America has more ghost towns than most people realize. The USGS estimates there are over 10,000 abandoned settlements across the western states alone — remnants of mining booms, railroad stops, farming communities, and military outposts that rose and fell within a generation.
Most ghost towns are invisible. They're not on tourist maps, not in guidebooks, not marked on Google Maps. They're just there, in the desert or the mountains, slowly returning to the earth.
Here's how to find them, explore them responsibly, and understand what you're seeing.
Why so many ghost towns? The American West was settled fast and abandoned faster. Mining towns were especially volatile — a silver strike could bring 5,000 people to a location in months. When the ore ran out or prices collapsed, those same people left just as quickly. The same cycle repeated with gold, copper, lead, and eventually uranium.
Railroad towns lived and died with the railroad. When the tracks bypassed a town, or when the railroad company folded, the town usually followed within a decade.
Farming communities in marginal land — too dry, too rocky, too remote — lasted until the first drought or the first better opportunity.
*Nevada* has more ghost towns per square mile than any other state. Rhyolite, near Death Valley, has the most dramatic ruins: the bank building still stands three stories tall, and the train station (built in 1908, abandoned by 1916) still has its original facade. Goldfield was once the largest city in Nevada.
*Arizona* has Tombstone (not really a ghost town anymore) and Jerome (partially revived), but the real gems are smaller: Gleeson, Ruby, and Mowry — all completely abandoned and accessible by dirt road.
*Colorado* has Animas Forks, Ashcroft near Aspen, and St. Elmo — one of the best-preserved ghost towns in the Rockies, accessible by a good dirt road, with original buildings still standing.
*California* has Bodie, administered as a state historic park in a state of "arrested decay." The policy is to let buildings deteriorate naturally without restoration. Bodie at dawn, before the tour buses arrive, is genuinely eerie.
*Montana* has Bannack (see our Montana guide), Granite, and Elkhorn — all discussed in detail elsewhere on Exploryn.
How to explore responsibly - Take nothing. Not rocks, not broken glass, not old nails. Federal law prohibits removing artifacts from public lands. - Don't enter unstable structures. Old buildings are often structurally compromised. The floors may not hold your weight. - Leave gates as you find them. Many ghost towns are on private land with public access by informal agreement. - Stay on existing trails. Desert soil crust is fragile and takes decades to recover from footprints. - Check ownership before going. Some ghost towns are on private land and require permission to visit.
Finding ghost towns The best resource is the Ghost Town Research site and the Desert USA database. For western states, the book "Ghost Towns of the West" by Lambert Florin is still the definitive guide despite being decades old.
Exploryn has mapped dozens of verified ghost towns — search "historical" in any western state to find ones near your route.