Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
I found some nice spots south of Rock Fish Gap before you get to the Paul Wolfe Shelter, There is an old homestead with a graveyard. Also the Straver Hollow has an old homestead near by.
Not exactly on the AT, but on the Benton MacKaye Trail, the trail runs through the ruins of the town of Proctor (in the Smokies) which, before 1945, had its own high school, movie theater, business district, sawmills, etc.... plenty to see and fairly well marked ruins.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.
In the Smokey Mountain National Forest there is an abandoned town! It has ruins of houses, hotels, gas stations, etc. It is not directly on the AT though. It was/is called Elkmont, TN. See this story:
http://pix11.com/2014/10/05/smoky-mo...bandoned-town/
I just finished the Caminho De Compostela in Portugal/Spain, and had the chance to see Roman ruins that had pristine titled floor mosaics, Templar castles, and a variety of other tumbling down buildings. If you like old ruins, my advice is go hike the Caminho Santiago.
They tore down an abandoned house that was right on the AT near Blacksburg VA.
Maryland had many historical areas!
At Sam Moore shelter in the Roller Coaster, when sitting in the shelter facing out, at about 2 o'clock and maybe 75 yards away is a very old crumbling stone structure and chimney.
"... been fearsome confused for a month or two, but ain't never been lost!" The Mountain Men.
The AT experience can include so many historical ruins and historical sites. If you're willing to explore off the tread perhaps 5 miles or less you'll have so many more historical options. Hiking the AT is rife with historical opportunities to add to the hike. Try wandering around Harpers Ferry or past the AT/C&O Canal road junction or go into the towns of N. Adams Massachusetts or Bennington Vermont(Bennington Battle Monument, four historical Thomas Kinked like covered bridges).
https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/histo...p-10-ruins.htm
bennington vt tower
Tons of state parks with ruins and historical sites, and, as said, both the NPs have ruins and historical sites.
Absolutely the AT can be a hike through history.
One can't talk about ruins around the trail without talking about historically ruining land the trail is on and how it and to be in the first place...eminent domain was the name of the game.
Did you know?
http://www.landrights.org/ocs/SocioC...nholders_1.htm
There's lots of good stuff for the ruin hunter.
In addition to the ruins at Gathland are actual Civil War trenches dating back to the Battle of South Mountain. And don't miss the "old Salty Dog" saloon (if only walls could talk), the white stone building on the C&O Canal just north of the walking bridge to HF. There are also historic fortifications dating back to the Civil War on the hills facing HF on the MD side. Both sides put big guns up there at various times...
Shenandoah was heavily populated prior to being taken over as a Park. Some families were forcibly evicted. Old maps show homestead locations.
New England was highly deforested throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries. People tried to make it as farmers on these mountains. They piled rocks from the fields into extensive stone walls. I've seen these in VA as well, memorably south of Waynesboro.
There's a ghost town just outside of Erwin called Lost Cove. There are 2 old houses and schoolhouse still standing, foundations, farm machinery, a graveyard and a few fields as well as all the little pathways between them. There's an orange/yellow blazed trail at Devils Fork Gap and its about 2-3 miles. You can hike down to the Nolichucky river from Lost cove and follow the tracks right to uncle johnnies.
The best set of ruins in PA is the ghost village of Yellow Springs near Gold Mine Road in central PA. This was a part of a large coal mining area along the trail. The village itself is gone except for stone foundations and a bizarre chimney that rises out of the underground mining pit just off the trail. As legend has it, this was ventilation for underground steam engines that pulled the coal cars up the incline in the shaft. For more information, go online and look for Saint Anthony's Wilderness. There you will find the chimney, as it is called, plus several other fascinating ruins just several feet off the trail.
old silo in liners farm west of the trail
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t-S1teqy-V...stone+silo.jpg
Doin' the trail one section at a time
You can read about my adventures at http://happyonthetrails.wordpress.com/
There is supposed to be ruins of an old plantation in the Birkhead Mountains Wilderness near Asheboro, NC. I have gone off trail several times looking for them but have not been succesful.
You can walk in another person's shoes, but only with your feet
ThT shelter near the Ice Cream man in New Hampshire has ruins right next to the shelter.
For TN/NC, there is the Roan High Knob shelter, firetowers, barns, graves...
There are two ghost towns just off of the AT in this area.
1. near Hot Springs along the Laurel River Trail and French Broad River is Runion
2. Over Flattop Mtn along the Nolichucky River is Lost Cove
The Mountains to Sea Trail has a lot of Folk history along it.
''Tennessee Viking'
Mountains to Sea Trail Hiker & Maintainer
Former TEHCC (AT) Maintainer
The chimney of Nick Grindstaff's place, just south of Damascus.
That tinker town just south of Buena Vista (just N. of Punch Bowl shelter.)
Gaithland State Park. The C & O Canal. Pine Grove Furnace.
Yellow Springs in PA. And another ghost/abandoned town in VT, near Little Rock Pond.
That Superfund site (miles of ruined nature) above Palmerton PA.
Foundations of abandoned buildings atop Moosilauke and Lafayette.
Some old structures re-purposed just for the AT, eg. the James River Bridge and the iron bridge near Port Clinton.