What’s the most unsettling town you ever been to or know of?

26 comments

  1. No idea what the name was, but I was on a scout trip and we visited this tiny town in WV. It had all of like 5 buildings and l looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

  2. I don’t remember the name but my mom and I were road tripping to Virginia and we needed gas in West Virginia.

    We had to get off on any exit that said gas was available bc we were running real low.

    We got off in this small ass town surrounded by the woods. The “gas station” was so old and something from like 1950 lol. It had 2 redneck looking guys sitting outside of it on lawn chairs.

    It was scary bc my mom wears a hijab and the sun was starting to set and legit everyone (like 4 people) was looking at us strangely. I remember this guy at a stop sign was straight up LOOKING lol they’ve prob never seen a Muslim in their life and were like “dam y’all fr exist”

    I remember my mom and I were like “fuck this” and tried to get back on the highway but the road was so rugged and weird and we were lowkey starting to panic but we ended up leaving lol

    It was weird

  3. Old mill towns in the hills of central Massachusetts. I don’t want to be mean to any one town in particular because a lot of them have people who are very proud of them. I find them disturbing in large part because I live in one, work in a bunch of them and have lived all my life with the people who inhabit them.

  4. Colorado City AZ.

    From the Wiki:

    > In January 2004, local FLDS fundamentalist leader, Warren Jeffs, expelled a group of 20 men, including the mayor, and gave their wives and children to other men. Jeffs, now a convicted sexual predator, stated he was acting on the orders of God, while the men expelled claimed they were penalized for disagreeing with Jeffs.

  5. Shamrock, OK. Turned into town to make a circle back to the highway. There were 5 flags flags in front of houses, none of them were the American flag and three of them were Confederate flags. And *everyone* was in their front yard looking at me

    I floored it and didn’t look back

  7. Heh. Ill answer for my brother 🙂

    Polaski Tennessee, as a pink mohawk having punker in 1986. He was ran off.and chased until he hid under a bridge. Waited till dark snuck to a gas station and pleaded with me to drive 190 miles and pick him up to save him from the KKK 🙂

  8. Any downtown of any large city. Weird people, hard to park, dirty, I get in and get out and these days just never go if I dont absolutely have to.

  9. 𐑰𐑞𐑼 𐑞 𐑑𐑬𐑯 𐑲 𐑣𐑨𐑛 𐑑 𐑡𐑮𐑲𐑝 𐑔𐑮𐑵 𐑪𐑯 𐑥𐑲 𐑢𐑱 𐑑 𐑿𐑯𐑰 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑣𐑨𐑛 𐑒𐑩𐑯𐑓𐑧𐑡𐑮𐑧𐑑 𐑓𐑤𐑨𐑜𐑟 𐑧𐑝𐑮𐑰𐑢𐑺 𐑯 𐑴𐑐𐑧𐑯𐑤𐑰 𐑗𐑮𐑲𐑛 𐑑 𐑒𐑰𐑐 𐑚𐑤𐑨𐑒 𐑕𐑑𐑵𐑛𐑧𐑯𐑑𐑕 𐑓𐑮𐑩𐑥 𐑤𐑦𐑝𐑰𐑙𐑜 𐑞𐑺, 𐑹 𐑞 𐑢𐑳𐑯𐑟 𐑥𐑲 𐑛𐑨𐑛 𐑑𐑴𐑤𐑛 𐑥𐑰 𐑩𐑚𐑬𐑑 𐑦𐑯 𐑑𐑧𐑒𐑕𐑧𐑕 𐑢𐑺 𐑣𐑰’𐑛 𐑣𐑨𐑝 𐑚𐑧𐑯 𐑗𐑱𐑕𐑑 𐑬𐑑 𐑝 𐑑𐑬𐑯 𐑓 𐑚𐑰𐑰𐑙𐑜 𐑑𐑫 𐑝𐑦𐑟𐑦𐑚𐑤𐑰 𐑲𐑮𐑦𐑖.

    >!Either the town I had to drive through on my way to UNI that had confederate flags everywhere and openly tried to keep black students from living there, or the ones my dad told me about in Texas where he’d have gotten chased out of town for being too visibly Irish.!<

  10. Chicago. Specifically Cicero. Especially as a trucker trying to make a delivery at 2AM.

  11. Rockford Illinois. Stopped to eat, opened the door to restaurant, got greeted so egregiously, shut the door, went to vehicle and left. I’d add east st. Louis, west Memphis, lots of small town northern California, (was otr driver 7 years), lots of west Virginia, portions of Alabama, Louisiana, Jackson, MS.

  13. Atlantic City NJ is the biggest shithole I’ve ever seen and I grew up near Detroit in the 80s.

  14. So the most unsettling story from a small town I have was when a buddy and I were driving from Austin to El Paso. We were late leaving Austin cause we were trying to find a good BBQ place with a short line.

    Anyways, we were close to home when we realized we needed gas. So we stop by this station at around 10:30pm. The place is closed but the pump is still on. As my friend is getting gas, we both comment on how we both feel just “off”. About three pickup trucks pullup and suddenly a semi starts up and just books it out of there. My friend and I just look at each other and do the same. In our haste, we miss the turn on to the highway and end up on a dirt road where the only turn around was a drainage ditch. In hindsight, we probably over reacted but we were young and dumb lol.

  17. Maybe not quite what you were looking for, but Gilman Colorado is by far the creepiest town I’ve ever been to. It was a bustling mining town centered around a large zinc mine. In 1984 the mine was shut down virtually overnight by the EPA and the town was left abandoned just as quickly. I hopped a fence to get in in 2015 and it was like hopping into some dystopian time machine. Cars left in garages, clothes, posters on the walls, school rooms, even a bowling alley all left to decay over time. Easily one of the eeriest places I’ve ever been

  18. I once drove through a small town in the Carolinas with scarecrows all over town. Only people I saw were also passing through. Looked like a witch cursed the town. Still creeps me out over 10 years later.

  20. On one of my first solo road trips, when I was about 18, I was driving through Georgia and needed gas. I pulled off at a close by exit and followed the signs to a gas station.

    When I pulled up to the pump there were speakers hanging by wires, obviously broken. The general feel of the place was run down.

    I got out and grabbed the pump. This was at a time when you didn’t always have to prepay. A voice came over the speaker and said “Pay inside first mother fuckers.”

    I went inside and the guy behind the counter looked startled when I walked in. It was because I was white. He looked nervous and told me that I needed to leave. He said that it wasn’t safe for me to be there.

    I left and got gas further down the road.

  21. Bridgeport, CT. That place is a hell hole and by far the red headed step child of the affluent Fairfield County, CT.

  23. Nederland, CO. In the early 90’s my family was passing through (think Clark Griswold). We walked into a saloon for some lunch and the the figurative record scratched. All eyes, every single person, turned and looked at our very Midwestern family and our Chrysler minivan parked among the VW busses and Rabbits. We left and went on to Estes Park where we fit in MUCH better.

  24. This small town right on the border of West Virginia and Ohio. The place itself was so off I googled it and it actually has a pretty unsettling history. The town was like most any small backwoods town, except is was about 75% abandoned. It’s not like an old ghost town or anything, relatively modern houses and buildings. But there is some giant factory on the edge of town that polluted the air and water so bad the company basically had to buy out all the property in town. There were a handful of people who refused and remained, and it gave it this weirdly dark and creepy vibe.

  26. I was on a road trip to visit cousins in college. We were close to the MO/ AR border. We had been through a bunch of different states. Why not add one more. So we drove into AR – and nooooooped right on outta there when we saw an Adopt A Highway with the Knights of the KKK sign. Turned around real quick. No lunch, no shopping, no stopping for gas station snacks. So fucking gross.

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