St. Joseph, Missouri. One Word: Creepy

I think at one time St. Joseph, Missouri, must have been a pretty neat town. There are all kinds of remains that suggest it was a thriving industrial town with a beautiful business district. I can imagine hundreds, even thousands, of people working and visiting these buildings. Today, though, St. Joseph seems like a ghost town, almost like you would expect to find somewhere in western North Dakota.

The central business district still exists. Magnificent granite and brick buildings still tower over the narrow streets, big windows and grand entrances enticing people to come inside. But the windows are all empty and the entrances are locked. The sidewalks and streets remain eerily empty. With all these grand buildings it just doesn't seem possible there couldn't be people everywhere.

Down the street are the brick buildings of the manufacturing district, still adorned in signs and logos indicating the companies that did business inside. They're in such good shape it's hard to imagine that they are indeed empty and the windows are boarded up. The crashing of metal and whirring of motors no longer emanates from inside, today they are surrounded only in silence.

It's all really fascinating and slightly creepy at the same time. It's not as if the town just simply disappeared, it's that it all moved to the modern buildings and strip malls that line the Belt Highway on the east edge of town. All the people and businesses simply migrated out of the old town and into the "new." What's left is a shell, a skeleton almost, but still in great shape, as if the whole town only moved yesterday. It really leaves a feeling of awe, confusion, and creepiness in you when walking down the street.