Thematic index
Lost Capitals & County Seats
Towns that lived on government — territorial capitals, county seats, courthouse towns. When the seat moved, the town's economy moved with it.
Dorchester, SC
1697–1788Historic Townsite
A colonial town older than the republic — bell tower and fort still standing guard.
Kaskaskia, IL
1703–1881Near-Abandoned
Illinois's first capital — stranded on the wrong side of the Mississippi by a single flood.
Old St. Stephens, AL
1799–1830Vanished Place
Alabama's territorial capital — now an archaeological site above the Tombigbee.
Old Shawneetown, IL
1810–1937Near-Abandoned
The bank that (allegedly) refused Chicago — left behind when the town fled the river.
Blakeley, AL
1814–1868Historic Townsite
A rival to Mobile, killed by fever — and site of the Civil War's last great battle.
Hindostan Falls, IN
1816–1830Vanished Place
Frontier Indiana's boomtown county seat, emptied by a single summer's epidemic.
Cahawba, AL
1819–1900Vanished Place
Alabama's first state capital, now empty streets you navigate by signpost.
Rodney, MS
1828–1930Vanished Place
Almost Mississippi's capital, until the river walked away from it.
Dobytown, NE
1859–1872Vanished Place
Fort Kearny's lawless adobe neighbor, where Sherman drank 'tanglefoot' whiskey.
Fort Dade, FL
1898–1923Vanished Place
A brick-street army town on a sinking island at the mouth of Tampa Bay.
Times Beach, MO
1925–1983Vanished Place
The town the EPA erased — now a Route 66 state park that doesn't hide its story.
Topaz, UT
1942–1945Vanished Place
For three years, Utah's fifth-largest city — behind barbed wire.