After my previous trip to Eaton , which began as a un exciting and rather dull day but through luck turned out to be very worth while, I decided that I needed to spend more time researching these towns before I spent hours in the car getting to them. So after some thought and time reading about it I finally decided to go to Willard, though not a true ghost town it promised enough abandoned buildings to be exciting. First off, Willard is not very close to Boulder, in fact its about 3 and a half hours away, but the internet had promised me that it was worth the almost 200 mile drive.
The first time I was in Willard I drove though it with out even slowing down because I hadn't realized that I had reach my destination. But I finally checked my map and noticed that I had passed it a while before, so I turned around and headed back only to find the town of Willard look virtually nothing like the photos I found of it. It was by no means a bustling metropolis but it also wasn't a ghost town. Rather begrudgingly I drove up the one real street of the town only to be very pleasantly greeted by this:
Once I saw these two I started to see more and more, and as I did a smile began to slowly cross my face. I had chosen well. Disregarding all personal safety I nearly ran into the close abandoned building to me. It was one of the most disturbing and creepy places I have ever been into. Judging by the shape of the building and the things left behind I was assuming that it was probably left in the 70s-80s and most likely had rarely been opened since the left. The entire inside smelled of rotting wood and it was damp and clammy, but probably most disconcertingly, it seemed to absorb light. I had two very bright (60 lumens) head lamps and a 40 lumen lamp it still seemed dark as night. I walked slowly through the building, testing each step because I had seen a basement down below when I was out side and I did not want to fall through. I finally got to one of the first interesting things in the house, a wood dresser that had been haphazardly thrown into the middle of the hall. On the top of the dresser sat a very weathered and torn playing card box, which at some point over the years split and sent cards cascading down around it. The drawers only opened after a lot of prompting on my part just to reveal papers and a few other things I did not feel comfortable looking through. Immediately to the left of the left of the dresser was a tightly closed door. Years of wind blown dirt and grime had slowly worked its way under the crack of the door creating a very effective natural seal. Once again after a long period of poking and prodding and pulling and pushing I finally got the door open and saw a not uncommon sight in abandoned houses, a bed frame with bits and pieces of fabric still clinging on. Not to interested in the bed I proceeded to walk over to the closet door which swung open with ease. What lay inside the closet was in my mind truly mind boggling and disturbing, several nice outfits of clothes still hung on their hangers forever to be forgotten by their owners who left with out second thought to these poor clothes. There was not much else of note in the house, so after taking some photos of the clothes (which Ill put up eventually) and a few other things I left, feeling creeped out. I didnt go into the second house but I did get a few nice photos of the exterior;
the plains the reflection is what it looks like as far as the eye can see in any direction
After spending a few minuets walking around the exterior of the building as well as the mobile home next to it:
I took a short walk over to the towns once great grain elevator.
Like the house before it, the grain elevator seemed to left in a hurry. Such a hurry that there were still all the certificates of of approval and whatever else they needed hung above the door to one of the offices.
As I walked through the rest of the grain elevator I was able to get some wonderful photos
Then after doing my first sweep around the building I discovered that back behind the building were several cow skeletons, there were fully grown cows, and calfs alike. I am not sure if they were taken back there and shot or if they had wondered back there at some point and were not able to find their way out. But no matter how they got there, there were quite a few.
Well that pretty much describes my adventures to willard in great detail. and finally here were my favorite photos from the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment