Top 10 Ghost Towns in America
Ten places we think are worth the trip, hand-picked, not an exhaustive list, just a place to start.
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Bodie State Historic Park
Bridgeport, CACalifornia's best-preserved ghost town; roughly 170 original buildings frozen in a state of “arrested decay”
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Bannack State Park
Dillon, MTMontana's first territorial capital, now a state park with 60-plus standing structures
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St. Elmo
Nathrop, COWidely considered the best-preserved ghost town in the Rockies, about 40 original buildings
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Calico Ghost Town
Yermo, CAA former silver-mining boomtown restored as a San Bernardino County regional park
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Rhyolite
Beatty, NVA Gold Rush boomtown at the edge of Death Valley, famous for its skeletal bank ruins
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Terlingua Ghost Town
Terlingua, TXA former mercury-mining town turned ghost town on the edge of Big Bend
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Kennecott Mines
Kennecott, AKA National Historic Landmark copper-mining town inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
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Virginia City
Virginia City, MTAn entire 1860s gold-rush town preserved as a National Historic Landmark
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Garnet Ghost Town
Missoula, MTMontana's most intact ghost town, managed by the Bureau of Land Management
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South Pass City, WYA preserved 1860s gold-rush town and Wyoming state historic site
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