Spooky Season Reads

Name: Lost Towns of Central Alabama
Brand: Peggy J. Walls
SKU: 9781467145190
Price: 21.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Get in the spirit of spooky season with these stories of the unknown!

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Lost Towns of Central Alabama

Peggy J. Walls

$21.99

Lost Towns of New England

Renee Mallett

$21.99

Lost British Forts of Long Island

David M. Griffin

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Lost Ghost Towns of Teller County

Jan MacKell Collins

$24.99

The Lost Freedmen's Town of Hamburg, South Carolina

Michael Smith

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Potomac Marble

Paul Kreingold

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Lost Charleston

J. Grahame Long

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Lost Aiken County

Alexia Jones Helsley

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Lost Jefferson City

Michelle Brooks

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Lost Fort Ellis

Dr. Thomas C. Rust

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Lost Forts of Casper

Johanna Wickman

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Peggy J. Walls

Lost Towns of Central Alabama

9781467145190

$21.99

Settlers came to Central Alabama in the early 1800s with big dreams. They created bustling communities, but those centers of commerce and pluck are now mere remnants that dot the Central Alabama landscape.

Miners panned the streams and combed the hillsides of the state’s Gold Belt, hoping to strike it rich. Arbacooche and Goldville were forged by the rush on land and gold, along with Cahaba, the first state capital. Demand for the abundant cotton led to the establishment of factories like Pepperell Mills, Russell Manufacturing Company, Tallassee Mills, Avondale Mills, and Daniel Pratt Cotton Gin. Owners built mill villages for their workers, setting the standard for other companies as well. But when booms go bust, they leave ghost towns in their wake. Author Peggy Jackson Walls walks the empty streets of these once lively towns, reviving the stories of the people who built and abandoned them.

Renee Mallett

Lost Towns of New England

9781467147866

$21.99

New England is home to abandoned towns and forgotten main streets that once bustled with life and commerce. From villages sunk underwater to cities undone by the rise and fall of mill life, madness or just plain bad luck, these ghost towns offer a unique look into the rich history of the past. Get a glimpse into what early life was really like through historical accounts of abandoned villages. Discover the history behind the ruins of towns like Connecticut’s religious community Gay City, the former New Hampshire resort town of Unity Springs and Massachusetts’s famed Dogtown—before nature reclaims them entirely. Join local author Renee Mallett as she uncovers the heydays of some of New England’s most fascinating lost towns.

David M. Griffin

Lost British Forts of Long Island

9781625858535

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Author David M. Griffin uncovers the lost history and harrowing stories of Long Island's British forts.

When the Revolutionary War broke out and New York City had fallen in 1776, the forces of the king of Great Britain developed a network of forts along the length of Long Island to defend the New York area and create a front to Patriot forces across the Sound in Connecticut. Fort Franklin on Lloyd's Neck became a refugee camp for Loyalists and saw frequent rebel attacks. In Huntington, a sacred burial ground was desecrated, and Fort Golgotha was erected in its place, using tombstones as baking hearths. In Setauket along the northern shore, the Presbyterian church was commandeered and made the central fortified structure of the town.

Jan MacKell Collins

Lost Ghost Towns of Teller County

9781467135122

$24.99

Throughout Teller County, history lovers can find abandoned towns and forgotten main streets that once bustled with life and commerce. Even before Teller was carved from surrounding counties, the scenic mountains and lucrative mines of the gold rush era brought thousands of settlers and attracted resort owners and tycoons eager to exploit the rich setting. Seemingly overnight, towns in the Cripple Creek District and other places popped up, flush with gold and people looking for opportunity. As the ore disappeared, the miners moved on in search of the next big lode. One by one, the towns were all but forgotten. Join Jan MacKell Collins and discover the booming history, lost towns and hardy settlers of Teller County.

Michael Smith

The Lost Freedmen's Town of Hamburg, South Carolina

9781467148559

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

The History of a Freedmen's Town has been buried for years. Hamburg is perhaps South Carolina's most famous ghost town. Founded in 1821, it grew to 4000 residents before transportation advances led to decline. During Reconstruction, recently freed slaves reshaped Hamburg into freedman's village, where residents held local, county and state offices. These gains were wiped away after the Hamburg Massacre in 1876, a watershed event that left seven African-Americans dead, most of them executed in cold blood. Yet over a century after Hamburg, the one white supremacist killed in the melee is canonized by the racially divisive Meriwether Monument in downtown North Augusta. Author Michael Smith details the amazing events that created this unique community with a lasting legacy from Freedmen to Black Lives Matter.

Paul Kreingold

Potomac Marble

9781467153171

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Learn the history behind the re-building of the Capital City after the War of 1812.

The destruction of Washington in 1814 by the invading British challenged President James Monroe & architect Benjamin Latrobe with the task of rebuilding the destroyed edifices of the city’s public buildings. As symbols of the aspirations of the Republic, they had to be more than functional, they had to be beautiful. The building material they discovered and used to beautify the new Capitol was Potomac marble, which exists in abundance on both sides of the Potomac River, from Leesburg in Loudoun County, Virginia to Montgomery and Frederick Counties in Maryland.

Local historian Paul Kreingold details Latrobe and Monroe’s search for the ideal stone and their fight to use it to rebuild the chambers of the House and Senate.

J. Grahame Long

Lost Charleston

9781467139045

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Even in a city as conscious of history as Charleston, not everything has survived. Natural disasters, wars and other calamities claimed many treasures.

Only a few preserved bits of one of the city’s grandest mansions survive at Dock Street Theatre. An old Quaker graveyard still rests in peace but does so under a downtown parking garage. The famous corner of Meeting and Broad Streets was once the area’s busiest marketplace. The Grace Memorial Bridge spanned the Cooper River for more than seventy years. Author J. Grahame Long details the history of these and more lost locations in the Holy City.

Alexia Jones Helsley

Lost Aiken County

9781467141499

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

From a home to the fierce Westo tribe to a hub of the equestrian industry, Aiken County has had a huge influence on South Carolina. And some of the structures that mark that history have disappeared. More than two hundred years ago, the Horse Creek Chickasaw Squirrel King held court near North Augusta. The first locomotive built for public transportation, the “Best Friend” from Charleston to Hamburg, first ran in the area. The home of noted businessman Richard Flint Howe hosted both the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and students of the University of South Carolina Aiken. William Gregg and the Graniteville Mill helped shape the textile industry in the state. Author Alexia Jones Helsley details the lost history of Aiken County.

Michelle Brooks

Lost Jefferson City

9781467150354

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Jefferson City incorporated in 1825, but so much of that history has changed or been forgotten. Today’s Lincoln University practice field used to host early circus visitors. Although called St. Peter Cemetery #1, the old recently restored cemetery on West Main Street was the second Catholic cemetery, after the sight and smell at the northeast corner of Bolivar and McCarty Streets was too much for neighbors. The man who designed the Missouri State Seal and served as a longtime judge built a Steamboat-style home on a hill at the northwest corner of Adams and High Streets, where the Missouri River Regional Library is today. Author Michelle Brooks explores the world of the Mill Bottom and the Foot, as well as cemeteries, fairgrounds, ballparks and stately homes lost to time.

Dr. Thomas C. Rust

Lost Fort Ellis

9781626199798

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Established in 1867 in the Gallatin Valley of Montana, Fort Ellis played a key role in the development of the Montana frontier. From post commanders attacking the town to restoring order when riotous mobs got out of control, explore the ambivalent, albeit contentious, relationship from 1867 to 1886 between the civilians and soldiers in whimsical but dramatic fashion. Competing visions of economic and military conditions on the frontier led to a complex relationship that has all the drama of a Hollywood western. Join MSU–Billings history professor Dr. Thomas C. Rust as he examines the fort's impact on the social and economic development of early Bozeman, the problems of military command and the dynamics of the soldier-civilian interaction on Montana's frontier.

Johanna Wickman

Lost Forts of Casper

9781467119221

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Three army outposts built before and during the Civil War protected critical routes along the western trails at the North Platte River near what later became Casper. All had been abandoned by 1867, and their dramatic stories are mostly forgotten. The Post at Platte Bridge was a vital outpost on Albert Sidney Johnston's Utah War supply route. Camp Dodge and Platte Bridge Station, also called Fort Caspar, guarded telegraph lines from Native American sabotage. Violent winds, horrendous blizzards and scorching summers made life miserable. Tension reached a fever pitch at the Battle of Platte Bridge when Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho attacked a cavalry detachment led by Caspar Collins. Today, a reconstructed Fort Caspar stands as a vigilant reminder of the struggles at those lonely frontier stations. Local historian Johanna Wickman chronicles military efforts to keep the peace, wage war and merely survive.