Transient Buckeye Intro: With every week, we get a little bit deeper into Big Ten football season. And with every passing week, the conference's national title winning streak looks to be in greater and greater danger of drying up and blowing away. Who do I think will win the national title? I've got no clue, but I've seen all of the "contenders" from the Big Ten, and I don't feel good about any of them.
That theme of drying up and blowing away fits this week's Power Poll perfectly. Commenter @Broasted Nutcrackle returns for his second offering this season. He's going to link each of our institutions with a particular ghost town. We're going to be looking at some remote, long-forgotten venues, lands that time forgot, places where the local population is even smaller than the number of fans in the L.A. Colosseum for a 3:30 kickoff. Show us what you've got, B.N.
I have a strange fascination with ghost towns, especially when they aren’t the stereotypical wild west mining towns. There are plenty of unusual stories about these places from both ancient and modern times, with enough variety to assign one to each B1G team. Below, please take any comparison or history with a grain of salt, because in the fine journalistic tradition of this website, I am doing most (okay all) of my writing by the seat of my pants and leaning heavily into stuff I heard or half-remember from what I read on Wikipedia once.
#1 Ohio State (6-1, 4-0): Calico, California
Last Week: 1 High: 1 Low: 2 First Place Votes: 10 Last Place Votes: 0
34°56'57.0"N 116°51'54.1"W
Peak Population: ~1,200 (1885)
Current Status: preserved tourist destination
Distance from Stadium: 1,876 miles
Calico has all the trappings of what you think a ghost town should have: a remote desert location, ample parking, preserved old-timey buildings, souvenirs, abandoned mines, and guided tours. It is an amusement park of a ghost town, and anyone who sees it knows its exact deal. Ohio State’s status is similarly evident, even if there are equally fascinating places with less flashy reasons to be interested.
#2 (!) UCLA (6-0, 3-0): Varosha, Cyprus
Last Week: 3 High: 1 Low: 5 FPV: 1 LPV: 0
35°07'03.1"N 33°57'27.5"E
Peak Population: ~39,000 (1974)
Current Status: slow demilitarization, population 226
Distance from Stadium: 7,322 miles
I feel conflicted about this one, since Varosha is a casualty of a very recent war. But in its heyday, this beach resort was the playground of Hollywood elite, and that comparison to Los Angeles is undeniable among ghost towns. Varosha was completely emptied and militarized when Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974, but in recent years it has been re-opened to the public. UCLA, too, is coming back to life.
#3 Indiana (6-1, 3-1): Conrad, Indiana
Last Week: 2 High: 2 Low: 18 FPV: 0 LPV: 1
41°06'24.2"N 87°26'45.8"W
Peak Population: ~150 (1915)
Current Status: ruined foundations within a nature preserve
Distance from Stadium: 141 miles
The town of Conrad was founded in the classic American way: using unfathomable amounts of money to boost someone’s ego. The town’s namesake founder, Jenny Conrad, inherited an agricultural empire from her late husband. Not wanting to pay others for business services in nearby Lake Village, Jenny built her own town just two miles south, paying to establish a post office, railroad station, hotel, school, and all of the same trappings of the neighboring town, with the money to support their operations flowing out of and then back into her own wallet. As you can imagine, this business model did not work out particularly well after Jenny died, and the town was abandoned soon after that happened. The story here is that with enough money in the NIL era, you too can compete with the established powers that be, and Jenny Conrad’s famously cantankerous demeanor also seems to pair well with the current coach of the Indiana Hoosiers. Bonus fun fact: Jenny Conrad’s son, Platt Conrad, played Big Ten football at the University of Chicago.
#4 Iowa (5-1, 2-1): Beaconsfield, Iowa
Last Week: 5 High: 3 Low: 12 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
40°48'27.6"N 94°03'00.7"W
Peak Population: 201 (1930)
Current Status: incorporated city, population 15
Distance from Stadium: 142 miles
This is the home of the first ever Hy-Vee store, a fitting almost-ghost town for Iowa. Having dwindled to a mere 15 people, Beaconsfield today is 6,200 times smaller than the workforce of the mega-corporation that it birthed a century ago. That first store is still there, and while it does not offer any groceries, it serves as both a community center and town hall. Notably, Beaconsfield is also the hometown of retired NASA Chief Astronaut Peggy Whitson. Without doing any research whatsoever, I will proclaim Beaconsfield as the town with the highest astronaut-to-population ratio. Eat your heart out, Purdue. This stat makes for B1G West champion material.
#5 Northwestern (5-1, 2-1): Orchard Place, Illinois
Last Week: 4 High: 4 Low: 9 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
41°57'46.5"N 87°55'18.3"W
Peak Population: ~800 (1956)
Current Status: O’Hare Airport
Distance from Stadium: 13 miles
If you have ever wondered why Chicago O’Hare airport’s call letters are ORD, it’s because it was originally the Orchard Place airfield. As the airport grew to become what it is today, the entire community of Orchard Place was consumed, both by the airport and also by neighboring Des Plaines. The only physical trace of the town is the Resthaven Cemetery, which still exists entirely surrounded by runways near the FedEx terminal on the southern portion of the airport. Despite the town’s demise, what has risen in its place is now one of the most important things of its kind. Halfway through the season, the same can unironically be said about the new Ryan Field and the team playing there.
#6 USC (6-1, 3-1): Troy
Last Week: 7 High: 4 Low: 8 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
39°57'25.8"N 26°14'21.4"E
Peak Population: ~10,000 (~1300 BC)
Current Status: ancient ruins, historic cultural site
Distance from Stadium: 6,847 miles
Listen, I know way less about ancient history than most people who read this site. Rather than making a fool of myself by trying to explain the story of Troy, I’ll just say that USC deserves this one after naming themselves after one of the most famous defeats in history.
[TB Note: This association is grossly unfair to the ancient Trojans. They held off the might of Mycenean Greece for ten years. That's way better defense than anything that Lincoln Riley has ever managed, his Trojans struggle to defend effectively for just 60 minutes at a time.]
#7 Oregon (4-2, 2-1): California City, California
Last Week: 8 High: 4 Low: 8 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
35°11'05.1"N 117°47'27.3"W
Peak Population: 14,973 (2020)
Current Status: incorporated city, population 14,973
Distance from Stadium: 674 miles
How can a city with nearly 15,000 people and that is still growing be considered a ghost town? By comparing it with its own aspirations. California City was master-planned in the California desert after World War II, with dreams of it becoming the hottest Los Angeles suburb as the population boomed. A street grid was designed and built, with the aim of housing half a million people. However, the promise of “if you build it, they will come,” did not pan out. The resulting hundreds of miles of roads that were built to be ready for this housing boom have been languishing in the sand for decades, leaving scars across the desert that look more like some catastrophically destroyed city instead of one that was never built. Oregon’s aspirations similarly never materialized, and this season looks to be a California City-sized non-materialization of potential.
#8 Nebraska (5-2, 2-2): Monawi, Nebraska
Last Week: 6 High: 6 Low: 11 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
42°49'43.5"N 98°19'47.4"W
Peak Population: 123 (1930)
Current Status: incorporated city, population 1
Distance from Stadium: 162 miles
Not a village, not a town, but a full-fledged city, Monowi has a single resident and rightfully claims its fame as the smallest incorporated city in the United States. Elsie Eiler serves as the de-facto mayor, librarian, and proprietor of the only business in town. Like Monowi, Nebraska’s glory days are in the past. Also like Monowi, the team is not quite done yet.
#9 Wisconsin (4-2, 2-1): Picher, Oklahoma
Last Week: 9 High: 7 Low: 12 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
36°59'03.5"N 94°49'51.4"W
Peak Population: 9,676 (1920)
Current Status: abandoned, Superfund site
Distance from Stadium: 508 miles
Picher was a lead mining town. The stout and heavy element being pulled out of the ground draws an immediate comparison to the stereotype of a Wisconsinite and the digging weasels for which their school’s teams are named. The waste from Picher’s mining operations were piled in mountain-sized heaps throughout the town. People walked by them to get to work. Children played on them, even sledding down them in winter. And every grain of sand within them was contaminated by lead, which blew everywhere through Picher. The city had been slowly declining for decades, but by the time the extent of the problem was understood in the 21st Century, the rest of its residents were forced to leave. But notably not before the Picher High School Gorillas managed to capture Oklahoma’s 1984 Class A football championship.
#10 Minnesota (4-2, 2-1): Monument City, Indiana
Last Week: 11 High: 8 Low: 13 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
40°46'32.3"N 85°36'07.7"W
Peak Population: ~100 (1965)
Current Status: ruined foundations and roads submerged underwater
Distance from Stadium: 482 miles
Monument City was never actually as grand as its name, but it held its own as a small rural community with a high school, general store, church, and several dozen residents. Unfortunately, its location was at the confluence of several small rivers that would periodically flood with devastating effects for communities further downstream. The Salamonie River was dammed in the 1960s to control this hazard, creating a lake of the same name that would engulf Monument City. Residents were relocated and all of the town’s buildings were leveled, and now the site is submerged underwater, only reappearing during seasonal lowering of the reservoir. TL;DR: row the boat?
#11 Washington (4-3, 1-3): Boulder City, Idaho
Last Week: 15 High: 10 Low: 13 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
43°50'23.0"N 114°30'30.6"W
Peak Population: ~150 (~1920)
Current Status: abandoned ruined mine
Distance from Stadium: 458 miles
Okay, so I picked this one because I just read The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, and I loved it. While reading, I learned that Boulder City was one of the childhood homes of Washington Husky and 1936 Olympic gold medal-winning rower Joe Rantz, but this mining town is now abandoned like so many others. The comparisons really end there, but 18 schools is a lot to write about, guys.
#12 Michigan (4-2, 1-2): Pripyat, Ukraine
Last Week: 13 High: 9 Low: 17 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
51°24'22.0"N 30°03'25.5"E
Peak Population: 49,360 (1986)
Current Status: abandoned radioactive wasteland
Distance from Stadium: 4,847 miles
If you have not heard of the city of Pripyat, all you need to know is that it was the largest city in the vicinity of the Chernobyl power plant. The mere name is synonymous with disaster.
#13 Purdue (3-4, 2-2): Thurmond, West Virginia
Last Week: 10 High: 8 Low: 16 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
37°57'32.7"N 81°04'50.0"W
Peak Population: 462 (1930)
Current Status: incorporated town, population 5
Distance from Stadium: 356 miles
The story of Thurmond is the story of trains. Deep in the Appalachian mountains of southern West Virginia, the town sprang up as a hub for the railroads that serviced the nearby coal mines. Thurmond became the place where steam locomotives would be filled with coal so that they could go further into the mountains to have their cars also filled with coal. The town gained a rather impressive central business district, with all manner of business supported by the circular economy of coal in, coal out. The downtown’s location within a narrow valley meant that its main street was not even a street, but rather train tracks. Workers and businessmen would step directly off of inbound trains quite literally into the banks, hotels, and saloons of Thurmond. All of this began to wane as diesel became the preferred way to fuel trains. Thurmond still technically exists as a town, even if it is entirely contained within New River Gorge National Park, and famously 4 of its 5 residents all sought local elected office in the most recent election. As to how this relates to Purdue? Choo choo!
#14 Illinois (3-3, 1-2): Cairo, Illinois
Last Week: 14 High: 8 Low: 16 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
37°00'10.9"N 89°10'06.6"W
Peak Population: 15,203 (1920)
Current Status: incorporated city, population 1,733
Distance from Stadium: 219 miles
Once upon a time, Cairo dreamed of being one of the most prominent Midwestern cities, and with good reason. It is located at the confluence of two of the continent’s most important rivers: the Mississippi and Ohio. Railroads eventually caused the importance of river travel to wane, but more impactfully racial animosity caused irreparable harm to the city. This is not the reason for comparison with the Illini. Rather, it is being the flagship school in a talent-rich state and seeing an excruciating decline from which it is unlikely to recover. Losing to Purdue will do that to your psyche.
#15 Penn State (3-4, 0-4): Times Beach, Missouri
Last Week: 12 High: 12 Low: 16 FPV: 0 LPV: 1
38°30'33.5"N 90°35'59.3"W
Peak Population: 2,041 (1980)
Current Status: abandoned, Superfund site
Distance from Stadium: 695 miles
The small town of Times Beach was done in by a mundane municipal task. In the 1970s, officials hired a cheap contractor to oil its gravel roads for dust control, not knowing that the man for the job also had a side gig “disposing” of hazardous industrial chemicals by cleverly mixing them in with used oil. Two birds, one stone, right? If the resulting deadly brine covering the town’s roads was not enough, flooding later spread the chemicals onto literally every square inch of the city. When the extent of the contamination was discovered, 100% of Times Beach’s population had to relocate, and nearly every structure was destroyed, along with tons of soil being hauled away to ensure the toxic waste was removed. Draw any parallels you want to Penn State.
#16 Michigan State (2-5, 0-4): Singapore, Michigan
Last Week: 16 High: 13 Low: 17 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
42°40'41.0"N 86°12'25.7"W
Peak Population: ~300 (1875)
Current Status: no physical trace
Distance from Stadium: 87 miles
Singapore was founded in the early 19th Century by investors with dreams of rivaling the Lake Michigan port of Chicago. Speculators flocked to the boom town to try and get rich, and banks sprung up to feed them rapidly de-valuing currency. As the surrounding dunes were denuded of trees for lumber to build up the town and the fly-by-night financial institutions that lent to would-be businessmen all began to falter and crash, Singapore was destabilized both metaphorically and literally. A series of economic and environmental disasters contributed to the hollowing out of the town, and the sand dunes crept in to reclaim buildings as they emptied. Within a matter of decades, the entire town was buried by Lake Michigan sand. All of this happened long, long ago, which also feels like the last time Michigan State was booming.
#17 Rutgers (2-4, 1-2): Roanoke Colony
Last Week: 18 High: 15 Low: 17 FPV: 0 LPV: 0
35°56'17.1"N 75°42'33.0"W
Peak Population: ~121 (1587)
Distance from Stadium: 323 miles
Current Status: National Historic Site
Famous historically as the site of the first attempted permanent English settlement, Roanoke is perhaps even more famous for how it did not succeed in that regard. Any comparison you draw to Rutgers is on you, not me.
#18 Maryland (2-5, 0-4): Centralia, Pennsylvania
Last Week: 17 High: 16 Low: 18 FPV: 0 LPV: 9
40°48'14.9"N 76°20'32.2"W
Peak Population: 2,449 (1940)
Current Status: incorporated borough, population 4
Distance from Stadium: 129 miles
Centralia is a classic example of an Appalachian coal town, but its fortunes changed drastically in 1962. A fire began at the town dump, which was in an abandoned strip mine. Flames ignited the coal seam which quickly spread into the network of underground mines below the town. The coal has been burning underneath Centralia for six-and-a-half decades, destabilizing the ground and emitting toxic fumes through fissures in the earth. If you need to know how this all relates to Maryland football, go back and re-read the part about an entire city being destroyed by a literal garbage fire.
Transient Buckeye: And that's that! Will the last one to leave please turn off the lights on the way out? Big thanks to Broasted Nutcrackle for this week's submission. Next week, the Queen of the Power Polls herself will be returning, as @BRT is going to give us a rundown on U.S. Presidents, and how they connect to each of our schools. I'm sure that will be perfectly flattering to all of us.
Do you have a favorite ghost town that doesn't appear on this list? Do you wish your football program would disappear into the sands of time so you'd be spared the embarrassment of being associated with it? Please let us know in the comments.
Archiving This Year's Power Polls:
Transient Buckeye
BoilerUp89
Transient Buckeye
Transient Buckeye
Transient Buckeye
Transient Buckeye
