Archive
The Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay
On the Maryland side of the Potomac River just west of Chesapeake Bay, the largest shipwreck fleet in the Western Hemisphere sits half-sunk and decomposing. In the early 20th century, hundreds of U.S. vessels were scuttled to Mallows Bay to be destroyed and scrapped – and to this day the remains of dozens of them can still be seen in the shallow water.
How did the ships end up here and why were they abandoned?
Project MKUltra
After the end of World War II, the climate of worldwide conflict changed and the dawn of the Cold War altered the direction of military strategy. The United States saw a need to establish an agency to conduct worldwide intelligence-gathering operations and to engage in espionage and counter-terrorism. During the war, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) occupied this role. After the war, the National Security Act of 1947 officially established the Central Intelligence Agency with the intent to expand these operations and create a formal authority to oversee covert activities worldwide.
One of the first missions tasked of the new agency was to study behavioral engineering and mind control. Project MKUltra is thought to have first begun in the early 1950s, and for nearly 20 years the CIA’s programs would see countless unsuspecting Americans exposed to drugs, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, abuse, and torture. It wasn’t until the Church Committee Congressional hearings in 1975 that many of the CIA’s activities from MKUltra would come to light.
Unfortunately we’ll never know the full extent of the program after former CIA director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of MKUltra documents in 1973. But what we do know is alarming.
The City Under One Roof
After World War II plans were conceived by the U.S. military to construct a massive outpost in Alaska, due in part to the growing concern of suspected Soviet activities next door. Whittier was strategically chosen and construction on the 273,660 square-foot facility would begin in 1948. Five years later the Buckner building was operational. At the time it was the pride of Alaska, the largest building in the state.
The pride would be short-lived. When the Great Alaskan Earthquake struck in 1964 the facility was permanently damaged, leaving it exposed to the elements for the next 50 years. Read more…
Fort Carroll: Secure Bird Sanctuary?
In the mid-nineteenth century, Baltimore’s ports needed increased protection along the Patapsco River for the routes between Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay. By 1848, the United States War Department had the green light to begin construction on a hexagonal structure designed by Robert E. Lee.
The fort would be named for Declaration of Independence-signer Charles Carroll in 1850, and saw use in the Civil War despite not yet being fully completed. The structure was planned to have four levels, the first of which cost one million dollars to complete. Read more…
World’s Largest Aircraft: Antonov An-225 Mriya
Bigger than a Boeing 747 and Airbus A380, longer and heavier than the Hughes H-4 “Spruce Goose”, The Antonov An-225 Mriya is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft developed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Ukraine.
Known for its immense carrying capability, the An-225 can carry 550,000 lbs. internally or 440,000 lbs. on the upper fuselage. A behemoth with the sole mission to carry cargo, the An-225 requires six turbofan engines to keep its payload in the air. Read more…
Ghost Town of War: Agdam, Azerbaijan
Chances are you haven’t heard of Agdam. Founded less than 300 years ago, it doesn’t have much history. Its location is of little importance and nothing historically significant ever happened there.
Until 1993, that is, when the city came under siege during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Forty thousand people were forced to flee when Karabakh-Armenian forces shelled the town without mercy. Eighteen years later the town sits vacant, still a part of the Armenian buffer zone. Read more…
Abandoned coal mining town in Siberia: Kadykchan, Russia
Deep in the Magadan region in remote Siberia, a coal mining town named Kadykchan was built by Gulag prisoners during World War II. At its peak, the town housed nearly 11,000 residents. By the early 1990s, the decreased demand for coal and the fall of the Soviet Union would see the town start to decrease in importance. A mine explosion in 1996 killed six people and prompted ownership to shut down the mines altogether.
Today, there are fewer than 200 people left in this remote town. There are no services, winters are extremely harsh, and the only way into town requires traveling on a ghost highway. Read more…
Abandoned Mediterranean Resort: Varosha Quarter in Famagusta, Cyprus
In the early 1970’s the Varosha quarter in Famagusta, Cyprus was one of the Mediterranean’s most glamorous and popular tourist destinations. The bright blue waters and beautiful sandy beaches were draws for such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot among others. Population grew to about 39,000, but by the end of 1974 the town would be conquered by Turkish troops, fenced off completely, and have a population of zero.
Today the former millionaire’s playground resort still stands vacant and fenced off, guarded by Turkish soldiers and unlikely to re-open anytime soon. Read more…
