How to explore this abandoned Pennsylvania ghost town and its new purpose
In a clearing carved out of the forest outside Kittanning, Pennsylvania, sits Yellow Dog Village, a cluster of decaying buildings left to time and the elements. What was once a busy mining company town now sits abandoned, visited only by groups of urban explorers and paranormal investigators.
In 2022, Josh Yohman was exploring the village when he ran into its new owners, Latif Yeniceri and Maysa Gharib, who bought the property with the intention of starting a farm, not realizing the entire village that lay abandoned on part of the property. Yohman and his friend Debbie Reed proposed a plan — open house tours for anyone interested in exploring the village.
Now Yohman and Reed serve as social media managers and coordinators for Yellow Dog Village Tours, offering the public a chance for urban exploration without the risk of trespassing.
“A lot of people have come because they’ve never done urban exploration and they want to do it legally and safely,” Reed said.
The 22 buildings, mostly duplexes, were built in the early 1910s by the Pittsburgh Limestone Company as a way to keep miners from unionizing in an agreement known as a “yellow dog contract.” Residents of the village, rather than be offended by union miners calling them yellow dogs, used the derogatory term as the name of their small village. After several sewage issues and the loss of clean drinking water, residents were told to leave the village with the last Yellow Dog resident moving out in 2011.
Yellow Dog offers a pure, genuine urban exploration experience, with the houses left as they are with furniture, toys, and anything else the former owners left behind.
“I’ve never seen any place like Yellow Dog,” Reed said. “It’s just the sense of history that you get there and the sense of real human lives when you go is incredible.”
Tours are $30 a person in an open house style with visitors free to wander around the buildings and the property. Yohman often gives a short history of the property before setting visitors loose to explore at their leisure.
“We like to have our guests discover what they will on their own,” Yohman said. “We like to say that every single house has its own story and we like the guests to see what they’re going to see. Everybody sees something different here.”
It’s not only wannabe urban explorers who come, it’s also former residents of the village. Many of them stayed close after moving out of the village and have come back to see their old homes and share stories about the vibrant community that was once there.
“We’re hearing about the community through individual stories,” Reed said. “So this is a community that was a great place to live, even for people who lived there a long time ago, as well as people who live there before it closed.”
In recent months, Yellow Dog Tours has also opened up to paranormal investigations, having its first group come to test the property in May. Open house times can be found on the Yellow Dog Village Tours Facebook page, as well as items to bring. Visitors are encouraged to bring water as the village does not have any clean drinking water. Although in a loop, cellular service is limited so visitors should download maps before exploring.
What to know: The area has steep hills and many of the buildings do not have stairs. The village has been left to the elements, so dust, debris and mold may be in the buildings. Visitors with respiratory problems or asthma should first contact Yellow Dog Tours to discuss options.
What to bring: Flashlight, sturdy shoes, durable clothing, water, bug spray and snacks
How to get there: From State College take I-99 south toward Port Matilda before merging onto US-22 west toward Ebensburg to US-422 west toward Kittanning (about 2 hours and 10 minutes)
