Whenever we head to Fernie, Kris and Mark love exploring old coal mines. I found this amazing island in Japan, Gunkanjima’s Ghost Island that I’m sure they’d love to visit, if it was legal. It’s a coal mine, as well as all the supporting structures that used to go with it. There are over 500 uninhabitated islands in this region of Japan near Nagasaki. It was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island features many abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surround them. Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 to retrieve coal from the bottom of the sea. Japan’s first large concrete structure, a block of apartments for the coal workers in 1916, was built here to accomodate the workers and protect them from typhoons. In 1959, its population density was 835 people per hectare for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare for the residential district, one of the highest population density ever recorded worldwide. As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine in 1974, and today it is empty and bare, which is why it’s called the Ghost Island. Travel to Hashima is currently prohibited, I’ll keep my eye open for changes to this prohibition. Looks like a really interesting place for a visit! Maybe even creepier than the Michelle Hotel we visited last time we were through Crow’s Nest.
www.oddee.com
