*Map accurate as of 18 September 2020

One may not think of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area (or especially not the city itself) to be a place full of ghost towns and abandoned locales. However, the area is rich with such urban exploration opportunities. Check out the interactive map below, and read further below that for a short description of each amazing site!

Fort Carroll

Fort Carroll is a pre-Civil War-era hexagonal fort, designed by none other than future Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was manned in battle for the last time during the Spanish-American War in 1898 (by when, it was already obsolete). In that same year a lighthouse was built and operated autonomously after 1920, and ceased to function at all in 1945. It still stands today, along with the rest of the fort, which has become an de facto wildlife reserve for the local birds. It is accessible only by water (a personal canoe or kayak will do), but can be easily seen from the top of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Fort Carroll

Fort Armistead

Fort Armistead was built in 1897 as part of the Endicott Coast Defense Project. It once contained the world’s largest gun (a 12-inch-wide barrel M1888 Disappearing Gun). It was briefly reopened from 1942-1944 during World War II as an ammunition storehouse, after which it was no longer needed and became a park. Fort Armistead itself has several tunnels to explore (and for an extra bit of eerie ambiance, wander around near dawn or dusk).

Fort Armistead

Daniels

Daniels (originally called Elysville) was formed in 1810 to house and serve the new textile mill. By the late 1960s, only aapproximately 90 families lived in Daniels when the mill ceased operations. In 1968, notice was given to the remaining residents that all housing would be closed within a few years. The death knell for the town came in 1972, when Hurricane Agnes dumped a record amount of rain into the Patapsco River Valley and completely destroyed the town. The remaining structures (and even a couple old cars) remain today as they were in 1972, frozen in time. The town can only be accessed by a walking trail in the Patapsco Valley State Park.

Daniels

Savage Mill Ruins

A walk on the Savage Mill Trail will yield the beautiful yet slightly unsettling sight of the ruins of the old Savage Mill complex just across the Little Patuxent River. Part of the complex is now a bustling high-end shopping area - but this glimpse into the past is only a couple hundred yards away, yet still somehow hidden away from civilization. The original mill was built in 1750, producing cotton duck, grist, and iron. In 1948 the mill closed, and in the 1950s it spent a brief period being used to manufacture Christmas ornaments before closing permanently.

Savage Mill Ruins

Merryman Cemetery/The Lost Town of Warren

Warren, MD in 1925, before being inundated to create Loch Raven Reservoir

The town of Warren can trace its origins back to 1814, Marylander John Merryman bought a massive acreage of land along the Big Gunpowder River. After commissioning a dam, the Warren Manufacturing Company and the surrounding town of Warren expanded into a thriving factory town. Unfortunately, Baltimore City and the surrounding areas wre also bustling bybthe late 1800s, and the reservoirs to provide water to homes and businesses was no longer sufficient. After many months of City Council hearings, Baltimore paid the towns of Warren, Sweet Air and Phoenix more than $1 million for the right to evacuate and flood the towns if the need arose. Such a need arose, as it were, and in 1921, the town’s residents were forced to move; even the dead residents were dug up and relocated before the town was inundated with waters from the Gunpowder River to create Loch Raven Reservoir. By 1922, the only evidence of Warren was a lone flagpole, half submerged under the new reservoir, before that finally vanished around 1950. However, evidence of the Merryman estate remain to this day on the hills that once overlooked Warren; one of the more unsettling ones (if visited at night) is the Merryman Family Cemetery, shown below.

Merryman Family Cemetery, a relic of old Warren, MD

Curtis Creek Ship Graveyard

One of the more fascinating urban exploration areas is the Curtis Creek Ship Graveyard. Break out the same kayak you used to get to Fort Carroll for the full experience. A number of the shipwrecks (described as a wartime “river of wood” flowing into Baltimore shipyards), were bought by the Davison Chemical Company immediately after the First World War to transport pyrite from Cuba. Davison produced the majority of the world’s industrial sulfuric acid. Each of the boat ruins tell a story, but identifying them is a challenge. It’s likely the graveyard contains WWI-era freighters named Fort Scott, Dover, and Ashland.

Curtis Creek Ship Graveyard

HAPPY URBAN EXPLORING!