Croydon Resident’s New Book Explores Ruins Of Region

Kathleen Butler, a resident of Bristol Township’s Croydon section, has a hobby that has taken her to some interesting places and also filled a new book.

Butler recently debuted “Abandoned Ruins of Eastern Pennsylvania: Remnants Lost In Time.”

The explorer, who works full-time in the aircraft industry, took her years of traveling the backroads checking out the little-known history of ruins and abandoned sites and turned it into a book.

About 20 years ago, Butler began finding little-seen and barely visible ruins in the area. Over the years, her hobby has grown.

Most of her trips range from minutes to two or three hours from Lower Bucks County and are only seen when you take a path off the road and into the woods.

One of her favorite spots and one she took a reporter to recently is located right in the Delhaas Woods at county-owned Silver Lake Park in Bristol Township.

A few minute trek through the dense woods uncovered a World War II-era ammunition storage site that once featured smaller buildings and three large warehouses. Today, only the remains of some structures and warehouses are still present.

Butler noted that most people could walk right by and not even know that they are passing history.

As she walked toward the remains of one warehouse, she noted deposits on the ground that were from a long-forgotten iron operation in the area.

“There are these dirt mounds and inside them there were buildings,” she said pointing to one crescent-shaped mound that was completely surrounded by trees with decades of growth. “The dirt was there for protection if there was an explosion.”

While talking a reporter on the expedition, Butler, a New Jersey native, said she began sharing her trips that she often made with her husband and kids on travel and exploration website Atlas Obscura. From there, interest in her trips grew and she had a deal to create three more books.

Her first book covers places of industry from empty company towns to mills. It features pictures of the ruins and gives a bit of history on the sites.

For Butler, she believes sharing and documenting these places is an important way of sharing the past and giving people places to explore.

“There’s so many places. I’m still finding locations locally,” she said.

Butler advises readers to only go places where they are allowed to access and take precautions to stay safe. She also asks that people observe and not damage or remove items from sites.

“This is history,” she said.

Butler also runs a YouTube page, website, and Facebook page with more.

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