Blue Hole GHOST!?

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That's the best (coolest, spookiest, etc.) side effect of depth narcosis / oxygen toxication / water pressure intolerance I've ever heard. :D Power of imagination is a great force.
Santa Rosa is an old town by western US standards, settled because of the spring fed hole we now dive, with a colorful history. Motorists traveling that branch of the Ozark Motor Trail a hundred years ago always stopped there and there are scenes there in The Grapes of Wrath novel and movie both.

When the Spanish explorer Coronado took his army thru the area centuries ago, they wintered downstream from there a few miles.
 
Santa Rosa is an old town by western US standards, settled because of the spring fed hole we now dive, with a colorful history. Motorists traveling that branch of the Ozark Motor Trail a hundred years ago always stopped there and there are scenes there in The Grapes of Wrath novel and movie both.

When the Spanish explorer Coronado took his army thru the area centuries ago, they wintered downstream from there a few miles.

Old western US standards and regular small towns of that time have always seemed to me so calm and quiet with its hastleless peaceful and serene lives slowly "frying" by in the hot sun of the US South... as if something of another planet and perhaps something to be jealous for people from huge metropolitan areas with heavy smoky traffic and hectic rats' race...

Colorful and picturesque histories are always interesting to get acquianted with.

I've never seen the movie or read the novel named "The Grapes of Wrath".
 
Old western US standards and regular small towns of that time have always seemed to me so calm and quiet with its hastleless peaceful and serene lives slowly "frying" by in the hot sun of the US South... as if something of another planet and perhaps something to be jealous for people from huge metropolitan areas with heavy smoky traffic and hectic rats' race...

Colorful and picturesque histories are always interesting to get acquianted with.

I've never seen the movie or read the novel named "The Grapes of Wrath".
Well, our oldest surviving settlements are far younger than so many in the Old World and some Amerindian cities are much older. Dublin Ireland is over a thousand years old while Santa Rosa as a white man settlement only goes back to 1865 as Aqua Negra Chiquita, "Little Black Water," altho I'm sure that Amerindians lived there at times at least. A railroad connecting Chicago with El Paso was built thru there in the early 1900s, followed by a branch of the Ozark auto trail that became Route 66, then I-40.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck's epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, may have never been famous overseas as it focused in part on the The Great Depression and Europe had their own then, but at the same time we had The Dust Bowl in this part of North America largely because of poor farming practices. If tells stories around one family who abandoned their farm in Oklahoma and joined a tragic migration to California. The grandma of the family was quoted as saying “The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here we is in Texas yet,” and they only drove across the skinny part we call the Panhandle (where I live) - but the quote has been used by many since. It had to have been a scary trip, following dirt trails west thru the American Desert in 1930s vehicles, camping every night, trying to not break down or starve.

Most western settlements were established a days horseback ride from the next, and have long since vanished with changing times and transportation. My parents lived thru the Depression and Dust Bowl here, surviving on blackeyed peas and whatever else they could grow in spite of the drought. I remember my dad telling me about trips to Lubbock in his childhood taking 3 days and 2 nights round trip even after roads were built; I often do the drive in an hour now. I enjoy exploring famous Amerindian ruins across New Mexico and Arizona, but I also like to visit and photograph white man ghost towns around - if there is anything left to shoot. Gray Mule was a thriving railroad town at one time but now only has one concrete shed and an active cemetery some local families still use. On a recent drive to a business meeting a few counties away, I stopped at a few to shoot pics of two towns hanging on and one dead one: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150357933614009.397966.564344008&type=1 Generally only brick buildings survive time if they are not dismantled to resuse the bricks like many have been, and I wanted to preserve what I could that day.
 
Well, our oldest surviving settlements are far younger than so many in the Old World and some Amerindian cities are much older. Dublin Ireland is over a thousand years old while Santa Rosa as a white man settlement only goes back to 1865 as Aqua Negra Chiquita, "Little Black Water," altho I'm sure that Amerindians lived there at times at least. A railroad connecting Chicago with El Paso was built thru there in the early 1900s, followed by a branch of the Ozark auto trail that became Route 66, then I-40.

John Steinbeck's epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, may have never been famous overseas as it focused in part on the The Great Depression and Europe had their own then, but at the same time we had The Dust Bowl in this part of North America largely because of poor farming practices. If tells stories around one family who abandoned their farm in Oklahoma and joined a tragic migration to California. The grandma of the family was quoted as saying “The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here we is in Texas yet,” and they only drove across the skinny part we call the Panhandle (where I live) - but the quote has been used by many since. It had to have been a scary trip, following dirt trails west thru the American Desert in 1930s vehicles, camping every night, trying to not break down or starve.

Most western settlements were established a days horseback ride from the next, and have long since vanished with changing times and transportation. My parents lived thru the Depression and Dust Bowl here, surviving on blackeyed peas and whatever else they could grow in spite of the drought. I remember my dad telling me about trips to Lubbock in his childhood taking 3 days and 2 nights round trip even after roads were built; I often do the drive in an hour now. I enjoy exploring famous Amerindian ruins across New Mexico and Arizona, but I also like to visit and photograph white man ghost towns around - if there is anything left to shoot. Gray Mule was a thriving railroad town at one time but now only has one concrete shed and an active cemetery some local families still use. On a recent drive to a business meeting a few counties away, I stopped at a few to shoot pics of two towns hanging on and one dead one: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150357933614009.397966.564344008&type=1 Generally only brick buildings survive time if they are not dismantled to resuse the bricks like many have been, and I wanted to preserve what I could that day.

Sorry guys if it's getting a little side-tracked but it's not hijacking the thread is it? I believe ghosts under water and ghost towns have something in common. :)

It looks like we share the passion not only for scuba diving but also for American ghost towns, ruins of old times, history, ancient architecture and archeology. I find it exciting and breathtaking to find out what people had to go through following their dreams for better lives. I have travelled your famous Route 66 many times sitting in my study's chair. It has many ghost towns on tis way and those still hanging on have live amazing stories to tell that are obviously revealed along the journey. It's unbelievable and so realistic touch of the past, as if you are transferred back in time all of a sudden. You have to make sure you preserve it for the future generations. This is your history that you've been honored to witness live. Maybe one day I will have a chance to travel the Route 66 for real as well.

"Old home in Oklahoma" song rings a bell to me too.

My Russian grand-grand father was also the one of these first immigrants and wild West settlers of 1900 who seemingly merely vanished in this commotion. No matter how hard I try I still fail to trace him down as his last footprints are lost somewhere in Alaska... Plus the fact that I live in Russia myself makes it quite complicated to search for him from here...

Unfortuntely, I was unable to access your facebook link you provided above. It says it does not exist.
 
Rt.66 was a major accomplishment at the time, but prior to it - the Ozark auto trails were popular. Locals would keep the dirt roads in better shape than wagon trails at least to help encourage travelers to come thru their towns, do business, etc. Wikipedia's article on those is incorrect about its pass near here, showing it going thru Plainview while it really passed 26 miles north thru Tulia. I need to get more pics of surviving markers and more info before trying to correct that tho. Here is a pic of the Tulia marker still where it stood almost a century ago, altho the intersecting roads have moved - #86 south a block, #87 west a half mile, then I-40 further west another mile. Miles to other towns were sometimes listed wrong...

PICT0072.jpg

Last spring I asked others on this forum for ideas on taking my kids on a road trip shadowing Rt.66 a lot. I was discouraged from taking them to a ghost town on this branch of the Ozark a hundred miles south of I-40 in New Mexico - but we stopped for a few minutes and shot some pics...
GCT-008.jpg

My Russian grand-grand father was also the one of these first immigrants and wild West settlers of 1900 who seemingly merely vanished in this commotion. No matter how hard I try I still fail to trace him down as his last footprints are lost somewhere in Alaska... Plus the fact that I live in Russia myself makes it quite complicated to search for him from here...
Did he cross thru the US or across the Bering Strait? Hard to track old trails in Alaska I bet. Gold rush miners were lucky to get a grave dug for them when they perished back then. Here in Texas, we are discovering some lost ones where scuba divers formerly went: Texas Drought 2011: Depleted Lakes Expose Ghost Towns, Graves And Prehistoric Bones

Unfortuntely, I was unable to access your facebook link you provided above. It says it does not exist.
My bad. I've changed the settings to Public View now if you want to look again.
 
Rt.66 was a major accomplishment at the time, but prior to it - the Ozark auto trails were popular. Locals would keep the dirt roads in better shape than wagon trails at least to help encourage travelers to come thru their towns, do business, etc. Wikipedia's article on those is incorrect about its pass near here, showing it going thru Plainview while it really passed 26 miles north thru Tulia. I need to get more pics of surviving markers and more info before trying to correct that tho. Here is a pic of the Tulia marker still where it stood almost a century ago, altho the intersecting roads have moved - #86 south a block, #87 west a half mile, then I-40 further west another mile. Miles to other towns were sometimes listed wrong...


Last spring I asked others on this forum for ideas on taking my kids on a road trip shadowing Rt.66 a lot. I was discouraged from taking them to a ghost town on this branch of the Ozark a hundred miles south of I-40 in New Mexico - but we stopped for a few minutes and shot some pics...


Did he cross thru the US or across the Bering Strait? Hard to track old trails in Alaska I bet. Gold rush miners were lucky to get a grave dug for them when they perished back then. Here in Texas, we are discovering some lost ones where scuba divers formerly went: Texas Drought 2011: Depleted Lakes Expose Ghost Towns, Graves And Prehistoric Bones


My bad. I've changed the settings to Public View now if you want to look again.

You are lucky to live there to be able to go / drive take a look at it for yourself. But then again it is only interesting for those who are interested in these sort of things. I don't think that kids would love the panorama of some ruins and some old weary residues of houses and ancient settlements. They have to know thier history or at least its main events but not more than that while they are still kids. I guess they would be much more interested in roller coasters, amuzement parks, diving, playing computer games, sports, etc. I do not think it's a good idea to make them study it against their will. What I have personally noticed is that usually this interest comes with age or never comes at all. It's like an aquired taste.

I am not 100% sure if my grand-grand father crossed the Bearing Strait but most probably he did. It's really hard to track it as you say.

These are nice pictures you attached here.

Your facebook link still does not work. It says it's not accessable now.
 
Link works for me, but I'm also logged into facebook too

To bad stories of "the old days" only seem to interest us when we are older, sometimes being too late to hear them from those that lived them :(
 
Oh the kids liked some of it, as it was all different from what we have on the plains here. I'm sure there are some neat sites where you are. I have seen very little of Europe.

Sorry about the link. I have the album on Public View now, but I guess you have to register for Facebook first. Here are are few of the pics...

From Flomot, Texas. - still populated but those town folks don't clean up land like some others do...

IMG_3663.jpgIMG_3664.jpgIMG_3666.jpgIMG_3668.jpg

From Whiteflat, Texas; Ghost Town Whiteflat, Texas. The bricks in that old school could be salvaged, and such has happened to old ones close to me, but I guess these are too remote...

IMG_3674.jpgIMG_3676.jpgIMG_3680a.jpg


Matador, Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia That county is struggling to survive today. Not much left of the town even tho it's on a busier hiway...

IMG_3682.jpgIMG_3681a.jpgIMG_3685.jpg
 
Oh the kids liked some of it, as it was all different from what we have on the plains here. I'm sure there are some neat sites where you are. I have seen very little of Europe.

Sorry about the link. I have the album on Public View now, but I guess you have to register for Facebook first. Here are are few of the pics...

From Flomot, Texas. - still populated but those town folks don't clean up land like some others do...

View attachment 108680View attachment 108681View attachment 108682View attachment 108684

From Whiteflat, Texas; Ghost Town Whiteflat, Texas. The bricks in that old school could be salvaged, and such has happened to old ones close to me, but I guess these are too remote...

View attachment 108685View attachment 108686View attachment 108687


Matador, Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia That county is struggling to survive today. Not much left of the town even tho it's on a busier hiway...

View attachment 108689View attachment 108688View attachment 108690

The pictures are simply breathtaking!.. Don't know why but I just love it, every single bit of information you posted here is amazing. Thanks! If I were an Amercian I would become your country's historian. It's so interesting to read through the stories that are hidden in the dust of centuries, to witness the past via these left overs in the forms of old towns, abandoned places, deserted lands, and foresaken communities. It sets my mind at peace and makes me think big...

I guess you are the only country where the words like "Bob's Oil Well" (picture IMG_3681a) might be so easily posted on a signboard. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in obscure village of Texas with population of 500 I saw an inscription of let's say "The planet Earth belongs to Andrew next door. Please, enquire within." :D

I have an account on the facebook but even being signed in it won't let me go take a look at your album over there anyway...

Feel free to have a look at my photo gallery of places in Europe found on my web-site at www.klaipedaville.com It's nothing much though and most of the pictures are just the ones that I liked, and not necessarily the best ones from the point of view of compostion, color spectrum, quality, or production value. Will have to replace them one day to match the commonly used world-wide standards of professional photograpy.
 
So you're in Lithuania. Just glancing over the Wiki article to see how old your origins are, looks like a fascinating place - not a common tourist destination perhaps, but interesting still. It must be interesting too to be the surviving nation about the size of the Texas Panhandle after once being the biggest in Europe - but a lot of things change in over 800 years. Hmmm, our Amerindian nations could relate I suppose. Much of our history is difficult to justify. Tomorrow we celebrate a legend supposedly about European settlers and Amerindians living together while some native nations assemble in Plymouth MA in mourning.

Glad you like my ghost town pics. Funny that you can't see my public view album on FB, and I can't get your photo gallery open. Got to wonder if the CIA is blocking us somehow. :laughing:

If you ever get to Texas, I'd suggest touring the San Antonio-Austin area for our oldest visible history, some buildings built during the early conquests still surviving, then come on up to the Panhandle if you can. Our German student who lived with us last year is coming back with his family this summer for a visit and I suggested the same to them, but I think they're just going to visit us for a while - then skip over to California.
 

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