Deep in the folds of the foothills, a window of America is in decay. The last remnants are metal, concrete, and stone. All the wooden buildings, wooden siding, door handles, and slate roofs lay downstream from the present.
Along the backroads, even the edges are decaying...rusting road signs, rusting pipelines, rusting oil wells...
...and abandoned gravestones, missing heads and bodies, like the characters they commemorate, buried beyond history.
This is a window into a rural America that tells a tale of death and rebirth...the disappearance of a community, and the advancement of young growth...twisted, wiry trees in a bottom land along a creek bank...
the streets missing, the houses missing, the people missing...
their memory fading with the signs...
The majority of this town along Dye's Fork disappeared with the 1913 flood, washing away hopes and dreams. The rest of the town died when the Pauls, Raceys, and Blackburns began inhabiting the two cemeteries, rather than the village, and culminated when a coal company bought the land around the general store. Finally, in 1972, that store closed. The structure collapsed in on itself, and only a skeletal bridge, a historical sign (that has faded), and part of a stone wall survive.
This town, Renrock, Ohio, reflects the story of many rural towns in the hills of Ohio, passing from a time when pioneers settled, through natural disasters, and into oblivion, aided by death, real estate agents, and the passage of time.
There are many Renrocks in this country. It is my intention to discover many of these forgotten places, to unearth their history, and showcase their remains as warmer weather comes to the edge of Appalachia.
Join me in the coming months as we explore forgotten places in Appalachia and the Midwest.
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