i could just imagine wandering into the place, though, in the period between when it was destroyed and when it got buried by geological processes. there would have been places to live there, free of rent or labour. i mean, you'd have to figure out how to plant and water some food, but besides that it's just free living. did people do that? i mean, it obviously couldn't have happened on too great a scale, otherwise the place wouldn't be rubble. but i'm interested in knowing who might have lived in these ruins and what kind of a society they may have had.
i guess a modern parallel would be ghost towns out west. i mean, they're called ghost towns because nobody (supposedly) lives in them. but, how empty are they actually? do people (besides the aboriginal inhabitants, but that's a different kind of ownership) actually own these structures? if i walked into an old house in ghost town, saskatchewan and just started fixing it up, is anybody going to charge me rent or demand i pay taxes?
i know there's this common law idea of gaining ownership over a structure by "improving it", but that's something else.
this is an extreme example, the climate's a little much for my tastes, but there must be literally thousands of abandoned houses here:
Uranium City was a thriving town until 1982, with its population approaching the 5,000 threshold required to achieve city status in the province. The closure of the mines on 30 June 1982 led to economic collapse, with most residents of the town leaving. It was later designated as a northern settlement with about 300 people remaining. The local hospital closed in the spring of 2003. The current population is 201,[1] including a number of Métis and First Nations people.[4]
i mean, a place like that, you can't just scatter seeds in your yard. that's far enough north it might even have permafrost.
then again, the permafrost is melting.
this is a little more reasonable. some of the houses may be unliveable, but smashing the doors down on the church might be something like discovering an empty castle.
there's probably ghost towns in southern ontario.
like i say, i believe the common law on this is if you smash the doors down and fix the place up, you take ownership of it.
like, check this abandoned church out. somebody is obviously maintaining the lawn. it's still an interesting possibility.
i'm stable and happy where i am, but it's an idea that crossed my mind and something i'm going to really contemplate should the shit hit the fan. i'll have to check the common law a little more closely, obviously.
http://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/ontario/wesleyville.html
always liked this song, although you'll need to find a translation if your german is rusty.