Series statement from publisher's website.

Since joining the Abandoned Arkansas team in 2017, Ginger Beck has trudged through mud, tall grass, water, and woods to find and document forgotten and endangered locations in South Arkansas. While the shells of these places remain in steady decline as victims of harsh, hot summers and cold, wet winters, the memories that people in the small downs of the South have are as strong as ever. Schools, churches, hospitals, and homes have been left behind as communities move on around them. Join Ginger on a tour of spaces that hold so many memories while the Natural State slowly reclaims them back to nature.

Arkansas's Old State House, arguably the most famous building in the state, was conceived during the territorial period and has served through statehood. A History of Arkansas's Old State House traces the history of the architecture and purposes of the remarkable building. The history begins with Gov. John Pope's ideas for a symbolic state house for Arkansas and continues through the construction years and an expansion in 1885. After years of deterioration, the building was abandoned by the state government, and the Old State House then became a medical school and office building. Kwas traces the subsequent fight for the building's preservation on to its use today as a popular museum of Arkansas history and culture. Brief biographies of secretaries of state, preservationists, caretakers, and others are included, and the book is generously illustrated with early and seldom-seen photographs, drawings, and memorabilia.

For over ten years, fine art photographer Keith Dotson has explored and photographed abandoned places in black and white. His first photo book, "Unloved and Forgotten: Fine Art Photographs of Abandoned Places," features a selection of the most intriguing and beautiful locations he found in his travels. It includes richly reproduced photographs of abandoned houses, schools, churches, barns, storefronts, and even entire abandoned towns.The book highlights fascinating locations like Adams, Tennessee (home of the infamous Bell Witch legend), and Cairo, Illinois, which has rapidly depopulated and is in the process of becoming abandoned. He offers concise backstories of several locations -- a deserted mining town in Arkansas, a forsaken 1952 Plymouth found crashed against a tree on a steep hillside in the woods, and a derelict high school building with a historic graveyard on its property. Included is a brief history of George L. Mesker and Company, the mail order business that sold ornate, prefabricated ironwork storefronts to small towns across America starting in the 1880s. Mesker storefronts can still be seen on many abandoned (and preserved) buildings. The 48-page book is lavishly illustrated throughout with Dotson's black and white photographs.

Miami architecture is world renowned, but many historic treasures have been forgotten. The Richmond Naval Air Station was a blimp base destroyed by hurricane in 1945. A Cold War missile base lies covered in graffiti. Homestead's old Aerojet complex was originally used in the testing and construction of experimental rockets but was slowly demolished as part of a project to revitalize the Everglades. The Miami Marine Stadium was declared unsafe after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and stands abandoned today. Author and "Abandoned Florida" blogger David Bulit revives the history and secrets of the Magic City's vanishing gems.

For nearly 80 years, the Rock Island was a major railroad in Arkansas providing passenger and freight services. A decline in rail travel after World War II and an increase in trucks hauling freight over government-subsidized interstates were among factors that left the railroad struggling. Efforts to merge with other railroads were stalled for years by federal regulators. The Rock Island filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and attempted a reorganization, but creditors wanted the assets liquidated, with a judge shutting it down in 1980. Most of the tracks that traversed the state were taken up, but a few relics, like the Little Rock passenger station and the Arkansas River bridge, remain as monuments to this once great railroad.