Abandoned Towns

Town type

Gold mining ghost towns

Gold camps, placer diggings and the mill towns that grew around them. Most boomed on a strike and emptied when the ore, the water or the money ran out.

96Town guides
15States

Town guides

96 gold mining town guides

Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.

Weathered wooden houses along Wood Street in Bodie with the Standard stamp mill on the hill behindGuide

Bodie

38.21, -119.01

Mono County, California

A gold camp that held 5,417 people at the 1880 census and lost them all by 1950. About 110 buildings still stand in arrested decay, kept as they were…

State historic parkGold mining
C Street’s commercial buildings and boardwalk, August 2010Guide

Virginia City

39.31, -119.65

Storey County, Nevada

The 1859 Comstock discovery built a city of mines, newspapers and theaters. Virginia City still has residents and a busy historic business district.

Living communitySilver mining
A burro walks down the middle of Oatman's Main Street between wooden storefronts and parked carsGuide

Oatman

35.03, -114.38

Mohave County, Arizona

A gold camp that boomed after 1915, lost Route 66 in 1952 and came back as a tourist town. About 100 people live here, and wild burros still walk…

Living townGold miningRoute 66
Julian's Main Street: the white stucco Julian Realty building and the green-sided Julian Town Hall with its porch and flagGuide

Julian

33.07, -116.59

San Diego County, California

A gold rush boomtown of the 1870s in the mountains east of San Diego. Julian never emptied. It turned to apples and visitors, and its old Main Street…

Living townGold mining
Jarbidge's dirt main street with the Red Dog Saloon and wooden buildings below the canyon wallGuide

Jarbidge

41.87, -115.43

Elko County, Nevada

A 1909 gold camp at the bottom of a mountain canyon, nearly 20 miles from the nearest pavement. Travel Nevada puts the year-round population at 19…

Living townGold mining
Bannack from the hillside in August 2014: log cabins and the brick Hotel Meade among sagebrush, with grassy hills behindGuide

Bannack

45.16, -113.00

Beaverhead County, Montana

The camp of Montana's first big gold strike, in 1862, and for a few months the territory's capital. Its log and brick buildings still line Main…

State parkGold mining
Rhyolite's stone miner's cabin with a rusted metal roof, and the shell of the Cook Bank in the distance below bare hillsGuide

Rhyolite

36.90, -116.83

Nye County, Nevada

Rhyolite went from a tent camp to a town of concrete banks, three railroads and a stock exchange in three years, then emptied almost as fast. Its…

Open · BLM day useGold mining
The Pedro Dredge, a weathered gray bucket-line gold dredge with a long stacker boom, on a grassy flat below green hills at ChickenGuide

Chicken

64.07, -141.94

Southeast Fairbanks, Alaska

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…

Living · seasonalGold mining
Virginia City seen from the hill above, houses and trees spread across a green valley with grassy hills beyondGuide

Virginia City

45.30, -111.94

Madison County, Montana

The gold town of 1863 that became Montana's territorial capital, home of the vigilantes and Boot Hill. About 200 people still live here, and in…

Living townGold mining
Goldfield seen from the sagebrush hills, with the four-story brick Goldfield Hotel and mine headframes beyond the housesGuide

Goldfield

37.71, -117.24

Esmeralda County, Nevada

For a few years after 1902 Goldfield was the biggest city in Nevada, with a gold output in the millions and a world title fight. Floods and fire took…

Living townGold mining
Searchlight's low buildings spread across the desert below a rocky hill, with Joshua trees in frontGuide

Searchlight

35.47, -114.92

Clark County, Nevada

An 1897 gold strike in the desert south of Las Vegas made a town of 5,000 by 1907. It shrank to about 50 people, then came back as a highway town of…

Lived inGold mining
The Wells Fargo express office at Columbia in 2022Guide

Columbia

38.03, -120.41

Tuolumne County, California

Columbia preserves brick storefronts, a schoolhouse and working shops in the southern mines. The historic park is part of a living community.

OpenGold mining
All 96 guides by state, A to Z

Alaska 5

Arizona 39

California 9

Colorado 5

Georgia 1

Idaho 4

Montana 5

Nevada 11

New Mexico 3

Oklahoma 1

Oregon 4

South Dakota 3

Utah 1

Washington 2

Wyoming 3

Other town types