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Warning: "Instead of tomatoes, this crowd throws carrots"... that's the sign that should be posted at the entrance to the dark, wooded area known as "Midgetville."

Yes, I've been to what I believe was Midgetville, where an orange carrot came flying across the windshield of my Chevy Silverado. Yet many people consider this left-off-the-map town a myth. In fact, several areas of the country have their own version of Midgetville, in which it's rumored that tiny, scaled-down homes exist for dwarf-like inhabitants. This is just one of the thousand haunted, weird or unexplained urban legend sites sprinkled throughout the United States. I am one of the thousands of college students exploring some of them.

Whether the journey includes finding the bone pile at the abandoned Jungle Habitat in New Jersey, sitting in the Devil's Chair in Florida or walking through the "Headless Horseman's Bridge" in Sleepy Hollow, NY, the experience will absolutely serve as a diversion from those long days in class.

"Urban Exploration," a term coined by college students nationwide, is for those who get their thrills from chills, or possess a strong "see-it-to-believe-it" attitude. Either way, these exploration-eager students are up for some bone-chilling extra curricular activities.

In fact, King's College (Wilkes-Barre, PA), Marist College (Poughkeepsie, NY) and The Steven's Institute (Hoboken, NJ) are among the dozens of colleges that have unofficial student-run Urban Exploration teams. By "unofficial," it's understood that the team itself is not directly linked to the college. To be a college-sponsored team means a faculty advisor must oversee the trips, monetary expenses and safety of each of its members.

"For the sake of us just having fun without having to worry about adhering to rules and such, we keep the team to ourselves, but anyone from the college can join," says Ian Guthrie, leader of an Urban Exploration Team and student at The Steven's Institute.

The Thrill, The Chill, The Shrill
Ask any college urban explorer: The first mission is usually the scariest, so prepare yourself for tingly goosebumps. "When you're in that car ... before you even get there ... it's absolutely thrilling," explains Brian Corcoran, leader of an Urban Exploration team and student at King's College. "Nothing compares to those first few trips. They will scare you to death." Of course, Brian doesn't believe in ghosts or anything like that, but he says there's always a chance he could be wrong.

Whether or not a ghost or a carrot-wielding little man appears, the feeling is indescribable for many who travel to these sites. Even the self-proclaimed "experts" -- those who have gone on multiple trips to various states -- cannot put into words how their trips have changed them. "I can't describe it, but the thrill of accessing these uncommon areas -- places that haven't been touched or even seen by human life for years -- it's hard to fathom," says Mike Laporta, leader of another Urban Exploration Team and student at Marist College. "The weirdest thing I've seen and tried to process in my mind has to be Centralia in Pennsylvania. It's just crazy."

Welcome to Centralia
Centralia is Pennsylvania's donation to the weird world of urban explorations. Picture this: a town barely inhabited, abandoned by virtually all who lived there, and that has been on fire for the past 40 years. Say what? Hard to believe, but true.

Centralia was once known as a prominent mining village, but after a fire began in the coalmines that lay underneath the town, it turned into a gold mine for urban explorers. "Driving through, it doesn't even look like a town," says Mike. "It's just woods, a few houses, and loads of smoke coming from cracks in the road. It's sad that it happened, but it's a sight to see." Centralia has been deemed a hazardous area to live, and for good reason. Within the town lies nothing more than uneven roads, abandoned homes and closed highways.

Safety First
Being aware of hazardous conditions is the most crucial part of any urban exploration trip. Whether it's walking through a dark graveyard, climbing a high-scaled wall or driving through the windiest roads to reach the destination, safety comes first. "Sooner or later, you have to say, 'OK, who on my team has my back and is thinking about our safety first,' and then 'Who here is thinking about running back at any second now?'" says Mike. It's not about being a chicken, or not having enough guts to climb this or crawl into that, it's about the overall good of the group.

That means being properly prepared, says Brian. In other words, bring extra flashlights and lots of batteries.

Scaling the Viaduct
Take if from Brian, who once found himself in dire need of battery-enabled light. One Spring night, he and his team took a trip to the Paulinskill Viaduct in New Jersey. "Basically it's a train bridge that was considered, at one time, to be an eighth wonder of the world," says Brian. The bridge scales 200 feet in the air and runs hundreds of yards, one of the first of its kind. Within the walls of the bridge are catacombs, caves and tunnels in which cults have allegedly practiced various unorthodox rituals.

As Brian and his team scaled the bridge and began searching for these caves, the unthinkable happened. "I dropped the flashlight, the batteries popped out and they rolled off the edge, 200 feet down. It was about eight seconds later that we heard a giant splash." With nothing but a cell phone's LCD screen to guide them through the structure, they made their way through.

They walked over thin wooden planks, climbed steep walls and crawled through thin tunnels -- all with the use of that phone. It was quite the experience, but Brian would rather have had those batteries instead of his backup plan. "Always bring extra batteries. As much as I love Christina Aguilera's pretty face on my cell phone, it didn't do us much good."

Fact or Fiction? Truth or Trickery?
If for some reason the ghost from "Shades of Death Road" doesn't feel like showing up for college urban explorers, or perhaps the New Jersey college student favorite -- the "Hoboken Monkey Man" -- doesn't feel like coming out to play, it's OK. There are plenty of  

Urban Legends

  out there that are still hidden and waiting to be explored. "Whether the legend turns out to be true or false, the fun is in trying to prove it one way or the other," says Mike. "For every one legend that is true, there is another that is not."

So don't be discouraged if you don't find Midgetville, or if the Headless Horseman's flaming pumpkin isn't at the end of the bridge you visit. There are no disappointments in the life of an urban explorer, only detours. It's a reason to try it again next weekend, and perhaps unlock one of Urbania's best-kept secrets. After all, what's college life like without thrilling memories like these?!

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