Chapter 15 (The Rocky Mountains)

Chapter 15 has a section on Ghost Towns near the Rocky Mountains. There are hundred of Rocky Mountains ghost towns which are spread through out the Southern Rockies Mineral Belt. Outside the Mineral Belt are other ghost towns, such as the Alberta coal mining towns of Nordegg and Bankhead, or Garnet, a well preserved gold mining town high in the Northern Rockies near Missoula, Montana. I could connect this section of the chapter to my city Philadelphia because there are two different ghost towns that are right outside of Philadelphia, Pa. They are: Hopewell Furnace which is in Berks County and also Valley Forge which is in Chester County. 

Hopewell Furnace

Hopewell Furnace is located 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It isn't in Philadelphia but it is very close. The history of this ghost town dates back to the fall of 1743, when William Bird erected a forge near Birdsboro, which he called Hopewell Forge. By spring 1744, pig iron was being produced. William died in 1761, and the forges were taken over by his son. By 1850 coal powered furnaces out produced the charcoal furnaces, and activity declined until the civil war. In 1935 the old village stood deserted. There were a couple of people who were living in run down cabins. The Federal government purchased the site and in 1946, the historic old community was made a historic site and reconstruction began. By looking at the picture above, it really does look like a ghost town.

Valley Forge

There is not a lot of times when people now and days come across a sign like the one above in the picture. Today, we have newer street signs. The sign in the picture above makes this place seem as a ghost town. Valley Forge is most famous for being where the Continental Army, under the command of General George Washington, spent cold, nasty winter of 1777-1778. It was here that they recuperated, rebuilt and resupplied, as they kept a wary eye on the British army occupying the colonial capital, in Philadelphia 18 miles east. If it was not for general Washington's winter encampment here, Valley Forge would just be another forgotten iron forge community. Just another hundreds of anonymous sites that have nearly been forgotten. 

Source:

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gtusa/usa/pa/hopewell.htm

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gtusa/usa/pa/valley-forge.htm

Mayda, Chris. A Regional Geography of the United States and Canada: Toward a Sustainable Future. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. Print.

www.google.com (Google images)