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Dominion Post
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
COLUMN: Think Provo, Utah is not a Big 12 road trip worth taking? Think again
MORGANTOWN — My feet were dangling, suspended over a 500-foot drop. I wasn't scared. 'Wow,' I said. I was surrounded by miles of Utah's beautiful mountains, a lake and waterfalls. After a couple of moments, I accelerated my zip-line trolley forward, moving at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. It was one of the coolest experiences while visiting Provo, Utah. In 2021, BYU was one of many schools announced to join West Virginia in the Big 12 for athletics in the future. Fast forward a couple of years, and BYU is about to begin its third year in the conference. The Cougars have already made an impact in athletics, and don't show signs of slowing down. BYU landed top-rated basketball recruit, A.J. Dybantsa, and was ranked the highest Big 12 team in the Learfield's Director's Cup. BYU has made a surge in football, too. In 2024, the Cougars finished 11-2 and tied for the best conference record. If BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff didn't recently transfer, it'd be a Big 12 contender this season, and still may be. On Oct. 3, Rich Rodriguez's Mountaineers make the 1,700-mile trek to play BYU for the third time and first time in Provo, Utah, as a member of the Big 12. Provo will be new territory for a lot of West Virginia fans, so what should they expect? I spent three days in Provo, learning what the town of 113,000 people has to offer for Mountaineer fans if they make the trip. At first glance, Provo's a Mormon town with strict rules, and more importantly for sports fans, no alcohol. While alcohol might not be as easily accessible as it is in Morgantown, there are some places where you can get a drink. Mormons do come in bunches, but it plays to the benefit of how friendly the community is. You could say that won't be the case when Mountaineer fans roll into town for the game, but BYU is one of the few schools that offer free ice cream after the first quarter to visiting fans. Provo might be stereotyped to have a lot of rules, but there's also a lot of fun to be had when visiting. If you are making the trip for the Friday night game, here are a couple of highlights from my trip that might be of interest. MOZZ Artisan Pizza Located right in downtown Provo, it specializes in craft pizzas, which are sourdough. I had the Serrano Honey pizza, which had that sweet and a little bit of spice. It was easily consumable by one person and will run you under a little under $20. It could be shared with guests if not so hungry. Black Sheep Cafe One of the highlight restaurant spots on the trip. It's a Native American-style restaurant, but it has your usual lunch and dinner foods. I recommend the Navajo Pork Tacos, and so will everyone in the town if you talk about Black Sheep Cafe. It's another place in downtown Provo, and it was busy, so I'd recommend getting a reservation in advance. Ernies Sports Deli This is a place for sports fans. There are pool tables and televisions everywhere. This is another spot in downtown Provo. There were a lot of options for lunch and breakfast sandwiches, and it wasn't too crowded. Backdoor BRGR This was a classic burger spot just a couple of blocks down from MOZZ downtown. The burgers were a bit small, but they had a neat Western vibe. Strap Tank Brewery This place is where West Virginia fans can get the alcohol fix. This is a classic brewery with fill-you-up bar food and craft drinks. I didn't try any of the drinks, but the drinks menu looked like it had a bit of everything. This place is a bit outside of downtown Provo, so a car or a rideshare will be needed. Bearclaw At the top of Sundance is a little restaurant with some entrees but more shareables. It's not a place to center a whole meal around, but good for a quick bite with an amazing view. Sundance Owl Bar There are two restaurants at the base of Sundance Mountain, and this is the 21-plus option. This bar has food, cocktails, and all beers are brewed in Utah. There's sometimes a band that plays, and on nice days, an option to sit outside. There's also a nice little stream surrounding the outside. Swig/Sodalicious One of the things Utah is most known for is its craft sodas, and something I didn't know about before arriving there. How it works is you choose a base soda like Coke, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, etc., and then there are a couple of options where they add different flavorings to it. It's like a virgin cocktail, if that's easier to understand. Sodalicious is walking distance, and Swig is a little car trip outside of downtown. Vinci Gelato There are a couple of Gelato places around downtown. Vinci was a mile walk from downtown and had a lot of different options. It was a bit on the pricey side, but it was a nice little establishment with an outdoor seating area. Top Golf There are Top Golf places everywhere, but there's no Top Golf place I've seen with a better view. The driving range looks right into the beautiful Utah mountains. Dreamwalk Park This was one of the coolest experiences on the trip, and I highly recommend it. It's inside a mall, and the backstory is that it was created by a sci-fi set builder, whose movie was scrapped because of the pandemic. The trio of Brad Skaar, Ben McPherson, and John Pope decided to make the scrapped sets into an interactive experience. It's hard to explain without actually experiencing it, but if you like movies like Star Wars, Avatar, or Indiana Jones, you'd appreciate this experience. The whole experience can take you only an hour or as long as two hours. There are games at the end and interactivity all over the park. Great for all ages. Herber Hatchets I didn't get to experience this, but I wanted to include it as an option. It's an axe-throwing place with a couple of bays that's located under Backdoor BRGR. High County Adventures If it's a nice day, this is a beautiful and peaceful experience. Provo River runs through the valley, and there's a section that you can either tube or raft on. You can take in the beautiful mountains and scenery in either a tube, a raft or a guided tour. The water is freezing, though, because it comes from a reservoir, even when it's 90-plus degrees outside. Ziplining This was by far the coolest experience on the trip. At the top of Sundance Mountain Resort, three ziplines run from the top of the peak to the bottom. These are self-braking ziplines, allowing you to control your speed and take in the scenery, including Mt. Timpanogos, which is the ninth-tallest mountain in Utah. This experience is very pricey, but if you have the money to spend, I highly recommend it. Art Studio Sundance For the more creative people, there's an art shop at the base of Sundance Mountain. The art shop has classes on making pottery, perfume, candles, painting, soap, glass, pretty much anything art-related. The candle-making class wasn't long, and it wasn't too expensive. Y Hike This hike definitely wasn't for the weak. It's pretty steep, but a very doable hike that's very active and not too long. Even with frequent stops, I completed the hike in 90 minutes. It might seem daunting, but the view over Provo was worth it. You might be sore the next couple of days, though. Stewarts Falls Hike I ran out of time for the Stewarts Falls hike. It's located at Sundance Mountain. It's not as steep as the Y Hike, but it has a little more distance. From the zipline, the waterfall looked really pretty.
Newsweek
08-07-2025
- General
- Newsweek
City Shuts Down Popular Dance Class Due to 'Moral Standards'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The city of Provo, Utah, late last month discontinued the Dirtylicious Dance Fitness program held at its recreation center, following a review that determined the class did not align with the city's standards, morals and values, according to the program's owners. The decision came after a resident's complaint about the program's appropriateness prompted an internal evaluation of the class recordings and social media posts, program owners Erica Tanner and husband Matson Tanner told Newsweek in a phone interview Monday evening. Dirtylicious Dance Fitness, which has been in business since 2019 and has about 60 trainers across the country, has operated for three years out of the Provo Recreation Center. The Tanners say that they have continued to try to work with the city, only to be met with walls. Newsweek has reached out to the city for comment via email on Monday. Why It Matters The cancellation has raised questions about inclusivity, city policy transparency and the judging of community standards within public facilities. The removal of the class—a program described by its leader as "empowering," especially for women—sparked community debate over the boundaries of acceptable recreation and the process by which such decisions are made. It also underscored the concern over religious influence on public programs, with Provo having a large population who follow The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, historically known as Mormons. The city of Provo was founded by Mormon pioneers in the 1800s as the second-largest outpost of Mormons outside of Salt Lake City. As recently as 2019, 90 percent of the population was affiliated with the church, the Chicago Tribune reported. It is unclear if religion played a role in the city's moral code, but the beliefs of the faith promote modesty, particularly among women. What To Know Erica Tanner has lived in Provo since 2002 when she moved to the city with her family as a child. She taught similar dance classes before creating Dirtylicious Dance Fitness. The goal is that participants learn a 30-second routine but the class uses several moves similar to those used in other dance fitness classes, like Zumba, the couple said. The Tanners stressed the empowerment and positivity of their program, which had maintained four active classes at Provo's Recreation Center—when their instructors were told the classes were temporarily suspended on June 4, then canceled permanently on June 24. "I was like, I live in Provo. This is really weird," Erica Tanner explained, saying she was surprised the city responded to the one complaint "so aggressively." The couple says they met with city officials several times to ask why the class was an issue, if there were compromises to be made and what could be done to continue the program. The Tanners told Newsweek that in the past, city statements had praised the program, and city employees even participated in the classes. A stock photo of a dance fitness class in Amsterdam on July 3, 2018. A stock photo of a dance fitness class in Amsterdam on July 3, 2018. Getty "In that meeting, we asked for you know, specifics, like, 'what, what morals? What are these standards? What are the policies, where are things that don't align? We're more than happy to adjust. We're more than happy to work with you guys, we want to keep collaborative in this,'" Erica Tanner explained. Matson Tanner said they tried to understand what rules, if any, were violated, but were met with no real answers. "What's frustrating is that, you know, we came very collaborative, willing to adjust," he said. "They're citing the fact that they have policies or procedures and that we broke them, but then we learned ... they didn't even exist." Erica Tanner said their efforts to obtain clarity about the standards involved were unsuccessful, noting that city officials did not offer concrete examples of what content or conduct was considered inappropriate. While the city has not said the cancellation is related to religious beliefs prevalent in the community, the Tanners feel it could have had some impact on the decision. "We do feel like they use that religion as a backing point for their, for their kind of thinking and their process of removing the class, which to us, ignores a significant portion of people who do not identify with the faith," Matson Tanner said. The Tanners said they believe that a little more than half the city practices the Latter-day Saints faith, meaning that those beliefs do not represent the city as a whole. "That does raise concern for me personally," Erica Tanner explained, saying she is worried the entire community is not being heard by the city. Following the cancellation, members of the Provo community expressed dissatisfaction through reviews but felt they still weren't heard. Now more than 200 people have signed a petition seeking reinstatement of the class, Matson Tanner said, adding that the community did this entirely on its own. What People Are Saying Erica Tanner also told Newsweek via phone: "The city in general deserves fairness, transparency and a rec center that reflects the diverse interests of all of Provo. Not just one religion." What Happens Next The Tanners told Newsweek they are still trying to hold more discussions with city officials, aiming to get their classes reinstated. Organizers and supporters of Dirtylicious Dance Fitness have asked for updated, transparent policy guidelines and further community input. At the moment, the city of Provo has not indicated any plans to reconsider or readdress the issue, and the classes remain canceled.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Yahoo
He saw her in Yellowstone and thought ‘I'm going to marry that girl.' And he did
The moment Andrew McGowan and Shallen Yu met eyes through a storefront window, it felt like something passed between them. Andrew was sure his life was about to change. 'I saw her through the window and I was like, 'I'm going to marry that girl,'' Andrew tells CNN Travel today. Andrew and Shallen were strangers. They'd never spoken before. They were from different worlds. But against the odds, Andrew was right. It was the summer of 2013 and twentysomething college student Andrew was on vacation in Yellowstone National Park, known for its incredible wildlife, volcanic landscapes and beautiful views. Vacationing with his entire extended family — siblings and their partners, nieces and nephews, parents, aunts and uncles — Andrew's main goal for the weekend was to avoid any complicated family dynamics and focus on catching a fish or two. 'My parents described it as a family reunion,' says Andrew. 'I was mostly just there to go fishing with my brother.' The McGowan family hailed from Utah and usually headed to Yellowstone for a camping weekend every few years or so. Andrew and his brother always spent their time in Yellowstone fishing for trout. 'We grew up fishing,' says Andrew. 'What was unique about this trip in particular was that my family had never camped at the Canyon area of Yellowstone before. We just happened to camp there that year, and Shallen was working in the Canyon village right next to our campground.' Andrew grew up in a conservative small town in Utah as one of seven siblings, part of a large Mormon family. In the summer of 2013, Andrew had just returned from two years in the Philippines on missionary service — a typical rite of passage for young Mormons who volunteer to spend time away spreading the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. But while he was away, some of Andrew's family had begun to question Mormon doctrine, with his parents eventually deciding to leave the church. 'My parents were these really conservative Mormons, all my life, growing up,' Andrew recalls today. 'Then they moved away from it. They left it, went completely the other way.' For Andrew, this was discombobulating. Even though he no longer shared a belief system with his family, they remained close. And so the McGowans decamped to Yellowstone for a weekend of hiking, grilling and family time. While most of the family set up camp, Andrew and his brother went to the park's nearest general store, to secure fishing licenses. 'And we went into the store that she happened to be working at,' recalls Andrew. 'She' was Shallen. A twentysomething student from Taiwan, working in Yellowstone for the summer, as part of a student summer working program. Shallen, who was studying for a degree in geographic information, was thrilled at the idea of working in the national park for several weeks. 'I had never been there before. It was magical, it was beautiful,' she tells CNN Travel today. For Shallen, the summer in the US was a new experience — though she had spent time away from Taiwan before. 'I had never done anything like this specifically before but my mom would send me to summer camps in English speaking countries when I was a kid,' she recalls. Before Andrew entered the store, he spotted Shallen through the window. He walked in determined to speak with her — even when it turned out she wasn't in charge of selling the fishing licenses. 'She was working over at another counter,' Andrew recalls. 'So I went and bought chocolate milk at her register that she was working at, so that I could talk to her.' For Andrew it was something akin to love at first sight. For Shallen, it wasn't quite that. But it was a memorable first interaction — a tall, blond guy bouncing up to her with a grin on his face. 'He's smiling really big, and he looks like he froze,' Shallen recalls today, laughing. The employees at the store all wore name tags, listing both their name and where they came from. Shallen's badge said she was from Taiwan. When Andrew spotted this, he decided to attempt to introduce himself in Mandarin. Andrew had a bit of a flair for languages; he'd picked up Tagalog while living in the Philippines, and dabbled in Mandarin as part of a college language requirement. Still, Andrew had never attempted to flirt in Mandarin before. And what came out of his mouth was 'really poor Mandarin,' recalls Shallen today, laughing. 'And then he left,' she says. 'We had so many customers come in, I didn't think much of it.' While Shallen moved onto her next customer, Andrew sat in his brother's car, debating what to do next. Fishing licenses secured, the brothers could move onto the focus point of their weekend away. But Andrew couldn't stop thinking about Shallen. 'He was like, 'Alright, we gotta go back.' And I was like, 'No, I gotta talk to that girl again,'' recalls Andrew. 'My brother had started the car, he was starting to back up, and I was like 'No, I'm going for it.' So, I got out the car while he was backing up.' Leaving his brother baffled, Andrew ran back into the store. He met Shallen's eyes, and she smiled. 'She saw me,' he recalls. 'She was smiling really big, like she was waiting for me to say something.' For a moment, Andrew and Shallen just stood there, smiling at each other. Not saying anything. 'Then I was like, 'You got a boyfriend?'' recalls Andrew. 'He said this in Mandarin,' adds Shallen. 'He was just straight out saying, 'Do you have a boyfriend?'' She shook her head and told him she was single. Still speaking broken Mandarin, Andrew asked Shallen if he could take her out for dinner that night. 'And I go, 'No,' because we're in the middle of nowhere, and dinner sounds so formal,' recalls Shallen. 'I'm like, 'This is weird.'' But Shallen was intrigued by Andrew. 'So I said, 'Well, if you want to practice your Mandarin, we can grab ice cream,'' she recalls. 'My thought process at a time — it's like, 'I don't know you, and I'm here in the States, all by myself. If we just sit in front of the store, there's a lot of people watching over me.' A lot of retired people come work in Yellowstone over the summer, and some of them, I could be their granddaughter… They can see me, I'll be safe.' 'Okay. Deal,' said Andrew. 'We'll do it.'' The two set the ice-cream date for two days later. In the intervening days, Andrew and his brother enjoyed hours spent fishing, while Andrew daydreamed about his upcoming date with Shallen. He was so preoccupied that sun screen was the last thing on his mind and he ended up with some unpleasant sunburn after a hike to a fishing spot took longer than expected. 'The area we were fishing that trip was called Slough Creek and to this day it was the best trout fishing I've ever experienced, making the nine-mile hike worth it,' recalls Andrew. On the day of his date, Andrew borrowed some clothes from his brother as his own 'smelled like trail and sweat.' He did his best to hide his uneven tan lines and met up with Shallen outside her store. The two said their hellos, slightly awkwardly, but both smiling just as widely as they had the day they met. Shallen gestured to the ice-cream store, which was attached to her workplace. 'And so we go over to this little rustic Western ice-cream shop, and we grabbed ice cream,' recalls Andrew. 'And then his sister saw us,' says Shallen. 'My sister was coming over to the general store to buy something, and she had her DSLR camera with her,' recalls Andrew. 'So, I hear her yell… She's like, 'Drew!' She's the only person in the world that can call me Drew…' Andrew turned around, Shallen also looked over. And then Andrew's sister snapped a series of 'paparazzi photos.' In the pictures, Andrew and Shallen look surprised but happy. Andrew's sister had captured the chemistry brewing between them. Over scoops of Rocky Road and chocolate, Andrew and Shallen started opening up. Andrew's stilted Mandarin only took them so far, so they switched into English. Shallen talked about what brought her to Yellowstone that summer. Andrew talked about his travels abroad. Shallen asked him how he ended up learning Mandarin. 'Shallen remembers that I high fived her on a couple things we talked about that we had in common but I can't remember exactly what they were,' says Andrew. There was an easy camaraderie between them right away. Shallen says at this point it was 'more bonding than flirting.' But she felt 'like I've known this person for a long time.' A self-confessed introvert, Shallen usually took a while to open up to someone. 'But for him… I didn't feel uncomfortable. We just talk and talk,' says Shallen. 'As for me, I like talking to new people, but I don't really connect deeply with people very often,' says Andrew. 'With her, it just clicked. It felt like a really good connection. I liked the way she talked about everything. I could tell that she was a really curious person.' As the conversation turned to Yellowstone's beauty, Andrew mentioned a spot called Artist Point, a cliffside viewing area. 'It wasn't particularly scenic at the ice-cream store itself so we drove over to Artist Point, which is an incredible view,' he says. Andrew drove them over there, in his brother's truck. They talked the whole way. At Artist Point, the two stood side-by-side, surveying the view of the cascading waterfall, framed by red rocks, still deep in conversation. 'We talked about the beauty of Yellowstone,' says Andrew. 'For me it was more commonplace since I grew up in the mountains and had been to Yellowstone multiple times but I remember being impressed and enthralled with how much Shallen appreciated it.' Then, their conversation was disrupted by a a passing family, who asked Andrew and Shallen if they'd take a photo of them. The family turned out to the from the Philippines. 'We ended up speaking Tagalog with each other for a bit,' recalls Andrew. 'They then offered to take a picture of us, which I thought would be a little odd since it was our first date, but Shallen was very chill and said okay. I'm glad she was chill and said yes because now we have that picture of our first date.' Picture taken, Shallen and Andrew turned their attention back to each other. 'We were having a really good conversation. I don't think either of us wanted it to be over. And then my sister texted me and said that my family was making peach cobbler,' recalls Andrew. Without overthinking, Andrew asked Shallen if she'd like to join the family get-together. 'I didn't know what peach cobbler is, and I'm a sweet tooth. And he explained. I was like, 'Of course, I'm gonna come,'' says Shallen. 'And all I think about is the dessert. I didn't think about I will meet his entire family.' 'So she met my family on the first date,' says Andrew. In the moment, his priority was just continuing the connection with Shallen. But he had no qualms about introducing his ice cream date to his loved ones. 'I have a really warm family, and my mom was smitten with her, right away,' says Andrew. Looking back, Shallen suggests part of this enthusiasm was Andrew's mother hoping her Mormon son would 'meet someone that's outside of the church and then just pull him out.' 'She also just liked you,' says Andrew to Shallen today. In between bites of peach cobbler, Andrew's siblings and extended family welcomed Shallen into an environment Andrew describes as 'chaotic but always warm.' 'My sister had brought her dogs and my nephew was chasing them around the campsite. My little niece was 7 months old at the time and my sister-in-law or my sister was like 'here, hold the baby,' to Shallen,' recalls Andrew. Shallen loved babies so she was unpertubred. She held her while Andrew's family got the cobbler ready. And later, when the McGowans posed for a family photo, they encouraged Shallen to join them in the shot. For Shallen, the whole affair was a bit surreal. But she tried not to overthink it. She felt happy, relaxed and welcomed. 'I'm just having the best time,' she recalls thinking. She also felt like she'd never experienced an evening quite like this back home in Taiwan. 'My family is very traditional and very protective,' Shallen explains. 'They will never let me do anything like this. Even though I'm already an adult, but in Taiwan, a lot of times it's like, 'Oh, you're in your 20s, you're still a kid.'' But that evening, Shallen felt a sense of freedom. 'I can do things that I choose to do, and I'm having this great connection with the guy I just met,' she recalls thinking. As the night wound to a close, Andrew's family retreated to their tents to sleep. But Andrew and Shallen stayed up by the campfire, chatting. 'We ended up just staying out and talking,' says Andrew. 'We took my brother-in-law's truck, and we went stargazing for a bit.' 'So our first date, it was like, six, seven hours long,' says Shallen. 'It was more than that,' says Andrew. 'We stayed out until 2 a.m.' The next day, Andrew was set to leave Yellowstone. He and Shallen exchanged phone numbers before he left. And while they'd both had a great time — an incredible time — Shallen says she wasn't thinking 'too much of it.' 'Because I was like, 'Well, at the end of my job, I'm going to go back to Taiwan, you're going to stay here,'' she says. 'I hadn't thought that it's going to go anywhere. But he came up again in August for a camping trip.' 'I came up to see her,' says Andrew. On this trip, Shallen introduced Andrew to her gang of Yellowstone work friends, and the group enjoyed a campfire and evening swim in the park's Firehole River. 'We were jumping in and having a really good time. It was really fun,' says Shallen. Shallen and Andrew felt an even stronger bond on this second visit. 'We had more connection,' Shallen says. 'And my friends all liked him.' A few weeks later, Shallen returned the favor and visited Utah to meet Andrew's friends — who couldn't quite believe she was real. 'His friends, they thought he was lying,' she says, laughing. 'Like, 'How do you meet someone in Yellowstone, just like that?'' 'They all liked her,' says Andrew. 'They all thought she was hilarious.' But then, just like that, summer was over. Andrew and Shallen were both in their early 20s. Still at college. From opposite sides of the globe. It wasn't obvious what their path forward could be. 'I was more like, 'Let's make this work.' She was more like, 'Let's just see what happens,'' recalls Andrew. It was the same sentiment — more or less. Andrew felt things deeply. When he was sure about something, he was sure about it. Shallen was more cautious. And she was sure her family back in Taiwan wouldn't approve of the relationship. 'One part of me is like, if I go home, I know my family would have all the disapproval,' she says. 'Which they actually did.' But Shallen was falling for Andrew. She loved spending time with him, and loved the idea of a future with him, even if she wasn't sure what it would look like. So, Shallen agreed, they should stay in touch. 'I went back to Taiwan, and we began our long-distance relationship,' says Shallen. The two navigated the multi-hour time difference as best as they could, organizing video calls, sending instant messages. 'I would call her early in the morning as she was getting ready for bed,' recalls Andrew. And for the next nine months, Andrew and Shallen communicated from afar. Meanwhile, Andrew started saving up 'as much money as I could' to buy a plane ticket to Taiwan. 'I worked two jobs, as a carpenter for a friends' construction company and then as a youth mentor at a boys home for kids that were in state custody,' he recalls. In the summer of 2014, Andrew reunited with Shallen in Taiwan. 'I loved Taiwan because it's this semi-tropical, verdant, agricultural paradise,' he says. 'I grew up in a smaller town, farming, and I've always had this fascination with the green things of the world. Taiwan was just this beautiful island, so there was a lot of natural beauty there. And then because I grew up in a smaller town, I was really impressed with the cities, how they function… You can take public transport everywhere.' Whenever Andrew and Shallen were together, eating out in Taipei or hiking in the countryside, things were easy. They also went to the Philippines for a little while, and Andrew showed Shallen where he'd lived. They felt closer than ever. But Andrew's interactions with Shallen's family were more complicated. They made it clear that Andrew wasn't what they'd envisaged for Shallen. 'My family's standard is like, 'Oh, did he graduate yet? Does he own his own house?'' says Shallen. 'It's very traditional East Asian culture. So, my mom's like 'Yeah, this would just be child's play.'' Andrew was intimidated by Shallen's family of academic high achievers. 'Her mom is, like, this really accomplished person in the finance industry,' he says. 'When we met, her mom was like, 'Okay, I guess I'll take you around.' I think at that point she was like. 'All right. I have to deal with this.' 'So, she takes me golfing, takes me to a driving range, and I've never golfed before…she's trying to teach me. I think she thought I was pretty dumb or something, I don't know, because I could not get it.' When Andrew finally managed to hit a ball properly for the first time 'it flew up over the fence, and it came down and it hit a golf cart.' It turned out one of Shallen's mother's friends was in said golf cart. 'And they're like this, this dumb American or this dumb foreigner hit my golf cart,' recalls Andrew. While bonding with Shallen's family was a little tricky, Shallen's friends liked Andrew right away. 'Her friends always had fun because I really tried to learn Mandarin,' he recalls. 'You also have a gift of learning languages,' says Shallen to Andrew today. 'I don't think anyone could just pick up Mandarin like that. But he's also very curious all that time. So, he had questions, and he's funny, making all of us laugh… All my friends liked you.' Post-vacation, in a quest to spend more time with Shallen, Andrew applied for a semester abroad studying Mandarin at Taipei Normal University's Mandarin Training Center. He enrolled in January 2015. 'That's when things became more serious,' says Shallen. 'He moved in with me in my apartment.' The couple started talking about marriage for the first time. They discussed the idea of Shallen moving to the US. 'And that's when her family was like, 'Absolutely not,'' recalls Andrew. After many difficult and tense conversations, Shallen made the decision to disregard her parents' pushback. 'We didn't get my family's approval,' she says. 'So we just eloped.' 'We were like, 'They're not going to support us, but we have to do what we want and what makes us happy,'' says Andrew. 'And so, we were like, 'Yeah, we're gonna get married anyways.'' In the summer of 2015, two years after they first met in Yellowstone, Andrew and Shallen eloped in the hills above the Utah town where Andrew grew up. 'The ceremony itself was really small,' says Andrew. 'My closest friends helped me carry up tables for food and blankets for people to sit on. I think we had like 20 people there in total.' While it was a special day, there were mixed emotions at play. Shallen was saddened by her family's absence. Andrew's family wasn't there either, but they wholeheartedly supported his decision to marry Shallen. Shallen, meanwhile, felt conscious she was breaking from her family's expectations. She was unsure what her relationship with them would look like in the future. 'I get really emotional when I talk about my family,' she says today. But Shallen and Andrew were excited to start a new chapter together. And in time, Shallen's family came round to her decision to marry Andrew. 'My mom was like, 'Okay, my daughter is not coming back to me,'' recalls Shallen. 'She went to this Chinese fortune teller… and got both our birthdays matched. And the guy actually told her, 'They match really well. They're going to have their differences. But they always work it out.' And so because of the fortune teller, my mom's like, 'Okay, I guess that's okay.'' In 2016, a year after their elopement, Andrew and Shallen — who took Andrew's name following her wedding, becoming Shallen McGowan — celebrated their marriage with a big party in Utah. Andrew's family were all in attendance. And this time around, many of Shallen's loved ones were present too. 'My mom, my brother, his wife, and their one-year-old baby; they flew here and two of my best friends came,' says Shallen. During these celebrations, Shallen and Andrew referenced their first date in Yellowstone: 'The catering that we hired…' begins Andrew. '… Half of it's ice cream,' laughs Shallen. This day also marked a moment of healing for Shallen and Andrew, as they spent the day celebrating with Shallen's loved ones. 'Now her family's come to terms with it, and they see how happy we are,' says Andrew. 'And we also have really cute kids, like really cute kids, and so you know, you can't complain about that.' Andrew and Shallen welcomed their two children in 2017 and 2019. When their second child was born, they left Utah and moved to California. Over time, Andrew also distanced himself from the Mormon religion he grew up with, before leaving the church altogether. Moving to California allowed the couple to find a new community. 'We're in a very multicultural place, and so it's better for both of us,' says Andrew. 'And better for our kids,' adds Shallen. Their love of their children is a big unifier for Andrew and Shallen. 'We said, 'We're going to have our family. It's going to be us and our kids, and that's going to be what matters the most to us,'' says Andrew. When it comes to raising their children, and navigating life together, Shallen and Andrew pride themselves on working as a team. 'We work things out, we try to see each other and see how we can help each other grow,' Shallen says. While Andrew views the moment he saw Shallen as love at first sight, as fate intervening, he also stresses their romance is an active choice. 'I think in some ways the universe chose us for each other, but we did ultimately make the choice of each other,' he says. 'And then we've made choices to respect and care about our relationship with each other and value that.' The result, he says, is they're very connected. 'I feel like she's an extension of me, and I'm an extension of her,' he says. 'And we're able to work together.' And whenever summer rolls around, the couple remember their first date. 'When we eat ice cream, we definitely think about it,' says Shallen. Shallen and Andrew also took their kids to Yellowstone a few years back. 'We told them, 'This is where we first met,'' says Shallen. 'It was very cute.' While their children were too little to take in the significance of the moment, for Shallen and Andrew, it was special. They hiked to Artist Point, and looked over the waterfall and views, thinking of the hours-long first date, and of the moment they first spoke to one another in the general store. 'Walking in and seeing her, like I said for me it was love at first sight,' says Andrew. 'I obviously couldn't see where our journey would take us, and I couldn't see where life was going to take us… but if I could go back, I would do it 100 times over. I mean, even with the difficult things, even with the hard things, 100 times over, I would do it again.'
National Geographic
02-07-2025
- National Geographic
A last glimpse inside the world's vanishing cave societies
For centuries, humans have lived underground. Today, that ancient practice is under dire threat—even as cave life makes more sense than ever. Gabriele Gouellain waits in the kitchen of her subterranean home for her husband to return from the opal mines around Coober Pedy, in South Australia. The town lies deep in the outback, and most residents live in underground dwellings called dugouts to find relief from the region's extreme heat. Photographs by Tamara Merino Nearly a decade ago, documentary photographer and National Geographic Explorer Tamara Merino was driving a camper van through the hot and seemingly desolate expanse of Australia's Simpson Desert, when one of her tires blew out. The nearly 70,000 square miles of barren red dunes are not a place you want to have car trouble; summer temperatures push into the 120s, and water is scarce. Merino coaxed her van down the road and began to see signs of a town. But there was no one in sight, and the few buildings felt abandoned. Wandering the streets, she spotted a rudimentary metal cross on a hilltop. She scrambled up to take a look and found that a wide courtyard opened up below, forming the facade of an underground Orthodox church. There are some 2,000 cave homes in the hills of Guadix, in southern Spain. Once used by the Moors to avoid religious persecution, they now house a community of over 3,000 people—one of the largest cave settlements in Europe. Merino soon discovered that she was in an opal mining outpost called Coober Pedy. After a gold prospector discovered an opal in the area in 1915, miners flocked to the region to cash in. When soldiers returning from World War I joined the craze, they began living in dugouts excavated from the hillsides to escape the extreme daytime temperatures. It was a novel idea that stuck, and today much of the community of 2,000 lives underground. 'The people there are so deeply connected to their environment,' Merino says. She stayed for a month, captivated by the unusual way of life. (See vintage photos of cave dwellings around the world.) A group of polygamist Mormons led by Enoch Foster (center) lives in more than 15 cave homes in Moab, Utah. The practice of humans living in caves dates back millions of years to when our early African ancestors began taking refuge in underground caverns. Over time they became more than that—as people added rock art and held communal ceremonies, they became homes. After visiting Coober Pedy, Merino realized that in some places this ancient lifestyle still endures. Much of life in Coober Pedy happens underground, including church. In Moab, Utah, the Mormons' homes, blasted out of the sandstone with dynamite 50 years ago, are kitted out with plumbing and electricity. Exactly how robust these communities are is hard to quantify. In the early 2000s, some 30 to 40 million people lived underground in yaodong homes carved into the hillsides of Shaanxi Province in central China. But according to a 2010 estimate, that number had fallen to around three million as the population urbanized. Some communities have abandoned their subterranean homes entirely. In the 1300s, the Dogon people lived in caves along the Bandiagara cliffs in Mali to escape religious conquests and slave raiders, but over the centuries the threats receded and they abandoned their rocky abodes and moved into villages in the valley. Whatever the tally, it's clear underground living is becoming increasingly rare. Over the past two years, Merino traveled the world to seek out the remaining practitioners of this dwindling way of life to discover the advantages their enduring tradition provides. 'The subterranean world is a continuous lesson in sustainability and circular economy,' says Pietro Laureano, a climate-focused architect and UNESCO consultant who's studied cave populations. 'It also teaches us a different symbolic relationship with space. Today we have forgotten the importance of the hidden, the unseen, the underground.' And indeed, from a small pocket of Mormon fundamentalists in Utah to a town of more than 3,000 in southern Spain, Merino found that while life in these communities seems more precarious than ever, they have much to teach us about human ingenuity and resilience. (Thousands of people live in these ancient Spanish caves.) The cave homes in the Sacromonte neighborhood of Granada, Spain, gave birth to flamenco more than 500 years ago. Today dancers such as Almudena Romero Álvarez, 45, perform for tourists in whitewashed grottoes each night. Tocuato Lopez and his family have resided in the Guadix caves for four generations. Part one: The holdouts staying cool as Tunisia heats up For thousands of years, the Imazighen—also known as Berbers—in southern Tunisia have built their homes by chiseling into the low-slung sandstone hillsides that run through the wide plains of the Sahara. These cave shelters offered a cool escape from the searing heat and harsh desert winds. Then the national government suggested there might be a better way to live. Fatma Haamdi, 73, prepares to take an afternoon nap in her sandstone home in southern Tunisia. Daily surface temperatures rise into the 100s, but the cave stays pleasantly cool. It all started when Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956 and the new president, Habib Bourguiba, began pushing for the country to modernize, which meant moving cave-dwelling Imazighen into government-built housing aboveground. The people were promised cheap running water and electricity, though many who relocated soon found that wasn't the case. 'They lied to us,' says Slimen Ben Massoud, a 72-year-old who was born in a cave but moved to one of the government settlements in the 1970s. 'They took everything from me and gave me nothing in return.' Other attempts at relocation have been somewhat more successful. After a flood destroyed many of the homes around Matmata and Haddej in 1969, residents were offered land at nearby New Matmata for three dinars—a dollar—a square meter. For many, it was an offer too good to pass up. Today there's one main road through the town, lined by a string of packed coffee shops, a butcher, and an arcade with a few gaming consoles set up in front of flat-screen televisions. But the town still fails to address the one problem the cave homes solved thousands of years ago: the heat. Tunisia, like much of the rest of the world, is heating up at an alarming rate, and temperatures are expected to rise by as much as 11.7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. 'You could have brought modernity to our traditions, but you can't do the opposite,' says Ali Kayel, 59, at his empty roadside café, staring out over the moonscape of Haddej, where he was one of more than a thousand people born and raised in the hundreds of cave homes on the valley floor. He remembers how, when he was a child, the smell of food drifted between the caves, which would house two or three families each. People started to move away in the 1970s, and the area has been abandoned since the 1990s. Kayel says that the state never contemplated protecting his way of life, and many of those who moved out of the caves came to regret it. In Matmata, Tunisia, Abdelafidh Krayem and his son take their goats back to a cave in the evening after an hour of grazing. In many cave communities, livestock live comfortably and safely in caverns adjoining a family's living quarters. Those who have stayed have found clever ways to meld the benefits of their ancient homes with modern living. Eight miles from New Matmata, the Haamdi family live in five rooms dug deep into the sandstone hillside of Beni Aïssa. Their home, one of just a dozen or so still occupied in the town, is accessed via an aboveground brick foyer that bakes in the Saharan sun, but the living areas beyond are comfortable and cool. A complex system of water channels and walkways, engineered over centuries, connects the two dozen homes pocked across the desert. When it rains, the channels flood gardens of palm, almond, and olive trees. Inside, the Haamdis' house looks much like any other 21st-century Tunisian home. The walls of a small pantry are adorned with shallots and garlic; the floors in the main living areas are lined with pillows and throw rugs. When eldest son Salem, 20, hooks up his phone to a copper antenna, the cave has patchy internet and Leila, 15, the youngest daughter, can record TikTok videos in a whitewashed storeroom. Grandfather Ali, 73, the family's oldest member, was born in the cave and has lost count of how many generations came before him. 'I will never leave here,' he says. Leila and Salem aren't thinking of leaving either; they're making plans to dig further into the porous rock. (Descending into one of the deepest caves on Earth.) Today we have forgotten the importance of the hidden, the unseen, the underground. Pietro Laureano , cave expert Part two: The tribe preserving a connection to the land in Jordan The city of Petra was carved into the sandstone cliffs and canyons of the Jordanian desert over 2,000 years ago as the dazzling trading capital of the Nabataean empire. But for more than two centuries, Bedouin have called its labyrinth of catacombs, passageways, and chambers their home. It was a bucolic and pastoral existence—the slopes below the Royal Tomb were used for agriculture, and the tribe herded their goats through the long canyon into the city. Hesen Ali Mohammad Semahin, 70 (at left), Raya Hussein Suliman Semahin, 90 (center), and Raya's granddaughter Tamam Hussein Sallamh Semahin, 12, wait for water to be delivered to their home in a small cave settlement a short walk from Petra's Royal Tomb. It was the perfect spot until the 1970s, when the Jordanian government made plans to convert the site into an archaeological tourist attraction. King Hussein bin Talal brokered an agreement for the 140 Bedouin families to leave, and officials built towns nearby to house them. 'Essentially, [it] was justified as preservation of the monuments, as well as establishing new employment and subsistence opportunities,' says Mikkel Bille, a professor of ethnology at the University of Copenhagen and author of Being Bedouin Around Petra. By 1985, most of the tribe had vacated the ancient city and Petra was named a World Heritage site. The cave city of Petra, Jordan, was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985 and is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Bedouin have lived in this ancient sandstone city for centuries, and despite urging from the government, many don't want to leave. The Bedouin who remained, some 120 of them, were moved from the main archaeological areas to a peripheral valley, where tribe members have made use of whatever space they could find. What were once Nabataean tombs have become storerooms, and ancient halls now house tractors, pickup trucks, and camels. Raya Hussein Suliman Semahin was born in the Royal Tomb when her tribe had free rein over Petra. Now age 90, she lives in a row of caves cut into the red rock of the adjoining valley: a kitchen with a wide firepit and blackened walls, a bedroom dimly lit by lights powered from a solar panel, and a wardrobe cave where her clothes and scarves are hung on a string suspended between two juniper tree branches. On a dusty hilltop several miles from the valley, the government recently built a modern village with the intention of rehoming Petra's remaining residents. Some cave dwellers are ready for a new way of life. Haniyah Suliman Ali Samahin, 37, wants her eight children to be closer to the school and have permanent access to fresh water, which currently trickles out of a tap on the valley floor just once every three or four days. Others, though, will never leave Petra for a life of concrete and modernity. 'We like the open air,' says 18-year-old Suleman Samahin, 'the nature and the freedom.' As the sun sets, Suleman's mother sits on a stone slab outside her cave home, tending to a fire. Nearby, Suleman and his brothers cook mansaf, a traditional dish of lamb and yogurt, in a sand-filled pit that once held Nabataean wine. When night falls, the family will lie outside on mattresses and animal pelts underneath the stars. 'Taking the Bedouin out of Petra is like taking the spice out of a dish,' says Raya. 'You're left with nothing.' Part three: A home for the homeless in Lesotho The cave at Ha Kome has always been a place of last resort. In the early 19th century, a Basotho chief named Kome led his tribe into the Maloti mountains, fleeing a period of war that displaced millions of people throughout southern Africa and led to countless deaths. Kome came across a vast, east-facing cave surrounded by steep valleys and mountainous plateaus and set up camp. The location was 'strategic for security reasons during those times,' says Joshua Chakawa, a senior lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies at the National University of Lesotho. Members of Kome's tribe, he says, were able to shield themselves and, critically, their livestock from the violence. During a period of war 200 years ago, Basotho chief Kome led his tribe to a cave in Lesotho's Maloti mountains to protect them from the violence. They built huts from mud and dung underneath the lip of rock. Most of the tribal descendants now live in a village nearby, but the huts still provide shelter to those in need, like Ntefane Ntefane (at right), who can't afford a village home and is visited here by a passing herder. Eventually, the tribe built individual homes within the Ha Kome cave, molding six-foot-high domed huts from sticks, mud, and dung before smearing orange clay around the low doorways. Locals dubbed the cave the mahalapane—or palate—imagining it as a huge open mouth. The Ha Kome cave huts in Lesotho don't have electricity, running water, or windows. But they do provide a roof overhead for people like Sebastian Emisang Khuts'oane. Khuts'oane raised his children in a cave home but moved to the nearby village five years ago. Now he uses the cave as a sort of guesthouse and stays there when relatives are in town. At the turn of the 21st century, 33 of Kome's tribal descendants still lived in the huts beneath the rock. Over the past two decades, nearly everyone has moved to a cinder-block village constructed on the bedrock above the cave, where the homes are basic but provide little comforts like glass windows and are more pleasant than the huts within a cave. But the mahalapane is still a place of refuge and security for those in need. Ntefane Ntefane, a 41-year-old farmer, can't afford to build a home in the village, so he lives in the cave, sleeping on a bundle of animal skins and washing his clothes in the Phuthiatsana River, which flows past the cave's mouth. He sweeps the dust out of his house with a straw broom and shovels it into a small fire grate, where an old teapot sits over the flames. Inside, he has a few empty candleholders set on a shelf in the corner, and three leather suitcases are stacked beside buckets and washbowls. Adjacent is Sebastian Khuts'oane, 58, who is using the one-room hut where he raised his children. It's a quick solution to a temporary problem: His daughter-in-law is visiting from South Africa, and he's given her and her family his home in the village. The men wake each morning with the sunrise, as copper-pink light bathes the rock. The only shade comes from a lekhatsi tree, a variety of wild peach, which, according to local lore, was planted two centuries ago by Kome to ward off lightning strikes. Locals call Ha Kome cave the mahalapane—or palate—picturing the overhanging rock as an enormous open mouth. Soon Khuts'oane's daughter-in-law will head back to South Africa, and he'll move up to the village. And Ntefane says he'll build a house of his own when he can afford it. Until then, they make do with their home beneath the mahalapane. (Cave ecosystems thrive in the dark. What happens when tourists light them up?) Part four: The dwelling in Turkey that checks all the boxes The volcanic landscape of Cappadocia, in central Turkey, has eroded over millennia to form mountain ridges, sandstone valleys, and rows of Gaudiesque cones that the tourism industry likes to call fairy chimneys. Over 4,000 years, humans, too, have carved the porous rock, excavating a warren of caves, tunnels, and passages. Among 205,000 acres of archaeological sites in the region, there are dozens of abandoned underground cities. One, Kaymaklı, is over 4,000 years old and extends eight stories belowground, complete with stables and wine cellars. Another, Derinkuyu, was vast enough to have housed 20,000 people at once. Homes in Turkey's Cappadocia region have been carved from the porous sandstone for thousands of years. Oktay Torun (second from right) and his wife, Hanife (right), have lived in one such dwelling in the town of Ortahisar since they were married four decades ago. But tourism in the area is booming, and many of the Toruns' neighbors have sold their cave homes to developers catering to visitors. While these larger archaeological treasures haven't been occupied in more than a hundred years, many of the individual homes carved into the area's rocks are still in use. Oktay, 72, and Hanife Torun, 64, have lived in their cave home in the hilltop town of Ortahisar since their wedding day more than four decades ago. They are one of maybe 10 families left living full-time in a cave in all of Cappadocia, and they love it for a simple reason: It satisfies all their needs. The home has plumbing and electricity. The living room stays warm enough in winter, while the adjoining storage room, separated by a thick rock wall, maintains a stable, cool temperature that allows them to eat summer crops all year round. Rows of amphorae hold bulgur and lentils harvested five seasons ago, and walnuts and fresh fruit are stacked on silver trays. While the Toruns have always seen the value in their cave home, the rest of the world has started to take notice too—nearly five million people visited Cappadocia in 2023. This tourist boom has prompted many locals to convert their cave homes into shops and hotels, and ancient storehouses into underground restaurants and bars. Recently, one of the Toruns' neighbors sold his cave to hotel developers, leaving the couple completely surrounded by tourism projects. Now when they duck into their cave, they're met with the low throb of a drill shaking the floor and trails of fine dust dropping from the ceiling. (Why the cave cities of Turkey's Cappadocia are best explored on foot.) People have been digging into the soft sandstone in Göreme, Turkey, for centuries, forging homes, churches, and stables. It's now the tourism capital of Cappadocia, and the old homes have been converted into hotels. Oktay and Hanife's son, Rıfat, 45, grew up playing hide-and-seek in the maze of carved churches and catacombs beneath the family home. Now, like almost everyone here, he works in the hospitality industry, driving visitors from all over the world from one attraction to the next. The steady advance of tourism in Ortahisar is likely to force the family out before too long. 'If we have to leave, we will sell everything and end up living just like everyone else,' says Hanife, tears welling in her eyes. Many of those who've moved out of the caves around Cappadocia have ended up in the city of Nevşehir, where squat apartment blocks with double-glazed windows and enclosed balconies crowd basketball courts and shops. 'Living in an apartment is like a jail,' says Hanife, as she rushes about her house filling bowls with fruit and vegetables from the storerooms. While she skins a plait of green onions onto a tray, fresh milk from the family's two cows bubbles on a stove to make cheese. 'When I open the door, I need to breathe fresh air and see the valley.' (This U.S. national park has the world's longest cave system—and an unusual history.) A version of this story appears in the August 2025 issue of National Geographic magazine. The nonprofit National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, funded the work of National Geographic Explorer and photographer Tamara Merino. Learn more about the Society's support of Explorers. Based in Santiago, Chile, Tamara Merino photographed cave-dwelling communities in seven countries, including Lesotho and Tunisia, for this story on what she calls 'humanity's first homes.' Her work has also appeared in Time, the New York Times, and Libération.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
"It's Basically A Cult Town": 24 Places Across The U.S. That People Deem "The Most Unsettling"
A hot minute ago, Reddit user Bennevada asked the folks over on r/AskReddit to share the little towns across America they've passed through that gave them the creeps. From abandoned ghost towns to cities stuck in the past, here are 24 of the most bone-chilling places they shared: Hey, you! Have you visited or passed through a town in the US that was so eerie, you won't ever forget it? Tell us about it in the comments or anonymous form at the end of this article. Note: The following submissions are simply the opinions of these Reddit users from the previously mentioned thread, as well as these three (1, 2, 3) similar ones. If you're from one of these towns and think they got it all wrong, set the record straight in the comments! 1."Tonopah, NV. It's on the north end of the Tonopha missile range and Area 51. It's the beginning of nowhere and is home to the world's largest Clown Motel. The only reason to stop is for gas, then get TF outta there as quickly as possible." —littlebitstoned AK: "The entire population lives in a single apartment building, and the only access to the town is by boat or a 2.5-mile tunnel." —WeOwntheNightX Whittier has about 200 residents, almost all of whom live in the Begich Towers. TX: "We detoured through it due to a road closure. The residents hung white sheets saying, 'Don't stop' and 'Go that way.' They seem to have lots of white sheets..." —whatyoucallmetoday "I did some engineering co-op assignments in the Golden Triangle area (Beaumont, Orange, Port Arthur) back in the early '90s. Everyone I worked with warned me to never stop in Vidor for any reason. I took their advice to heart. They said the town's claim to fame was being the former national headquarters for the KKK, and that there was a billboard on the stretch of I-10 that passed through Vidor that would occasionally get spray painted with the message '*n-word*, don't let the sun go down on you in Vidor.'" —underpants-gnome 4."Los Alamos, NM: Lots of land surrounded by barbed wire. Signs EVERYWHERE indicating 'No drones allowed.' Weirdly quiet. Pretty much everything closed at 3 p.m. We joked that it must be to give people time to get inside before all the radioactive monsters came out. A lot of the labs and facilities are still active for, I assume, reasons." —knittinator City, AZ: "Me and some friends were driving up to Duck Creek, UT from Vegas in winter and had to go in the back way via 89. This route takes you through Colorado City, Arizona, which is Mormon territory and about the creepiest place I've ever been. We had to stop for gas and we were watched like we were being hunted." —thai-stik-admin "I came here to see if anyone posted about this place. I stopped in there on my way to the north rim of The Grand Canyon back in 1999. This is not just Mormons, but Warren Jeffs's polygamous sect. I went into the grocery store to get supplies. All the young women wore 19th-century style clothes and would not look me in the face when they spoke to me. They tried to establish a compound in Texas several years later and Jess was arrested. Their idea of marriage was 50-year-old men marrying 12-year-old girls." —Troubador222 "So many polygamists. You can feel how unwelcome you are as you enter the town. We stopped there once on a family trip to get gas. A police officer immediately parked behind us and wanted to know where we were going and how long we were going to be in his town. He didn't leave until we did and he followed us until we got to the town border. We never stopped there again. It's basically a cult town." —ProfessorBrownie 6."The Loneliest Road" (Route 50), NV: "I went on the 'loneliest road' in Nevada, and it truly gave me a sense of scale for America as a place. In Europe, you simply cannot go that distance without encountering multiple massive cities. Where I live, every square cm of land has been apportioned for centuries, and then you go to Nevada, and it's And you have actual warnings telling you to fill up your car or else." —Ok-Commercial8968 St. Helens area, WA: "If you're adventurous and have a truck, you can find the old forest service roads on the side of Mt. St. Helens that got blown out by the eruption. I found them at night driving through there on a whim. Old forest service signs with half of the sign melted or blown off, completely overgrown roads, muddy trails, and absolutely no light. It was a clear sky with a full moon and, I shit you not, I couldn't see more than 50 feet ahead of me with the brights on. Eeriest shit I've explored, and I grew up exploring abandoned asylums and prisons. 14/10, absolute recommend." —Beautiful-Page3135 Related: "Something In My Head Said, 'Don't Get Up'": 16 Older Adults Reveal The Wildest Supernatural Encounters From Their Childhood 8."Centralia, PA: An underground coal fire drove out most of the population, so it's essentially an abandoned town. It was the inspiration for how Silent Hill is depicted in the first Silent Hill movie." —rookhelm An underground mine fire has been burning beneath the town since at least 1962. While most of the small town's residents have fled since then, a handful have remained. 9."Harrison, AR: It has billboards for White Power Radio. I had heard about it on the internet but had forgotten until some friends and I went camping on the Buffalo River. It's 100% legit." —pickleparty16 Haw, OH: "I've driven through it four times. Every single time it's the same story. Cars parked on the sides of the road, but no traffic. Doors wide open, but nobody is visible. No music, no people. Legitimately saw a ball roll across the street once and nobody could have thrown it. It looks like everyone who lives there disappears whenever I drive through, and then spontaneously, they reappear when I leave." —GNSasakiHaise *** Salton Sea area, CA: "The area around the Salton Sea in Southern California — particularly the upper half of the western shore, towns like Salton City, Desert Shores, and Oasis. I actually quite enjoyed the people there. Back in the 1960s, a bunch of resort towns popped up along the sea. In the 1980s, agricultural runoff severely polluted the sea. There were also wild variations in the salinity of the sea, and those two factors combined to kill off a ton of the sea's fish. The dead fish washed up on shore, the sight and smell of which pretty well killed the tourism industry. What remains is an ecological disaster and a bunch of not-quite ghost towns. "It's a really eerie corner of the world, and as someone who's spent a lot of time in tiny back towns across the western states, the Salton Sea area is definitely unique in my memory." —MasteringTheFlames of Tears Road, GA: "My wife and I drove on it, and it was a beautiful, sunny day when we made the turn. As soon as we were on the road, it started raining, and the weather got worse and worse until it was like driving in a hurricane. Then, as soon as we got to the end of the road and turned onto the highway, the skies cleared up and it was a beautiful, sunny day again. Super weird experience, and now years later, when strange things happen in the world, we joke with each other that it's all a dream and we're still trapped on Trail of Tears Road." —brickhamilton Related: Adults Are Sharing Their "I Can't Believe I Have To Explain This To Another Adult" Stories, And I Need A Break From Life After Reading These MO: "A few years ago, I got lost in rural Missouri. Super lost. Like, back county roads lost. So I got directions from a gas station where the worker was super pissed I wouldn't buy his overpriced map. He gave me directions, and I followed them down this backroad and ended up in Skidmore. It was like 2 p.m. and completely dead. Not a single person around. Mostly older houses, a run-down downtown, a new post office, that kind of thing. I was suddenly filled with dread. Like, Stephen King dread. There's trash blowing everywhere and there's just nobody. I drive by the library, and it's pretty much abandoned. There are oversized books in the window, and they're completely swollen from what I assume was water." "So I made it out of town and kept heading on my way, finally making it safely to my destination. Later on, I Googled the town, and what I found was wild. For a small town, it was full of gruesome murders, like one woman murdering another pregnant woman to get her baby, a guy terrorizing the entire town to the point where they just all kill him in the street, and murders from the 1800s. That kind of thing. It creeped me out more than any other place on three continents I've been on." —Vio_ d'Alene, ID: "Stopped at the visitor's center, while passing through Coeur d'Alene. On the way through town, we passed by multiple breweries and interesting places to stop for lunch, but there seemed to be an odd feeling about the place. We chatted with the people at the visitor center while my friend went to use the restroom. When she came back, she changed her mind about staying in town for lunch. She had found out that Coeur d'Alene is home to a major compound for the Aryan Nations. We realized, as we left, that there were not any non-white people walking around downtown." —Grigio_cervello Tree, CA: "As someone who lives in a big city, I thought the desert was creepy as hell. I absolutely loved Joshua Tree, but it was hard for me to fall asleep. It's completely silent out there at night." —AmericanWasted WA: "Creepiest place I've been is Forks, WA, and the areas around it. Almost constant cloud cover, all the locals seem to know something you don't, and knowing you're on the tippy top left of the states feels strange." —PineTreeGorgon 17."Edgefield, SC: A friend and I had to drive through there on a long excursion to the only Gamestop in the area that had a part for his Xbox. We first got there during the day, and there wasn't a soul on the streets. This was a Friday afternoon, and the streets were dead. Grocery store parking lot? Empty. Gas station? No customers. Sidewalks? Barren. Traffic? Non-existent. Add to that a general feeling of spookiness and we were pretty glad to put it behind us. Later, returned from where we'd been going and had to go through Edgefield again, this time at night. The town was fucking jumping. Cars all over the place, the stores full, people walking around. "When I got home, I hit Google out of curiosity, and the first thing to autocomplete was 'Edgefield SC Vampire.' Not going back to Edgefield if I can help it." —PowerSkunk92 GA: "Lots and lots of really creepy places — graveyards, many tight walkways in the historic district with no lights, and lots and lots of swamp land. It is said to be one of the most haunted cities in the USA." —HunterRoze 19."Vineland, NJ: A utopian sober town known as the home of Welch's Grape Juice. NJ's largest city by area but, it only has only 60,000 people. Strange 'planned' city with huge spaces between buildings, ridiculously wide streets, and everything out of normal proportion." —tpatmaho IL: "Driving through there was like going through a town in the Walking Dead. No people around, all the buildings are decrepit and worn down." —ArguingPizza NV: "It's a semi-ghost town and remnants from the old west. Time seems to stand still there in that old mining town." —g6paulson Outer Banks, NC: "They felt surreal to too flat." —manicpixidreamgirl04 "The Outer Banks in the winter feels like they are lost in time and space, it's VERY eerie." —StrangePondWoman CA: "I had to drive through it in the dead of night due to a bad accident closing part of the 15 freeway on the way to Vegas. It looks like something out of a bad '80s horror movie." —Additional-Software4 finally, New Orleans, LA: "The entire city has an ethereal vibe and it just feels haunted. Lots of creepy and unexplained events have happened there throughout history and people go a little wild there (in my opinion). I personally love the place, but I couldn't live there because it would make me mental after a while." —None Now it's your turn! Have you visited or passed through a town in the US that was so eerie, you won't ever forget it? Tell us about it in the comments or anonymous form below and you just might be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community article. Also in Internet Finds: People Who Never Believed In The Supernatural Are Revealing What Made Them Change Their Minds, And I'm Terrified Also in Internet Finds: "The Job Is A Complete Joke": People Are Revealing Professions That Are Wayyyyy Too Respected, And I Want To Know If You Agree Also in Internet Finds: "It Was Driving Everyone Bonkers With Mystery": 49 Times The Internet Came Together To Identify Weird Items That Had Everyone Completely Stumped
