You wouldn't know it by driving through - there are absolutely no signs pronouncing the town. The only way I knew I was in the right place was a faded, spray-painted sign on the biggest building in town that read "Surprise Community Hall."
The abandoned house below was built in 1826 by a man named Fred, who gave it to his son, Red, who died years ago. All this according to Larry Svoboda, a local resident who told me a little of the town's history as I snapped some photos.
He smiled as he told me once there were big fairs and carnivals held at Surprise, and pointed toward a small mound of dirt in the middle of a fork in a stream. He said there were once elephants and carnival tents there every year or two to entertain the surrounding area.
Those days are long gone.
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