Update: I went back and looked at this isolated area in April of 2019.

The northwestern reaches of St. Louis suffer from severe blight, but nothing compared to the wasteland greeting visitors across Skinker in southern Wellston.

Here, scattered through the often dense underbrush are the battered ruins of torched, stripped or just collapsing wood frame houses.

The formerly middle class houses and apartments of the West End seem far away. Nearby, other small towns near the border are in a similarly forlorn state.