Road-trip index
Ghost Towns near San Francisco
The survey records 725 vanished or historical sites within 100 miles of San Francisco, CA. Here's what's closest — and which places have full records worth planning a day around.
Charted towns within range
Vanished Place
Silicon Valley's ghost town — sinking into the bay mud beside the Amtrak line.
Near-Abandoned
Once home to thousands of Chinese miners — and California's great tong war.
Historic Townsite
The town killed by the Sawyer Decision — American environmental law's ground zero.
Verified Ghost Town
A gold camp in the Bodie Hills, always in the shadow of its famous neighbor.
Verified Ghost Town
A gold-rush boomtown of 8,000, kept in arrested decay since 1962.
Vanished Place
Mark Twain's first mining town — dismantled brick by brick.
Closest surveyed sites — records pending
Every one of these is on the national atlas map — zoom into the San Francisco area to see them in place.