World's most fascinating ghost towns

1. Ghost Towns: Rhyolite, Nev.

 

 

Rhyolite had a short but spectacular life as an ore boomtown in southern Nevada, along with the nearby towns of Bullfrog and Beatty. It grew fast and furiously after a couple of prospectors hit pay dirt in 1904. The inevitable stampede followed, as did the red-light district, jailhouse, Mission-style railroad depot and a schoolhouse that was barely used before the town started to decline. By 1911, the mine closed and residents fled in search of riches elsewhere. By 1924, it was completely empty, a decaying ghost town of crumbling walls and broken dreams. The depot still stands, as does the stately bank (shown here), and the unique “bottle house,” made by a saloon keeper from old glass liquor bottles.

Text by Heidi Schuessler, Bing Travel; photo editing by Jake Clifford.

Where is your favorite ghost town? Post it on the Travel Blog. 

 

2. Ghost Towns: Elkhorn, Montana

 

 

Elkhorn is home to Montana’s smallest state park — only one acre — designated to protect Gillian Hall and Fraternity Hall, two of the best-preserved remnants of Elkhorn’s 1880s glory days. Located about 40 miles southeast of Helena, Elkhorn was a silver town, and unlike other boomtowns was populated by couples, including many from Europe. That perhaps explains the prominence of the halls, which were the heart of the social community. Theater, prizefights, a brass band and a glee club all met here, and baseball games, bowling and horse racing were other forms of entertainment.

 

3. Ghost Towns: Kolmanskop, Namibia

 

 

It wasn’t gold, but diamonds, that spurred a bonanza to the southern Namibia town of Kolmanskop in 1908, not far from the port city of Lüderitz. A town of 700 people emerged within a couple years, complete with a school, a hospital and even a casino. When demand for diamonds dropped during World War I, the town fell into decay and the desert took over. Since the 1950s, drifting sand has been creeping into windows, doors and stairwells, leaving behind only ghostly reminders of the boom and bust.

 

 

4. Ghost Towns: Calico, Calif.

 

 

Silver was king during the 1880s in Calico, which had 500 silver ore mines that paid out $12 million to the miners lucky enough to make their fortune here before it ran out. The town in San Bernardino County has been preserved and restored as a historical landmark and is a fun place to explore around Halloween, when weekends turn the town into a Ghost Haunt festival. Take cemetery tours, attend the dead wedding, carve pumpkins and more. Road trippers take note: This is a great side trip from Route 66 near Barstow.

 

 

5. Ghost Towns: Craco, Italy

 

 

This crumbling fortress in southern Italy is the oldest ghost town on our list: Its roots date back to the pre-Roman sixth century B.C. Amazingly, Craco survived for centuries through conquests and plague, but it couldn’t withstand a series of earthquakes and landslides that occurred in the 1960s. By 1975, the entire town of 1,800 people had to be moved to the nearby valley to “new Craco” — Craco Peschiera — for safety. The old town has since been uninhabited — except, of course, for the mummified remains of martyred St. Vicenzo in the church. Film buffs may recognize Craco from scenes in "Quantum of Solace" and "The Passion of the Christ."

 

 

6. Ghost Towns: Bodie, Calif.

 

 

In its heyday, Bodie put the “wild” in the Wild West. It began in 1861 as a humble home to about 20 miners. Less than two decades later, an estimated 10,000 people crammed into Bodie, creating a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie cast with prostitutes, gunslingers and gamblers. During the glory days, miners pulled more than $14 million in gold and silver from the Standard Mine, so they had plenty of money to spend on extracurricular activities at the 65 local saloons. Come Sunday morning, however, there were only two churches where they could repent. Bodie today is a state park with about 100 buildings still standing, including the jail, livery and gambling hall.

 

 

7. Ghost Towns: San Zhi, Taiwan

 

 

Invasion of the pod people! This rusting, abandoned “town” in Taiwan looks like funky set props from an old "Star Trek" movie. In reality, it was conceived as housing in 1978 for U.S. military personnel stationed in eastern Asia. Rumors that it was haunted stemmed from several fatal accidents on the site — or maybe the theory that it was built on an old burial ground for Dutch soldiers from the 1600s. Or maybe it was that dragon sculpture that builders disturbed to widen the road that brought on all the bad luck. Regardless, before it was torn down a few years ago these fantastical futuristic ruins caused imaginations to run wild.

 

8. Ghost Towns: Monte Cristo, Wash.

 

 

Monte Cristo was a gold- and silver-mining town. During its peak, from 1894 to 1897, it had a population of 1,000 people, four hotels, four restaurants, a hospital with one doctor, six saloons, an assortment of brothels, two churches (Baptist and Presbyterian), a school, a post office and its own newspaper. John D. Rockefeller and associates poured investment money into Monte Cristo, but the financial panic of 1893 took its toll, silver prices plummeted, record flooding occurred in 1897, and the town went bust. What’s left is an incredibly scenic hike to the ghost town. Take the Mountain Loop Highway east and park at the trailhead for a flat, easy, four-mile stroll (one way) down the abandoned Monte Cristo Road. When you get to the ghost town, you’ll amble through an open meadow sprinkled with red miners' cabins and an abandoned railroad turntable, which visitors enjoy trying to spin by hand. Head into the woods a little farther to see what’s left of a hotel sticking out of the ferns.

Get recent hiking trail information about Monte Cristo at the Washington Trails Association.

 

9. Ghost Towns: Scenic, S.D.

 

 

The tiny town of Scenic made headlines in August when it was sold for $799,000 to a church in the Philippines. The township, named Scenic because of its proximity to Badlands National Park, consists of about 12 acres, some padlocked buildings, the Longhorn Saloon and the post office (still operational). It’s unclear what the church’s plans are for the ghost town.

 

 

10. Ghost Towns: Bannack, Mont.

 

 

Forget greenbacks: A gold nugget was the currency of choice around these parts in the 1860s. Reportedly, the gold found in Grasshopper Creek was 99 percent pure, whereas other gold was only 95 percent pure. Sadly, it all petered out by the 1950s and Bannack was preserved as a state park. Today visitors can tour the more than 50 buildings and sites that remain — including the gallows where frontier justice was meted out, the saloon, the assay office and the Masonic Temple, still used by the Masons for their annual meeting. Bannack Days each July celebrates the mining town’s glory days.

11. Ghost Towns: Cripple Creek, Colo.

 

 

You couldn’t ask for a prettier setting for a ghost town, and Cripple Creek makes the most of it. This national historic district southwest of Colorado Springs preserves the feel of the days in 1890 when 10,000 or more prospectors flooded to the area mines in search of gold. They found it — by some counts more than $500 million worth was pulled from the region's mines. “Pikes Peak or bust!” was the rallying cry back then, but today people come here for attractions such as the narrow-gauge railroad, mine tours, gold panning, shows at the restored Butte Theater and the casinos. Events are scheduled throughout the year, such as the spooky Cemetery Tour, scenic aspen tour for fall leaf-peepers and, in winter, an ice-carving festival.

 

 

12. Ghost Towns: Terlingua, Texas

 

 

Miners flocked to Terlingua in the 1880s to make their fortunes in cinnabar, from which mercury is extracted. By the turn of the 20th century this town by the Rio Grande swelled to 2,000 people, but today fewer than 300 people live here. Every November, another boom takes place in Terlingua, when 10,000 people arrive to take part in an international chili cook-off. If you can’t make it for the festival, the area is also a hotbed of outdoor activities, given its proximity to Big Bend National Park.

Where is your favorite ghost town? Post it on the Travel Blog.