# small rural town drops off the map- plausible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338 "2009-03-22T15:07:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [March 25, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/41 "2009-03-25T01:01:25Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > You can even get a roadside view of Slapout, OK. It appears, however, that the gas station-grocery is out of business because there are no gas prices posted on the sign. The businesses across Hwy. 270 also look vacant. [Here 'tis.](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Knockemstiff,+OH&daddr=Slapout,+OK&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.509065,56.601563&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=36.616036,-100.109224&spn=0,359.989325&z=17&layer=c&cbll=36.61604,-100.109117&panoid=tKi2OoYyxp78RILD-3ElrQ&cbp=12,157.82467103873572,,0,5) ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/42 "2009-03-25T03:04:18Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Great idea, **missred** , and unless I’ve forgotten my Tennessee geography, that can’t be far from the dead center of the state. Is there a “far tar” nearby? If not, we need to have the Dopefest at the Cainsville Memorial “curve ahead” sign. 😉 It would be pretty close. It’s between Lebanon and Lascasses. IIRC, the center of the state is just north of Murfreesboro and this would be in that range. There is still a church there and some houses in the countryside surrounding, but no businesses. I live on Cainsville Road and one day, shortly after moving there, got curious as to where Cainsville actually was, so I took a drive and found it. If others are interested, I could check to see if the church has a pavillion or shelter for rent to a bunch of Dopers. “Far tar”? ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/43 "2009-03-25T15:07:41Z")
You’re asking if the premise of a _Stephen King_ story is plausible? 😃 Haven’t read the story or seen the movie in a good while, but I’ll give it a shot. Short term, probably. If they killed all the adults in the town, and it was sufficiently isolated, they could possibly go for half a year or so without anyone finding out. However, IIRC the guy driving through the town found a book at one point listing the births and deaths of the kids, noting that when they turned a certain age (18 I think), they’d be sent into the corn (sacrificed). So this was going on for years and years. Don’t forget, there was a mysterious evil being in the corn that was able to influence people from afar. In **IT** , there was a killer clown on the loose, and no one noticed, remember? In that one, people sort of became lulled or brainwashed into just not thinking about it. We need to come up with a new scenario. How about this: Kids murder their parents, drag them off to sacrifice to the Corn Monster, clean up afterwards, and set up their own Amish style community. By and by, Sheriff from the next town stops by to check on things. If the kids killed him, his disappearance would surely be noticed and investigated. So they hide in the corn while Evil Corn Monster uses his mental powers to convince the sheriff the town has been abandoned, but not to tell anyone about it. In Stephen King’s world, this is a perfectly logical and common scenario. What about worried relatives and lost travellers? They’re sacrificed to the monster and said sheriff dismisses any demands to inquire as to their whereabouts. After all, the town is abandoned in his mind. After all, they’re not using electricity or utilities so there’s not really a lot to draw attention to them. I don’t think the handful of kids there would have harvested the corn, which would have been noticed. Probably just eaten enough of it to survive. Or maybe the monster was feeding them somehow. What did they do in the winter? Oh look, I’m out of ideas, gotta go… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/44 "2009-03-25T16:54:55Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > Momson, Vermont. I’m almost postive it’s fictional. Correct. About five or six years ago I asked my BIL, who works for the Vermont Historical Society, to check into whether or not the town existed, and he confirmed it never did. (The VHS has records of every town that ever existed, even those that long ago disappeared). I later read that King coined the name and considered Momson for the setting of his book before settling on Jerusalem’s Lot, and then used Momson in a fake newspaper article in the prologue. On a more humorous note, the EPA almost succeeds in making Springfield disappear thanks to a Tom Hanks ad and some judicious OnStar map tweaking in _The Simpsons Movie_. A bit off-topic, but I always thought this was interesting: [Bullfrog County, Nevada - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfrog_County,_Nevada) ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/45 "2009-03-25T23:36:56Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > [Centralia, Pennsylvania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania) is a ghost town that’s been on fire for the past 40+ years (well, technically, the land _beneath_ the town has been on fire, but the town was uninhabitable). I learned about it a few years ago when there was a news story on a movement to deliberately tear up the roads to it and literally take it off the maps due to curiosity seekers. It once had a population of over 1000 and per wiki now has a population of 9. I remember reading about that. IIRC the vein of coal was so close to the ground that when it caught fire, they couldn’t get it extinguished? Another town, population 9: > **[Kaskaskia, Illinois](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaskaskia,_Illinois)** > > Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, on the west side of the Mississippi River. The population of Kaskaskia was 21 in the 2020 United States census, making it the third-least populous incorporated community in Illinois behind Valley City (pop. 14) and Florence (pop. 17). Kaskaskia has an Illinois telephone area code (618) and a Missouri ZIP Code (63673). Its roads are maintained by Illinois Department of Transportation, and its few residents vote in Illinois elections. The t Ka... It was the original capital of Illinois, in fact, but flooding made it an island in the Mississippi for awhile. I guess it got reattached on the MO side because it’s actually west of the Mississippi now. If there were another flood and everybody disappeared, people would figure they got washed down stream I suppose. > [@elmwood](#): > > I’ve heard about remote, seldom-visited “hollers” and settlements in West Virginia that were unknown to the outside world until the 1960s and the War on Poverty opened them up – roads were built, electricity service extended, and so on – but that’s really the opposite of the phenomenon described by the OP., where known towns were slowly forgotten. Yeah, but there may be people who don’t WANT to be found or assimilated. If they start shooting at you, you probably leave them alone. Also, cults like Jonestown or the Branch Davidians…it would be easier for a town to disappear with that type of scenario, where they already had cut ties to loved ones. > [@Bearflag70](#): > > Some cities are under water as a result of dam building and flooding of once-occupied valleys. > > California has a few of these. > > [Are there submerged towns under lakes created by dam building? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2726/are-there-submerged-towns-under-lakes-created-by-dam-building) Or like Aintry in “Deliverance.” > [@Airk](#): > > With regard to the “Tax man would notice if the town stopped paying” theory - there’s a certain minimum cutoff on income tax. If the town had been essentially generating no real income for a while, there’s no reason they should even have been filing returns, and thusly, no reason for the IRS to notice they’d stopped. Right, but the property tax man wouldn’t be deterred. This made me think about the thread in here about Detroit going down the toilet. IIRC it was a poster who lived near there who said that so many places have been condemned (and the tax base has been dwindling) that the city literally can’t _afford_ to knock them all down. Meanwhile you have foreign investors scooping up handfuls of properties for 10% of their “value.” You could have some nice neighborhoods and some not-so-nice that would be ghost neighborhoods inside a city of nearly 1M. Not usually a big mystery why they left, and sure, some is white flight. But I wonder where those who were too poor to move to the 'burbs went. Squatting? On the street? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/46 "2009-03-26T00:29:47Z")
About three miles north of where I live is the municipality sign for Sutton NC. The thing is, that’s all that’s there – the sign. There’s a house about 250 feet up a side road, but nothing at the intersection marked by the sign but pavement, grass, and trees. My landlady, who grew up here, says back when she was a kid it was a fairly populous little community, but everybody moved away, and the houses went out in hurricanes and fires. If you look at a USGS map for Pamelia Quadrangle in NY, you’ll see “Noseville” – which is a mishearing of “Knowlesville”. Same thing – a former crossroads community that vanished. It’s still shown on the maps, but nobody lives there anymore. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/47 "2010-10-11T02:07:32Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Yeah, but there may be people who don’t WANT to be found or assimilated. If they start shooting at you, you probably leave them alone. Or, on a grander scale: [Uncontacted peoples](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples) ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/48 "2010-10-11T10:52:35Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > > [@missred](#): > > > > In this vein, I propose that our next Middle Tennessee Dopefest be held in scenic metropolitan Cainsville. 😛 [Cainsville Populated Place Profile / Wilson County, Tennessee Data](http://tennessee.hometownlocator.com/tn/wilson/cainsville.cfm) > > Great idea, **missred** , and unless I’ve forgotten my Tennessee geography, that can’t be far from the dead center of the state. Is there a “far tar” nearby? If not, we need to have the Dopefest at the Cainsville Memorial “curve ahead” sign. 😉 What’s the story on Cainsville? I’m a couple hours from there, but know nothing about it. I’m not from these parts originally. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/49 "2010-10-11T12:14:40Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > > [@Zeldar](#): > > > > Great idea, **missred** , and unless I’ve forgotten my Tennessee geography, that can’t be far from the dead center of the state. Is there a “far tar” nearby? If not, we need to have the Dopefest at the Cainsville Memorial “curve ahead” sign. 😉 > > What’s the story on Cainsville? I’m a couple hours from there, but know nothing about it. I’m not from these parts originally. I’m not sure what the history of the community is or whether it was even incorporated, but it is a farming community between Lebanon and Lascassas. According to a couple of old timers here in Lebanon, it used to be a small farming town with a couple of general stores and a post office. There is still the remnent of what appears to be a gas station / store along SR 266 and a Methodist church. BTW, shall we put you on the Middle TN Dopers list for any upcoming Dopefests? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/50 "2010-10-11T12:37:48Z")
Centralia really isn’t a great example of a ghost town or a town ‘dropping off the map’. Aristes is still populated and barely a mile up the road. Frick’s lock was another example of a town where everyone was made to leave and the area was sealed off as well, there are plenty of pics on google since it is a favorite of urban spelunker types. That being said there are plenty of ghost towns in every state in the Union. Wether there is anything left of the town is another matter. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/51 "2010-10-11T14:28:05Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > a small remote rural town could completely disappear off the radar, and most or all of it’s inhabitants vanish, with no one other than the occasional lost tourist stumbling into it. The chances of this happening in the United States, are zero. The United States is too populated, there are too many people, and every inhabitable piece of land…is inhabited. There are just too many hunters, fishermen, teenagers, genealogists, real estate agents, OTR riders, snowmobilers, and people with metal detectors wondering around everywhere in America. An inhabitable town in the United States that is not regularly and frequently intruded upon by strangers would be a Shangri La, and non-existant. Tell me of such a Shangri La in the USA where I wont be bothered by strangers and neighbors, and i myself will move there. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/52 "2010-10-11T14:41:07Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > > [@Lumpy](#): > > > > a small remote rural town could completely disappear off the radar, and most or all of it’s inhabitants vanish, with no one other than the occasional lost tourist stumbling into it. > > The chances of this happening in the United States, are zero. > > The United States is too populated, there are too many people, and every inhabitable piece of land…is inhabited. > > There are just too many hunters, fishermen, teenagers, genealogists, real estate agents, OTR riders, snowmobilers, and people with metal detectors wondering around everywhere in America. > > An inhabitable town in the United States that is not regularly and frequently intruded upon by strangers would be a Shangri La, and non-existant. > > Tell me of such a Shangri La in the USA where I wont be bothered by strangers and neighbors, and i myself will move there. I’m from Pittsburgh originally. While I didn’t travel through Central PA at all, I’ve heard that it’s sparsely populated. > **[File:Pennsylvania population map.png](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pennsylvania_population_map.png)** > > Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. > You cannot overwrite this file. The following 2 pages use this file: > The following other wikis use this file: Even better, check out this population map of Wyoming: > **[File:Wyoming population map.png](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wyoming_population_map.png)** > > Category:Wyoming maps > Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. > You cannot overwrite this file. The following page uses this file: That’s just too much empty area to be harassed by hunters and fishermen. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/53 "2010-10-11T14:43:30Z")
> [@missred](#): > > > [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > > > What’s the story on Cainsville? I’m a couple hours from there, but know nothing about it. I’m not from these parts originally. > > I’m not sure what the history of the community is or whether it was even incorporated, but it is a farming community between Lebanon and Lascassas. According to a couple of old timers here in Lebanon, it used to be a small farming town with a couple of general stores and a post office. There is still the remnent of what appears to be a gas station / store along SR 266 and a Methodist church. > > BTW, shall we put you on the Middle TN Dopers list for any upcoming Dopefests? Thanks for the info. It sounded kind of notorious, and I hadn’t heard of it at all. That’s not surprising, but once I’d heard about it, I had to know more. If there’s a Mid-TN Doperfest notification list, sure, put me on it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338/54 "2011-12-27T15:32:54Z")
Some international ghost town pics: [http://main.aol.com/2011/12/21/ghost-towns-of-the-world-\_n\_1163227.html?1324496786&icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl3|sec1\_lnk1%26pLid%3D122705#s564368&title=St\_Elmo\_Colorado](http://main.aol.com/2011/12/21/ghost-towns-of-the-world-_n_1163227.html?1324496786&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D122705#s564368&title=St_Elmo_Colorado) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-rural-town-drops-off-the-map-plausible/490338.md?page=2)