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State hub · Indiana
Indiana's ghost towns were not mining camps. Most were mill seats, river towns and farm hamlets that lost their reason to exist. In the southern hills, early towns grew up at falls and springs: Hindostan Falls, on the East Fork of the White River, had about 1,200 people by 1820 until an epidemic killed or drove off most of them. Wikipedia dates the outbreak to 1820 and the state's 1966 marker to 1828. Spring Mill's stone gristmill of 1817 stopped in 1892 or the late 1890s (the state's history of the village gives both), and the village fell into ruin. Prophetstown, the Shawnee-led town of 1808 on the Wabash, was burned by American troops in 1811. At Lick Creek in Orange County, free Black families farmed their own land from 1831 until the last of them sold out in 1902.
In the 20th century, public works emptied towns. Salamonie Lake covered Monument City in the 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers bought out Elkinsville for Monroe Lake, and land condemnation for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore ended Tremont. On the Ohio River, the 1937 flood wrecked Leavenworth, and the town rebuilt on the bluff above.
Little stands at most sites. The state restored Spring Mill's village from the late 1920s, and Prophetstown State Park has a re-created village. Elsewhere expect cemeteries, foundations, square mill holes cut into riverside rock and historical markers.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuidePorter County
A sawmill hamlet of the 1830s that became a resort stop on the South Shore Line, named for three dunes. The national lakeshore bought out what was…
GuideWarren County
A river village laid out in 1829 on the west bank of the Wabash. It once had 70 people and kept a post office until 1865. Photos from 2007 show its…
GuideHuntington County
A crossroads village named for the Civil War monument beside it. It was cleared in 1964 for the Salamonie Reservoir, and its foundations and old…
Spencer County
After the Civil War, Black families settled the river bottoms of Ohio Township, and the area became known as Africa. The record is thin and nothing…
GuideWarren County
A stop on a farm-country railroad, with a post office from 1913 or 1914 to 1941. Its store and grain silos stood into the 1990s. The tracks are gone…
GuideWarren County
A spring found in a ditch in 1884 became a grand mud-bath resort that drew guests from around the world. The great hotel burned in 1920, its…
GuideBrown County
A farm village in the hills of southern Brown County, bought out and torn down for the Monroe Reservoir in the early 1960s. The lake never reached…
Martin County
A river town laid out at the falls of the East Fork in 1819 that became the county seat, then lost its people to sickness and hard times within ten…
GuideOrange County
Free Black families from North Carolina farmed these hills from 1831, and their settlement held more than 1,500 acres by 1855. The last landowner…
Tippecanoe County
The town Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet founded in 1808 to unite the tribes against American expansion. Harrison's army burned it the day after…
Watch
River-town traces, a dunes resort, and a vanished spa hotel. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Lawrence County
Mill village of 1814 whose limestone gristmill of 1817 still grinds cornmeal. The mill stopped in 1892 or the late 1890s (the park's history gives both), the village fell into ruin, and the state restored it from the late 1920s as the Pioneer Village of Spring Mill State Park, open daily from April 15 to the last full weekend of October.
Tippecanoe County
Multi-tribal town founded in 1808 by the Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, and burned by William Henry Harrison's troops after the battle of November 7, 1811. Prophetstown State Park, dedicated in 2004, has a re-created woodland village and a 1920s farm.
Martin County
River town at the falls of the East Fork of the White River with about 1,200 people by 1820, emptied by an epidemic that Wikipedia dates to 1820 and the 1966 state marker to 1828; the post office closed in 1830. No buildings stand, but 128 square mill holes cut into the riverside rock remain on a state public fishing area, with pioneer cemeteries nearby.
Orange County
Farm settlement of free Black families from North Carolina, who bought land from 1831; the last Black landowner sold in 1902. The Roberts and Thomas family cemetery and traces of home sites lie along the 7.1-mile Lick Creek Trail in the Hoosier National Forest.
Porter County
Village founded in 1833 as New City West that faded after its sawmill blew up in 1875, came back as the summer resort of Tremont, and dispersed after the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was created in the 1960s and land was condemned. The townsite is now Indiana Dunes National Park land, and the three dunes it was named for are in the state park next door.
Huntington County
Polk Township town laid out in 1874 and named for an 1869 Civil War obelisk listing 27 local dead. Salamonie Lake covered it in the 1960s; foundations showed at winter pool in a February 2026 visit video, and the obelisk stands in the relocated cemetery about a mile north. The DNR closed the exposed site in 2012, the newest rule we found.
Warren County
Settlement west of Kramer that was home to the Hotel Mudlavia, a mud-bath spa opened on Christmas Day 1890 whose guests included James Whitcomb Riley and John L. Sullivan. The hotel burned on February 29, 1920, and two later lodges burned in 1968 and 1974, the newest dated report we found. What remains and who owns the site are unknown.
Brown County
Farm village of the 1850s with a post office from 1860 to 1941. The Army Corps of Engineers bought it out for Monroe Lake in the early 1960s, though an elevation error meant the water never reached it. A few private homes, the cemetery and a memorial stone remain in the Hoosier National Forest; a photo of September 2024 shows the stone.
Brown County
Farm village of the 1850s whose post office, opened in the general store in 1882, closed in 1909. It faded from the 1920s, and Lake Monroe cut its road to Bloomington in the 1960s. By 2019 it had three residents, and its 14 old buildings, run as the Story Inn, were listed for sale; who owns it now is not confirmed. The inn was open in October 2026.
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 Indiana index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
Spring Mill's Pioneer Village opens on weekends from March 15 and daily from April 15 to the last full weekend in October, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with the gristmill opening at 9:30. Rivers set the rest of the calendar: parts of Trails 3 and 4 at Prophetstown flood and close in high water, and Monument City shows only when Salamonie Lake is low. Park hours are subject to change, so call the office before a long drive.
Indiana state parks charge $7 a day for a car with Indiana plates and $15 with out-of-state plates. Prophetstown charges $8 and $16, which includes Historic Prophetstown, and Indiana Dunes State Park $7 and $20. A resident annual pass is $50 and a non-resident one $120. State passes do not work at Indiana Dunes National Park. The Lick Creek Trail is open year-round with no water along it; riders and mountain bikers 17 and older need a trail permit.
Outside the parks and the national forest, assume a townsite is private. Since July 1, 2018, Indiana Code 35-43-2-2 has let owners mark land with purple paint instead of No Trespassing signs: vertical stripes at least 8 inches long on trees, or painted post tops. Story is privately owned and run as an inn, and the houses left at Elkinsville are private. Ask before you cross a field.
Indiana Code 14-21-1 protects archaeological sites with artifacts from before December 31, 1870, on state or private land. Picking up artifacts from the surface is illegal on state and federal property, and on private land needs the owner's permission, since the artifacts belong to the landowner. Digging for pre-1871 artifacts, or where people were buried before 1940, needs an approved plan from the Department of Natural Resources. In 2012 the DNR closed Monument City's exposed foundations after visitors began collecting artifacts.
FAQ
No one has a firm count. Wikipedia's list has 63 entries and cites a study that found at least 41, two of them drowned towns. Our index lists 55 sites in 27 counties, 51 of them with coordinates on our map. Warren County has the most with 14, then Miami County with 11. Two places featured here, Spring Mill and Story, are not yet in the directory.
For buildings, Spring Mill: a restored mill village inside Spring Mill State Park near Mitchell, with 20 historic buildings and the working 1817 gristmill, open daily from mid-April to late October. For a true ruin, Hindostan Falls in Martin County has no buildings but keeps pioneer cemeteries and 128 mill holes cut into the rock beside the falls. Prophetstown, north of Lafayette, pairs a re-created village with a 1920s farm.
By routed drive time, Kansas in Bartholomew County and Wallace Junction in Owen County are the nearest indexed sites, at just over an hour; we have not checked what is left at either. Story in Brown County is about an hour and 25 minutes away, Prophetstown about an hour and a half and Elkinsville a little longer. Spring Mill is about two hours south. These are estimates on open roads.
Sometimes. Its foundations, roadbeds and scattered bricks show when Salamonie Lake is low. In the July 2012 drought the lake fell about 14 feet below its summer level, and the DNR closed the exposed site after visitors took artifacts, leaving a view from a boat ramp with binoculars. A visitor's video posted in March 2026 shows the foundations at winter pool in February. We have not found current rules for walking out to it, so ask the lake office first. The town's 1869 Civil War obelisk stands in Monument City Memorial Cemetery, where its graves were moved, about a mile north of the old town.
Some are. Story's old village is private land run as the Story Inn, and the houses left at Elkinsville are private. The ones you can visit without asking anyone are on public land: Spring Mill and Prophetstown in state parks, Tremont in Indiana Dunes National Park, Hindostan Falls on a state fishing area and Lick Creek in the Hoosier National Forest. Elsewhere, look for purple paint and posted signs, and ask first.
Abandoned