Abandoned Country chronicles forgotten traces of history and the nature that’s reclaiming them.  These are places of historic value that society left behind, and all of them have stories: why they exist, why they were cast away, what’s happened to them since.

As a workable boundary for this project, I’ve looked to the Chesapeake Bay watershed, a vast area of 64,000 square miles in six states where some 17 million people live.  For thousands of years, people have been making and leaving history here.  Most of the sites Abandoned Country examines fall in or near this watershed.

This blog is an online companion to a book I’m currently writing about about the East Coast’s abandoned history.  I will give details and updates regularly about the book’s forthcoming publication.

Ben Swenson

I taught history for more than a decade before embarking on a career as a writer.  You’ll most often find me on forgotten back roads tracking down good tales to tell.  I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my wife and two sons.

You can see published clips from my decade-long freelance writing and journalism career here: benjaminswenson.com

Questions?  Contact me: [email protected]

Twitter: @benswenson