New eBook - Volume One
Abandoned America: A Field Guide
Twenty-four ghost towns, faded resorts, and industrial ruins with coordinates, access ratings, a US map, and a printable places-visited checklist.
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Map Room
Stories plotted across the country
From ghost towns and dead highways to toxic neighborhoods and contaminated industrial land, trace each story back to the place where it happened.
Behind The Channel
Archive-built reporting, grounded in records
Allan builds each episode from court filings, agency reports, engineering records, oral histories, and public data, then uses narration and digital reconstruction to explain not just what was left behind, but who knew, what failed, and who paid the price.
Research-first - Blueprints, court records, and agency memos shape every timeline.
Respectful tone - No clickbait, no manufactured outrage, and no treating harmed communities like scenery.
Latest Investigation
The Neighborhood America Tried to Erase: Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles
Before Dodger Stadium, Chavez Ravine held three close-knit Mexican American neighborhoods that Los Angeles condemned for public housing, cleared, and then handed over for a ballpark.
Coordinates
34.0739 N, 118.2400 W
Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, California
Category
Forgotten Landscapes
Every story is built from archival footage, public records, technical documents, and reporting that stays focused on evidence rather than spectacle.
Read full report ->Recent Investigations
Abandoned America, invisible disasters, and accountability stories
New documentaries examine the physical remains of industry, the damage that stayed hidden, and the decisions that left communities to deal with both.
Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, California
The Neighborhood America Tried to Erase: Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles
Before Dodger Stadium, Chavez Ravine held three close-knit Mexican American neighborhoods that Los Angeles condemned for public housing, cleared, and then handed over for a ballpark.
Chicago, Illinois
The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Company Town: Pullman, Chicago
George Pullman's model town offered workers modern homes while keeping every lease, wage, rule, and public space under company control, helping trigger the national Pullman Strike of 1894.
St. Paul, Minnesota
Rondo St. Paul: How One Highway Killed This American Neighborhood
St. Paul routed Interstate 94 through the center of Rondo despite a nearby rail-corridor alternative, destroying hundreds of homes and the heart of the city's Black community.
Los Angeles, California
Why Nobody Lives in America's Newest Luxury Skyscrapers: Oceanwide Plaza Downtown LA
Oceanwide Plaza's three unfinished luxury towers rose from a downtown rebuilt through displacement, then stalled when Chinese capital controls and a collapsing property market stranded the project.
Chicago, Illinois
Sears Documentary: How the Richest Retailer in America Went Broke
Sears connected rural America through its catalog, built the world's tallest tower, and then dismantled its own retail system through decades of financial engineering and underinvestment.
Atlantic City, New Jersey
How One Industry Bankrupted an Entire Boardwalk City: Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City used casino gambling as an official tool of urban redevelopment, but the industry captured visitor spending, displaced residents, and left the city exposed when its legal monopoly collapsed.
Chicago, Illinois
Why Cabrini Green Never Recovered: Chicago History Documentary
Cabrini-Green began as successful working-family housing, then lost jobs, maintenance, and public support before Chicago cleared its valuable Near North Side land for redevelopment.
St. Louis, Missouri
Why Pruitt Igoe Was Abandoned: St. Louis Documentary
Pruitt-Igoe's 33 towers were built as a solution to overcrowded housing, but a fatal funding formula, St. Louis's population collapse, and years of disinvestment made the project impossible to sustain.
Detroit, Michigan
How America's Motor City Went Bankrupt: Detroit Michigan
Detroit became the richest industrial city in America, then lost more than a million residents and entered the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history.
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Field Guide
Download the Abandoned America field guide
A 46-page illustrated PDF with 24 abandoned places, coordinates, access ratings, a US map, and a printable checklist for planning future trips.
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