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State hub · Ohio
Ohio's ghost towns are small and mostly eastern and southern. Canal towns came first: Sprucevale, on the Sandy and Beaver Canal in Columbiana County, is listed as abandoned in 1870, and remnants of the canal survive in Beaver Creek State Park. In the hills of the Hanging Rock Iron Region, 69 charcoal iron furnaces ran between 1826 and 1916, and furnaces such as Hope had company towns for their workers. Coal followed: Perry County counts about 70 coal boomtowns in the region it calls the Little Cities of Black Diamonds, and some, like San Toy, lost most of their people within a decade. Railroads made places like Moonville, a hamlet that grew along the Marietta and Cincinnati line and was abandoned by 1947.
Other towns were lost to water. Flood control reservoirs took the land of Atwood, Elk Lick and New Burlington. Utopia, on the Ohio River, began as a Fourierist community in 1844 and lost 17 people in a flood in 1847. What survives is usually a cemetery, foundations in the woods, a tunnel or a historical marker, and several of the places in our index are still small living communities. Rendville, a coal town with 28 residents in 2020, is the smallest incorporated village in Ohio.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
Ross County
Donald Ray Pollock remembered a community of stores, a bar and a church here. His fiction made the name famous after that shared village life had…
GuideVinton County
The last family left this Vinton County railroad hamlet in 1947. Its brick-lined tunnel survived, and the former rail corridor became the Moonville…
GuideClermont County
A Fourierist experiment began here in 1844. Financial failure and a deadly 1847 flood ended two communal ventures; a later village kept the name.
GuidePerry County
San Toy lost most of its population when coal mining ended. Brickwork and foundations recall the company town, while newer homes occupy the…
GuideFulton County
Ai lost business to railroad-served Swanton in the 1850s. Its post office closed in 1903, and the old trading center became a much thinner settlement.
GuideClinton County
A farm village of the 1830s on Anderson Fork that the federal government bought out for Caesar Creek Lake. Its post office closed in 1971, and the…
Watch
A woodland railroad tunnel, coal town ruins, and a living village. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Vinton County
Railroad hamlet on the Marietta and Cincinnati line whose last family left in 1947. The brick-lined Moonville Tunnel, a cemetery and a few foundations are reached on the Moonville Rail Trail, open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily per the park district (October 2026).
Perry County
Sunday Creek Coal Company town of 976 people in 1920 and 128 in 1930. Foundations and old roads remain in the woods of southeastern Bearfield Township.
Perry County
Coal town founded by William P. Rend in 1879, with 859 people in 1890. In 1888 it elected Isaiah Tuppins, the first African American mayor in Ohio; 28 people lived there in 2020.
Clinton County
Village laid out in 1833 and a station on the Underground Railroad. The federal government took the land for Caesar Creek Lake in the 1970s, and the post office closed in 1971.
Clermont County
Fourierist community of 1844, later an individualist anarchist colony under Josiah Warren. A flood on December 13, 1847 killed 17 people; a historical marker stands on US 52, and Denison Magazine profiled its residents in 2013.
Ross County
Crossroads hamlet southwest of Chillicothe, known for its name and for Donald Ray Pollock's stories. Newer rural homes stand where the old hamlet was, at Black Run and Shady Glen roads (photographed in 2013).
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 Ohio index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
The Moonville Rail Trail runs about 8 unpaved miles from Zaleski to Mineral, for walkers and horses. The tunnel trailhead is off Hope-Moonville Road, and one visitor review warns that the approach on Buck Lane is a steep one-lane gravel road. The Lake Hope School trailhead off Wheelabout Road is the other way in.
Most of Ohio's lost towns are on farms, in woods or along county roads with houses nearby. About 50 people still live in the area that was once San Toy. Stay on public roads and trails and ask before walking onto land.
Some of the easiest sites to visit sit inside public land. Beaver Creek State Park, open year round, holds remnants of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, including the restored Lock 36 and Gaston's Mill, and the North Country Trail passes through it. Lake Hope State Park, on the old Hope Furnace site, is next to the Moonville Rail Trail.
Ohio state parks limit metal detecting to sand beaches and most mowed areas; elsewhere it needs the area manager's written approval. Treat the cemeteries at Moonville and other sites as you would any cemetery.
FAQ
There is no official count. Our index lists 100 sites so far.
Yes. The tunnel is on the Moonville Rail Trail in Vinton County, with a trailhead off Hope-Moonville Road and another at the Lake Hope School. Little of the town itself is left besides the cemetery and a few foundations.
San Toy was a Sunday Creek Coal Company town. Its population fell from 976 in 1920 to 128 in 1930, and in 1931, 17 of its 19 registered voters chose to abandon the town. Foundations and roads remain.
New Burlington, Knockemstiff, Rendville and San Toy are each about an hour and a half or less from downtown Columbus by car. Moonville is just under two hours, and Utopia, on the Ohio River, under three.
Rendville in Perry County, a former coal town, had 28 residents in the 2020 census, the fewest of any incorporated community in Ohio.
Abandoned