Thematic index
Railroad Ghost Towns
Towns that existed because trains needed them — water stops, junctions, coaling depots, section camps. Diesel engines and rerouted lines erased their purpose almost overnight.
Union Level, VA
1836–1990Near-Abandoned
A Southside tobacco depot that emptied when the trains stopped running.
Indianola, TX
1846–1887Vanished Place
The port that rivaled Galveston — erased so thoroughly Texans made it a proverb.
Piedmont, WY
1867–1910Vanished Place
Beehive charcoal kilns beside a vanished Union Pacific town in southwest Wyoming.
Arlington, MO
1867–1966Vanished Place
A Frisco railroad resort on the Little Piney, cut off and killed by Interstate 44.
Elgin, KS
1869–1910Near-Abandoned
Once the biggest cattle-shipping railhead in Kansas — now sixty people on the Oklahoma line.
Drawbridge, CA
1876–1979Vanished Place
Silicon Valley's ghost town — sinking into the bay mud beside the Amtrak line.
Thistle, UT
1878–1983Vanished Place
Drowned by a moving mountain — Utah's costliest disaster, visible from the highway.
St. Elmo, CO
1880–1922Verified Ghost Town
Colorado's best-preserved ghost town, at the end of a canyon railroad.
Keeler, CA
1880–1960Near-Abandoned
A port town whose lake was piped to Los Angeles — beach sign still standing.
Canyon Diablo, AZ
1880–1903Vanished Place
The railroad camp reputed meaner than Tombstone — fourteen saloons, no law that lasted.
Fairbank, AZ
1881–1970Historic Townsite
The depot town for Tombstone — scene of a train robbery foiled by one lawman.
Toyah, TX
1881–1969Near-Abandoned
The oldest town in Reeves County, drying up beside the Texas and Pacific tracks.
Cisco, UT
1883–1970Near-Abandoned
The I-70 ghost town from your favorite road movies — now a one-woman art town.
Amboy, CA
1883–1973Near-Abandoned
Roy's Motel and Cafe and its rocket-age sign, marooned on old Route 66.
Omemee, ND
1887–2003Vanished Place
A two-railroad prairie junction that dwindled to nothing.
Ardmore, SD
1889–1984Verified Ghost Town
A prairie rail town that died of thirst — main street still standing on the state line.
Lester, WA
1892–2002Vanished Place
A Cascade railroad town whose last resident held out for decades against a city.
Thurmond, WV
1900–1955Near-Abandoned
A railroad town in the New River Gorge where the main street is the tracks.
Shaniko, OR
1900–1911Near-Abandoned
The self-styled Wool Capital of the World, stranded when the railroad moved on.
Texola, OK
1901–1975Near-Abandoned
'There is no place like Texola' — a Route 66 town on the Texas line, nearly emptied.
Glenrio, TX
1903–1976Near-Abandoned
The Route 66 town on the Texas–New Mexico line — 'First/Last Motel in Texas.'