There Was Once a Place in the Hudson Valley Called Dicktown

Some may think that ghost towns are something you only see in movies. But New York State has quite a few scattered around.

Ghost towns are quite real, as these deserted towns and abandoned settlements stand as a reminder of our own past. Often, what remains are dilapidated buildings and outdated infrastructure such as roads, which are some of the only evidence humans ever lived there.

See Also: Is This the Strangest Named Location In All of New York State?

People left these establishments because the economy that supported the towns may have crashed, or because of natural or human-made disasters.

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It's only fitting that a state with such a long history as New York has a few ghost towns, and one of them is located in Putnam County. This town is also known for its rather unusual name.

How Many Ghost Towns Are In New York? 

According to the United States Ghost Towns website, there are 18 ghost towns in New York state. The website says that most of the state's ghost towns can be found between the "invisible boundary going from Syracuse south to Binghamton, east to Kingston, north to Albany, and east back to Syracuse."

Welcome to Dicktown, New York 

One such town is Dicktown. According to the U.S. Ghost Town website, there isn't too much information on Dicktown, though it got its name simply because of the number of settlers who once lived there who were named Richard.

See Also: Have You Heard of This Uniquely Named Spot in the Upper Hudson Valley?

There is no information available on when exactly Dicktown was established or abandoned. A-Z Animals says that you can't walk through Dicktown on foot, and that "little to no remains exist."

According to a map from Hometown Locator, Dicktown was located near Sagamore Lake, roughly halfway between Carmel in Putnam County, and Fishkill in southern Dutchess County.