It goes without saying that scary things sometimes happen around St. Louis.

In the early 1980s, residents of a small town just west of the city found out just how scary things could get.

There were no monsters, ghosts, or vampires that plagued the

small isolated community just off what used to be Old Route 66, but what happened was terrifying

just the same. The horrifying events went on for several years and came to an end in and was

terrifying just the same. The horrifying events went on for several years and came to an end in 1992

when the entire town vanished without a trace. The name of that town was Times Beach.

It had started in 1925 as a promotion for the St. Louis

Star Times newspaper. Someone in the advertising department at the newspaper came up with

this idea, but the hardest part of the story to believe is that their bosses went along with it.

They gave away building plots in a brand new town that was named for the newspaper if you bought a six-month

subscription to the paper.

And no, I'm not making this up. The Star Times bought 480 acres of floodplain along the Mermack

River and then embarked on a scheme to raise the circulation rates for the paper. All you had to do was spend

6,750 on a six-month newspaper

subscription and you received a building plot for free. There was only one

small glitch. To use the property or build a house on it you were required to buy a

second adjoining plot to go along with it.

Believe it or not, there were a lot of takers.

It was a great location for summer homes and a lot of people from St. Louis looking to escape from the city heat, built cottages and Times Beach.

By 1930, residents were building more substantial homes and the place changed from a resort

to a real community.

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