I don’t know where you get your info from but you should do more research before you add towns to your list. Independence is a thriving community. And though some of the towns on this list may have been something larger in the past than they are now, many of them are far from being ghost towns. I am done looking at this list as it is BS and I did not make it 1/4 of the way through the alphabet.
Hello Al, and thank you for your comment. Independence was actually a pretty common name in Oregon, at least four other cities were using this name also at one time or another. It was also requested quite often when new post offices were put in, but frequently denied as the Post Office allowed only unique names. For instance Granite, Oregon was originally called Independence by local miners. There was another town had a Post Office name of Independence in South Western Oregon, so it was changed to Granite. The town in SW Oregon closed a few years later leaving the current town of Independence to officially grab the name.
In addition, Independence also had an Old Town that was moved after the floods. While this part of town is now absorbed back by Independence, it makes sense to officially recognize such locations. So in short, I have not decided yet which of the four locations called Independence this specific location will end up being. Hopefully I will write about all four.
As to your other point, I would like to point your attention towards the official Ghost Town Classification system used by the Federal Government. Yes, most people expect ghost towns to be totally abandoned, but one of the goals of Ghost Town aficionados such as myself is preservation. This can only be done by recognizing towns and locations that were bustling metropolises but now are sleepy towns with small populations. Many of these towns have buildings and history that is worth preserving.
I don’t know where you get your info from but you should do more research before you add towns to your list. Independence is a thriving community. And though some of the towns on this list may have been something larger in the past than they are now, many of them are far from being ghost towns. I am done looking at this list as it is BS and I did not make it 1/4 of the way through the alphabet.
Hello Al, and thank you for your comment. Independence was actually a pretty common name in Oregon, at least four other cities were using this name also at one time or another. It was also requested quite often when new post offices were put in, but frequently denied as the Post Office allowed only unique names. For instance Granite, Oregon was originally called Independence by local miners. There was another town had a Post Office name of Independence in South Western Oregon, so it was changed to Granite. The town in SW Oregon closed a few years later leaving the current town of Independence to officially grab the name.
In addition, Independence also had an Old Town that was moved after the floods. While this part of town is now absorbed back by Independence, it makes sense to officially recognize such locations. So in short, I have not decided yet which of the four locations called Independence this specific location will end up being. Hopefully I will write about all four.
As to your other point, I would like to point your attention towards the official Ghost Town Classification system used by the Federal Government. Yes, most people expect ghost towns to be totally abandoned, but one of the goals of Ghost Town aficionados such as myself is preservation. This can only be done by recognizing towns and locations that were bustling metropolises but now are sleepy towns with small populations. Many of these towns have buildings and history that is worth preserving.