only 39 with people leaving thurman became a place of the past with most buildings being abandoned for decades it took 35 million dollars to turn thurman into a tourist attraction for history lovers today thurman has a population of five who inhabit this forgotten coal town the national park service has preserved most buildings for viewing pleasure while maintaining the area's history and today we will be looking at what remains as we wander these old historic streets this one has some decay in it it's pretty cool in there i like the um design on the walls ooh little alleyway that goes to the back we're gonna have to go up there here we have another bank it looks like also known as the mankind building see what this one was about drug company so it was a pharmacist it was also a bank as well including residential apartments this thing had multiple uses i love the old style of it i love i love the walls over there got some more visitors here with us this place is a pretty uh popular attraction so if anyone's near west virginia and they want to see some cool old stuff they should come here that looks like that was a way in so we can see some lighting fixtures hang from the ceiling as well as an iron ceiling at that i'm glad we got this little view i really wish they made these buildings accessible to the public so behind the buildings are really overgrown i'm loving the look it looks like behind this building there's a little white house back there i'm gonna have to jump up there and check it out it is an absolute forest behind this house after heading up the mountain opposed to by the tracks we've run into a church thurman union church we also have another road with various abandoned buildings here and more around that corner it's a lot more than i expected here i mean i doubt these doors are going to open yeah now you can't so the house behind the church actually has a light in light excuse me a light on in that window and on the porch i don't know if people do live here and there's a very minimal amount of people living here but not gonna invade at once anyone's private space here let's see what's inside these abandoned shacks hopefully no animals oh i can't see anything in here it's really destroyed but we have a really old fridge over there with a bird nest inside this is basically somebody's kitchen set up though i thought these are just shacks but it turns out people lived in here wow okay this house is super cool it's lifted up like a tree house now we're coming up to some really cool looking homes i love how overgrown this one is so [Music] this one's freshly boarded i can't believe how many houses are here i've stopped counting but it seems like they're getting better and better this one looks like we could actually get on the porch the other ones are too overgrown so we did find a way in these buildings are made entirely out of wood and there's a ton of holes in here these buildings date back over 50 years ago as far as construction goes yeah i see a hole right there so i'm not gonna be stepping in these homes but from what i see here it looks like they're probably all empty by now so far so good um we've seen a lot of the neighborhoods up there on this hill i'm assuming those are where all the remaining houses are oh there's a caterpillar now we're going to be heading back down towards where the rail road station is we're going to take a look at that as well as the post office and the coal collector they have by the tracks and after that we're going to be heading a little bit north and we're going to be heading to a coal tuple it's where they took the coal out of the mine and they put it on the conveyor and it gets shipped out of the woods to the train station and that's all abandoned as well so there is still a lot to explore here and it's a beautiful day so i have no complaints [Music] oh nice this is the town hall labeled 1922. cno railroad you could see the tracks where the coal was dropped off as we're walking down the tracks we have the post office here original to the town and it looks like it's still being used to this day although online i read that it closed in 1995. maybe there's two locations i'm not sure but that does look pretty new this translation used to drop off 95 000 people per year in its heyday and nowadays nobody comes through this town so you actually go into it they made it uh made it like a little museum got some old baggage at the time in the corner all right after probably an hour or so walking around this town and probably a ton of sunburn we're gonna head into the woods and go check out the coal distribution conveyor plants whatever you want to call it in the woods should be a treat i'm excited this all dates back to the henry ford era about 1920. so we have this conveyor you see over there and that actually runs through the mountains for miles and miles and miles as you can see it just keeps on going up and up and up and up almost looks like a roller coaster but right here is the final stop for the conveyor all the coal would come off these belts drop down into train cars and move on to thurman and other towns that would need coal at the time super interesting henry ford has a lot of ties in this area being a person who basically paid for this mine being the boss it's a cool little tie-in that's where we are you can see the village that used to be here the mining town all that's left is the tipple got some old rusted something looks like old conveyors that kind of just got messed up over time now they're all rusted and overgrown i wonder how long these date back i was hoping we could maybe jump up in that conveyor can't really see it because the sun's making a silhouette but the wood above us is so water damaged it's like just looks completely soggy so unfortunately we're not gonna be able to jump up in there but it's still super cool to see it just reminds me of like a roller coaster that's gonna do it for today's exploration today's video today was really cool i love the town of thurman that was above my expectations incredibly i love walking around it just seems like such an old town i think it's so cool that you could be in a town that doesn't even have roads leading to it the only thing that led to that town were railroad tracks and then until the diesel industry picked up that place stayed the way it was and it's really cool pretty well preserved gotta love how the national parks preserve it and keep it that way so if anybody wants to go there you could visit legally you could go see that place yourself that's the coolest part about it it was an amazing day i have no complaints filled with nature and overgrowth and a ton of history to me that's the perfect day so if you guys enjoyed leave a thumbs up and i'll see you in the next video peace out [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you

Channel: Dark Exploration Films

Views: 433,827

Keywords: urbex, urban, exploration, ue, exploring, exploringwithjosh, properpeople, danbell

Id: 01cxvIf5W_g

Length: 21min 42sec (1302 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 16 2022