Small Towns & Backroads Of Virginia - Exploring Empty Places Of Clifton Forge / Local Urban Legends
Transcript
0:07
today's adventure begins in Lexington
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Virginia I pull my rental car right here
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off this
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road as the recording of This is Tuesday
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November
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7th
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2023 and right here the cusp of the
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Woods
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his old stone wall
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himself there was something moving in
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the woods over there that's why I was
0:48
standing still for a
0:56
moment welcome everyone Adam the woo
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here as you can see I'm not wearing my
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put a sweat s shirt is warmed up
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considerably drove a lot last night made
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it down south way more Southward than
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where I was yesterday the early
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afternoon in Sleepy Hollow New York
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covered some ground and now I'm in this
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neck of the woods
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Virginia inviting you to join
1:22
me shall you I was going to go up a
1:25
little get a little closer look and read
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the placard that's on the bottom of that
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evidently that was created by Mark Klein
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who built a lot of stuff in this General
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vicinity mostly down towards Natural
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Bridge Virginia but something was moving
1:40
heavily in the woods and it really
1:43
startled me so I just I don't want to
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take a chance of maybe it's a bear or
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something just to the way from where I
1:49
just was at an antique store Dukes
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antiques there's a boat out front and a
1:55
Howling
2:01
Wolf
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grandfather used to have a car like that
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grandfather on my mom's
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side I'm in Clifton Forge now I hear a
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train going by so I'm going to walk down
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and see the train this is the town hall
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here take get a look at the little
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little station right here I always like
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this area meeting up with a friend from
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here hopefully can get some access to a
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couple
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buildings this always gets me the fact
2:29
that they have next to chesse 29 over
2:32
there the Eerie
2:34
400 which from Church Street Station and
2:38
Orlando there's a little Central
2:41
Florida Relic up here in
2:52
Virginia Orlando Florida says it right
2:54
there on the
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one day I want to own an old classic
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Ford truck like
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this this is what it looks like inside
3:20
the town hall the city hall kind of got
3:23
the old wooden banisters and creaky
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all right ended up getting permission
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and going to be let inside the old
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school that has been sitting empty for
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quite a while they're going to be
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turning it's going to be renovated soon
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into
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housing but right now it's sitting empty
4:47
so we're going to get to take a look
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inside the library is right over
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here I was also just inform my friend
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britne is here as
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well that this red lantern in used to be
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the town funeral funeral home yes that's
5:00
correct long time ago many the original
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Funeral Home in town yeah as far as I
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know yep and now it is a it's like a
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little bed and breakfast type place the
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Red Lantern in which is right here at
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the base of the Clifton Forge town hall
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with the clock up top and the mountains
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behind it very
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Scenic have you been in the school we're
5:20
going in before uh yes many times
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without many you're going to give me a
5:24
little you're going to give me a little
5:25
tour a little info when we get in there
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yes of course I'm excited to go and and
5:29
check this out what is that building
5:31
right there right ahead of us yeah the
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big building is that where we're going
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the church or oh no okay so with the
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white columns the white columns yes so
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that was the clipton forge West School
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we're going to the East School the West
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School straight ahead is still being
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used here's the fire station right here
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clipon fire clipton Forge fire
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department company number two engine
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24 and a great classic truck here
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there's a lot of these old classic
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trucks
5:58
around this is an very impressive house
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here on this corner it's now a salon
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according to the sign well maybe not it
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does say Salon in town it's advertising
6:09
okay just advertising
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it and where we're going the school you
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can see the corner of it right there all
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right I was just informed there was a
6:19
Michael Keaton
6:20
miniseries that was filmed so they use
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this area as like a c town yes as the
6:25
town in the Hulu series
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go
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I've heard it was pretty good I haven't
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seen it good I lik it I do like Michael
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Keaton so I have to
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check all right we're going
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in okay so evidently this was the
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original building and then they built
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the newer ones but I think this is a
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private residence now they are doing
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something up there with the Machinery
6:50
some road
6:51
work you can definitely kind of see it
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looks like looked like it was a
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school
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definitely a classic looking building
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I'm assuming this was the flag pole here
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still is the flag pole very tall stury
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flag pole there yeah I think it is
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there's the base there so you could have
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a student go up here or the teacher and
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they would Hoist the flag up right
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there any idea what year this opened for
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as as a learning facility um I don't off
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the top of my head I can tell you what
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year it closed what year did it Clos so
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the Middle School par closed in 2001
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definitely built a last however made out
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of the brick very
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sturdy little two parts there you got
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the main section over here and then you
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got the kind of wing over here all one
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big
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building well one big attachment yeah
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it's a lot colder in here than it is
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outside is that the gem down there yeah
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the gym is all the way toward the it is
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cool that you can see some of the border
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and stuff is still here from the old pin
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board 2001 I like the little thermostat
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here actually that that's an older
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thermostat but this is an even older
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thermostat
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here Mr Earl has the Mickey is he a
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local resident or a local teacher Mr
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Earl I don't know I just I saw Mickey
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ear and I was like what who is that
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interesting
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oh this would like go across to like
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block the
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hallway what would that be used for just
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to keep people down the hall I love this
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the old gem right here look at this
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still got the Hoops up in good
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shape probably just needs a little work
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on the floor but the whole the sidewalls
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are all still pretty
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solid wow this is so
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cool
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so the enchantment under the sea Dance
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could take place here from Back to the
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Future some kind of some sort of like
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hand crank
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here what'd you find
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Refreshments milk oh it's a milk it's a
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milk
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bottle yeah this is the second stage
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like this in an empty building that I've
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been in in the last
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week I'm picking up a theme 100% no the
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cafeteria
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yes
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okay I think somebody told me it was so
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an office desk over in the
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corner this is dated back to 2008 make
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sure the coffee pot is
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unplugged that may have been from I
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think they did some food pantry stuff
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here as well since the school actually
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closed in 2001 but F pantry is next door
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so I think they use this area got some
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little floppy discs
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here and this is the shower room these
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windows are neat too these block the
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glass block ones don't see these too
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often so that would be something that
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would have to stay probably because of
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the national
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register oh is this the gym this is the
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whole room iium
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room the old school treadmill yeah look
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at this
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thing what the
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heck that's like an original treadmill
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of all
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existence look at this it's called the
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foldaway
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track I'm not going to risk getting on
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this thing cuz I might break an ankle
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but
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yeah I have never
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seen one like that that's got to be from
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the
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70s fold away extra
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track then the air
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Master look at this bike a folding
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bike then you got the stair master
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stepper get a bug
11:44
in you got a spider sorry I don't do
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spider I'll take don't do
11:50
spiders look at this Apple computer
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I don't know how I missed the spider web
12:08
and you got it in your face but there's
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a spider all obviously this clock is not
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working this could have been possibly
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where punch the time cards I don't know
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no would be like
12:20
that I know the floppies don't see those
12:22
often how about this right
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now hbj spelling
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oh look America
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Online you got
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mail there was a really cool Goosebumps
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photo somewhere in here I remember when
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I was looking around looking out looking
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at spots for the hunted house just
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laying here but I don't see it
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now like some sort of computer equipment
12:53
over here
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too oh here's the report card slips oh
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wow Virginia report cards and it looks
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like these say like I don't know if
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they're actually records but class
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records like is that oh these are these
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are braids with names oh here's the
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ghost bump there a goosebump sticker
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there the future begins
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here there AR enough homes for all spray
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spay near your pet you think education
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expensive try
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ignorance this is uh classroom number
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five
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books Maniac
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McGee yeah so this was the
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library speciic
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subjects non-fiction
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non-fiction
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there's the leftover congratulations
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this year's
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class we are the last class promoted
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from CL for Elementary School Clinton
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Middle School we Rec come June 6
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2001 a football That's So Random like
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the stuff is just randomly still
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here that's the Boiler Room yeah I guess
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that's what it's called yeah that's
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where it's at yeah this is amazing Star
14:27
Trek next Generation here
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look at this thing I'm pretty sure this
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is from when we did the reading uh and
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gaming literacy convention con of the
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mountain a couple years ago they had we
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had all these Star Wars and Star Trek
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and just kind of fun Geek Things and I
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think they were stored here that's
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awesome I would startle someone that
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comes in here especially if it was late
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at night
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the ABCs of
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lice it's always good information to
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have
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yeah look at this they're saying to
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vacuum the beds and stuff look at this
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old
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vacuum and I love the you can
15:22
happen I wonder what it's set in between
15:24
though you can make it happen probably
15:27
that would make sense but I like you can
15:29
happen I don't know if this maybe was
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home e at some point or something like
15:35
that maybe the nurse's office oh I
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suppose yeah I guess maybe that would
15:40
make sense with the posture I don't know
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this just terrified me look down here
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there's a scarecrow yes yes why is that
15:49
there I've been startled um I don't know
15:51
what that is for
15:53
org fall College Festival so in the fall
15:57
the shops and stuff all put up like
15:59
homemade scarecrows and things I guess
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it could have been something like that
16:03
not sure why it's just
16:05
here this is the freezer I have no idea
16:07
what it is but it always I always call
16:08
it that because it looks like you ever
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been in here oh I've opened the door
16:12
again when I was here planning for the
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haunted house that we did not have here
16:17
you were going to have like a freezer
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meat locker I was probably just going to
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have somebody like pull open the door
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like for a jump
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scare I don't know if it was just a
16:25
closet you it see it looks like one of
16:28
those
16:29
but I can't imagine I think it is a
16:31
freezer you can see the cooling
16:32
mechanism up there would be there's like
16:36
a little it's like a snowman oh wow
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carved into the wall that's cool
16:49
yeah I don't know if that says
16:49
rip a steel door
16:52
yeah it says may I can't make it it's
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upside down I
16:57
think it's actually a lot lighter than I
16:59
thought it was going to be I thought it
17:00
was going to be really heavy but it's
17:01
real thin but it's made out of
17:37
dirty here you
17:37
go my left hand red on red all right
17:41
that was pretty awesome can't wait to
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see what the future of this place
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holds down the road I have to do an
17:48
update at some point just is turned into
17:50
like a some living quarters in a
17:54
centralized area for
17:57
events special thanks to the town
17:59
Clifton Forge for letting me
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in and to Britney for setting it
18:12
up it is a really large footprint of
18:12
land that could be
18:21
utilized this house down here on the end
18:21
it's like the Myers's house this is
18:23
around the back here got a little
18:26
basketball court here too
18:45
that was just a different Huish
18:45
color Happ be the Michael Myers
18:51
residence pretty
19:03
I'll W
19:04
back it's got a wave we got a
19:22
wave again the temperature just dropped
19:22
like 20° just walking underneath
19:51
this is the stream the river goes
19:51
directly underneath clipon for right
19:53
underneath the road pretty
20:04
Smith freak and it flows under the
20:04
town is that the Sorting
20:07
Hat um I thought like the sorting house
20:10
I mean it could be do you know what
20:12
house you are yes I'm Gryffindor the
20:14
gyffin door what about you Ravenclaw I
20:17
want Ravenclaw I wanted slyther because
20:19
Snape is my favorite but I mean yeah
20:22
everybody wants everybody wants to be
20:23
slythering I'm a raven claw all right
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just pretty close to where we just were
20:28
about a
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mile down this road is a is a spring
20:33
here in the side of the The
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Rock which some say resembles the face
20:40
Jesus you know I kind of see it I kind
20:44
of see it so you got the water dripping
20:47
out there let me kind of back up I'm
20:49
going to zoom
20:57
in is it like his eyes and nose but
20:57
honestly that could it could be just a
20:59
face yeah but I guess I could kind of
21:02
see the beard I can kind of see the eyes
21:04
they say the rock fell landed looked
21:06
like Jesus and then the spring magically
21:09
and then somebody put the pipe in I
21:11
guess okay but people get like people
21:13
get water from here and drink it it's
21:14
used to be really good I've never had
21:25
it I want to see oh that's I think it's
21:25
solid but it's careful there
21:29
I Manan I can oh well it's kind of like
21:31
I see the beard the nose yeah
21:36
huh thing is I don't know if anyone
21:38
really knows what Jesus looked like
21:40
there's no photos of it's not like they
21:41
were pictures but everyone has their
21:43
interpretation like no one really knows
21:46
precisely but I love how the Avy grows
21:49
up though I think it's really
21:57
pretty I'm going to takee
21:57
this
21:59
it's not bad I mean it just it tastes
22:02
like water yeah kind of like yeah
22:13
cold it's a nice source of free water
22:13
though yeah so that's
22:16
good surprised it's not coming out
22:19
wine turn the water into
22:23
wine that was good I would prefer water
22:25
but I would too I'm not a wine drinker
22:27
but I can definitely
22:29
see where the face is in there I've been
22:33
to a place Salt Lake City where in the
22:35
side of a tree a lady saw the face of
22:39
Jesus and it's been vandalized doesn't
22:41
look like it anymore but this still is
22:44
still resembles
22:52
it it's a good spot right here in
22:52
Clifton
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Forge hey you got to be right up on it
22:57
to see it
22:59
car's speeding off see it from that
23:01
angle I was looking there's an old sign
23:03
but it's completely rough you can't read
23:05
it I think it's old but yeah you also
23:08
can see it
23:09
from you can so this almost looks more
23:13
like it actually you can tell it's like
23:14
his like hair coming down it's almost
23:16
like the Shroud of Turin image tan the
23:18
you know that the thing the image on
23:20
that
23:22
no Google it this says watch for Falling
23:26
Rocks I just thinking if they put a sign
23:28
there and let the town folk know that
23:30
there's free water they could promote
23:32
it as beating the hell out of
23:41
hydration plastic truck going by there's
23:41
a little bit of a Overlook here a little
23:43
pull off down by the railroad tracks
23:46
which is kind of interesting the city of
23:47
Clifton Forge 1 mile West arrived its
23:49
names from the Iron Forge called Clifton
23:52
after the home one of the owners in
23:54
operation in
23:56
1822
24:00
and this is also part of the
24:05
furnace registered national landmark so
24:08
we on the furnace now or is that just
24:09
the area if you look down here okay all
24:13
right I didn't realize this is an actual
24:16
furnace holy cow that's a deep
24:19
well I didn't realize I thought it just
24:21
like an Overlook but it's actually a
24:23
national landmark a
24:25
furnace good thing got the guy got that
24:27
gr over it I down
24:30
there well I don't know if you can climb
24:32
down because you have to like you climb
24:34
down there oh down there I
24:38
mean I had no idea I thought this were
24:40
just like an Overlook to look at the
24:42
side of this Cliff here definitely a
24:43
very impressive piece of rock formation
24:47
here oh
24:49
my yeah I know I I made the same mistake
24:52
I thought that was the ground and my
24:54
feet went in like 2 feet this is kind of
24:57
awesome though
25:04
oh
25:04
God
25:20
I'm now walking down this little dirt
25:21
path to a bridge an
25:23
old metal Bridge down
25:26
here
25:31
like it's all grown over at the end of
25:31
this road it runs parallel to the new
25:34
road where the new
25:49
Bridges love these old kind of
26:02
reminds me of the Lost Bo
26:10
bridge I wonder if you
26:10
can I wouldn't recommend doing it a
26:13
little too heavy for that the well the
26:15
water's not super deep especially now
26:17
cuz it's been
26:19
dry there's the new bridge right
26:26
there
26:36
these are
26:37
intense okay when I was here last
26:40
time this building was completely closed
26:43
up and now it's like wide
26:49
open
26:49
actually yeah the picture that we did on
26:52
the steps there this is awesome holy cow
26:58
yeah whenever the last time I was here
27:00
this was I could only see it from the
27:02
outside couldn't get in there was like
27:03
boards all over the windows boards all
27:05
over those windows this was all boarded
27:08
up come in that way you come in the back
27:10
way and Sho me across the wall many many
27:13
times have I come in that
27:28
though
27:28
in
27:33
here so you've just taken lots of photos
27:33
in here yeah this is like air we've
27:36
common deared this
27:37
house we love it but it's it's getting
27:39
to the point where it's pretty soon it's
27:42
going to be it's probably just going to
27:44
collapse and this hole right here didn't
27:47
used to be there it formed when I fell
27:48
through
27:54
it so you
27:54
can I'm not going to walk use your
27:56
judgment no I'm good that's going to
27:58
cave in on me yeah it it hurt very much
28:01
here's a photo that they took right up
28:03
on the staircase
28:04
there bloody gorgeous g r e all capitals
28:08
right g o r e g e o u s support women in
28:13
horor yeah I don't know if I want to
28:15
walk up here that might just be you
28:18
could well there's a lot of glass up
28:19
here I mean I think here would be okay
28:21
but I don't know if I want to go any F
28:22
farther up just I'm just going to
28:25
peek oh good
28:33
wow this was the this was the second
28:33
four battle
28:35
kidy holy cow yeah he used to be able to
28:37
walk out on there this is okay but I'm
28:40
not going to take a chance old wallpaper
28:42
I love
28:53
it it's a shame cuz this was a really
28:53
nice
28:55
house definitely see how the Sun is
28:57
about about to go over the back of the
28:59
mountain over there it's going to be
29:01
setting soon not quite yet but pulled
29:04
over here on the side of the road to the
29:05
Island Ford
29:16
cave there's another rock that has Jesus
29:27
yeah
29:39
which reminds me a little bit of
29:39
Griffith Park the bat cave the Batman
29:41
cave which last time I went there they
29:43
had it blocked off he couldn't get in it
29:45
the only difference is this one cannot
29:48
go out the other side or if you can it
29:50
goes through a narrow passageway where
29:52
it's not as not open-ended on both
29:56
sides
29:58
little dark back in
30:07
here super uneven Flo yeah very very
30:07
uneven
30:27
floor
30:27
this is the Oakland Presbyterian
30:30
Church there a photo
30:37
there what it used to look like and this
30:37
is what it looks like
30:44
now right here along the railroad track
30:44
you see a train over
31:11
lot of
31:12
allegedly alleged ghost stories taking
31:15
place out here a little girl laughs out
31:18
here at night allegedly that's what I've
31:20
heard I haven't experienced it I've been
31:23
out here at night it's creepy but I
31:25
didn't hear you've done some
31:26
Explorations out here in the evening
31:27
just to see if you hear the laughs
31:35
Y and then the eyes of this supposedly
31:35
will follow you around the the uh the
31:39
gravestones oh my gosh look at the eyes
31:42
on this thing that's what I'm saying
32:45
organized back in 1834 is continued as a
32:46
place of worship for a period between
32:48
1861 and
32:50
1865 oh except so all that time up until
32:54
1861 and 65 when he uses a hospital
33:01
for the contingent of Stonewall
33:01
Jackson's
33:14
troops look at this a monument in a
33:14
churchyard marks those who passed away
33:18
in this very
33:26
building going to find that I honestly
33:26
think that this is the sculpture here
33:29
with the
33:30
names of those who passed on in that
33:33
very Hospital you got 1 2 3 4 5 6 seven
33:38
on this
33:47
side 8 9 10 11 12 13
34:00
that's the only one I see that could
34:00
could possibly be what they were
34:21
describing and that's going to do it for
34:21
today thanks for watching I'll see you
34:22
in the next video the
34:24
Vlog he