There’s a thread about what famous tourist sites people haven’t been to in their own hometowns. That got me thinking the opposite. What neglected or unmarked sites have dopers gone out of their way to find out about and visit; or would like to visit?
I’ve been to…
…the site of the Hindenburg crash. It’s on an active U.S. military base (used to be Lakehurst Naval Air Station, but the designation has probably changed), so visiting it might be difficult under the current security rules. I was there in August of 2001; the main gate would let you in (with proper ID) and give directions to the site. There’s one huge hangar still there. The actual crash site just has a concrete pad and a small pole in the middle of a big gravel field. When I was there, one other car drove through but I mostly had the whole place to myself.
…the site of the Brink’s Robbery. At least, I think I found the right spot. There was an exhibit about it at the Boston Library years ago, and they had a newspaper page that showed the location, where the robbers parked, and which door they went in through. I haven’t been able to find that picture again, but I think I remember it. The building is now a parking garage in Boston’s North End, not too far from the TD Garden. There was no marker of any kind that I found.
…the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire. At least, I’ve almost been there. I was in the right neighborhood unexpectedly a few weeks ago and looked for the right spot. I looked it up when I got home; must have just missed it. There is a small plaque embedded in the sidewalk.
…Le Bourget airport. Okay, not exactly neglected; it is the site of the French Air and Space Museum; but I wonder how many people go there knowing it was where Lindbergh landed.
I’d like to go to…
…Roosevelt Field. The site where Lindbergh took off. I believe it’s now a shopping mall.
…the site of Robert Goddard’s early rocket launches. According to Wikipedia it is now the 9th fairway of the Pakachoag Golf Course in Central Massachusetts.
Within an hour of my home in Lawrence, Kansas, I’ll mention two: the site of the Battle of Black Jack, which you could argue was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired; and, the Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri – the atrium is where an appalling number of people died in 1981 when an engineering miscommunication led to the collapse of several “skybridges” (if you know where to look, you can see the blank wall where the upper one was located) – sadly, the hotel/mall owners prefer to not mention the tragedy, not even with a small plaque.
[QUOTE=Robot Arm]
Roosevelt Field. The site where Lindbergh took off. I believe it’s now a shopping mall.
[/QUOTE] It is. One of the largest malls at the time I think. No runways no more, but I think there is/was a monument for Lindbergh, but it’s been too long ago that I’ve been there. To the south was Mitchel Field and base, which had runways that turned into parking lots for Hofstra University, some sort of coliseum, as well as the Cradle of Aviation Museum, which has a nice collection of aircraft and the LEM for Apollo 18. I guess that makes it not forgotten or neglected now.
I don’t think “an engineering miscommunication” fairly describes the situation. “Clusterfuck” is more apt. From the moron who wanted a something that “would make people gasp” upon entering the lobby to the cretin who decided it would be a good idea to suspend concrete walkways on threaded rods; the idiot steel fabricator who changed the design of the box beams to make them out of two shallow U channels so the holes would go through the welds; the pin-head who decided that it would be too much work to thread a whole story of threaded rod through the holes in the beam and changed it to two rods; the imbecile who installed them without the washers; the utterly criminal city inspectors who let all this pass, and the jerkwad hotel manager who let crowds gather on the walkways watching the tea dance below.
Pretty much everyone involved was culpable. That nobody actually served time is one of the great miscarriages of justice in the history of the US.
I’ve been to Devil Anse Hatfield’s grave. This was years and years ago, well before the recent History Channel mini-series, so it was not in anyway marked as a historical site. If you didn’t know where to look, you’d drive right past it.
Like many rural WV cemeteries, it’s on the side of a hill, and it was a very steep hike from the road up to the grave site.
The battlefield for the Battle of Bennington from the Revolution. While the battle is well known, everyone thinks it was fought in Bennington, and there’s a big monument to the battle there. Actually, that’s a monument marking the objective, but the British never got within five miles of it. The battlefield is in North Hoosic, NY, just inside the state line. It’s an impressive sight: the British had chosen a perfect position to set up their troops – at the top of a hill that dominated the landscape – but the colonists managed to attack before they realized what was going on.
It’s better known now, but there’s also the “boot monument” at the Saratoga Battlefield. It honors the “most brilliant soldier” of the battle who was instrumental in winning it, and who suffered a leg wound on the spot, but doesn’t mention him by name.
The leg was that of Benedict Arnold
I also liked visiting the grave of William Dawes in Boston, who would have been a major American hero if his name rhymed better.
Also, Chester A. Arthur’s grave in Albany, NY.
I’ve also seen the Cardiff Giant, the great archaeological hoax. It’s in the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown.
I also love the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial in Washington DC. Not the big one at the tidal basin, but the memorial that FDR specifically asked for: a block of marble, about the size of his desk, on the lawn of the National Archives.
My grandfather used to live in Cardiff so we could walk past the plot of land on which it was “discovered”, which is on private property and has only a tiny historical marker on the roadside to label it. I didn’t know it was semi-big-deal until I went to Cooperstown.
I’ve never gone out of my way to a town I didn’t live in for neglected historical monuments. I’ve came close in each category. I’ve gone out of my way for neglected geological places (such as Archbold pothole, which suffered from neglect in upkeep and reputation if not fame); I’ve pased by interesting-looking monuments by mistake; and I’ve gone out of my way for neglected historical stuff in the place I lived at the time, such as deliberately passing by several places where Vladimir Nabokov used to live in Ithaca. They aren’t marked probably because most former residences aren’t marked and he didn’t live in most places in Ithaca all that long.
Until very recently (when my fiancee took there) I had never seen the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. It is the first and largest of the Civil War Parks. Fascinating place. Quite beautiful, in fact.
I’ve visited Gus Grissom’s and Roger Chaffee’s graves at Arlington Cemetery. They both died in the Apollo 1 fire. (Ed White is buried at West Point. I’ll pay my respects there if I’m ever in the area.) They’re not marked on the tourist maps, though; I had to ask at the office. They’re side-by-side in an older section of the cemetery, but with modern style headstones.
I once stayed at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City, in part because of its phone number, PEnnsylvania 6-5000.
I don’t think I’ve seen any that are neglected, but I have seen some that most people are unaware of. These include a state park in New Mexico near the Mexican border that still has the first grease rack in the US, used by General Pershing’s cars in his push to find Pancho Villa. Billy the Kid’s grave, also in New Mexico and whose tombstone is encased in a cage, because people kept stealing it for a prank. And Charles Lindbergh’s grave on Maui.
I’ve visited several times the birthplace of the 19th President of the U.S. (Rutherford Hayes), in Delaware, Ohio – the building that he was born in has been demolished and replaced with a petrol station.
It’s a great way to spend a day riding your bike, but don’t forget a helmet or lights. You’ll need both going through the Sideling Hill Tunnel, which is darker than midnight and is like riding into your grave.
