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State hub · Nevada
Nevada's ghost towns are overwhelmingly mining camps. The Comstock Lode, found in 1859 at what became Virginia City, set off silver and gold rushes across the state through the 1860s and 1870s, at Aurora, Belmont and Hamilton on Treasure Hill, among many others. When that era faded, Jim Butler's silver strike at Tonopah around 1900 started a second wave, followed by gold at Goldfield in 1902 and the Bullfrog district around Rhyolite in 1904 and 1905. Railroad sidings, stage stations, a failed dry-farming colony at Metropolis and the Mormon farm town of St. Thomas, later drowned by Lake Mead, fill out the list.
The sites run the length of the state, from the Comstock towns just southeast of Reno to the gold camps around Tonopah and Goldfield and the long lists of camps and stations in Elko and White Pine counties. What survives varies. Virginia City and Goldfield never emptied. Berlin is kept in a state park, and Rhyolite's bank shell and bottle house stand on public land. Most of the rest are foundations, mine dumps and a cemetery at the end of a dirt road.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideStorey County
The 1859 Comstock discovery built a city of mines, newspapers and theaters. Virginia City still has residents and a busy historic business district.
GuideClark County
A lead, zinc and silver camp in the Spring Mountains foothills that held about 1,000 people in 1915. It's quiet now, but the Pioneer Saloon has…
GuideElko County
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…
GuideNye County
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…
GuideEsmeralda County
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…
GuideClark County
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…
GuideClark County
A farm town of about 500 that the government bought out and Lake Mead flooded in 1938. With the lake far down, its concrete foundations sit on dry…
GuideDouglas County
Mormon Station, the 1851 trading post at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, grew into Genoa, Nevada's first town. A 1910 fire took the old station; the…
GuideLincoln County
In the early 1870s Pioche had more than 7,000 people and a share of Nevada's killings out of all proportion to its size. It never emptied. The…
GuideLander County
A silver strike in Pony Canyon filled Austin with thousands of people in a year, and the town ran Lander County for more than a century. About 170…
GuideClark County
Eldorado Canyon had a name for violence when its gold mines were running. Today about two dozen people live in Nelson, and the old Techatticup Mine…
GuideNye County
Belmont was the Nye County seat for nearly forty years and turned out more than $15 million in silver. A few people still live among its ruins, and…
GuideNye County
A 1905 gold rush town at 7,000 feet that never quite emptied. Counts from 2005 to 2011 put the population between about 50 and 125. The post office…
GuideLincoln County
For five years Delamar was the richest gold camp in Nevada, and its dry-crushed quartzite filled the air with the dust that earned it the name…
GuideEsmeralda County
A small mining town near the California line keeps its wooden buildings in use. Its hosts ask visitors to stay on the roads and respect private areas.
GuideElko County
An 1876 gold camp in the high country between Elko and Jarbidge, first called Mardis after a founder who was murdered. Old cabins stand beside the…
GuideWhite Pine County
Hamilton became White Pine County’s first seat during the 1868 silver rush. Fires and shallow ore deposits left scattered ruins in the White Pine…
GuideNye County
A company mining town on the west side of the Shoshone Range, founded in 1897 and empty by about 1911. The state has kept its mill, machine shop and…
Watch
Explore 646 indexed sites, from Rhyolite's desert ruins to Berlin's preserved mill and Goldfield, a town that never emptied. Check the guide's access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Nye County
Gold boomtown of 1905 in the Bullfrog Hills, down to 14 people by 1920. The Cook Bank shell and the Bottle House stand in the BLM's historic area, open for day use; the train depot is privately owned.
Nye County
Mining town of 1897, kept in arrested decay at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park with its stabilized stamp mill, a campground and fossil tours.
Storey County
Comstock Lode boomtown of 1859, with about 25,000 people in the mid-1870s and 787 at the 2020 census. A National Historic Landmark District since 1961.
Esmeralda County
Gold camp of 1902 that was briefly Nevada's largest city. A 1923 fire took most of its wooden buildings; 225 people lived there in 2020.
Esmeralda County
Camp first called Lime Point, then Hornsilver, renamed after a 1927 gold find. The whole town is privately owned and restored: stay on the roads, and book cabins by phone.
Clark County
Farm town founded in 1865 and abandoned in 1938 as Lake Mead rose. Low water has exposed its foundations, now protected in Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Clark County
Village at the head of Eldorado Canyon, whose mines worked from about 1858 to 1945. It had 22 residents in 2020, and the Techatticup Mine, a private business, runs tours by reservation.
Nye County
Silver camp of 1865 and Nye County seat until 1905. The old courthouse and mill ruins still stand; we found no word on access.
White Pine County
Treasure Hill silver town of 1868 at 8,058 feet, with an estimated 12,000 people a year later. Only scattered ruins remain; we found no word on the road or access.
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 Nevada index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
Southern sites like Rhyolite, Nelson and St. Thomas are desert, best seen from fall to spring; Lake Mead National Recreation Area may close some trails in summer. The central and eastern camps sit high. Berlin is at 6,840 to 7,880 feet, the Ward Charcoal Ovens at 7,000 to 8,000 feet and Hamilton above 8,000, so plan on snow in winter and go from late spring to fall.
Distances are long and services thin. Berlin's nearest services are in Gabbs, and there are none in Ione. Unionville's only road is gravel, seven miles from pavement. Delamar is reached by about 16 miles of rough gravel, and four-wheel drive is recommended. Check closures at nvroads.com and carry water, spare fuel and an offline map.
The Bureau of Land Management runs about 63 percent of Nevada, and Rhyolite is BLM land open for day use with no camping. State parks such as Berlin charge a day-use fee ($5 per Nevada vehicle, $10 for others). Gold Point and the Goldwell Open Air Museum beside Rhyolite are private; some sites, like Bristol Wells, sit behind locked fences.
Nevada's Division of Minerals estimates about 300,000 historic mine features statewide, about 35,000 of them a serious safety risk. Look from outside. On federal land, objects of archaeological interest at least 100 years old are protected by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, and state parks such as Berlin ban metal detecting and removing artifacts.
FAQ
There is no official count, and totals depend on whether you include stage stations, railroad sidings and short-lived camps. Our index lists 646 sites. 262 of them have reliable coordinates on our map so far.
Rhyolite is among the most photographed ghost towns in the West: its three-story bank shell and bottle house stand on BLM land beside the road to Death Valley, next to a privately owned depot. Berlin is one of the best preserved, a company town kept in arrested decay inside a state park. Virginia City is the place to see a Comstock boomtown that never died.
Goodsprings, southwest of the city, and Nelson, in Eldorado Canyon to the southeast, are each under an hour's drive. St. Thomas, in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, is a little over two hours by road, and Rhyolite, by Beatty on the way to Death Valley, just under two and a half. These are routed estimates; dirt roads are usually slower.
At some. Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park has 14 campsites open year-round ($15 a night for Nevada vehicles, $20 for others), and the Ward Charcoal Ovens park near Ely has a campground on Willow Creek. Rhyolite is day use only. Elsewhere, check the land manager's rules before you camp.
Many are not. The Bureau of Land Management runs about 63 percent of Nevada, and many sites are on public land. But some of the best known are private. All of Gold Point is privately owned, the Goldwell Open Air Museum at Rhyolite is private, and Johnnie and Bristol Wells are closed to visitors. Treat locked gates and posted signs as closed.
Abandoned