10 Ghost Towns that Could Absolutely Kill You

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[@crouchingtigerhiddenadam1352]

That "interim" bit of the intro needs dropping. My family, all of our friends, over 100 of us agree. Great job Karl!

[@ToptenzNettop10]

He's supposed to stop saying Interim. I'm guessing it's habit by now.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

​@@ToptenzNettop10 is this to be taken as confirmation he is the sole host for this channel moving forward? 🥳🥳

[@crouchingtigerhiddenadam1352]

​@@ToptenzNettop10you did ask me to share if I was enjoying the content. I said I would. I wish the team all the best in the new year.

[@Chalky.]

At this stage he's earned the title of Presenter, but knowing Karl he's probably still saying at as some kind of defence mechanism against critical Simon fans.

[@Jobe00]

10 years from now, Karl will still be saying he's the interim host. He'll be like Brian Johnson who was the interim singer for AC/DC for decades after Bon Scott died.

[@CapablePimento]

I live and work in Utah. I did construction work at a magnesium plant called US Magnesium. Yes I’m calling you out US Mag. It has stacks that release raw chlorine gas 24/7. Usually it is released with steam to take it up and dissipate it in to a stinky mess. But, on occasion, the steam goes offline and a ribbon of fluorescent yellow green gas will fall back to earth whichever way the breeze pushes it. There is a 15 mile dead end public road leading up to industrial plants clustered in the area. I have witnesses this yellow green ribbon of incredibly poisonous mustard gas falling to earth on said public roadway before. No alarms, no concerns, just another tuesday. I also witnessed this ribbon falling down directly on my car in the parking lot at the end of the work day. After 10 minutes of waiting in vain for the breeze to shift, i decided to hold my breath and make a run for it. That was a mistake that lead to intense discomfort but no hospitalization. Murica.

[@ToptenzNettop10]

Holy jeez, dude! That sounds terrifying!

[@CapablePimento]

@@ToptenzNettop10 the things we do for a paycheck!

[@CapablePimento]

@@ToptenzNettop10 google us magnesium pollution. You may want to add it to a future story.

[@MmmmJuicy]

That sounds illegal. Like, how is that legal?

[@sadtown]

Yikes and I got bronchospasm from simply using fuming HCl . Murrica fuq yeah?!?!

[@j.p.6932]

4:53 They actually used asbestos as the fake snow in Wizard of Oz when they all pass out in the poppy field.

[@crankysaint]

I'm local-ish to Picher. That was a huge amount of gloss applied to the entry about Picher and the abuse the Quapaw received by the courts and the mining companies. Quapaw residents who refused to lease their land to the mining companies were often ruled incompetent by the courts, which would then turn the land over to the mining companies.

[@Yoder023]

Did this guy escape Simon's Basement or is he an accomplice? Either way, great vid! 😆

[@Chalky.]

He has written some scripts for Simon, so yes he did escape the basement and channel murder Simon.

[@Yoder023]

@Chalky. O . O Simon should make a Casual Criminalist vid about how he was murdered! Simon: "How is this guy so charming?"

[@Courier-Six]

Probably shoulda included Hinkley, California on this list given it had a whole Julia Robert's film made about it given the disaster was so bad. I grew up about 30 miles away from the Hinkley Plume. There was a 5 year period when I was in Elementary School where you were not allowed to drink the water from sinks. They actually shut down water to the sinks and installed hand sanitizer dispensers and installed Water coolers because there was evidence the plume was leaking down stream to nearby Barstow, Yermo, and Newberry Springs water sources. Thankfully it diverted and became a very close call for residence.

[@ToptenzNettop10]

If this does well, we'll do a part 2.

[@kristoferbehrnard5662]

I used to hitchhike, emphasis on the hike, through Hoboken any time I crossed between Barstow and Bakersfield, eerie site, I want to say that where I found a sign that said something to the effect of “The Uranium killed everyone” I can’t remember verbatim but something along those lines

[@Kevan808]

Who else wants Karl to be the permanent bro? 👍🏼

[@livelongandprospermary8796]

I am used to Karl from FF and Simon from TT and a bunch of other works. Love seeing them both here on TT

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

These top tens are awesome! Love your style karl

[@ToptenzNettop10]

He rewrote this one too. His writing is on POINT!

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

@@ToptenzNettop10 yessir

[@Chalky.]

#5 Silent Hill.

[@j.p.6932]

It’s funny, after watching a video the other day, it prompted me to watch another TopTenz I’d not yet seen. It ended up being an older one hosted by Simon, and it was actually weird to not see Karl there. So, keep up the good work mate! I feel like you’ve definitely made it your own.

[@beagleissleeping5359]

3:52 I know that finding affordable housing in California is difficult but that's slightly insane in my opinion

[@Static-ash]

That's Karl with a K, and Smallwood with a small wood

[@stephaniec9539]

Thanks Karl! Love these

[@factfiendgaming]

Just noticed I mispronounced a few words in this one. I am a mess.

[@lanceholder7794]

Don't worry.

[@Dc-alpha]

I've been watching FF for years mate, love your stuff. Own the mispronunciations as you've done in the past. Any excuse for a friendly have a laugh rant must be grabbed and expleted.

[@theodoreaguglia8902]

nobody cares

[@karicordi1403]

That's why we love ya K

[@ethanclairville6434]

Have you heard Simon's mispronunciations?? We're already immune to the cringe ;)

[@jeremywyatt2897]

Karl be the forever host. We love you like Simon!

[@danigreen2595]

My grandparents continued to use Gary as their pharmacist until the day he died. They had already relocated out of Picher at the time. A lot of old residents did the same thing. He was pretty popular.

[@poeterritory]

Love your presentation.

[@russelllomando8460]

astounding. great report.

[@coltclassic45]

RIP Fact Fiend

[@ToptenzNettop10]

I'll drink to that.

[@steveconti3966]

Liked your writing and reading your own script . Drop those in as well in the future

[@heidismith2077]

great job! great vid! new subscriber!

[@ToptenzNettop10]

Thanks for the sub! Welcome aboard!

[@danidavis7912]

I love it. A content creator that genuinely cares about fact-checking. That's refreshing.

[@michaelduncan2759]

Bonus fact for Karl, the town is the inspiration for the video game “Silent Hill”. I was raised outside of the town, and we used to visit as teenagers. Additionally, the fire department was in charge of burning the waste in the dump, and it was they who actually started the fire.

[@lindasnow3960]

Educational! Good word. Sarcasm was excellent too😊

[@katashworth41]

Centralia isn’t just on any type of coal, it’s on anthracite which is almost impossible to put out, there’s a bit about it in Bill Bryson’s A Walk In The Woods.

[@mammuchan8923]

A guy on Tinder holding a fish 🤣🤣🤣

[@TheDevilsJester11]

Centralia is the basis for silent hill. first level of doom lol

[@ToptenzNettop10]

Is that actual trivia?

[@dayokamaria6802]

Yup! They wanted to figure out a way to hide loading new sections of the city and took inspiration from the smoke that Centralia is constantly covered in. That's how we got the iconic ashen fog.

[@fabricdragon]

drop the interim, seriously! anyway great show as usual.

[@anothersquid]

Love Canal happened across the river when I was 12. That was truly scary shit. Stephen King novels never seemed quite as scary after Love Canal.

[@PhillyEaglesFanatic]

Pripyat after watching this video: Are we joke to you, comrade??

[@mercuryvincent6796]

"Sentient Blob of Capitalism" suddenly caught me off guard 😂😂😂

[@ravensdotter6843]

I rememberbthe whole Love Canal debacle. Horrifying.

[@GenXfrom75]

Lake Jocassee, SC is pretty creepy…😢

[@clairenollet2389]

I drove through Centalia in 1991 in the middle of the night. It was creepy AF. Just the very occasional lighted house, with the abandoned houses already looking looted. I don't think you can drive through the town anymore

[@multiyapples]

I want to visit these places when it’s safe.

[@theconqueringram5295]

Ghost towns that'll turn you into a ghost? PERFECT!

[@angelasieg5099]

Presto was an Ammo factory during WWII they dumped toxic waste water right into the ground not even 3 miles up hill from the Chippewa River

[@myownheroisonlyme5721]

The one in Oklahoma felt both tragic and like a reference that fans of musicals would get. A lone pharmacist in an empty town with the town having fallen down around him. He lived a long time despite the conditions of his environment. That's impressive.

[@eph2vv89only1way]

There is one place that I am glad avoided being eligible for this list. I used to live in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. There is a nickel processing plant there and it spewed toxic waste from the 50s until it was discovered in, I think, the 80s. The city ran tests on the soil and found it was very dangerous. But they forced the nickel company to clean up the soil. The soil was then retested and found to be improved but still toxic. The company was fined and forced to clean up until the soil tested clean

[@The_Blazement]

I've been to Salton City in 2014, I even went right up to the shore of the Salton Sea, yes it did smell horrible. You could smell it pretty much everywhere, including in the Jack in the Box fast food restaurant that was somehow still open in Salton City. Apparently, it has gotten far worse over the last decade, though there is talk of big lithium mining opportunities in the dried lakebed, so maybe that will be enough of an incentive for a cleanup effort to make it less toxic. Also, fun fact: There are "mud volcanoes" near the lake, basically geothermally heated mud that bubbles and splashes all over the place from several pits, sadly I didn't know about them at the time, so I didn't get to see them.

[@curiousworld7912]

Missouri has its "abandoned-due-to-contamination" town, Times Beach, which is just 17 miles s/w of St. Louis. The town's streets were sprayed with a road-spray, containing dioxin (for dust control), and sadly; more than 60 horses died at stables that had been sprayed-down with the stuff. The town was 'unincorporated', and its 2200+ population evacuated, in 1982.

[@skunkrat01]

Super fun site? Did anyone else hear that? I can't figure out what it was supposed to be lol. Love you Karl

[@jaded_gerManic]

A superfund site I believe.

[@skunkrat01]

@@jaded_gerManic Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! That makes so much more sense lol. Cheers

[@gendragongfly]

In the game Fallout, you have those zones of high radio activity that you shouldn't really go into because they will do you in rather quickly. Never would have thought that that is really just a fact of life. The only difference being that in real life it's not just radiation but also other visible and invisible poisons and dangers as well.

[@livelongandprospermary8796]

If you live near an applesauce plant, check your well water for phosphorus.

[@thelovablecretin]

16:16 just one of the darkest yet funniest sentences I've ever heard - ambivalence at its finest This is the Karl Smallwood content I come to see

[@holeshothunter5544]

You ought to go to some of the places you've read about on the web. Have you heard of the 'chevy chase' movie about Centralia? It's wierd & funny tho not in that order.

[@Nossieuk]

CAPITALISM, CAPITALISM, CAPATILASM ..... Karl, are you aware the USSR existed?

[@Nossieuk]

Using a global database of contaminated sites, toxic hotspots in eight former Soviet countries were analyzed to identify the prevalence, types and sources of toxic pollution, as well as their associated potential public health impacts. For this analysis, polluted sites in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan were compiled and analyzed. The levels of contamination of seven key pollutants were assessed in each country. 424 contaminated sites were identified using data from Blacksmith Institute. Pesticides, lead (Pb), radioactive metals, arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), chromium (Cr), and cadmium (Cd) were the most commonly identified key pollutants. Collectively, these sites pose health risks to an estimated 6.2 million residents. The existing data on toxic hotspots in former Soviet countries likely captures only a small percentage of actual contaminated sites, but suggests potentially severe public health consequences. Additional assessments are needed to understand the risks posed by toxic pollution in the region. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26796744/

[@aceundead4750]

I believe you about your last name Karl, i went to school with a girl who had that last name.

[@partyontheobjective]

4:29 oh no... 🎵If you or a loved one was diagnosed with Mesothelioma you may be entitled to financial compensation 🎶

[@Whisper_292]

Great episode, but i would have thought Pripyat would be somewhere on the list or at least be an honorable mention.

[@ToptenzNettop10]

Part 2?

[@Whisper_292]

@ToptenzNettop10 Definitely please!

[@GeorgieB1965]

Fun fact: Love Canal is actually part of a lyric to a Styx song called "Heavy Metal Poisoning". And no, nothing to do with mining and everything to do with heavy metal music.

[@AnnaAnna-uc2ff]

Thanks.

[@ibtsdad]

I lived in picher oklahoma my kids were little there the whole area is covered in lead dust the tornado wasjust one of many nails in its coffin

[@machspeed5025]

Ah Australia, where even the air and dirt want to kill you.

[@GenXfrom75]

2:22 that’s awful and absolutely disrespectful 😢

[@yin-sin]

Where did the ostriches come from? Zoos?

[@drewrub7415]

I agree with others. Stop being interim and just own this list. You’re great and we’re loving listening to you. Own it man!!!!!

[@itsapittie]

From 1996-2004, I was a doctor in a clinic a few miles from Picher, Oklahoma. After a heavy rain, the river turned rusty red from the corroded equipment left behind when the mines closed. There were mountains of mine tailings referred to locally as "the chat piles" which by 1996 were well known to be toxic. One patient told me that in her youth, the chat piles were her favorite place to go with her various lovers for secret encounters. I thought, "Yeah...that explains a few things." 😂

[@lordMartiya]

Karl, how could you make repeated mentions of The Simpsons and forget that the movie literally had Springfield getting so polluted the EPA wrote it off the map and isolated it?

[@IndigoEuphonium]

You gotta wonder how we didn't accidentally make Godzilla yet

[@JamesFromTexas]

Imagine if coal was connected all over the world by tiny veins and Centralia was the beginning of Armageddon.

[@j.p.6932]

4:24 yeah, if you can die in your sleep, just buy opening a window, it might be time to move.

[@daniellewis2133]

The buried bodies in Centralia's cemeteries were cremated.

[@j.p.6932]

3:06 lol, if a home was never built, can you really call it a home? Isn’t it just an empty lot? Or just land?

[@meh7348]

Drop the interim I think, everyone seems happy now and the initial complainers have adjusted or moved on. Karl has made the role his own, unless he's not wanting to stick around it think we have our presenter.

[@Zackaria_sMax]

3:44 Tweakers

[@SunevDNA]

Smallwood, it's not just a name lolz

[@aaronring4704]

Woohoo! So much America here! USA! USA!

[@annabethwivell327]

Interesting video, but I had expected Chernobyl to be on the list. Isn’t that area still really toxic?

[@ToptenzNettop10]

Yes, but it's also really, really, really obvious. I'm guessing they wanted to pick some lesser known ones this time around.

[@annabethwivell327]

@@ToptenzNettop10 Fair enough. I would have thought it would make the top ten of any list though. But if this is actually “ten randomly picked dangerous ghost towns” and not “the top ten dangerous ghost towns”, well, then I can see picking some less well known places.

[@ph43drus]

I give you my like for "turbo cancer"

[@neverstop117]

Someone just got fired!

[@akaisenpaitsubakihiganbana6706]

MAN MADE & MOSTLY MADE IN U S A.

[@bethanywicker8990]

Chernobyl?

[@MF_UNDERTOW]

Kyle Smoregood

[@SouthernNorthener2]

What about Pripyat, Ukraine

[@jackphillips3512]

Lot of “capitalism” snark here. Socialists do this shit too. I noticed that Chernobyl wasn’t mentioned plus the myriad of other environmental disasters caused by the former Soviet Union. The Aral Sea is another area not mentioned.

[@Zackaria_sMax]

Oh god... they mad Karl do the stupid thumbnail photos theyre gonna reuse for the next 3 years...

[@RealSaintB]

I'm a Pennsylvania resident and I petitioned my State Rep to rename Centralia to Donald Trump.

[@Boomken76]

👋👋

[@noodlessurprise]

Is this just redo of old videos with a new presenter …..

[@josephjosephbaska6655]

Carel only has smallwood lol

[@roydrink]

Wrong

[@shaneebz5292]

Where's fact boy?... Good job mate but it isn't the same without Simon's rants and tangents.

[@paulherman5822]

Not returning. Simon and the channel owner amicably parted ways months ago.

[@beagleissleeping5359]

Simon has moved on. You should to.😊❤

[@dougdeanwater1987]

Sure bashes capitalism alot for someone who makes their living off of it.He provides a service we use it he gets paid hmmm

[@MmmmJuicy]

We live in a world where only profitable activities are performed unless the government forces you to do otherwise. Found lead and zinc? That can be sold, let's mine it all out. Not profitable anymore? Abandon it, not our problem anymore!