Standing In The Shadows of Nuclear Power

While Pennsylvania has an unusually high number of abandoned buildings (more than any other state, in my estimate), Frick's Lock is to my knowledge its only fully fledged Nuclear Ghost Town. Located about an hour northeast of Philadelphia, this already small town lost its population completely in the late eighties, after the construction of a towering nuclear plant just across the river. Perhaps the residents just didn't like the view, perhaps they were concerned about fallout (at least, a fallout in their property values), perhaps they were forced out by shady energy barons or vaporized in some well-covered accident.



Whatever the story, the actual reasons for the town's abandonment aren't half as impressive as what remains, a collection of ancient buildings (some dating back to the 1700's), overgrown but in surprisingly good shape after twenty years of neglect. Their classic New England mansion look has given the place a good reputation among ghost hunters, and it's easy to see why. As unlikely as it is that a place whose population never topped fifty would experience any kind of rare spiritual phenomena, these empty buildings retain all of that classic horror movie atmosphere, and the nearby reactor provides further fuel for a science fictionist's imagination.



I have recently learned, many years after my visit, that high levels of vandalism (including the burning down of one of the houses) has forced county police to crack down on trespassing (the town is private property, owned, suspiciously, by an electric company). While I have plenty to say regarding the ridiculousness of this type of ticket (simply walking onto an unused property should not be a crime in itself, and it makes little sense to punish someone before any serious crime is committed), the truth is that the police are not the bad guys here. The blame lies exclusively on those so unimaginative that their only response to this potential wonderland is to destroy it - without them there would be no reason at all to police this place.



Still, completely shutting the town down seems counterproductive. Guided tours of the area are a service I would gladly pay for, and one which could probably fund a full-time security service, maybe some restoration of these beautiful buildings. While I would hate to see this place go in the direction of the campy, commercialized "Ghost Towns" that can be found all over western half of the country, it's an even bigger shame to see it go to waste completely, as vandalism and weather gradually wear it down to nothing.