Opinion of Raleigh, North Dakota

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh,_North_Dakota

A few factoids about this place (I have actually been there):

-There are no paved roads, only gravel.
-There are more cars than people, many of them obviously abandoned and sitting around in states of disrepair and rusting.
-There's a bunch of buildings of old businesses still up but none are clearly still open. It was unclear if the "Raleigh Lumber Company" is still open, I'm guessing no. There was a truck parked there with a dog on the back though. Oddly enough there is a bar that is still open.
-You can not get cell reception in the town.
-There is a park there, which mind boggingly has the hours of 7AM-10PM being the only hours it's open posted...as if there's anyone who can enforce that, or like anyone would care about breaking that rule.

And that dog was the only sign of life I saw while there. It was kind of like from a zombie movie especially with all the cars and buildings in disrepair sitting around.

[ElectionsGuy]

Freedom Town.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Hey someone made a Flickr photo album of it!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/afiler/6175975710/in/photostream

I can confirm that these are accurate photos.

[Kitteh]

Seems like it'd be really cool to visit. I really love places with that kind of post-apocalyptic feel.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Seems like it'd be really cool to visit. I really love places with that kind of post-apocalyptic feel.

There's an actual ghost town nearby called Freda as well too.

[This user has not been convicted of 34 felonies]

Seems like it'd be really cool to visit. I really love places with that kind of post-apocalyptic feel.

This. Though living there would scare the shet out of me.

[RedSLC]

Seems like it'd be really cool to visit. I really love places with that kind of post-apocalyptic feel.

Agreed. Not that I'd want to live there, though.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Something I saw that made it even kind of creepier because it showed the town wasn't fully abandoned was a granite monument with the etching "Raleigh, 1910-2010" on it. Obviously a celebration of the town's 100th anniversary, but also showing that the place was being paid attention to as of 2010. One thing I'm curious about and that I'll test if I'm ever there again is write a letter addressed to my main address with a stamp and put it in the mailbox pictured near that closed store to see if the mailbox is still in use. Then again the postal service must visit it daily because people there still get mail...

Also very curious if this business is still in use, the building looks abandoned and in a state of disrepair but there is so much stuff around it... http://www.flickr.com/photos/afiler/6175439919/in/photostream/

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

LOL. This is how its precinct voted in 2012:

Romney 80
Obama 31
Write-ins 6
Johnson 5

...Giving non-Obama/Romney candidates over 9% of the vote.

Obviously the precinct includes a lot more than just the town and lots of surrounding areas, though no incorporated towns, just lots of farms basically.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Sad

[minionofmidas]

Clearly more livable than the exurban sections of the other Raleigh, North xy.

Reminds me of that Edward Abbey line that's been in my head all day anyways... "If a man can't piss in his own frontyard, he's living too close to town." I bet you could do that here no problem.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yeah I could've done that anywhere in town. The only other life I saw was a dog after all.