Value of knowing history in your area

[chipmunk]

Just a couple of weeks ago, it came to light that the subdivision we live in is built on what were copper mines in the 1800's. We found this out when one of our neighbors watched a mature tree suddenly disappear into a sinkhole one day. Sheesh! Thank heavens there were no people in that spot at that moment.

I hope I don't come home to find my house swallowed up one day.

 

[ducks4you]

In Colorado, a now ritzy area used to be where they mined coal. Of course, the homeowners didn't know that until their houses fell in to sink holes....
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...&gl=us&sig=AHIEtbQrUk3Iwh0vR8pU1Ef7BPXCwm6ymA

We had a picnic one year off the road on the old "Oh My Gxx!" road, around the mountains between Idaho Springs and Central City. Next year it had caved in from a mining sinkhole. It's a little like the gopher holes in "Caddyshack."

 

[FarmerDenise]

In our area they built a high school on a floodplain. The put a quad in the middle that was lower than the rest of the school. Those of us who know the area immediately said: "oh look, they put in a pool for the kids in winter ". Sure enough it filled with water in the winter and the road leading up to the school was flooded and the kids could not go to school for several days

When I worked for our city some time after that, they decided to "develop" the area surrounding this school. I accidentally ended up with a call from an architectural company that was designing the development. I told the lady about the school incident and that the area floods every winter. She said that nowhere in the information she was given did it mention that!!! She really appreciated getting that information and changed her plans to accomodate the flooding!!!
Can you even believe that!!! Why wouldn't they let the architects know about something as important as a regular seasonal flooding. They had to buy land elsewhere to provide habitat for the tiger salamander, because it is a protected species that lays its eggs in the vernal pools in the winter in that location!!!

Guess you can't fix stupid!!!

edited for typos

 

[dacjohns]

That's kind of funny about the tiger salamander. In other areas it is flourishing and even not really wanted because it preys on leopard frog tadpoles.

 

[Cascadiana]

What a great heads-up for a thread topic! I remember Love Canal...

Before you go to all that trouble of researching property records on your dream house and land, go find a popular old-fashioned diner and chat up the locals who hang out there.

"When I was a boy, it rained 40 days and 40 nights here and we all had to build arks..."