{"id":84,"date":"2013-12-30T00:21:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T00:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=84"},"modified":"2013-12-30T00:33:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T00:33:32","slug":"focus-on-the-backroads-ghost-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=84","title":{"rendered":"Focus on the Backroads:  GHOST TOWNS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"pp-slideshow-placeholder pp-gallery-placeholder slideshow-1388356113 mceItem\" id=\"pp-slideshow-1388356113\" style=\"display: none;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/p4\/placeholders\/slideshow-placeholder-1388356113.jpg\" \/>Ghost town<\/strong><em style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0noun: \u00a0<strong>a town that no longer has any people living in it: \u00a0an\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><i>abandoned town<\/i><\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A ghost town is actually a site where evidence was left of a town&#8217;s previous existence. \u00a0This can be in the form of abandoned buildings, ruins of old buildings, or simply an old cemetery. \u00a0These are reminders of towns that once were inhabited by people full of life and dreams.<\/p>\n<p>As people moved westward in search of adventure and a better life, they built farms, homes, stores, schools, and churches. \u00a0We have been told stories of the <em><strong>great western expansion. <\/strong><\/em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Of the cowboys, the miners, and the famous lawmen and outlaws. \u00a0These folks have been depicted in books, on TV, and the big screen for years. \u00a0The real heroes of this time were the homesteaders that settled and built towns and communities. \u00a0Many of these have become our great cities of today while others are now abandoned and have become\u00a0<em><strong>ghost<\/strong><\/em><strong> towns<\/strong>.\u00a0<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most people speed by these towns missing out on a part of American history. \u00a0You can visit these long forgotten towns and wonder what they must have been like in their heyday. \u00a0Most of us are only a generation or two removed from ancestors that settled and raised their families in these towns.<\/p>\n<p>There are over 800 ghost towns in Texas. \u00a0Some are a cross road or a long forgotten graveyard. \u00a0Others, such as Terlingua, Gruene, and Luckenbach have re-invented themselves thanks to antique shops, chili, and music!<\/p>\n<p>You might wonder why someone would drive hundreds of miles to visit these long forgotten towns &#8211; well for the same reason that one would climb a mountain&#8230;because they are (were) there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ghost town\u00a0noun: \u00a0a town that no longer has any people living in it: \u00a0an\u00a0abandoned town A ghost town is actually a site where evidence was &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backroads","category-texas-towns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/091612-TX-Ghost-Towns-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}