Clovis-Portales-Ft Sumter area

Ghost towns around Charleston, NC are not likely to be visible as buildings like they are in the west. Vegetation growing in and around the buildings will reduce them to mulch. What you will find are depressions in the ground or old chimneys left standing near foundations. Overgrowth will be present no matter what. In the west, old building with tumbleweeds blowing by are common. On the east coast, the elements are softer but the fauna will eat the town.

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In Georgia, the Kudzu takes over and hides stone walls and entire buildings from view. The root system also eats away at the wood in a structure turning it into a roughly building-shaped mass of vines. You have to hack your way down to the dirt most of the time.

Another example I know of since I have actually walked there is this site:

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To the east of the intersection of Oak Drive and Hickory Lane is a foot path into the woods. You can see the beginning of it in the aerial photo. The footpath turns barely visible after a few yards and you have to watch for faint signs of the trail which leads to a small village built over 400 years ago. The foundations are merely faint depressions with a few rocks lined up in a row. The vegetation conceals a graveyard with stones engraved with names and burials from the 1600s. Only a few of the stones are still standing. I have some photos which I will scan later and post.

I have searched the site decades ago with good results. I found what was surely a silversmith shop, a couple of homestead foundations and a church. These are assumptions based on finds. Do not go rushing there with detectors at the ready. The local historical society has since protected the property and stiff fines will be applied if you go treasure hunting there without a permit to detect.

The point I am making is that east of the Mississippi, most ghost towns are very hard to identify as such because of the vegetation and seasonal damage done to abandoned buildings. Trust your instinct of where a village might be before you trust a map. See how overgrown the land is where I discovered this early village. This is what you are likely to encounter in North Carolina. Above all, do not be discouraged. Just be ready to see the tiniest clue rather than walk away disappointed because there are no buildings left behind.

Good luck and happy hunting.

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