Manson, North Carolina: Soul City - Unrealized Utopia

Plenty of paved roads go nowhere in this failed exercise in 1970s social engineering.

Soul City

Today some friends and I drove to VA to get lottery tickets (If I win, I don't know ya) and on the way back, my friend drove us through "Soul City," which is now a ghost town, but was once supposedly a government funded community. The sign even says Soul City. I could've sworn I read something about the place in my friend's copy of your Roadside America book, but my meager Internet searches have yielded merely links to record sites and I am so curious about this place that once was. Do you have the scoop on this place? It was so freaky there. Empty factory, tons of empty buildings. If it were out west there would be tumbleweeds floating through the streets.

[Eric Willhelm, 05/14/2000]

Soul City

I found Soul City yesterday! There really wasn't much to that place but it appears to be going through a growth spurt. There is a Perdue Chicken Hatchery near by as well as an International Paper plant not too far down the road. I estimate there were about 800 or so people living in Soul City, but there are still penty of paved roads going nowhere. Most of the paved back roads appear to be used as places to dump old couches and appliances. The only think I found worth taking a picture of was the big, 20 foot all Soul City sign.

[Greg Brown, 05/14/2000]