Thematic index
Mining Ghost Towns
Most of America's ghost towns died the same way: the ore ran out. Gold, silver, copper, coal, mercury — these are the boom camps that emptied when the ground stopped paying.
Bodie, CA
1859–1942Verified Ghost Town
A gold-rush boomtown of 8,000, kept in arrested decay since 1962.
Aurora, NV
1860–1919Vanished Place
Mark Twain's first mining town — dismantled brick by brick.
Unionville, NV
1861–1880Near-Abandoned
Where Mark Twain lasted two weeks as a miner. A shady canyon keeps a few residents still.
Bannack, MT
1862–1940Verified Ghost Town
Montana's first territorial capital — fifty buildings you can walk through.
Belmont, NV
1865–1911Verified Ghost Town
A silver-rush county seat whose brick courthouse still watches an empty valley.
Centralia, PA
1866–1992Near-Abandoned
The coal town condemned over a fire that is still burning underneath it.
Tuscarora, NV
1867–1917Near-Abandoned
A silver camp with one of Nevada's largest Chinatowns — now a world-known pottery school.
Hamilton, NV
1868–1887Verified Ghost Town
Twelve thousand people at 8,000 feet — for about three years.
Candelaria, NV
1876–1939Vanished Place
A silver town so dry that water cost more than whiskey.
Calico, CA
1881–1907Historic Townsite
A Mojave silver boomtown rebuilt by the founder of Knott's Berry Farm.
Delamar, NV
1894–1909Verified Ghost Town
They called it The Widowmaker. The gold was real; so was the dust.
Goldfield, NV
1902–1923Near-Abandoned
Nevada's biggest city in 1906. About 225 people live in what's left.
Rhyolite, NV
1904–1916Verified Ghost Town
Concrete ruins of a five-year gold boom, minutes from Death Valley.
Jarbidge, NV
1909–1932Near-Abandoned
One of America's last gold rushes — and its last stagecoach robbery.