# Fascinating! Ghost town Chernobyl. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 30, 2004, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273 "2004-03-30T07:57:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/41 "2004-04-02T13:36:54Z")
Has the radioactive contamination of the Chernobyl region caused any interesting mutations? I recall reading that some of the trees in the area show really weird growth patterns…how about the animals? As was pointed out, the fact that there are no humans around means that the area is a good one for foxes and wolves…any two-headed foxes seen? Another question: it appears that most of the windows of the buildings are gone-was the glass taken by scavengers, or did the kids of Chernobyl have a big rock-throwing festival as they left the area? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/42 "2004-04-02T13:57:17Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Another question: it appears that most of the windows of the buildings are gone-was the glass taken by scavengers, or did the kids of Chernobyl have a big rock-throwing festival as they left the area? 🙂 A decade or two of storms will toss debris around, & smash out all the windows you like. No need for hooligans. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/43 "2004-04-02T14:16:35Z")
I won’t post links to all the sites, because there are so many. Just Google “Centralia, Pennsylvania.” Have a look at [http://www.xydexx.com/modernruins/centralia.htm](http://www.xydexx.com/modernruins/centralia.htm) . The sight of smoke rising through the cracks of a four lane, dial carriageway highway are haunting. ---
**Author:** ![velvetjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f9b8f/32.png) [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/44 "2004-04-02T14:35:46Z")
I love the picture of the voting house and the story about how it was boring to vote when there was only 1 candidate from 1 party so voter turnout was low until the government decided to give free drinks to anyone who would vote. I’m all for it. And a holiday the next day to sleep it off. These are some really interesting links. I’m saving them all for later reading. Good thing I’ve got lots of down time at work. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/45 "2004-04-02T14:37:12Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Has the radioactive contamination of the Chernobyl region caused any interesting mutations? It’s certainly caused _genetic_ mutations in humans - but most of these result either in miscarriage, or in no noticable deformity. Two-headed foxes are pretty much the stuff of science fiction. [Chernobyl raised mutations 600% | Environment | The Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,487857,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/46 "2004-04-02T16:45:41Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Have a look at [XYDEXX.COM: Modern Ruins - Centralia, PA - The town with the mine fire](http://www.xydexx.com/modernruins/centralia.htm). I know the guy who runs that site. Didn’t even know he had that page there, guess I should visit more often. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/47 "2004-04-03T16:04:16Z")
**Coldy** , I posted the link to the Chernobyl site on a machinist’s message board I frequent, got a number of responses, but this is the one that I think you’ll find the most interesting. > [@](#): > > Like Nuke power or not, here is what this site did for me. I put this site up in my machining classroom yesterday, and showed this to a few of the students for a “quick look”. Next thing I knew, I was in the middle of a history lesson, as the students I have were born around the years 1987 to 1989, which puts this event before they were born. > > Anyway, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAD HEARD OF CHERYNOBYL which lead me to ask in frustration “what in the hell do they teach you in history class”, to which I heard many things, mostly PC rhetoric, but not this, nor Three Mile Island, the Rwanda genocide (which happened 10 years ago this month), and only a faint glimmer of what WWII was about. They did know the Holocaust, to their credit… > > These are not “dumb kids”. I kept a neutral stance on nuke power, but also explained how this affected the region, and how even in my at the time home town of Pueblo Co. (of which Norad is 35 miles north - aka Cheyenne Mtn., and seen in every single part of town, thus making this nuke target ground zero along with Colo Springs - at the time, and probably now). Of how NORAD went on high alert for several hours, and how - though not public information - the phone lines burned crazy of a “nuke launch in Russia gone bad”, and we thought for a short time that this was the biggie - though looking back, rumours grow, but fear was present. We then talked a bit of the “cold war”, which I lived in my homes in Colorado by living too close to Cheyenne Mtn, and missle silos all around me. No PC, just an explaination of the “fear of the time”, and a relation to how it is somewhat like the fear of today - the “unknown and sudden” terrorist threat that remains under the current in today’s life like the nuke threat of yesterday. > > But I digress. The result of it all. Students asked questions throughout the day ahead (all of my classes discussed this by their choice, not mine, and it was excellant discussion) of their history teachers, and tody got answers, and returned them to me, in yet another day of discussion. > > It was great, this web site, and the original post on a machining site educated probably 35 students beyond the daily task of machining. We took a break, and a very valid one. > > this site was passed on to the history department, and was used today in the general lessons of the school… > > Thanks. One little post on a small web page. I’d call that a small victory in the war against ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/48 "2004-04-05T16:07:05Z")
That’s friggin’ cool, **Tuckerfan**. And the fight goes on. 🙂 I found another Chernobyl site! This one a little more fluent in terms of its English. But mostly, the pictures will knock your socks off. If you have broadband, I recommend downloading the big zip-file atop the page. 20 MB’s, but worth it. [Linkety-link.](http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=press&s=press_rel&ss=6) So… desolate. Those giant helicopters look like dead dinosaurs or something. Fantastic and heartbreaking, simultaneously. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/49 "2004-04-05T16:28:19Z")
> [@](#): > > So… desolate. Those giant helicopters look like dead dinosaurs or something. Fantastic and heartbreaking, simultaneously. I must say, I looked at your first link **Coldfire** and was immediately transported back to the day I heard the news of Chernobyl. I was in High School and was very privy to the happenings in Russia at the time of the event. I have family in Poland and they were actually one of the first people we heard from. As per the giant helicopter’s…I thought about those massive blades chopping through the air over the plant…spreading radiation further and further. The the picture of the first fire truck on scene and the narrator there showing the meter readings…saying she did not want to linger near the truck. The animals - her portrayal of the wolves and bears and deer all living in old abandoned homes, seemingly getting along. But it was her photo’s of the Magic wood, which glows red that got to me. I put that picture in Photoshop and tweaked it a little and you can see the '_aura_" effect behind the trees in the atmosphere just above them…really eery. Thanks for the link…It had a lasting effect on me, and as per **Tucker’s** post…I plan to show this to my students. For sure. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/50 "2004-04-05T19:46:20Z")
[I found this about her.](http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2377) From the site; \*"Yep, it was very interesting It’s was down for about a month though. It was one of those pretty humorous things that made it around the Internet like wildfire in a couple days I think I got it from three or four different mailing lists in one day at one point It’s funny that it’s “crossed over” to other mediums and interests than motorcyling websites … BTW her name is Elena, and she’s currently updating the site with more photos, etc… Although, she really wants to share more interesting photos of riding all around the area, not just Chernobyl. Apparently she got quite slash-dotted by, in her her words, "…all the geeky guys wanting to chat with a girl that rides a big bike " …and she got 10’s of thousands of hits on the page, and inundated with email. She appreciated it, but I guess it got a bit tiresome to just be asked questions about Chernobyl, and ASL She joined [Sport-Touring.net](http://Sport-Touring.net) and has been posting there."\* She`d be smart to publish a coffee-table book… Looks like about 1.5 million hits on her site so far. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/51 "2004-04-05T20:17:00Z")
**Coldie** , I’ve not been able to get these pictures out of my head since you first posted the link. To be honest, they so perfectly depict the tragedy and her story is so “out there” that at first I thought it can’t be real, that she’s gotta be a fictional character made up by a professional. I mean come on, “Biker Babe Blows Thru Chernobyl and Shares Compelling Dialogue and Pics With World… In English!”??? But she’s real. Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/52 "2004-04-05T23:19:42Z")
I think I’m in love! Where the hell did she get a ZX-11? I used one of these weapons to do a little high-speed touring around southern Nevada/Utah. Simply incredible. I “accidentally” hit 100mph on an on-ramp, in only second gear! I was eye-balling the mirror and just whacked the throttle and the next thing you know, your doing the ton! I had more adventures with it, but they were no “accidents”! 😃 Maybe I should make a website about all the ghost-towns I prowl around. Wouldn’t be as popular. I’m not as cute as she is. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/53 "2004-04-06T01:04:39Z")
“There Will Come Soft Rains” There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum-trees in tremulous white; Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done. Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone. Sara Teasdale. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/54 "2004-04-06T02:13:29Z")
That Chernobyl site makes me want to cry. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/55 "2004-04-06T02:58:03Z")
…I read that site while listening to Donie Darko’s Mad World… Haunting combination… ---
**Author:** ![htns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@htns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/htns)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/56 "2004-04-06T13:45:12Z")
You say you like modern ruins, uh? [http://www.deathrock.net/ariadne/ruins.html](http://www.deathrock.net/ariadne/ruins.html) ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/57 "2004-04-06T14:49:38Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > On one page she said the wood absorbed so much radiation it became red. Is this possible? Even if she meant red with heat, it would burn, right? I think the text is a bit confusing. I found some more [info:](http://www.chernobyl.info/en/Strategy/Actuality/NewsDoc/TreesAlteringGenesDoc) > [@](#): > > The explosion of one of Chernobyl’s reactors showered trees in the surrounding area with a huge amount of radioactivity. Scots pines that received the biggest radiation doses - in excess of 60 grays - died, turned brown and became known as “the red forest”. [Here are a few more recent pics](http://cricket.biol.sc.edu/chernobyl/red-forest-2.html) of the forest. [Here](http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/chernobyl/redforest.htm) you can see aerial pictures. I’m not sure the colours are “true” though. I believe that radiation causing things to glow is [largely a myth](http://kjkolb.tripod.com/energy/energymyths.html). > [@](#): > > When things are radioactive there is almost never a glow. There are a couple of exceptions. Cerenkov radiation can be seen in spent nuclear fuel ponds. However, it is the water that glows, and it stops glowing immediately after the fuel is removed. Also, some substances fluoresce when struck by radiation. Again, it isn’t the radioactive substance that is glowing, and the glowing will stop after a little while of the radioactive substance being removed. However, these are out of the ordinary. > [@Phlosphr](#): > > But it was her photo’s of the Magic wood, which glows red that got to me. I put that picture in Photoshop and tweaked it a little and you can see the 'aura" effect behind the trees in the atmosphere just above them…really eery. Erm… I think those are jpeg artifacts. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/58 "2004-04-06T15:17:59Z")
The ruins of [_Reichsautobahnen_](http://www.xdesign.net/rab/rab_index.html)in Poland. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/59 "2004-04-06T21:08:10Z")
Here’s an odd one from the California desert. [The Salton Bay Motel](http://www.sandiegohistory.org/exhibits/saltonsea/saltonsea.htm). Here’s [another picture](http://www.joanmyers.com/Salt2.htm) of the defunct Salton Bay Yacht Club. I’m sorry there’s not really a single, good site, but the whole Salton Sea story is one of the stranger semi-ghosttown stories you’ll encounter. The above links give relatively recent photos of a long-abandoned motel and yacht club. The latter, which was built around 1960, was at one time a beautiful two-story structure that was open to the public, and boasting a restaurant and cocktail lounge with “a beautiful view of the Sea!”. In those years there was a definite effort to attract the yachting, golfing, and country-club set to the Salton Sea. Since then it has declined. People still go there to fish, but there’s not much in the way of accommodations beyond campsites and trailer slabs. I think it’s really eerie that in 1962, pleasantly tired fishing enthusiasts could shower and change in their motel rooms at the end of the day, and then mosey on over to the Yacht Club and have drinks and a restaurant meal, and today there’s just ruins. Back then, a number of local music and film celebrities including the Beach Boys and the Marx Brothers kept boats here. For a perspective on what used to be, check out this archival website, contents dated 1963, [see here](http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/ConsBenH2OusesSS.html) Finally, I can’t resist linking to [this](http://www.richardheeps.co.uk/browse/saltonsea/) site, offering some pictures of the abandoned North Shore Motel. It should be noted, though, that someone actually [bought](http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/ToxicPollutionSouringSS.html) the place, not long ago, so things may be looking better. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273/60 "2004-04-17T00:07:38Z")
[The site of the Apollo 1 fire.](http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/pad34/pad34.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-ghost-town-chernobyl/237273.md?page=4)