Right about now, you may be asking yourself why a picture of a beautiful place lightly dusted with fresh-powdered snow is labeled a ghost town. Did you even know there was a ghost town in New York? Here to break the movie-made just-abandoned ghost town stereotype is the twice-abandoned town of Tahawus in New York!

 

Benjamin Esham/Flickr
First things first, let us establish that while this whole shebang is about the ghost town of Tahawus, the actual village is no longer literally in the modern-day Tahawus in New York. Confusing, huh? Let us explain!
Patrick Harris/Flickr
Now, the town of Tahawus resides in the village of Newcomb, just a short drive from its original homebase in Tahawus. The village was first abandoned in 1857 after it failed to result in enough iron ore to thrive as a mining town. The ore that was found there was filled with impurities that made it difficult to refine. The town was abandoned for the second time in 1963.
Patrick Harris/Flickr
Revived for a second time, yet again as a mining town, it was after the company National Lead discovered a large deposit of ilmenite underneath Tahawus that the decision was made to literally move the village so a new pit could be opened. To fully wrap your head around what it meant to move the entire town of Tahawus, check out this incredible footage from the 1963 move!
Patrick Harris/Flickr
Patrick Harris/Flickr
Jay Parker/Flickr
You'll find that many of the town's previously standing mining facilities no longer exist, almost all been completely demolished. While you may be lucky enough to stumble upon a leftover gear or random piece of mining equipment, one of the many incredible things that is still left intact is the McIntyre Blast Furnace! Standing at roughly 50 feet tall, this industrial powerhouse was a true piece of work. Once the furnace was fired up, it would take an entire acre of trees just to keep it up and running for one day! Explorers of Tahawus love walking inside the furnace to truly soak up all of its history in an up-close-and-personal way!

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Jay Parker/Flickr
Now, would a ghost town really be a ghost town without a few whispers of a creepy rumor or ghost sighting? Probably, but what fun would that be? The story told around town is that one of the heads of a mining company in Tahawus had been known to be very strict with his employees and work all of the miners extra hard. Officially it's said that an accident involving a gun going off was what resulted in this man's death, but, unofficially, word on the street is that he was murdered by an angry miner! Legend has it you can see the ghost of David Henderson riding his horse around Tahawus. Scary!
Patrick Harris/Flickr
Unlike many stereotypical ghost towns, which tend to look as though everyone living there abandoned the place just a half hour before you showed up, not many of Tahawus's structures remain standing. Most of the surviving buildings that you see left standing in the village are from the 1940s when a private fish and game club existed in the area.
Patrick Harris/Flickr
The MacNaughton Cottage, built in 1845, is one of the last remaining buildings from the town's early days. It is most famous for being where then-Vice President Theodore Roosevelt heard that President McKinley had been shot.
Maggie Munoff/Flickr
While this ghost town may have been left to be swallowed whole by the Northern Forest twice, it's currently in the best of hands. In 2003, Open Space Institute acquired all 10,000 acres of land known as the Tahawus Tract for $8.5 million dollars. With the help of Open Space Institute and the Department of Environmental Conservation, efforts have been put forth to help educate the residents of New York on this great area and explain all that has happened here.
Patrick Harris/Flickr
The empty town of Tahawus may certainly give you the creeps if you decide to take a visit, but don't let that make you forget what a wonderful place this once was! If you have a chance to speak with anyone who lived in Tahawus or knew of someone who lived there, you're most likely going to hear nothing but heartwarming compliments about the village! Hearing memories told about what this vivacious town once was makes its current state and overall demise all the more sad.
Patrick Harris/Flickr

To take a closer look into this New York ghost town, check out the entertaining and informative footage from Tahawus below!

So what do you think? Did you know this abandoned treasure was hiding up in the Adirondacks? Tell us about your visit to Tahawus in the comments and on our Facebook page, New York Only!

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More to Explore

Creepy Places In New York

Lisa Sammons | May 26, 2021

What are some more creepy places in New York?

New York has several ghost towns: Tahawus is not the only one. We've got a list for you that includes four others, including North Brother Island. North Brother Island is most famous for being the home of the River Island Hospital where famed cook Typhoid Mary lived. Another abandoned area is Doodletown. You can hike to the remains of this town, which reached its heyday in the 1920s. Hart Island is a particularly terrifying place. Believe it or not, it is one of the largest mass graves in the entire world!

What are some haunted places in New York?

Well of course, we can't neglect to mention one of the most famous haunted places in the world! The little town of Sleepy Hollow is a real-life Halloweentown famous for the legend of the headless horseman, Ichabod Crane. We actually have a house in the Hudson Valley that was so frightening it was legally declared haunted in a famed court case known as the Ghostbusters ruling! The Shanley Hotel in Naponach is so haunted that you have to sign a waiver before staying there. The current owner had no idea the hotel was haunted when he purchased it, so you can imagine that was quite a surprise!

What are some famous graves in New York?

If you're looking for spooky cemeteries, we have plenty. There are also so many famous people buried here! Lucille Ball, Rick James, Mark Twain, Babe Ruth, Susan B. Anthony...it's a veritable treasure trove of American celebrities from the last few centuries.

 

 

 

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