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Swurphey@reddit

The local Nike missile launch facility that was a really popular old urban explorations spot but the military rebought the facility and turned it back into administrative space about a year before I finally actually went

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blipsman@reddit

I've always wanted to do the Route 66 road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, but not sure how much actual Route 66 and accompanying sites still exist in any form resembling the historic road...

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Smoopiebear@reddit

Route 66 is mostly a string of strip malls and suburban housing developments through California.

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HereComesTheVroom@reddit

Most of the road itself still exists. It’s the towns that got completely bypassed by the interstate that have been abandoned. Go to Baxter Springs or Galena in Kansas and you can really see how the interstate killed those towns. I drive on part of Route 66 every day to go to work. Oklahoma and Missouri especially have maintained the old route and tried their best to give all the little towns that were on it exits from the interstates.

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temmoku@reddit

I always wanted to go back to the Club Cafe on old Route 66 in Santa Rosa New Mexico, where I had my first and best ever Chile Relleno. Very bummed when I read it closed down.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

This question was prompted when I just discovered somewhere I really wanted to visit the next time I was in the Midwest.

I was looking up a spot my girlfriend and I visited in Winona, MN in 2019 and happened to notice "Elmer's Auto & Toy Museum" across the river in WI, only to discover the namesake passed in '19 and his heirs began selling off the collection in '22. Bummer.

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2tightspeedos@reddit

This reminds me of the Nut Tree in Vacaville, California. We used to stop there coming back from family trips when I was a kid. They had an arcade, train to ride and all sorts of fun stuff. When the owner died, the kids sold the land and now it's shopping centers and chain restaurants.

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Fillmore_the_Puppy@reddit

I remember the Nut Tree's glory days. It was always part of a trip home from Tahoe. It was sad when it was converted to just a shopping center, but I'm glad to read below that at least the train is back.

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eugenesbluegenes@reddit

Yeah, I grew up in the Sacramento area with family in the bay area and we always stopped at the Nut Tree. Now it's "Nut Tree Plaza" with all the typical trappings of a suburban shopping center.

They did keep the rails in and reopened the train once redeveloped though!

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tooslow_moveover@reddit

I just saw the train operating this past weekend, full of families with young kids. Get some Fenton’s ice cream with your kids and ride the rails!

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2tightspeedos@reddit

Oh really? I'll have to check it out then. The outlets are the only other reason I've had to go to Vacaville.

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eugenesbluegenes@reddit

I've lived in the bay since not long after it closed but my parents still live up there so I'm passing through pretty regularly and I'll sometimes stop at the Peet's, which is right by the train.

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FeltIOwedItToHim@reddit

And nearby is that giant sign for the Milk Farm Restaurant. But if you take the exit the restaurant has been gone for decades. It's just an empty lot with a giant sign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_Farm_Restaurant#/media/File:Dixon-California-Milk-Farm-Sign.png

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

I have aviation posters from Nut Tree in my office! I visited in '90 when I was stationed at Mather AFB in Sacramento.

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Wffrff@reddit

Is the map museum in San Diego gone? It says 'Permanently Closed' on Google Maps. I had that one on my list.

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DrBlankslate@reddit

I grew up ten minutes away from Disneyland, so I went there a lot as a child and a teen. I will never forgive Disney for getting rid of the Innerspace ride or Mission to Mars in Tomorrowland :( I miss the buckets and the PeopleMover too.

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Fillmore_the_Puppy@reddit

The PeopleMover was the best on a hot day when you needed to sit down in the shade but also see some [mildly entertaining] stuff. I'm old enough to remember America Sings.

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Whizbang35@reddit

My wife is furious that Disneyworld got rid of the Dreamfinder from the Imagination ride and changed the song because of it.

I still remember hearing this, finding the original song, playing it on YouTube, and a teary mix of nostalgia, fury, sadness, and happiness trickling down her cheeks.

There's also a whole floor above it that was another entire thing when she was a kid. It was just empty when we were there 10 years ago but now it's a lounge of some sort I guess.

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Budget-Attorney@reddit

Ah man. Mission to mars was so cool

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WarrenMulaney@reddit

Monsanto's Adventure through Inner Space was both awesome and cheesy as hell. I loved it. I'm pretty sure I last went on it on Grad Night in June 1985. It shut down a couple of months later.

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Adriano-Capitano@reddit

That place is a literal fantasy land of things they have taken away to replace with new IP and old nostalgic adults.

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cryptoengineer@reddit

The 1964-65 New York Worlds Fair. For 6 year old me, it was a magic wonderland. Got to make an early video call with my sister across the room at the AT&T exhibit.

You catch glimpses of it in the movie 'Tomorrowland'.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

Neato!

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Ok_Gas5386@reddit

I remember being like 5 years old and my family went on a summer trip to the White Mountains. There were pictures of the old man on the mountain everywhere, he was one of the area’s main promotional symbols and is on the New Hampshire state quarter. But when we went he had just fallen down like a month before and everyone there was really sad about it.

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cryptoengineer@reddit

The old man still forms the outline of all the state highway signs.

The formation had been reinforced several times, but entropy can't be permanently denied.

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Low-Cat4360@reddit

No way, this was real?! I saw that mountain collapse on the Simpsons and thought it was made up. Just googled it and that episode came out around a year after the real one fell

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notyogrannysgrandkid@reddit

So weird that Matt Groening couldn’t predict that.

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ballrus_walsack@reddit

Simpsons did it…. Second‽

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

This was mine. I had moved to Maine and planned a trip to hike it. Trip got delayed and then it was gone.

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notyogrannysgrandkid@reddit

I was just in NH last summer. We went hiking at Flume Gorge, which was awesome, then drove up the highway to see the Old Man. I saw signs and everything, but couldn’t see anything resembling a human face and concluded that everyone in New Hampshire was nuts. When we got back to the hotel that evening, I looked it up and realized I was the idiot all along.

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ziptes@reddit

I asked one of my co-workers when I recently moved to New Hampshire where the Old man of the mountain was not knowing what had happened or where it was. He put his hand on his heart and said “in our hearts”. Haha

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felipethomas@reddit

But also on all their state highway signs and state quarters and any number of official seals and signage. It’s over people. Let it go. Put “This thing climbed Mt Washington” bumper stickers over all of it now.

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00zau@reddit

I was really disappointed to learn that the USS Clamagore (formerly located at Patriot's Point) got scrapped. Museum ships are never truly safe, even decades after retiring from active service.

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clekas@reddit

If you ever find yourself in Cleveland, Ohio, we have a WWII-era submarine that's well worth a visit (USS Cod).

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mst3k_42@reddit

There’s a battleship in Wilmington, NC.

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old_gold_mountain@reddit

San Francisco has one at Pier 39 too (USS Pampanito)

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MesopotamiaSong@reddit

NYC has one at pier 86: USS Growler, cold war era cruise missile sub. right next to the USS Intrepid, ww2 era aircraft carrier. has a lot of cool planes on the flight deck

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CODENAMEDERPY@reddit

Chicago has a U-Boat

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MesopotamiaSong@reddit

NYC has one at pier 86: USS Growler, cold war era cruise missile sub. right next to the USS Intrepid, ww2 era aircraft carrier. has a lot of cool planes on the flight deck

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Nodeal_reddit@reddit

My wife’s grandfather was a naval officer in the task force that captured that sub.

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gogonzogo1005@reddit

In the science museum

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CODENAMEDERPY@reddit

True, it’s still pretty cool.

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balthisar@reddit

San Diego has the Midway.

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jpc4zd@reddit

I hope that hasn't been turned into a sub.

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balthisar@reddit

Nope. I'm just an idiot who didn't pay attention.

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LisaKaPisa7@reddit

We’d all like to flee to the Cleve and club-hop down at the Flats and have lunch with Little Richard, but we fight those urges because we have responsibilities. -Jack Donaghy

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

Muskegon, MI has the USS Silversides. One of the most successful submarines in all of WWII.

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Low-Cat4360@reddit

There's one in Little Rock, Arkansas too. I wasn't able to go because i happened to see it in the evening sitting in the River. Can't say if it's worth the trip to see it or not

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zedazeni@reddit

Pittsburgh also has one (USS Requin)

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Shadow_of_wwar@reddit

We also had that landing craft, but i think it just left.

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zedazeni@reddit

I was walking at the Point on Monday and saw it there. Not sure if it left or not.

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Eudaimonics@reddit

Yep, they’d spending like a $100 million to dry dock and repair the USS Sullivan’s in Buffalo.

Its not cheap maintaining those ships

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pudding7@reddit

The Queen Mary, in Long Beach, is falling apart. The city is trying to figure out what to do, but I can't imagine they're going to actually pay out the millions of dollars it'd take to keep her open. At this point, it's just an old ship ("that musty old claptrap?"), with nothing really that interesting to younger generations.

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Chance-Business@reddit

Man I really loved that, I actually remember it as one of the better things I saw when I lived in the area for a very short time. I have strong memories of it even though it was 25 years ago almost.

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ThrowawayCop51@reddit

I've been to the QM for events here and there over the years.

That Russian sub was there too, right? That ancient Foxtrot I think. I remember going on that as a kid. Not there anymore.

You'd think QM would make serious money for how much use that banquet hall must get

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mfigroid@reddit

Foxtrot

It was the Scorpion.

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J-V1972@reddit

Wait…when did they get rid of the Russian sub?!?

I was out there maybe five-six years ago to see the QM…I saw the ratty looking sub at that time…

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ThrowawayCop51@reddit

I had to look it up.

It's still there, but had some flooding so they closed it.

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J-V1972@reddit

Those raccoons need to commandeer that sub and start pirating off the coast of Catalina…

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Dull-Geologist-8204@reddit

I am still mad about not getting to see it. I went out to Cali because my fiancé had cancer. I needed a break and kind of stumbled into a situation where I could go visit some friends. Honestly all I wanted to do for that week was smoke weed, sleep, and visit The Queen Mary. It was closed down for repairs while I was there. Literally the only thing I wanted to do while in Cali. We'll is LA anyways.

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NetwerkErrer@reddit

I live in the area and the Clamagore was in sad shape. It was best that she was scraped.

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00zau@reddit

Yeah, but if she coulda been kept from getting that bad, that would have been even better.

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10leej@reddit

I kinda wonder why when it got turned into a museum ship they didn't just setup a permanent dry dock.

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00zau@reddit

Maybe that would have worked, but maybe not.

Permanent drydock usually isn't good for ships; they're designed around the way that water provides distributed but flexible support to the hull; sitting on keel blocks is bad in the long term. But for smaller vessels it seems less of an issue.

On the other hand Cavalla (which is from a larger class of sub) is on land at Seawolf Park (as it the DE they have there)... but that park has struggled a bit, too, so IDK how much of that is that the boats are 'fine' being like that and how much it's just the only option they have. USS Kidd (which to be fair is ~50% larger) has suffered some issues from being on keel blocks, and is currently in drydock.

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10leej@reddit

Well maybe not a dry dock where they sit on keel blocks but a newly engineered solution of some sort?

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Wffrff@reddit

I toured it several years ago; it looked like hell on the outside but it seemed fine on the inside. It seems like something could have been done. I know it's $$$, but still....can you not Gofundme a submarine?

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G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit

It's hard to preserve it when it stays in the water. The USS Drum down in Mobile used to be in the water but they had to move it to land to preserve it.

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GodofWar1234@reddit

I’m gonna throw a fat bitch fit if they ever scrap the Missouri

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00zau@reddit

Luckily it seems like the big ships get a fair amount more support. Texas was in pretty bad shape, but a fair amount of that was due to being ~30 years older.

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DerekL1963@reddit

Her issues being ignored/papered over for decades. She should have been drydocked back around the turn of the century. But she wasn't drydocked until 2022.

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DBHT14@reddit

Texas also is doing much better following a long needed dry dock period last year. The New Jersey also just had one in 2024.

Honestly of the Big ships the Yorktown down in Charleston would be a big concern.

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DerekL1963@reddit

Texas was in pretty bad shape, but a fair amount of that was due to

Her issues being ignored/papered over for decades. She should have been drydocked back around the turn of the century.

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gogonzogo1005@reddit

They won't. That bad boy will be ancient before it is even considered.

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Jakebob70@reddit

At least there would still be 3 more Iowa class ships to see. The one I worry the most about is Olympia. She's one of a kind. If I ever won half a billion dollars in the lottery, I'd pay for her drydocking out of my own pocket.

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huhwhat90@reddit

It's a shame about the SS United States. Such a cool ship and piece of history. I hear they're on the verge of selling it to turn into an artificial reef.

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FlyByPC@reddit

It's so sad -- but apparently it would take a LOT of money to get her seaworthy again.

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huhwhat90@reddit

Oh, an unfathomable amount. They stripped her interiors bare decades ago and she's basically just been rotting for over 30 years.

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BetterRedDead@reddit

Yep. The eternal reminder the preservation is not passive. I remember back when everyone thought that anything you put on the Internet would be there forever, and that’s such a naïve notion.

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Prowindowlicker@reddit

I visited that one. It was pretty cool to see it.

Though there’s a reason why the submarine at Mobile Alabama is permanently dry docked.

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Dmbender@reddit

Gotta say seeing the name of the boat my Grandfather served on was the last thing I expected to see up top lol

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Some-Air1274@reddit

You should come to London to see the HMS Belfast its fantastic!

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

Dang, that stinks. They're a major endeavor to keep up with, even when static.

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rcjlfk@reddit

Not in the US, but I really wanted to visit Constantinople. Now it’s Istanbul. #notmyconstantinople

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WarrenMulaney@reddit

Why'd they change it?

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barbiemoviedefender@reddit

I can’t say

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Scratocrates@reddit

People just liked it better that way.

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Strange_Frenzy@reddit

But, but,...I've got a date in Constantinople!

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okmle@reddit

Ah, don’t worry! She’s probably waiting in Istanbul.

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rawbface@reddit

Been a long time gone, Constantinople

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tomcat_tweaker@reddit

byzantium4eva

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Jakebob70@reddit

Some of the old restaurants I remember from when I was a kid... Howard Johnson's, Bill Knapp's, etc.

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temmoku@reddit

Howard Johnson's got his Ho Jo workin' (no longer:-( )

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uses_for_mooses@reddit

I remember Howard Johnson’s. There’s one (closed for years) near my current home. It became “Layton’s” after it shut down as a Howard Johnson’s. But then Layton’s also closed in 2004.

Now the building just sits there, frozen in time. It’s in superb shape—property owner pays to keep the electric on, landscaping is kept up on.

Here are some pictures and a short history. https://www.flickr.com/photos/romleys/43706204214

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Jakebob70@reddit

wow, that can't be cheap to maintain just for a roadside decoration.

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uses_for_mooses@reddit

It seems it was most recently sold in 2018 as part of a larger real estate portfolio. See this thread from r/stlouis discussing Layton’s.

Not sure why nothing is being done with it. Like I said before, the real estate holding company is paying the electric and to keep up the grounds. Like trimming the bushes and mowing the lawn. Lights are on inside and outside at night, I assume to deter vandals.

It’s pretty much a time capsule now. Really odd. It’s along a route I sometimes jog along, so I see it often. See this picture I took in a window a few years ago during a jog. Coffee cups are still set out.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

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aannoonnyymmoouuss99@reddit

Basement of the alimo

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MesopotamiaSong@reddit

House of flavors in Manistee, Michigan. Amazing icecream and good breakfast in an old little building with vinyl records on the ceiling. It’s now just a empty lot

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Muppet-Ball@reddit

Holy cow I never thought I'd see this here. The original in Ludington is still going strong but yeah. The building was pretty far gone and it was a few months from coming down anyway for a development project when COVID forced them to reevaluate moving it elsewhere in Manistee, and then their hand was ultimately forced when the walk in freezer died.

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rhb4n8@reddit

Yes there used to be a tree you could drive through in Sequoia national Park I heard we lost it and immediately booked a trip to see general Sherman because I knew I would be upset if I never got to see him. By far the closest I've ever come to a religious experience is seeing that tree. Really blew my mind.

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ScalabrineIsGod@reddit

Angelos Coney Island in Flint, Michigan. My all time favorite hot dog place. I’d go there as a kid and it was such an oddball establishment. It was one of the few restaurants I’ve been to with a smoking section, and they put kids meals in these foldable cardboard vintage cars. Not super knowledgeable about car models but they were looked kind of like a 50’s Thunderbird. Most important of all, they had delicious Flint style Coneys. They closed when I was in high school sadly and that year when I went to see family nearby, we made the tragic drive there none the wiser to its recent demise.

Also the Indiana Dunes National Park used to be dotted with abandoned buildings. I’d go there at least once a year back in the day and explore them. They all used to be damn nice homes, but to my knowledge the federal government took possession of many of them after the original owners passed on. While they were scattered around, the best ones to go in were right on Lake Michigan. They were along a road overlooking the shoreline packed with gaudy, beautiful, and occupied vacation homes. Then you went far enough and a chain would be there to stop vehicles. Passing it on foot you’d find yourself on an entire block or so’s worth of abandoned houses, and again, right on the bluffs of one of the Great Lakes. It was a lot of fun poking around in them and trying to piece together what the buildings used to be like, and who lived in them. Just soaking it in and taking in the vibes was a great experience, especially in rainy conditions. Even with the gusting wind and the crashing of the waves, there was a certain stillness you could feel amongst the decaying buildings. It genuinely was one of those places that felt like it was in the Twilight Zone.

A couple of years ago the feds finally got around to tearing the abandoned stuff down. Along the lake there’s nothing left, my brother and I went back and didn’t even recognize that we were in the right place at first. I think there is still an empty hotel that’s just sitting there but that was the one place we were never able to get into. I imagine they tore down the vast majority of the ones away from the water too. Still a neat place to visit and highly recommend it though.

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tooslow_moveover@reddit

Lahaina 🥲

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diaperedwoman@reddit

I went to this theme park in Wis Dells when I was 5. In 2015, I wanted to take my kids there. I went online to look up the address only to find out it shuttered few years prior.

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BrainFartTheFirst@reddit

My mom wanted to show someone the plane she soloed in. When they got there it was wrecked. Another student had crashed it.

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Kellosian@reddit

Watching Defunctland will do that to you. You'll be 30 minutes into the video thinking "Man, this sounds awesome! I may have to go some time" and then remember it hasn't existed for 20 years

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NotTheMariner@reddit

My favorite restaurant in the world was a steakhouse in a small town in Alabama. I used to visit about once or twice a month despite the drive to get there. It was one of the last places I ate in Alabama when I moved away, it the first I went to when I moved back, and it was where I went after Grandma passed for some comfort food. I’d even taken my girlfriend up there a few times.

Well, it had been a few months since I’d been, so I set myself on going up there one weekend. Then, I got the call. My dad had a massive heart attack while at home alone. He survived (about a 1/8 chance) and was in fine form, but he was at the hospital. I went over to keep mom and him company until they released him.

While I was over there, I discovered that the last time I had been there, was the last day they were open. The owner had a massive heart attack while at home alone. He was part of the other 7/8.

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Funky_Engineer@reddit

What was the name of it and where?

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NotTheMariner@reddit

The Bull Pen in Oakman

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enormuschwanzstucker@reddit

Damn I didn’t realize they’d closed. They consistently made the list of best steakhouses in Alabama and though I drove through Oakman many times I never had a chance to stop there.

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Funky_Engineer@reddit

Man that’s out there lol

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Stay_Beautiful_@reddit

My favorite restaurant in the world was also in Alabama, and also closed. Sugar Creek Catfish House in Citronelle. Best burger I ever ate in my life, and great hush puppies too

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

That's a really sad reason for the closure.

Glad to hear your dad pulled through!

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aahorsenamedfriday@reddit

Yeah. Just today, actually. We made a pit stop in Enterprise, Alabama on our way home from the beach specifically to see the boll weevil Ronald McDonald only to discover it has been recently removed. Fuck y’all, Enterprise McDonald’s. Your play place is just some platforms and a slide and your parking lot is hard to get in to. I hope all your buns are soggy.

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Fortyplusfour@reddit

Route 66. Still there but as I understand it, much of it is a ghost town if not outright undriveable.

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Stay_Beautiful_@reddit

Still there but as I understand it, much of it is a ghost town

Literally the plot of the movie Cars, and that was 18 years ago

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happyburger25@reddit

Amboy's still a pretty touristed spot. Current owner inherited the town from his dad and has been attempting to make many improvements

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Fortyplusfour@reddit

Thank you, I'll look into it. We want to go one day just because.

I feel like a lot of little staples quietly slide away. Would be good to see and know.

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paparazzi_rider@reddit

kind of a toss up. Some is still there, some even with original surface, some became I40, some is still there but California has shut it down for the last ten years. I've driven it from OKC all the way out to the coast.

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GPFlag_Guy1@reddit

I have fond memories of visiting Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in Ohio as a kid back in 2001, however the former Geauga Lake closed down in the late 2000s and was completely demolished by the late 2010s. Apparently some people think there was a conspiracy by Cedar Fair to close and demolish it because of competition with Cedar Point. I enjoyed it, but I understand that there were complex issues with that place.

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Gallahadion@reddit

I went there twice, once when it was the original Geauga Lake and later when it was part of Six Flags. Although Cedar Point has always been my home park, I appreciated the fact that Geauga Lake was nearby and wish I'd gone a few more times before it closed.

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Gallahadion@reddit

I never got to go to Boblo Island, an amusement park on an island in the Detroit River. I lived close enough that we would get their advertisements, but we never thought to go there (most likely because Cedar Point is closer). After the park closed, the 2 steamer boats that used to take guests to the park were taken away to be refurbished. One of the boats spent some time in my hometown getting patched up before being towed to New York for the remaining restoration. The other boat was built in my hometown and some people in Detroit tried to restore it, but it was destroyed by fire in 2018.

I also wished I'd been able to visit Glenn Riddle Farm, where the racehorse Man O' War and some of his most famous offspring lived at one time. Unfortunately, I never got to see the remnants of the farm before it got replaced with a luxury housing development/golf course. Ugh.

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UltraShadowArbiter@reddit

Conneaut lake park, in Conneaut Lake, PA.

It was a little amusement park. It had been around practically forever. Even had a wooden roller coaster, The Blue Streak.

Then it got bought a couple years ago by a guy who didn't care about the history or anything. He wanted to tear it all down so it could be an open field to be used for car shows, barbecues, and family sporting events.

Well, he succeeded. He tore all the rides down, and the Blue Streak mysteriously burned to the ground one night.

But then nobody came to use the empty field.

Then last year, the owner got sued by the owner of the Hotel Conneaut, the big old hotel on the lake. Apparently the owner had borrowed money from the hotel owner, and couldn't pay it back because nobody was coming to use the empty field, which the hotel owner described as looking like a demilitarized zone. And the state of the park also apparently harmed the hotel's profits and reputation.

There hasn't been any further news, but the park is gone. And it'll likely never come back.

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Gallahadion@reddit

As someone who likes both amusement parks and historic preservation, this infuriates me. I'd heard of Conneaut lake park but had no idea it no longer existed.

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Catharpin363@reddit

Soon to join the list: Lake Powell

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Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit

Yeah, much of Florida from the 1970s and 1980s.

There were these awesome forested little fishing villages everywhere. They had almost New England style wooden homes. There's be a dirt road and a pier people would fish off off and a little general store and a restaurant that looked over the water.

I remember kicking sitting in the pine needles, leaning up against a tree, eating a a slice of pie while I was supposed to be fishing.

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DerekL1963@reddit

Oh jeez, yeah. Near the mouth of the St. John's there used to be a whole row of family run pier-on-river-restaurant-on-the-road places... They're all gone now. Pretty much everything that was interesting and unique about Florida in the 60's and 70's is gone, and it's miles of soulless sprawl. (Though, TBF/TBH, that's true of huge swathes of the US.)

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jfchops2@reddit

I have family in St. Pete and Tarpon Springs. Blows my freaking mind every time I'm driving between the two while visiting and I've been dozens of times. Had a blank slate on this beautiful land and they did that with it

Walking anywhere or seeing green space? HAHAHAHAHA enjoy the 60 miles of nonstop strip malls (and clubs), gas stations, car dealerships, road construction, and stoplights

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Swimming-Book-1296@reddit

Yah the land was too valuable for people who wanted to live there. Much of florida is federal land or otherwise protected, so any land people can build on becomes more value because of scarcity.

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Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit

"Too valuable"?

But I guess thank god it was protected and it still attempting to be protected.

I am sure you realize, being in Texas, how if it is not there is NO land for people to enjoy. There's been lots of thoughtfully developed places in very, very expensive regions. Look at California vs Florida.

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Swimming-Book-1296@reddit

I used to live in central Florida. (Atlantic side)

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Wffrff@reddit

Texas literally just lost a state park to developers.

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Swimming-Book-1296@reddit

Are you talking about Palo Pinto? Texas Parks and Wildlife wanted to convert it to a state park, but were blocked by developers. We didn't "lose a state park" a state park was not created.

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Wffrff@reddit

No, it's Fairfield Lake State Park. I hadn't even heard that Palo Pinto wasn't happening.

Texas Tribune

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Swimming-Book-1296@reddit

Fairfield Lake State Park was never owned by the state, but leased from a power company.

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Wffrff@reddit

Still, lost.

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paparazzi_rider@reddit

Hell, California has a state park no one can even visit since it's surrounded by private land. (Sutter Buttes)

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JesusStarbox@reddit

There is a hundred miles of white sand and emerald waters between Panama city and Destin. You can camp right on the beach. No one goes there because people want the city.

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Swimming-Book-1296@reddit

Lots of that land is illegal to build on.

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AtheneSchmidt@reddit

I wanted to do the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas for years. By the time I could afford to go, it no longer existed.

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Raving_Lunatic69@reddit

Closest I can come to that is my favorite ride at Busche Gardens Williamsburg, Big Bad Wolf. Broke my heart to find out it had been done away with.

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Gallahadion@reddit

I've yet to visit Busch Gardens Williamburg and am quite disappointed that I never got a chance to ride that coaster, especially since it looked much more fun than Iron Dragon. At least the Loch Ness Monster got freshened up; maybe I'll be able to ride it before it gets scrapped.

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AGirlNamedRoni@reddit

Maybe this will cheer you up.

https://youtu.be/XKMoVAObbhE?si=0jgIK3RlRZNUEE7z

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FeltIOwedItToHim@reddit

what have you done I'm scarred

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travelinmatt76@reddit

Houston lost an entire amusement park, Astroworld

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Fly_Boy_1999@reddit

I was really upset when I went back to Disney world in 2018 to find that the great movie ride had been replaced. The replacement was decent, but I remember being a bit upset.

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Sabertooth767@reddit

Curse of DarKastle doesn't either :(

Always loved that as a kid.

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suydam@reddit

When i was younger (probably 25 or 30 years ago) we visited a camp on Glen Lake in Michigan. It had a lodge, a bunch of semi-rustic cabins, and basically an old school summer camp vibe. But we were adults in our 20s, staying with a friend's family who had parents in their 60s, kids in the 20s, little kids and everyone in between. We had access to the lodge, cooked our own big community meals, and had rented out the entire camp. The friends we were with said they did it every year.

Flash forward, and we've been back to Glen Lake several times, but never seen any evidence that this place existed at all. I feel like it's a Mandela Effect issue (my wife remembers the trip too, so we're not both crazy). We've lost touch with the people we stayed with, so there's no real way to track down where it was or what it was called.

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peelerrd@reddit

Maybe it was Lake Ann? It's the closest camp I can think of and has been open long enough to be the place you stayed at. I'm not sure if renting out the whole camp was or is an option.

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suydam@reddit

It was definitely on Glen Lake (not sure big Glen or little Glen). We were there around 1999 or 2000.

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two-st1cks@reddit

You can browse archive photos here https://www.historicaerials.com/ no clue if your place would show up.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

Google Earth also has a "Show Historical Imagery" button which has different imagery (but looks to only go back to '85 for anywhere).

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suydam@reddit

Oh cool. Thanks!

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Next_Firefighter7605@reddit

You might be able to find an old map of the area.

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RandomGrasspass@reddit

I took for granted all the times I saw the old man on the mountain until it fell apart in NH

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Trillian75@reddit

Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. I did visit in 2007, and it closed in 2008. The experience of standing on a replica set of the bridge of the Next Generation era Enterprise was surprisingly mind blowing. The sets and costumes and acting were really well done. It felt like you were part of the show. I wish we’d had a Romulan ale in Quark’s Bar…I’m not sure why we didn’t, probably thought it was too expensive at the time.

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Inspi@reddit

There's stuff in my own city that I only found out had closed years later when I thought about going again.

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Snoo_63187@reddit

I had been to this really great all you can eat shabu shabu place in San Francisco. Sadly they closed and I can't find anywhere else as cheap and as easy to get to.

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1066times911@reddit

The Earl of Oldtown a music venue in Chicago.

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grilledbeers@reddit

Tommy Bartlett’s Robot World in the Wisconsin Dells.

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Trillian75@reddit

Looks like it’s still there. It’s called Tommy Bartlett Exploratory now.

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grilledbeers@reddit

All the creepy old robots are gone unfortunately.

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Deolater@reddit

I always forget the name, but there was a children's science museum in the Atlanta area that I loved as a kid, but when I wanted to take my kids there I discovered it closed ages ago.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

SciTrek

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Brother_To_Coyotes@reddit

My hometown doesn’t exist anymore. The placename is still used for a suburb but the town, the factories, the Main Street shops. It’s all gone.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

Damn, that's sad.

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Derusama@reddit

Eastland mall in charlotte nc

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greywar777@reddit

The sub shop in eugene, or. Lots of memories there and it's just gone.

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travelinmatt76@reddit

There's a caboose in a neighboring city I was going to visit and it's gone now.

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

My Bette Noir is the Statue of Liberty. It obviously isn’t gone but I planned to go, went to the base, the line for going up to the top was really long so we had to step out and get on our ferry back.

I was like “I’ll be back.” I dated a girl from Manhattan and worked there for a summer but it was right after 9/11 so you couldn’t go up anymore and they were doing maintenance. I have been back several times but never got the chance.

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Fly_Boy_1999@reddit

There was a local pizza place in my town that for almost 5 years became my family’s go to pizza place. It had a firehouse theme and while the pizza was pretty good the prices definitely were the main attraction. When I was a college freshman I came back home for thanksgiving break while my mom was driving me home I asked if we could have pizza from the pizza place for dinner only to be told it had been closed for months now. Apparently something went down between the original owner the manager that they had hired and the town government (it was also declining in quality in its last year due to that manager, but I hadn’t noticed at the time).

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Fly_Boy_1999@reddit

When I was very little I went to a place called Odyssey fun world somewhat often for other kids birthday parties. It was an amusement center that had an arcade, laser tag an animatronic show, but I mostly remember the four story sky tube tunnel complex. Toddler me thought they were super fun. We stopped going as I got older and people I knew stopped having birthdays there. The location closed in 2019 though another one still exists.

There was also a place closer to me called Luigi’s Pizza and Fun center. It had pizza, arcade games and a big laser tag arena. Probably the biggest I had ever played in. I went there several times for birthday parties including my ninth one and even with my schools basketball team (my dad coached the team at that time, but I wasn’t on it(too young)). It closed in 2022 due to staff shortages.

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IceManYurt@reddit

The Georgia Guidestones :(

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GPFlag_Guy1@reddit

I know there were lots of weird conspiracies behind that monument, but blowing it up was uncalled for. That actually seemed like a cool landmark to visit.

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paparazzi_rider@reddit

used to drive by there on my delivery route all the time. Then some idiot blew it up.

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New_Stats@reddit

Yeah I tried to go to Delaware once, it's a hoax, it doesn't exist anywhere except in paper so companies don't need to pay taxes

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mfigroid@reddit

That's not why companies incorporate there. Delaware's corporate laws are well-established and business-friendly. Essentially, if it can be litigated, it probably has been in DE and you can use precedent to guide your business decisions.

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phironuthi@reddit

Dela-Where?

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RhubarbGoldberg@reddit

This is my favorite reply.

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Nodeal_reddit@reddit

Sure. I wanted to eat a favorite college restaurant when I visited a few years after graduation, only to find out that it had burned down.

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_hi_plains_drifter_@reddit

I was excited to visit the Sands casino the first time I went to Las Vegas, I did not know it had been gone for years.

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Kingsolomanhere@reddit

All of the old casinos are gone now. The Riviera, The Sands, The Desert Inn, The Dunes, The Aladdin, The Hard Rock Hotel, The Stardust and many many more

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duke_awapuhi@reddit

Still some old off strip ones. I was at Jerry’s Nugget the other day. Had that classic vibe and was filled with locals instead of tourists

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FlyingVigilanceHaste@reddit

The Mirage and Tropicana being two just from this year.

Place is always changing. It’s like a shimmer in the distance. Always in motion, never settles still.

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Kingsolomanhere@reddit

I remember walking the strip in the early 80's and there was still desert between some of the properties. The swimming pools still had deep ends of 6 feet or more and food was dirt cheap. You could still get a 7.99 steak shrimp and baked potato at The Pink Taco inside The Hard Rock Hotel in 2006. Ran into a backup singer for K.C. and the Sunshine band at the pool that year who gave me free tickets to the concert at The Hard Rock at The Joint

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Karfedix_of_Pain@reddit

I miss the malls I grew up with.

I grew up in Minnesota in the '80s. Malls were obviously huge back in the '80s... But, also, in Minnesota in the Winter they were a great place to go hang out and still be indoors and warm.

I'm sure the buildings probably still exist... But every mall I've been to in the last ~20 years or so has had a completely different vibe. They don't have that lively, vibrant feel they used to. It's more people going in to hit one store and get out. Not the social gathering-spot they used to be.

Of course some part of that is just nostalgia. I'm not a kid anymore. I've got different priorities and worries today.

But it's kind of depressing going to a mall these days. They feel so empty, deserted, and run-down.

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DerekL1963@reddit

But it's kind of depressing going to a mall these days. They feel so empty, deserted, and run-down.

That... depends very heavily on the individual mall. The two I go to most frequently (Tacoma Mall in Tacoma and Southcenter in Seattle) are always full to the brim and very busy. Meanwhile, my local mall (Kitsap Mall) is a ghost town.

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happyburger25@reddit

The Westfield mall local to me been doing well. JCPenny (recently shut), Nordstroms (shut in \~2023) and Sears (been gone for several years) have all shut down though.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

The mall I used to hang out in during the '80s, Lenox Square in Atlanta, is still there, but has gone from relatively safe to relatively unsafe in recent years, and has seen many violent incidents. Now there's security and metal detectors at all entrances. I have no desire to visit.

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__Noble_Savage__@reddit

Famous Dave's Barbeque

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Scratocrates@reddit

They still exist, but are pretty mid.

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__Noble_Savage__@reddit

The one near me closed down years ago. Maybe I'm chasing that nostalgia high but I thought it was fire when I was a kid

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Intestinal-Bookworms@reddit

I wanted to visit the mansion where they filmed the exterior of the 1985 cult classic Clue but, alas, it was lost in a fire. 😔

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FlyingVigilanceHaste@reddit

I had been wanting to visit the Living Computers museum in Seattle since I moved out to the PNW.

The collection consists of publicly donated items and Paul Allen’s personal collection. The working computers on display included one supercomputer, seven mainframes, 10 minicomputers, and over three dozen microcomputers. It would be hella impressive to visit.

Unfortunately, it shut down February 2020 due to the pandemic, and was announced earlier this year in 2024 that it would not be reopening and was permanently shutting its doors.

I had only got to visit Seattle once (for work) before the pandemic and it was so brief (and without a rental car) that I missed going to see it - or anything else for that matter.

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spork_o_rama@reddit

It's not the same, but San Jose does have a computer history museum. Might be worth a visit if you're ever in the area. https://computerhistory.org/

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aianhe@reddit

I went there a couple times and it was great. You could actually sit down and use all of the computers. I heard they were auctioning off the collection so unfortunately there's basically no chance of it reopening in any form again.

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Hatweed@reddit

When I was a kid, we used to go to the Outer Banks every year, and every year we’d eat at a restaurant on Roanoke Island called the Weeping Radish.

This year was the first time in almost twenty years my family visited down there and we were looking forward to eating there. On the second to last day, we drove down the islands to Cape Hatteras (which itself was dissapointing because the lighthouse is currently undergoing maintenance and is completely covered in scaffolding), then drove up to Roanoke to eat at the Weeping Radish. Turned out they had closed down and demolished the place years ago. Christmas store was still up, though.

On the way back, I had looked it up and saw they had moved to another location on the mainland and we had driven right past it on the way down to our hotel, so we decided to eat there when we were leaving the next day. Get to it and it turned out that location had been closed down for months. We were beyond dissapointed.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

Damn, doubly disappointed.

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Ranger_Prick@reddit

I was a journalism major in college and love the history of the industry. There was a museum in DC, the Newseum, devoted to this very thing. Sadly, it closed down at the end of 2019.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

I'm no journalist, but that was on my list to see.

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GF_baker_2024@reddit

Kenville's Restaurant in Mackinaw City, Michigan. It had really good midwestern diner staples, all from scratch, coffee served in those old-school brown diner mugs, etc. When I was a kid, my parents and I stopped there at least once a summer when we were vacationing in northern Michigan, and my dad and I always got meatloaf dinners and slices of pie.

I went looking for it about 20 years ago and learned that it was a casualty of tourist-trap development in the 1990s.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

That sounds like a place I would have liked to have visited. :(

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worrymon@reddit

Went out to PA to see Centralia, only to find out the fire had burned away from the evacuated town and everything had been razed. The graffiti road was neat, but a little underwhelming when looking for a ghost town.

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stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit

Well, I lived in NYC for 7 years and never took the time to visit the Twin Towers. I do have lovely pictures of them, though.

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bakstruy25@reddit

My cousin came to new york in 2006 to go visit Studio 54

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AJ_Deadshow@reddit

In Oak Park, Illinois, a village north of where I grew up, I loved to visit their computer cafe that served boba tea and Bawls energy drinks.

And they also had The Irish Shop, I miss that place.

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EmmaWoodsy@reddit

Build-a-Bear at Navy Pier in Chicago. My whole childhood I'd walk by it and want one but my parents thought it was dumb. Finally a couple years ago my friend and I were pretty high wandering around downtown and decided we should go! But it's been replaced by a kiosk that only sells pre-made bears. We could technically still go to one but it's quite a drive and we were sad because we had always wanted to do it at Navy Pier.

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HughLouisDewey@reddit

I drove my family across the country to visit Wally World, only to find out it was closed. Kinda blacked out after that.

Looking forward to having all the in-laws over for Christmas though!

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nana1960@reddit

The Moose outside shoulda told you.

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eyetracker@reddit

Every time you black out your kids look different. Strange.

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HughLouisDewey@reddit

As long as I keep waking up married to 1980s Beverly D'Angelo, that's just fine

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AGuyNamedTracy@reddit

Didn’t you see the sign on the moose outside?

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strippersandcocaine@reddit

You serious, Clark?

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MaggieMae68@reddit

When I was in my 20s I spent a year in Alaska, living in a small cabin (no electricity, no running water) off of Exit Glacier Road, outside of Seward.

Seward hit with a new cruise ship dock and a new sea-life center, and they widened Exit Glacier Rd and build a bunch of hotels. My little cabin is long gone and I can't even locate where it might have been on a map, becuase everything has changed so much.

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Atlas7993@reddit

More like arguably never existed. I was 19 when I learned the Crazy Horse Memorial was hardly started after nearly 60 years; when I was a kid and read about it I swear there was a picture of the full thing in a geography book. Must have been concept art. But I also learned a lot of the issues and backlash from Native Americans about the memorial, so idk if it's really something that needs to be finished. I'll let them speak for themselves.

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TheAndrewBen@reddit

California Adventure. It was so peak around the first decade of the century (2000 - 2010) until Disney kept changing every ride one by one. I don't have any interest in visiting California Adventure anymore because of the cost, increase in wait ride times, and a lot of the rides that I grew up with don't exist anymore.

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PancakeLad@reddit

Not a county fair, not a state fair, but a World’s Fair!

The 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville Tennessee. If for no other reason than I’d see five year old me running around and I’d get to talk to my parents and grandparents again. Oh I just made myself sad. it was more than just a great joke on The Simpsons!

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IntrovertedGiraffe@reddit

We used to stop at the Old Man of the Mountain every summer while driving from PA to NH. We had Christmas cards multiple years with the Old Man in the background. I remember the news in 2003 when the fog lifted one day and it was just gone. We went back once after, but it lost its charm. Still love seeing it on the NH license plates and quarter though (link)

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ncc81701@reddit

Glaciers in general, when you go to places like Glacier National park or Mt. Rainer National park, you can clearly see where Glaciers once was and how beautiful they looked just 100 years ago. But most of those are either all gone or have retreated so much that you can't see them from the original overlook that were build for tourist to view them because of climate change.

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CODENAMEDERPY@reddit

Mr Rainer’s glaciers are visible from several parts of the state.

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Scarlet-Fire_77@reddit

I've always wanted to visit Centralia's grafitti highway. I love urban exploration and it's not far from me for a day trip. The owner covered it in dirt during the pandemic I believe.

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Winter_Essay3971@reddit

Rockome Gardens, which apparently was an "Amish theme park" in eastern Illinois. I went there as a kid in the early 2000s. I don't specifically remember the Amish aspect, just that there was this spooky dark indoor obstacle course with fog machines and stuff.

It scared me as a kid but I thought it'd be cool to visit again as an adult next time I'm in the Midwest to see what it's like. Apparently it closed in 2015.

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Jakebob70@reddit

It got turned into a wildlife park. If you want to pet a kangaroo in the middle of Illinois, that's the place to go.

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IrianJaya@reddit

After I watched the scary movie Session 9 and found out that it was filmed in my state at the Danvers State Hospital which is in an amazingly beautiful and creepy former insane asylum, I really wanted to see if I could get close enough to see the ruins. But I was too late. It had been completely destroyed a few years before.

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Cytog64@reddit

The Arecibo Observatory is gone from Puerto Rico. It was the giant satellite dish featured in the movies Contact and GoldenEye.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory

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yozaner1324@reddit

There was this crepe place I really liked and when I moved back to the city, I wanted to go, but discovered they had closed a few months prior due to the chef suddenly dying.

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jabberwonk@reddit

Roadside America in Shartlesville Pa. Indoor 8,000sF model railroad and miniature village that was around from 1935 to 1920. Closed and never reopened after Covid and everything was auctioned off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_America

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

That was another one I wanted to visit. :(

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eastATLient@reddit

There was a little antique/gift shop that had a wooden side porch overlooking tallulah gorge in the North Georgia mountains that had those binoculars for a quarter set up that we’d stop by every time we would go up to camp when I was growing up.

Don’t live in the area anymore and was going up to western NC with friends from where I live at now and was excited to show them that place. They built a new highway so the shop was now out of the way and it looked like it had been shut down for a few years. Real sad sight.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)

I remember that place well! My grandparents had a cabin in Lakemont on Mathis Dam Road (along the river after the Rabun dam).

Do you remember Alley's grocery? It's now "The Open Door at Alley's Ol' Store."

Even further back, do you remember the tiny former service station that was here and was a beer store up through the '70s? The owner lived across the street and was shot and killed walking across the street one night in the late '70s.

[the "removed" comment was due to a Google shortened link, thanks automod (sarcasm)]

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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gladmoon@reddit

My youth.

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Genybear12@reddit

2 of my favorite restaurants my dad would take me to when I was young. They weren’t far away but not close either so one day I made a special trip a few years ago (before Covid) to eat at least 1 of them but both were boarded up. Felt like a piece of my childhood died.

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one-off-one@reddit

…I mean the twin towers seemed like a fun spot

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bloopidupe@reddit

It was.

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GodofWar1234@reddit

It’s still around but I’m gonna throw hands with someone if they ever scrap the USS Missouri

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bloopidupe@reddit

My husband worked at a bubble tea shop that recently closed. I had been meaning to visit.

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vampyire@reddit

they are all over here in the Seattle area... tasty stuff

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bloopidupe@reddit

Oh they're everywhere where I live, I just wanted to visit that one.

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vampyire@reddit

gotcha..

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iHasMagyk@reddit

Ko’olau Golf Club on Oahu. Like a golf course through Jurassic Park. Was also deservedly ranked the hardest golf course in the world

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catiebug@reddit

When I was growing up in Florida, someone in my parent's community/circle of friends (maybe through church?) had a huge house on the local chain of lakes. It was named Kon Tiki and was themed to all get out. We went to parties there, community events, etc. We moved away, I didn't think about it again until decades later. Went looking to see if maybe they hosted events, Air BnB, or something. Frustratingly, there is a big resort nearby with the same name which made searching for it a bitch. But best I can gather is that it burned down. Too bad. Cool place.

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virtual_human@reddit

I've been getting back into trying new restaurants and finding many of the ones on my list didn't make it through the pandemic.

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Jernbek35@reddit

Yes, there was an old school General Store in Brick, New Jersey that I used to go to with my Grandma as a child when she watched me. During Christmas, it would have this dark room where they setup a glass-enclosed huge model Christmas/Winter village. It was one of my favorite memories as a kid. I moved away for awhile right before the Great Recession. When I came back and went to visit the store during Christmas, I found out it had closed down. Such a sad day for me.

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