15 Abandoned U.S. Towns Locals Say Are Cursed but Won’t Talk About

1. Dudleytown, Connecticut – The Forest Swallowed It

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This sleepy Connecticut village was once a small farm town, but things turned grim fast. Residents suffered from sudden madness, strange deaths, and chilling misfortunes. Eventually, people just left, and the forest moved in. Today, only stone foundations remain, hidden beneath thick woods. It’s now private land, strictly off-limits, and patrolled often. “People say the forest swallowed it,” one former local told the Hartford Courant. No signs mark its location, and even nearby residents rarely speak of it. If a place could erase itself without a fight, Dudleytown did it. Quietly, completely, and without looking back.

2. Portlock, Alaska – Left Behind for a Reason

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Tucked away on the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula, Portlock was once a busy cannery village. Then hunters began vanishing. Some bodies were found ripped apart in the forest, fueling stories about the Nantiinaq, a Bigfoot-like creature feared by Native elders. “We don’t talk about that place,” one elder told Alaska Dispatch News. By the 1950s, everyone had left. Now, Portlock’s remains sit untouched, slowly sinking into moss and mist. People don’t try to rebuild there, and no one goes camping nearby. When nature reclaims something that fast, it’s usually a sign you were never meant to stay.

3. Centralia, Pennsylvania – A Fire That Won’t Go Out

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It began with a simple trash fire in 1962. What no one knew was that the flames would reach an underground coal seam. That fire is still burning, eating away at Centralia from below. The ground smokes, cracks, and sometimes collapses. Most residents were forced to leave, but a few stayed behind. “It’s quiet. Too quiet,” one of them told Time in 2009. Streets exist with no homes, mailboxes stand with no names, and conversation about it is scarce. The town isn’t empty because of ghosts. It’s the ground itself that won’t let Centralia rest.

4. Times Beach, Missouri – Scrubbed from Memory

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Once a charming riverside town, Times Beach became a toxic cautionary tale. Roads were sprayed with oil to keep dust down, but the oil was laced with dioxin. People got sick. The government evacuated the town in 1983 and wiped it from the map. What’s left now is a historical site that feels sterile, like a museum of something no one wants to remember. “They tried to erase it,” one former resident told St. Louis Public Radio. And mostly, they succeeded. But the strange stillness in the air suggests that memory doesn’t go away just because you stop speaking it.

5. Lake Shawnee, West Virginia – Stillness on the Swings

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There’s something uneasy about amusement parks long after the laughter’s gone. Lake Shawnee is a prime example. Built on sacred Indigenous land, the park saw two tragic child deaths before closing in the 1960s. Rusting rides now sit frozen in the woods. “We’ve learned not to dig up the past,” a neighbor told WVExplorer. Paranormal investigators visit, but locals don’t. The land feels like it’s holding something close. Even on windless days, some say the swings sway. And no matter how long the park has been silent, the feeling that someone’s still playing there never quite fades.

6. Cairo, Illinois – The Silence Speaks Volumes

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Cairo sits at the southern tip of Illinois, where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet. Once a booming port town, it’s now eerily quiet. Racial unrest, economic decline, and government neglect hollowed it out. Grand buildings stand boarded and still. “It’s not ghosts. It’s history,” a local told the Chicago Tribune. And that history weighs heavy. People don’t talk much, and they don’t stay long. Even those who grew up here tend to keep their stories short. Cairo didn’t just shrink. It shrank inward, like a place waiting for the world to forget it ever asked to be seen.

7. Black Hope Cemetery, Texas – Built Over the Past

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In the 1980s, new homes went up in a Houston suburb. What the developers didn’t mention was that the land had once been a burial ground for Black families. Graves were forgotten, not removed. Then came reports of strange deaths, flickering lights, and bad luck. One homeowner said, “The dead aren’t resting here,” during an Unsolved Mysteries episode in 1991. Lawsuits were filed, then dropped. Eventually, the talk quieted down. Families moved, new ones moved in. But the old story still lingers. Sometimes, people don’t ask questions not because they don’t care but because they’re afraid of the answers.

8. Stull, Kansas – A Church with No Explanation

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Some places don’t need stories to feel strange. Stull’s old stone church stood for over a century before it collapsed on its own in 2002. No one saw it fall. No one knew why. Local legend long claimed the cemetery next to it was one of the gateways to hell. Residents say it’s all nonsense, but they’re still quick to shoo away curious visitors. “We don’t want to talk about it,” one city worker told Lawrence Journal-World. Maybe it’s just a myth that grew too big. Or maybe silence is the only way to keep the stories from spreading.

9. Elkmont, Tennessee – Still Waiting in the Woods

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Elkmont once buzzed with summer cabins and family getaways. Now, deep in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it feels like time just stepped out for a while. The cabins still stand, gently rotting among the trees. Rangers report seeing lights in empty windows. “It feels like the party never stopped, just went quiet,” one told Smoky Mountains News. Trails lead to porches with rocking chairs that haven’t moved in decades. Yet nothing feels abandoned. It feels paused. Like the mountains took back what was theirs but kept a few things untouched just in case someone decided to return.

10. Picher, Oklahoma – When the Earth Says No

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Picher was a mining town built on lead and zinc. The same mines that brought prosperity also poisoned the water, cracked the ground, and sickened the people. By 2009, the town was declared unlivable and completely abandoned. “You’d hear the earth groan,” one resident told Tulsa World. Massive sinkholes swallowed streets and yards. Schools closed. Homes were demolished. Even now, birds avoid the area. The land looks quiet, but there’s a strange sense it’s still shifting. Some locals won’t speak of it at all. Some things, once damaged enough, don’t just collapse. They refuse to be rebuilt.

11. Slab City, California – Free but Forgotten

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In the blistering heat of the Sonoran Desert, Slab City sits like an outpost for people who want to disappear. There are no rules, no rent, and no running water. Residents call it freedom, but many know it feels like something else entirely. “You come here to disappear,” one local told VICE. Nearby towns avoid even mentioning it. Outsiders pass through but rarely return. The desert sun burns bright, but something always feels dim here. It’s not haunted by spirits, it’s haunted by what people bring with them. And maybe by what they choose to leave behind.

12. Colma, California – The Town That Waits Quietly

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Colma isn’t exactly abandoned. About 1,500 people live there. But over 1.5 million are buried in its soil. After San Francisco banned burials in the early 1900s, cemeteries and remains were moved here. Now, tombstones stretch for miles. “It’s not spooky. It’s respectful,” a local florist told the SF Chronicle. Still, there’s a hush in the air that even sunlight can’t warm. Locals keep things light, but the jokes never last long. Life in Colma isn’t loud. It doesn’t want to be. Sometimes, the quietest places leave the strongest impressions and Colma never forgets who came to stay.

13. Gilman, Colorado – Fenced Off and Forgotten

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Gilman clings to a cliffside like it’s waiting to fall. Once a mining town, it was shut down by the EPA in 1985 after toxic runoff poisoned the land. Now, it’s fenced off, its roads cracked, and houses hollowed out. “It’s like the earth turned against us,” a former engineer told the Denver Post. Locals in nearby towns avoid even driving past. The silence feels unnatural, like the wind holds its breath here. No cleanup crews, no redevelopment. Just warning signs and rust. When a place is hurt badly enough, maybe the kindest thing you can do is leave it alone.

14. Glenrio, Texas/New Mexico – Nothing Moves Anymore

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Along the old Route 66 sits Glenrio, straddling the Texas and New Mexico border. It once welcomed travelers with diners, motels, and gas stations. But when the interstate came, everyone left. Now, it’s a town split in two with no one on either side. “It’s quiet. Too quiet,” a trucker told Route 66 News. Empty buildings lean in the sun, as if waiting for someone who’s never coming. Even the breeze sounds unsure. Nearby locals admit they avoid it. Glenrio isn’t haunted in the usual sense. It just feels paused in a way that’s a little too permanent.

15. Rhyolite, Nevada – The Wind Doesn’t Sound Right

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Rhyolite exploded during the gold rush, then collapsed almost overnight. What’s left are shell-like buildings in the middle of the desert, empty but still standing. Tourists sometimes pass through, but locals from nearby Beatty stay away after dark. “It feels staged,” one visitor told Atlas Obscura. There’s no power, no people, and no animals. Just the wind, and even that sounds off. Rhyolite isn’t loud about its end. It just echoes. And maybe that’s the thread tying all these towns together, they didn’t just vanish. They left a whisper. One that says, very quietly, don’t try to bring us back.

This story 15 Abandoned U.S. Towns Locals Say Are Cursed but Won’t Talk About was first published on Daily FETCH 

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