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State hub · Alaska
Alaska's ghost towns follow its booms. The Klondike rush made Dyea, at the foot of the Chilkoot Trail, a boomtown for the winter of 1897 to 1898. Gold found on Otter Creek on Christmas Day 1908 built Iditarod and Flat, and the Fortymile country still has Chicken. Copper made Kennecott, whose mines shipped ore until the last train left on November 10, 1938. Salmon canneries such as Portlock on the Kenai coast emptied in the 1940s as families moved to Port Graham and Nanwalek, and the Alaska Railroad left Knik behind when it was routed 13 miles to the north. Disaster emptied others: the 1918 influenza killed every resident of York, west of Wales, and the 1964 earthquake dropped Portage below the tides and ended the village of Afognak.
Many places on the list are former Alaska Native villages, left after epidemics, floods or relocations, like King Island, whose people moved to the mainland after the Bureau of Indian Affairs closed its school. The sites are spread from the Aleutians to the Canadian border, and most have no road. What survives ranges from Kennecott's mill town, kept by the National Park Service, and the Independence Mine camp in a state historical park, to a bank vault at Iditarod and a ghost forest at Portage. Much of the land around the old villages belongs to Alaska Native corporations and needs a permit.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideKenai Peninsula
A salmon cannery village on Port Chatham at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula, left in the 1940s; its post office closed in 1950 or 1951. No road…
GuideSoutheast Fairbanks
A gold camp on Chicken Creek that has hung on since the 1890s. Twelve people lived here in 2020. In summer, three small businesses sell fuel, food…
GuideCopper River
The red mill town of the richest copper mines of their day, emptied when the last train left in November 1938. The National Park Service now owns…
GuideSkagway
The landing where Klondike stampeders came ashore for the Chilkoot Trail in 1897 and 1898. Skagway's railroad killed it within five years. The…
GuideYukon-Koyukuk
A river town of 1910 that supplied the gold camps around Flat and sent the gold out over the trail that took its name. No road reaches it. The sled…
GuideAnchorage
A small railroad and highway stop at the head of Turnagain Arm that sank below the tide line in the 1964 earthquake. A 2024 article describes the…
GuideMatanuska-Susitna
The commercial center of upper Cook Inlet until the Alaska Railroad passed it by. About 500 people lived here in 1915; by 1919 only one store was…
GuideMatanuska-Susitna
A gold-mining camp high in the Talkeetna Mountains, where more than 200 men worked in 1941. The bunkhouses, mess hall and manager's house still stand…
Watch
Copper mills, mountain gold camps, and the Klondike trail. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Alaska
Copper camp of five mines that shipped ore from 1911 until the last train left on November 10, 1938. The mill town is a National Historic Landmark in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The 59-mile gravel McCarthy Road ends at a footbridge; Kennecott is 5 miles beyond, by summer shuttle, bike or on foot. Since July 21, 2026 the park has closed the old Root Glacier access trail north of the mill town for landslide danger, with no end date; entering a closed area is a federal offense, punishable by up to six months in jail, a fine, or both.
Alaska
Hard-rock gold camp in the Talkeetna Mountains, worked by the Wasilla Mining Company from 1934 to 1943 and 1948 to 1950 and left with its buildings and machinery in place. Now a state historical park at Hatcher Pass. Alaska State Parks listed it closed on October 9, 2026, with the gate a mile below the mine shut but walkers allowed past it; the visitor center opens daily from June 18 to September 30.
Alaska
Trading post turned Klondike boomtown at the start of the Chilkoot Trail. The April 3, 1898 avalanche, a shallow harbor and the railroad from Skagway finished it; fewer than half a dozen people were left by 1903. Ruins and a self-guided walk in Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, about 10 miles from Skagway. Culvert work brings lane restrictions and two full closures on Dyea Flats Road through November 23, 2026.
Alaska
Railroad and highway stop at the head of Turnagain Arm, with 71 people in 1960. The 1964 earthquake dropped the ground six to eight feet, by different accounts, and the tides took the town. CoastView described the ruins of a few buildings and a ghost forest of salt-killed trees by the Seward Highway in September 2024, and a visit video posted in June 2026 shows an old house or two in the swamp, seen from the road. 47 miles southeast of Anchorage.
Alaska
Gold camp of the Fortymile district, probably named for Chicken Creek, where a geologist wrote in 1896 that the creek was named for the size of its gold. Twelve people lived here in 2020. Its historic district includes the Pedro Dredge, and the Taylor Highway is maintained only from spring to mid-October.
Alaska
Native trade center and trailhead that grew into a sizable town by the early 1900s, then emptied when the Alaska Railroad passed 13 miles north and businesses moved to Wasilla. The last commercial building, the Fulton and Hirshey Pool Hall, is the Knik Museum, open Wednesday to Sunday afternoons from May to September.
Alaska
Town of the gold strike on Otter Creek on Christmas Day 1908. The gold ran out by 1930 and most miners moved to Flat, 8 miles away, taking buildings with them; the 1940 census found one person. The newest descriptions of the ruins (2019, 2021) list a bank vault and a few ruined buildings, and the sled dog race used it as a checkpoint in March 2023. No road; in 2021 the Iditarod Trail Committee said bush pilots use a tailings airstrip at Flat. We found no source on who owns the townsite or whether visitors are allowed.
Alaska
Cannery village on Port Chatham, about 16 miles south of Seldovia, with a cannery from 1928. Its people moved to Port Graham and Nanwalek after World War II, and the post office closed in 1950 or 1951. Nanwalek owns the site (CoastView, October 2025). A tale that a hairy creature drove people out was in print by 1973 and is a legend.
Near a city
Driving distance and time from downtown, routed over OpenStreetMap roads. Dirt roads are usually slower than the estimate.
Directory
Every town, camp and settlement in our Alaska index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
Iditarod, Portlock and the old island villages of the Aleutians have no road. In 2021 the Iditarod Trail Committee said bush pilots land on a strip built on mine tailings at Flat, 8 miles from Iditarod. Portlock, on Port Chatham south of Seldovia, means a boat or floatplane charter and permission from Nanwalek, which owns it. Leave spare days for weather. The drive-time lists on this page cover only the towns you can reach by car.
The Park Service calls the McCarthy Road to Kennecott a narrow gravel road of 59 miles with soft edges, potholes and old railroad spikes, and says most rental car companies do not allow their cars on it. The state reopened the Taylor Highway to Chicken and Eagle on April 9, 2026, with a 35 mph advisory limit for rough spring conditions, few gas stations, no cell coverage and maintenance only through October 15. At Hatcher Pass the gate a mile below Independence Mine closes for the winter.
Most sites are best from June to September. Kennecott's shuttles run only in summer; in winter the only way in is to walk or ski 5 miles from the end of the road. The Knik Museum opens May 1 to September 30, and the Independence Mine visitor center in summer. Alaska State Parks listed Independence Mine as closed in its October 9, 2026 conditions report and warned of ice and snow in the upper elevations that week.
Alaska Native corporations own large areas of the state as private land. Doyon says its lands and its village corporations' lands are private and use without permission is trespass; the Aleut Corporation requires a permit even for hiking and sightseeing and forbids entering its old buildings and bunkers. Alaska law (AS 41.35.200) bars taking or damaging historic and archaeological resources on state land without a permit, and in the national parks at Kennecott and Dyea removing artifacts and possessing a working metal detector are prohibited.
FAQ
No one has an official count. Wikipedia's list of Alaska ghost towns calls itself incomplete, and many entries are former Native villages rather than mining camps. Our index lists 61 sites; 43 of them have coordinates on our map so far.
Kennecott. Its mill and many other buildings still stand, some of them restored, in a National Historic Landmark district run by the National Park Service, with hikes to the Bonanza, Jumbo and Erie mines above it. Independence Mine at Hatcher Pass is the easiest to reach from Anchorage, and Dyea, near Skagway, is the place to see where the Klondike stampede began.
Kern and Portage, on the Seward Highway along Turnagain Arm, are about an hour away, Knik an hour and a quarter, and Independence Mine about an hour and a half via Palmer when the gate below the mine is open. Kennecott is a full day: the Park Service puts it at about 8 hours by car, and the last 5 miles are on foot, bike or a summer shuttle. These are routed estimates; gravel roads are usually slower.
Only by air or water, and only with planning. The Iditarod Trail Committee said in 2021 that bush pilots use the tailings airstrip at Flat, 8 miles from Iditarod; we found no source on who owns the townsite or whether visitors are welcome. Portlock is owned by the village of Nanwalek, so ask permission before landing, and plan on a boat or floatplane charter.
Many are. Old village sites are often on Native corporation land, which is private and may need a paid permit. The sites you can count on being public are Kennecott and Dyea (National Park Service) and Independence Mine (Alaska State Parks). Knik's museum belongs to the Wasilla-Knik Historical Society, and Chicken is a living community with private businesses and mining claims.
Abandoned