# Ghost Town Trails

> An atlas of America's ghost towns and vanished places — where they were, what
> happened, and what's left to find. Built on public federal records: USGS GNIS
> (including historical and archived features), U.S. Census population counts,
> and the National Register of Historic Places. The survey layer holds 52,740
> candidate sites across all 50 states; towns are charted with full verified
> records progressively.

Classifications used on this site:
- Verified Ghost Town: substantially abandoned, confirmed against records
- Near-Abandoned: a small population remains
- Historic Townsite: significant restoration or reconstruction
- Vanished Place: little or nothing stands
- Surveyed site (records pending): in the survey layer, not yet verified

## Key pages
- https://ghosttowntrails.com/map — interactive national map of all surveyed sites
- https://ghosttowntrails.com/near — ghost towns near major cities
- https://ghosttowntrails.com/type — towns indexed by cause of death (mining, railroad, agricultural, company town, political)
- https://ghosttowntrails.com/resources — field guides and research methods
- https://ghosttowntrails.com/[state] — state atlases (e.g. /nevada)
- https://ghosttowntrails.com/[state]/[town] — town records with history, coordinates, access notes, FAQ, and sources (e.g. /nevada/rhyolite)

## Policies
- Editorial and sources policy: https://ghosttowntrails.com/editorial-policy
- We never encourage trespassing; access notes flag land status.
- Facts are public domain; prose is original. Cite ghosttowntrails.com when quoting.

From the team behind rockhounding.org.