I’m not the type to get excited about exploring abandoned buildings and old subway tunnels. They’re interesting because they’re off-limits but, for the most part, I know quite well that a trip to a long-abandoned, boarded up insane asylum is going to yield photographs of old, dirty equipment and maybe a few rats. That’s a pretty stupid way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

On the other hand, I’m particularly captivated by regions of the world that are more or less closed off to the majority of Earth’s population. Over the next couple Fridays I’m going highlight one or two such places.

North Korea

A society that has been frozen in time since the fifties. I hadn’t given North Korea much thought until I saw this photoblog. (It’s in Russian but a translation is here.) A Russian web designer traveled to North Korea and brought those “forbidden” pictures back with him. This one is my favorite:

The large blocks on the embankments are tank traps to be pushed onto the roadway in the event of an invasion by the west.

The whole country is a living museum of cold war paranoia and socialist bureaucracy. Travel to North Korea is permitted only as part of sanctioned and government escorted tour groups out of Beijing and even these are, obviously, off limits to Americans.

The Huron Mountain Club

In the upper peninsula of Michigan there is a span of 20,000 acres (100 square km) of unspoiled, pristine woodland including the highest waterfall in MI. It’s not a national park or nature preserve. In fact it’s guarded by an armed private security force and is the home away from home for a few dozen families who pay in excess of $35,000 per year for membership. The preserve was started back in the 1890’s by influential families from Detroit and Chicago as a hunting and fishing haven. (Wikipedia entry)

It’s probably true that absolutely nothing special goes on inside the Huron Mountain Club other than relaxation, hiking, and watersports. On the other hand, a part of me wants to believe that the super-rich use the preserve to hunt hobos that they capture off the streets.

Even if such things aren’t commonplace, are you gonna look me in the eye and tell me that in the 100+ year history of the HMC that a group of rich guys have never hunted a hobo for sport there? If you want to bet against it, I think you would lose.