Herschel Island: The abandoned island of the Arctic

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In the north of Canada, 5 km (3 miles) away from the shore, there's an abandoned island with long history but no population. Herschel Island, known as Qikiqtaruk ("island") in the Inuvialuktun language, had been inhabited by Thule people for at least 1,000 years according to archaeological excavations. The first European who set foot on the island was Sir John Franklin on 15 July, 1826. At that time the island was a base for whaling, fishing and hunting and was inhabited by 200 to 2000 people.

In the late 19th century, Herschel Island became a whaling base after whalers discovered that the Beaufort Sea was one of the last refuges of the depleted bowhead whale. At the height of the Beaufort Sea whaling period (1893–94) the number of residents on the island was estimated at 1,500, making it the largest Yukon community at that time. That was also when a number of buildings still standing today were built on the island. The most prominent of those was Community House built in 1893. It included a recreation room, an office for the manager and storekeeper, and storage facilities. Today it is well preserved and it's the island's visitor center. Another building, known as the Bonehouse which was built in the mid-1890s as a storehouse for baleen (whalebone) was were the first court case in the Arctic took place in 1924. 

Whaling subsided after the first decades of the 20th century but Herschel island saw some renewed activity in the 1970s when it became a temporary safe harbour for oil-drilling ships. The last family permanently living there left the island in 1987. From that year, Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park was established, encompassing the whole island. It is jointly managed by The Government of Yukon and the Inuvialuit. The park is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, protected as a cultural and also natural site.

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Ansgar Walk/Wikimedia Commons

Ansgar Walk/Wikimedia Commons

Ansgar Walk/Wikimedia Commons

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The abandoned Hachijo Royal Hotel in Japan

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Back in the early 1960's it wasn't possible for Japanese tourists to travel oversees, so the country's tourism industry tried to compensate by building equivalent resorts closer to home. The island of Hachijo-jima, part of the Izu islands in the Philippine sea, was chosen for its subtropical climate and it was promoted as the 'Hawaii of Japan'. With a distance of 287 kilometers (178 miles) south of Tokyo, it was possible to reach the island by ferry or by plane.

The island saw a lot of investments with many new hotels being built. The largest of them was lavish Hachijo Royal Hotel. Modeled on French Baroque architecture, its gardens contained plaster renditions of Greek statues and ornate water fountains. The hotel attracted clients from Japan's expanding middle class and was very successful.

In the following decades things changed as Japanese tourists could now visit other countries easier. The prospect on spending their holidays on the black volcanic sands of Hachijo-jima wasn't so appealing when instead they could visit Thailand, Guam or even Hawaii. The hotel changed names several times, with the last one being Hachijo Oriental Resort prior to its demise and eventual closure around 2006.

Since then, the tropical heat and saltwater has ensured a swift deterioration of the hotel, while thick vegetation has covered its exterior. Inside the hotel, everything appears to have been left behind, from furniture to computers and other equipment. However, it doesn't look like it's possible for it to open again anytime soon

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EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDIA/thesun.co.uk

EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDIA/thesun.co.uk

EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDIA/thesun.co.uk

Deserted places on Alaska's Adak Island

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Adak Island is part of Alaska's Aleutian Islands, where Bering Sea meets the northern Pacific Ocean. Harsh winds and cold temperatures make Adak Island an inhospitable land, however it has been home to Aleut peoples since ancient times. 

Due to its strategically important location, the United States military constructed a base and an airfield on the island during World War II. From there, fight operations against the Japanese began in September 1942. After the war was over, the approximately 6,000 American military men who served on Adak recalled its cold, foggy, windy weather; mud; Quonset huts; few women and no trees; and a volcano that from time to time would issue puffs of smoke. Fresh food was a rarity.

The military continued to have a presence on the island with Adak Naval Air Station which remained operational during the Cold War and finally closed in 1997. The closure of the base brought the population of the island down to 326 residents from a high of 6,000. Although the town of Adak was incorporated with the former base, many structures were left abandoned. 

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Ben Huff/wired.com

Ben Huff/wired.com

Ben Huff/wired.com

Ben Huff/wired.com

The deserted Boblo Island Amusement Park of Ontario

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For almost 100 years, Boblo Island Amusement Park was known as Michigan's Coney Island, even though it was built on Canadian land. The amusement park opened in 1898 in Ontario's Bois Blanc island, above the mouth of the Detroit River. Its name, Boblo, is an abbreviation of 'Bois Blanc'. 

The island was accessible by boats departing from from Amherstburg, Ontario as well as from Detroit. SS Ste. Clair and the SS Columbia excursion boats, two steamers known as Bob-Lo Boats, served the island for more than 85 years. 

On the island, the most popular attractions were The Nightmare, Falling Star, Wild Mouse, Sky Streak, and Screamer rides, a Ferris wheel, a zoo, and a carousel. Visitors would move between different rides via a railway that the park constructed. Henry Ford financed a dance hall which at the time was the second largest in the world, holding 5,000 dancers at full capacity. 

Boblo Island Amusement Park closed down in 1993 after 95 years of operation. Most of its old fashioned structures were torn down and the island was renovated for luxury homes. A few remains bring back memories from when Boblo was an island of joy. 

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Michael R Stoller Jr/flickr.com

Michael R Stoller Jr/flickr.com

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Baker Island: A deserted atoll in the Pacific Ocean

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Halfway between Hawaii and Australia lies the lonely Baker Island, a tiny atoll with a shoreline of just 3 miles (4.8 km). The island is almost flat, with sandy terrain and four types of grass. There are no trees, fresh water or people. Baker Island is inhabited by seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife, some of them endangered. 

Baker was discovered in 1818 by Captain Elisha Folger of the Nantucket whaling ship Equator, who called the island "New Nantucket". It got its final name from Michael Baker who visited the island multiple times starting from 1832. He claimed the island in 1855 and sold it to a group who later formed the American Guano Company. Two years later though, the United States government claimed Baker Island under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Baker Island remains an unincorporated and unorganized US territory till today and it's part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands.

From 1859 to 1878 the American Guano Company mined the island's guano deposits. A short-lived colonization attempt was made in 1935. A lighthouse was built along with some buildings on a settlement called Meyerton. In 1943 the US Army constructed a 5,463-foot (1,665 m) airfield that was subsequently used as a staging base by Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers for attacks on Mili Atoll. The airfield was abandoned by 1944. From 1944 to July 1946 the island hosted a LORAN radio navigation station. 

Today, debris from past human occupation -mainly from the US Army occupation - is scattered throughout the island and in offshore waters. The most noticeable of them are the abandoned airstrip which is now completely overgrown with vegetation and the island's lighthouse. There is also debris from several crashed airplanes and large equipment such as bulldozers.

From 1974 the island became part of the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge. In January 2009, that entity was redesignated the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Baker Island is visited annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

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joann94024/Wikimedia Commons

Joann94024/Wikimedia Commons

Joann94024/Wikimedia Commons

Poveglia, the most haunted island in the world

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Just a short distance away from Venice, Italy, there's the tiny Poveglia island, which has been called 'the world's most haunted island'. Venetians still have stories to tell about ghosts seen on the island, some friendly and some not. To understand why Poveglia has this reputation, we have to dive into its troubled past.

From 1776, Poveglia, which belonged to Venetian government was used as a check point for all goods and people coming to and going from Venice by ship. A few years later, in 1793, there were several cases of the plague on two ships, and consequently the island was transformed into a confinement station for the ill until it shut down in 1814. Venetians believed that the island was haunted by the ghosts of all those terminally ill who died on it. It is estimated that more than 100,000 died on the island over the centuries. Their bodies are still being discovered inside mass graves.

In the 20th century the island was again used as a quarantine station, but in 1922, the existing buildings were converted into an asylum for the mentally ill. That's where many people went through unimaginable horrors after a doctor allegedly experimented on patients with crude lobotomies. It is said that he later threw himself from the hospital tower after claiming he had been driven mad by ghosts.

Today, the surviving buildings on the island include a cavana, a church, a hospital, an asylum, a bell-tower and housing and administrative buildings for the staff. The bell-tower is the most visible structure on the island, and dates back to the 12th century. In 2014, the island was leased for 99 years by an Italian businessman under the condition that the abandoned structures will be restored. The restoration progress will cost around €19 million (around $21.2 million).

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The film set of the abandoned town of Spectre from Tim Burton's Big Fish

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Those of you who've watched Tim Burton's Big Fish remember the town of Spectre, where everyone tossed their shoes on a clothesline so they could walk around barefoot forever. When Ewan McGregor ends up there, he decides he can’t settle, vows to come back, and leaves to return years later when the town is abandoned.

To bring Spectre to live, Tim Burton chose a small island which stretches over Jackson Lake, near the town of Millbrook, Alabama. After filming ended, the production didn't tear down the film set. Although most of the film set has collapsed after years of neglect, part of the "abandoned" town with its fake houses and even some fake trees is standing on the island till this day.

The film set is on a private land. The owner allows curious visitors to take a look around the set or even camp on it after paying a fee.

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An abandoned Chinese fishing village, overtaken by nature

This Chinese fishing village has been left abandoned for more than 50 years, and now has been overtaken by nature. The village is on Gouqi island, one of the 394 islands that form the archipelago of Shengsi islands. Although the area still attracts over 100,000 fishermen every winter, fishing practices have diminished during the last decades leading to the abandonment of previously flourishing fishing villages. 

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Jane Qing/trueactivist.com

Jane Qing/trueactivist.com

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Jane Qing/trueactivist.com

Jane Qing/trueactivist.com

The Mexican Island of the Dolls

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Dolls with severed limbs, decapitated heads and blank eyes can be seen all over the abandoned Isla de las Muñecas - the Island of the Dolls. The island, created as an artificial agricultural plot or chinampa, in the canals of Xochimilco, south of Mexico City, used to belong to a man called Julián Santana Barrera.

The story goes that Barrera found a little girl drowned under mysterious circumstances while he was not able to save her life. Near her dead body he found a floating doll, possibly belonging to the dead girl. He picked up the doll and hung it to a tree, as a way of showing respect to the spirit of the girl. That's when he started collecting the old broken bodies of dolls from the canals and rubbish tips, and hang them from branches and tree trunks to keep away evil spirits and appease the spirit of a dead girl he had found.

He then started believing that the dolls were possessed by the spirits of dead girls and that they would come to life every night and walk around the island. In 2001, Barrera was found drowned at exactly the same place he discovered the little girl 50 years earlier. Since then, visitors stared going to the island, often bringing their own dolls. The creepy dolls are today the sole inhabitants of Isla de las Muñecas.

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The ghost island of Boston

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For the last three decades, Boston's Long Island has been the home of a vibrant community: the city's shelter, housing hundreds of homeless people, addicts and troubled teens. During the recent years, Boston's taxpayers and nonprofit groups have spent millions of dollars to refurbish the island's old buildings where until last October up to 700 people sought shelter and other services every day. The community thrived and its two farms were producing some 25,000 pounds of produce a year. Potatoes, parsnips, cilantro, as well as eggs and honey. 

The shelter however fell victim of America's infrastructure crisis. A bridge between the island and the city of Boston was deemed unsafe. To replace the bridge, the city would have to pay an estimated $90 million. An evacuation of the island was ordered instead. With about one-third of Boston's shelter beds for the homeless and about half the city’s detox beds based on the island, the city's social services are now in limbo.

The deserted shelter facilities now complete the scenery of abandonment on Boston's Long Island. With, long-abandoned bunkers that hid gun batteries and Nike missiles, a dusty chapel that hasn’t held services in years, a shuttered morgue, a 150-year-old cemetery, Long Island now looks more like a ghost island.

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Jessica Rinaldi/bostonglobe.com

Jessica Rinaldi/bostonglobe.com

Jessica Rinaldi/bostonglobe.com

Jessica Rinaldi/bostonglobe.com