Only In Massachusetts: Ghost Towns In The Bay State

Only In Massachusetts is an occasional series where Patch tries to find answers to questions about life in Massachusetts. Have a question about the Bay State that needs answering? Send it to dave.copeland@patch.com.

I grew up thinking ghost towns were something only found out West — the abandoned mining villages and camps pioneers established until the gold ran dry or the caravan continued westward.

So I was surprised to learn there are at least 10 ghost towns in Massachusetts, many of which you can visit and where you can still see the foundations of the abandoned buildings. Ghost towns in Massachusetts met their demise for various reasons: collapse of the town's main employer, a hurricane, overfishing and, for four towns, the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir in 1938.

Scroll down for a short history of each of the 10 best-known ghost towns in Massachusetts.

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Catamount

About the only thing left of Catamount in western Massachusetts is a stone marking the place of the schoolhouse, which was the first in the U.S. to fly an American flag in 1812. The farming community's remote, mountainous location led to its abandonment in the early 20th century. The state acquired most of the land in 1967 and created the Catamount State Forest.

Davis

This mining village was located in what is now Rowe, a tiny town of 393 residents on the Vermont border in western Massachusetts. After H.J. Davis discovered iron pyrite, the village named for him quickly grew along with what would become the largest iron pyrite mine in Massachusetts. But "poor mining practices" led to the mine's collapse in 1911 (miraculously, no one was injured). By 1937, all that remained was a blacksmith shop and 150 cellar holes.

Dogtown

Located in present-day Rockport and Gloucester, Dogtown was settled in 1693 in large part because its location on a hill offered protection from pirates. Most residents left after the end of War of 1812, but their pets remained, giving the area the name Dogtown. The few people who remained were mostly widows, and many were suspected of being witches.

During the Great Depression, Roger Babson, an entrepreneur and economist, commissioned unemployed stone cutters to carve inspirational words and phrases on 36 boulders in Dogtown. He also mapped and numbered the remaining cellar holes, many of which can still be seen today.

Long Point

Long Point was at the very tip of Cape Cod in present-day Provincetown. The community's heyday was from 1818 to the 1850s. When residents started leaving, many floated their homes across the harbor to Provincetown, where many are still standing. Altogether, 30 homes made the trip across the harbor. A defensive garrison was established on the site during the Civil War, but today the island is desolate.

Norton Furnace

This ghost town in Bristol County also went by the names "Copperworks Village" and "Norton Mills" after Annes A. Linoln opened an iron furnace in 1825. By 1850, there were 25 houses and a store. By 1871, the Old Colony Railroad had a stop in the village. In the 1890s, Norton Copper Works moved to Worcester and the Norton Furnace Company moved closer to Boston. That set the village's decline in motion. Today, it's an area known as Meadowbrook about 2 miles south of Norton.

Whitewash Village

Established in 1710, Whitewash Village was on Monomoy Island, located underneath the "elbow" of Cape Cod:

The village evolved into a fishing village in the 19th century, thanks to its access to fertile fishing grounds for cod, mackerel and lobster. At its peak, 200 people lived in the village. A hurricane in 1860 destroyed the village, and the residents who evacuated did not bother to return. Today, the only remaining structure is the Monomoy Point Light.

Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, Prescott

These are the four towns that were disincorporated on April 28, 1938, to clear the way for the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts. While some of the land in the four towns was annexed to nearby towns, most areas were submerged to create the Quabbin. Houses were razed or moved, but you can still find some cellar holes in what was once Dana near the reservoir.

Last month, New England Living published an in-depth history of the Quabbin ghost towns, noting some of its former residents are still alive and in their 90s. In addition to moving buildings and more than 2,800 residents, the state had to exhume 7,613 bodies from cemeteries. Enfield held a ball on its town green on April 27, 1938, and residents counted down to midnight, when the towns no longer officially existed.

Dave Copeland is Patch's regional editor for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).