Benvenuti amici!
We are creeping & crawling through the month of October. That means Halloween is just around the corner. I dig this holiday. Some semblance of the day is celebrated at some time... in some way... and on some day... all over the world. At the CC5C blog we are celebrating with a FIAT spin.
As is the case with MEL B's story, I found this FIAT life adventure on a FIAT forum. I thought the subject matter so cool I immediately contacted the author & asked whether he had a blog on which he spun similar yarns. I wanted to share in more of his anecdotes. Unfortunately, the blog remains to be seen ~ which means this is the sole travel log of this type. Fortunately, I contacted the author - Tim - and he allowed us to publish it here. Read on!
Ghost Town Hunting ~ FIAT style!
My 500 gets me safely through my next adventure [Editor note: Tim has an interesting hobby ~ he researches and explores Ghost Towns. Pretty cool, actually. - @]...
[I] Trekked through Southwest Oklahoma to chase down a few fabled lost towns. Some were hard to reach, but the little car [a bianco FIAT 500 Pop] did just fine...
Loveland, OK or Bust...
No good roads lead to the townsite...
Established 1908, this town was a whistle stop between Wichita Falls and Frederick. It once had two hotels, two schools, two cotton gins, a bank, and two train stations which received four passenger trains a day.
The post office was famous, prompting people from all around the world to send their Valentines mail through there so it would receive the Loveland postal marking. The post office continued decades after the town itself died, but was destroyed by a tornado in the 1980s.
Same view of downtown area, 2013...
This unusual brick water tower is all that remains...
The Water Tower in 2013...
Tim's 500 Pop near the Water Tower...
Next stop: the Hollister Public School...
A two-rut path leads near it...
After some research, I found that this was the Hollister School, serving the long defunct town of Hollister and surrounding areas. It was built in 1922.
Early class photo...
By 1960 there were fewer than 40 students remaining, and the last classes were held in 1968. That same year the building was torn down by developers from the county seat of Frederick to salvage the materials for other building projects. This wall, however, refused to come down no matter what they tried.
Go for it!
Final stop, Grandfield, OK...
Grandfield grew rapidly because of the rivalry between two other nearby towns. The residents and businesses of those towns began to flood Grandfield and it grew into a very large rail and trade center. The downtown area today is impressive, but long abandoned, [pretty much] choked to death mostly by the Dust Bowl, the Depression, and WWII.
The next morning, after a heavy detailing...
The FIAT [500 Pop] was none the worse for the wear... La Fine
There were a few other discoveries on the journey but this was the stuff on which I had some info, and impressed me the most. Thanks for letting me share some of it! - Tim
Thank you, Tim, for sharing your FIAT life enthusiasm with the community of aficionados. May you continue to explore similar areas all over the country and share your adventures w/haunting images with us.
If you are a local CC5C member or supporter, you can learn more about nearby and far away Ghost Towns here. Happy hunting!
Vivere.Amare.Guidare.
Ciao!
@
