Friday, August 03, 2012

Goshen

Virginia is full of small communities that once were thriving areas. Botetourt County has a number of them - Lignite, Spec, Nace, Trinity, Woodland, Haymakertown, to name just a few. Most of the rural localities in this part of the state have these little population areas.

There is even a book called Lost Communities of Virginia, by Terri Fisher, et al, which documents this mostly Appalachian evolution.

Not far from the Goshen Pass, the town of Goshen is one of those communities. It was once a thriving resort and industrial community. Now it has about 400 residents.

There is still some local industry, though.

One large company makes wooden palettes.



We drove through the community while visiting Goshen Pass. Like many of these places, the fire department building was the newest and nicest municipal building. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture.



Most of Goshen that we passed through looked like the above, sort of forlorn and forgotten.


This water tower has an interesting character, though, and I was taken by it. Even with the graffiti.



The state apparently restored this bridge. I found a youtube video about it. You can watch the promo for the video here: it has some interesting footage of the town as it was developing. The bridge was originally built in 1890 and it was restored by the state in 2001.

4 comments:

  1. great post...i've got to get that book!

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  2. About 25 years ago, I rode my horse passed the Spec sign. Didn't see much there other than the sign. I descend from the naces of Lithia and Nace. I've blogged about them here: www.nacelithia.blogspot.com. Wish I knew more about these little towns.

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  3. Seems there re so many small towns that have fared like Goshen and that's too bad because as you said they have become forlorn. I checked out the promo link for the bridge restoration and will look around more later to see if there's any link to the full-blown piece. I too would have been taken with the water tower, too bad about the graffiti it now bears, another sign of the the times, sadly..

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  4. I've never heard of this town, but I don't get out and about in Virginia nearly often enough as I should... it really does look like a forlorn place to live.

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