H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space.

"The Colour Out of Space" is first told from the perspective of an unnamed land surveyor who is sent to the small town of Arkham, Massachusetts to investigate the area for a possible new reservoir. He notes that the population of the town is slowly dwindling. He also begins to hear of strange things about a mysterious "blasted heath," an area of town where the land is covered in ash and nothing grows. Eventually he finds Ammi Pierce, a local who lives near the heath and is the only person in town who still remembers what happened there.