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"Tomville," City of Missing Children

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OldTimeRadio

Gone But Not Forgotten
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According to a couple of Spanish-language Paranormal websites there is somewhere in the United States a now-abandoned city called "Tomville."

The reason the city was abandoned is that children kept vanishing from the place - hundreds or even thousands of kids.

Today, according to the story, the city and the immediately surrounding land is strictly forbidden ground. The nearest one is permitted to approach is 20 miles in any direction. There is more then 60 miles of fencing and the perimeter is patrolled.

I know of no city that is or has ever been called "Tomville." (I suppose natives of the fairly-well-known Thomasville, Georgia, may call the place that, in the same sense that natives of Jamestown, New York, sometimes call it "Jimtown.")

Any other sources for the tale?
 
it rings a faint bell. I tried googling it and came up with the following sites:

http://forosmp.com.ar/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... d53c9b8952

All in Spanish (which I don't speak). I used the truly awful translation from google and the first message on the page mentions a village called Tomville where children disappeared and then nobody could go in or out.

Was this the website you found the refence on?

Within the message was a link to another spanish speaking site.

http://editorialbitacora.com/bitacora/t ... mville.htm

Tried Wikkipedia but nothing. It's very wierd that I pulled up so many spanish links but nothing in English, considering the legend is based on a US town.
 
There are Thomvilles in the US. You could also try Thomville / Tomville roads to see where they start / finish.
 
AMPHIARAUS said:
There are Thomvilles in the US.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I hadn't considered the Thomville spelling. I might as well try Tomasville, too.
 
So I've also tried "Thomville," "Thomaville" and "Tomasville" - all without success.

My guess is that the legend may have had its genesis in one of the residential areas abandoned in the 1970s due to heavy industrial contamination of the land before the houses were built - the notorious "Love Canal" area for one example.
 
Damn I wish I'd payed more attention in Spanish class.
 
I know that I've read a real similar article, but I don't remember the name of the town (though "Tomville" seems to ring a bell). What I do remember is that it had several pics of the area which seemed relatively spooky.

If memory serves I think I read it on either an Urban Exploration site or possibly a "Ghost Tours" type of site. Either way I'll keep my eyes open and try to find it again....
 
Any time....I think I'm on the right track, but I haven't found it yet.....I'm leaning towards a site that had a lot of info on random areas, so I'm still narrowing it down, but again, I'll let you guys know as soon as I find the site.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
So I've also tried "Thomville," "Thomaville" and "Tomasville" - all without success.
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Maybe Tromaville? There's lots of weird crap going on there. :shock:

The book Weird U.S. contains somewhat similar stories. These usually involve people stumbling upon a creepy town in the middle of nowhere populated only by:

a) midgets
b) deformed people
c) circus freaks

None of whom like outsiders all too well.
 
ogopogo3 said:
Maybe Tromaville? There's lots of weird crap going on there. :shock:

The book Weird U.S. contains somewhat similar stories. These usually involve people stumbling upon a creepy town in the middle of nowhere populated only by:

a) midgets
b) deformed people
c) circus freaks

None of whom like outsiders all too well.
Click to expand...
Well there is Gibsonton, FL, the winter home of many circus performers.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/get ... ionNo==249
 
I'm sure I read an article about a US town which has a huge fire raging underneath it that can't be extinguished.

Can't remember where or any details though, sorry. :oops:
 
The town with the coal fire underneath (that, in its day, was hot enough to make the streets bubble) is Centralia, Pennsylvania. Nothing to strange about that one though, I'd have skipped town too....

I haven't found any luck with regards to Tomville yet. Still certain I read something about it, but I've no idea where. I did, however, find this little gem....

http://www.ufoarea.com/aas_villagecanada.html

A whole town that disapeared...some of the signs are eerily similar to the mystery ships where crew has vanished and meals are left on a table, supplies still intact, etc.....
 
The Spanish sites give lots of details about the supposed Tomville...it all happened in 1976, it's in the Mid-West with apopulation of 6,500 and supposedly the events were written about in the Rocky Mountain News which would narrow it down.

The principal of the secondary school is given as 'Aaron Heines' , the deputy head of police is 'Richard Lawes' (!) his boss is Bob Bixby and there's a WWI veteran called Joe Bert (!),the local newpapser editor is Angie Benson.

The story has the children all being abducted by flying saucers before the army move in and impose martial law.

Given the wealth of detail and the lack of followup, I'm rather thinking this is a short story rather than reportage.
 
I went to the Rocky Mountain News site did a few on site searches with what should have been key words and got nowt, obvious signs of a cover up 8)
 
MercuryCrest said:
A whole town that disapeared...some of the signs are eerily similar to the mystery ships where crew has vanished and meals are left on a table, supplies still intact, etc.....
Click to expand...

I thought this looked a bit suspect, and one google later -

http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/history/anjikuni_e.htm

The story about the disappearance in the 1930's of an Inuit village near Lake Anjikuni is not true. An American author by the name of Frank Edwards is purported to have started this story in his book Stranger than Science. It has become a popular piece of journalism, repeatedly published and referred to in books and magazines. There is no evidence however to support such a story. A village with such a large population would not have existed in such a remote area of the Northwest Territories (62 degrees north and 100 degrees west, about 100 km west of Eskimo Point). Furthermore, the Mounted Police who patrolled the area recorded no untoward events of any kind and neither did local trappers or missionaries.
Click to expand...
 
Tomville = Thomaville?

Numerous "Toxic Avenger"-type films were produced by a movie outfit named Thomaville.

Many of those films and videos featured missing, dead and/or zombified teenagers.

I believe that at least some, perhaps even all, of the productions were set in the mythical town of Thomaville.

So might this be the root of the Tomville of the missing children, especially when that "United States" Urban Legend is known only from a re-translation from a foreign website?
 
I'm not sure if this makes your theory irrelevant, apologies if it does but the fictional town is actually Tromaville and the movie outfit is Troma Entertainment.

http://www.troma.com/

I always assumed it was a play on 'trauma'.
 
Dear Quixote, if I immediately blow my brains out (such as they are) will that be sufficient atonement? Or must I purchase a web cam and set up a schedule?

I really need a translator to help me understand English.

But maybe Tromaville = Tomville also works to explain the genesis of the legend?

I just wish it would explain me.
 
TheQuixote said:
I'm not sure if this makes your theory irrelevant, apologies if it does but the fictional town is actually Tromaville and the movie outfit is Troma Entertainment.

http://www.troma.com/

I always assumed it was a play on 'trauma'.
Click to expand...

I did too, but it's consistently pronounced with a long o by the head of the studio.
 
Trauma

ogopogo3 said:
I did too, but it's consistently pronounced with a long o by the head of the studio.
Click to expand...

Ha ha, yes, but I've known some former employees who deliberately pronounced it "Trauma." No names!!
 
My most sincere apologies; what I had remembered reading was, in fact, about Bara Hack, the "Lost Village" or the "Village of Voices". I feel rather foolish, but it was a long time ago that I had seen the reference and I did find it very interesting.

More info here bara-hack.com/
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed at the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20070716100720/http://bara-hack.com/

It IS fascinating, but certainly not Tomville, Thomville, Thomasville, or any of the other alternate spellings of the original story on this thread.

As soon as I saw the reference to it on The Anomalist (on a link there) it dawned on me that that was the place I was trying to track down. :oops:
 
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MercuryCrest said:
My most sincere apologies; what I had remembered reading was, in fact, about Bara Hack, the "Lost Village" or the "Village of Voices". I feel rather foolish, but it was a long time ago that I had seen the reference and I did find it very interesting.
Click to expand...

No need. If I had ten dollars for every time I've made mistakes on Fortean and Paranormal lists I'd be the world's richest....something.
 
The "Eskimo Village" story was also featured in Carroll B. Colby's Strangely Enough, which came out in 1959, and was a collection of essays taken from the author's syndicated newspaper column, "Adventure Today." Was that before or after Frank Edwards?

I've been making lists of my favorite FT threads, individual stories, and rumours. The Tomville tale certainly ranks as one of the most audacious rumours (it's too nebulous to be a story) ever. If hundreds of children disappeared from a city of 6500, it ought to have been major news all over the world, rather than a tale no one can track down beyond a couple of Spanish paranormal sites.
 
MercuryCrest said:
My most sincere apologies; what I had remembered reading was, in fact, about Bara Hack, the "Lost Village" or the "Village of Voices". I feel rather foolish, but it was a long time ago that I had seen the reference and I did find it very interesting.

More info here http://bara-hack.com/

It IS fascinating, but certainly not Tomville, Thomville, Thomasville, or any of the other alternate spellings of the original story on this thread.

As soon as I saw the reference to it on The Anomalist (on a link there) it dawned on me that that was the place I was trying to track down. :oops:
Click to expand...

There are obviously lots of ghost towns out there, where industry has departed or for another reason people have left. Are there any ghost cities though? Where could the first true ghost city happen? Detroit is making a good go but surely is way, way off being completely abandoned. Quick Google didn't really show up a definitive answer for the world's biggest ghost town.
 
McAvennie_ said:
There are obviously lots of ghost towns out there, where industry has departed or for another reason people have left.
Click to expand...

I remember how surprised I was in my late teens to learn that there are as many or perhaps even more ghost towns in the US east of the Mississippi River than there are in the "Wild West."

By the way a good friend just recently visited a nationally-known ghost town in Utah, only to discover that it has 200 permanent, year-round residents!
 
amarok2005 said:
I've been making lists of my favorite FT threads, individual stories, and rumours.
Click to expand...

Off topic, but I'd love to have a look at your lists. I've been doing something similar for the past few years, and I'm always interested in finding new stuff or stuff I've missed. Don't know if there's a thread like this already somewhere on the board, but perhaps an on-going anthology-style thing, with reposted stories from this board and elsewhere that members have come across and saved would be of interest?
 
AtomicBadger said:
I'm always interested in finding new stuff or stuff I've missed.
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's fun just to type a random but not too common word into the FTMB Search box, and see what it turns up!

For example, 'turnip' returns 34 threads, some of which I've not seen before!

(NB: searching on Posts rather than Topics returns 51 results, but many of these are in a thread called Hallowe'en. 8) )
 
McAvennie raises an extremely interesting and worthwhile point.

Ancient ruins to one side, are there any ghost cities?

How about in Ukraine, uncomfortably near Chernobyl?

Or perhaps entirely abandoned neighborhoods in otherwise-inhabited major cities?
 
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