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State hub · Oregon
Oregon's ghost towns come from gold, wool, timber and water. Gold was found on Granite Creek on July 4, 1862, and camps such as Granite, Sumpter and Cornucopia grew up in the Blue and Wallowa Mountains of Baker and Grant counties. Cornucopia produced 66 percent of the state's gold in 1939 and was abandoned in 1942. In the southwest, miners worked the creeks of Josephine County, where Golden still has its church and store. Railroads made and broke towns: Shaniko was a wool shipping center at the end of the Columbia Southern line around 1903 and faded once a rival route opened through the Deschutes canyon. The timber company town of Valsetz was removed when Boise Cascade ended operations there in 1984, and floods and dams took others, from Champoeg in 1861 to towns under the reservoirs behind Detroit and Lookout Point dams.
Historians put Oregon's total above 200; one count reaches 256. Several of the best known are east of the Cascades: Shaniko on US 97, and Sumpter and Granite along the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway near Baker City. Golden and Champoeg are state heritage sites. About 52 percent of Oregon is federal land, but private land is mixed in, so check land status before you explore.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideWasco County
For a decade Shaniko was the railhead for 20,000 square miles of wool, wheat and cattle country. The trade moved to another line after 1911, and a…
GuideTillamook County
A planned resort with a hotel, a heated wave pool and about 2,000 people by 1914. Erosion took it house by house until the last building fell into…
GuideBaker County
A railroad and deep gold mines made Sumpter a town of more than 2,000 by 1900. Fire took twelve blocks in 1917, the dredges turned over the valley…
GuideMarion County
A Hudson's Bay Company landing on the Willamette became the place where Oregon's settlers voted to form a government in 1843. The flood of December…
GuideGrant County
Gold found on the Fourth of July in 1862 gave this camp an early name, Independence. Eighty years of mining ended in 1942, and 32 people lived among…
GuideJosephine County
A mining town on Coyote Creek known for its churches and its lack of saloons. Four of its buildings stand on a state heritage site, open for day use…
GuideBaker County
A gold camp at the head of Pine Valley that produced roughly $18 million to $20 million in precious metals. The war closed its mines in 1942, and the…
Watch
Gold country, an old wool shipping town, and a surviving dredge. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Wasco County
Railroad town nicknamed the Wool Capital of the World around 1903, with the state's largest wool warehouse. Now a city of 30 people (2020) with public streets. The historic district has the hotel, reopened in 2023 and taking bookings in October 2026, the old city hall and jail and a schoolhouse; we found no current shop hours.
Baker County
Gold boom town of more than 2,000 people after the Sumpter Valley Railway arrived in 1897; a 1917 fire burned 12 blocks. Now a small city of 204 (2020). The last of the valley's three gold dredges, worked from 1935 to 1954, is a state heritage area you can walk aboard.
Grant County
Camp founded after gold was found on Granite Creek on July 4, 1862. Still an incorporated city of 32 people (2020) on the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway, with the Ah Hee Diggings a mile north of town. The store and lodge were reported closed in 2025, and a wildfire forced an evacuation in July 2026.
Baker County
Gold camp platted in 1886 at the edge of the Eagle Cap Wilderness, where about $18 million in metals was mined. It was abandoned in 1942. Its restored jail was dedicated in August 2025. Reached only by the Cornucopia Highway north of Halfway.
Josephine County
Placer mining settlement on Coyote Creek with more than 150 people by 1892. Four buildings remain: a church, a former home, a shed and the old post office and store. The site, near Wolf Creek, is a state heritage site open for day use.
Marion County
Willamette River town where settlers voted 52 to 50 in 1843 to form a provisional government. The 1861 flood swept it away; the townsite is now Champoeg State Heritage Area, with a visitor center and museums.
Tillamook County
Resort town laid out in 1906 on a spit at Tillamook Bay. Erosion took it house by house; the last building fell into the ocean in 1971. Virtually nothing remains on the spit, now a Tillamook County day-use area with a $10 parking fee (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 Oregon index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
The eastern mining camps sit high in the Blue and Wallowa Mountains. Cornucopia sits at about 4,700 feet. Summer and early fall are the practical season: the Sumpter dredge is open May to October. Shaniko's shops have kept an April to September season, but we found no current hours.
About 52 percent of Oregon is federal land, but private land is mixed in, and Shaniko, Granite and Cornucopia still have residents. Champoeg needs a day-use parking permit, sold on site.
Oregon law bans excavating, damaging or removing archaeological objects, meaning objects at least 75 years old, on public or private land without a permit. The one exception is picking an arrowhead off the surface without any tool. A violation is a Class B misdemeanor.
Granite is about 45 road miles from Baker City, and Cornucopia is a dead end beyond Halfway. Fill the tank, carry water and an offline map, and don't count on cell service.
FAQ
No one has a firm count. Wikipedia's list notes that historians put the number above 200 and that researcher Stephen Arndt counted 256. Our directory merges Wikipedia's category of Oregon ghost towns with other listings.
Shaniko's historic district takes in the hotel, which reopened in 2023, the city hall and jail, a schoolhouse and 42 other properties. Sumpter pairs a living town with the gold dredge, and Golden, a state heritage site near Wolf Creek, keeps its church, rebuilt in 1950, and its old store.
Champoeg State Heritage Area, on the Willamette south of Newberg, is the closest with something to see. Butteville, Latourell and Bridal Veil, all on Wikipedia's list of Oregon ghost towns, are also within an hour, and Bayocean is on the Tillamook coast.
The road is public, but people live there. In August 2025 the Pine Valley Community Museum, which owns the restored jail, dedicated it with a history walk to the ghost town. We found no owner's rules for the other old buildings, so treat them as private and ask locally in Halfway.
Ghost Adventures filmed there, and claims about the church are legends. The documented history is a placer mining community whose post office closed in 1920.
Abandoned