Abandoned Towns

Town type

River and lake ghost towns

River landings, ferry crossings, canal stops and lake ports, including towns now under reservoirs.

58Town guides
25States

Town guides

58 river and lake town guides

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

A row of empty two- and three-story brick storefronts with faded paint on a quiet, wide downtown street in CairoGuide

Cairo

37.01, -89.18

Alexander County, Illinois

Cairo grew rich on the rivers and the railroad, peaked at 15,203 people in 1920 and has lost people in every census since 1950. About 1,700 live…

Living town · 1,733 (2020)River and lake
Map around PortlockGuide

Portlock

59.21, -151.75

Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

A salmon cannery village on Port Chatham at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula, left in the 1940s; its post office closed in 1950 or 1951. No road…

Private Native landRiver and lake
Dune grass on the shore at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, with the harbor piers and their light towers reaching into Lake MichiganGuide

Singapore

42.68, -86.21

Allegan County, Michigan

A lumber port at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River that printed its own money and then disappeared under the sand. Nothing of the town shows today.…

Buried under sandMill, lumber and company
Two 1852 watercolors of Indianola: a wharf, sailing ships and wooden buildings above the beach, and below, the town seen across flat marshlandGuide

Indianola

28.51, -96.49

Calhoun County, Texas

Texas's second port, where German immigrants and the Army's camels came ashore. Two hurricanes destroyed it, and most of the townsite now lies under…

Mostly under the bayRiver and lake
The replica of Independence Hall, a plain gray clapboard building under oak trees, with a stone obelisk on the lawn beside itGuide

Washington-on-the-Brazos

30.33, -96.16

Washington County, Texas

The town where Texas declared independence in 1836 and later a capital of the Republic. It turned down the railroad in 1858, and by 1889 most of it…

State historic siteRiver and lake
A two-storey bar pilots' house with deep porches, raised on piers, with a wooden boardwalk and a water tank in front, September 1938Guide

Pilottown

29.18, -89.26

Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana

A town on piers in the marsh of the Mississippi delta, founded by river pilots after the 1860 hurricane. NBC News put its old population at about…

Pilot station, per a 2025 reportRiver and lake
Aerial view of a red-brick church with a domed white cupola, on a mown lawn with interpretive panels, woods behind and a gravel road at leftGuide

Rodney

31.86, -91.20

Jefferson County, Mississippi

Once a busy cotton port on the Mississippi, Rodney lost its river, its trade and finally its charter. A brick church with a cannonball set in its…

Private · seen from roadRiver and lake
Calm, pale green water of Florida Bay with mangrove islands and a tour boat, seen from the grass by the Flamingo visitor centerGuide

Flamingo

25.14, -80.92

Monroe County, Florida

A village of fishermen, charcoal burners and farmers at the tip of the Florida mainland. After the national park was created its people were moved…

National parkRiver and lake
Grass and red sorrel on the Dyea tidal flats, with a forested ridge on the left and snow-capped peaks in the distanceGuide

Dyea

59.50, -135.36

Skagway, Alaska

The landing where Klondike stampeders came ashore for the Chilkoot Trail in 1897 and 1898. Skagway's railroad killed it within five years. The…

National historical parkGold mining
US 52 curves past a white roadside building and trees at Utopia, looking west in September 2013Guide

Utopia

38.78, -84.06

Clermont County, Ohio

A Fourierist experiment began here in 1844. Financial failure and a deadly 1847 flood ended two communal ventures; a later village kept the name.

Small communityFarm and ranch
A tapering monument of dark stone with a bronze plaque, surrounded by rock-covered graves in the Ehrenberg cemeteryGuide

Ehrenberg

33.61, -114.52

La Paz County, Arizona

The steamboat port that took over from La Paz and supplied western Arizona for decades. The river town is gone, and its stone-covered pioneer…

Living communityRiver and lake
Open wooden shelter labeled Old St. Stephens Archaeology Trail with a stone marker in front, in the woodsGuide

St. Stephens

31.56, -88.04

Washington County, Alabama

A Spanish fort, then the capital of the Alabama Territory, with more than 500 houses by 1819. The town emptied within a generation. Its streets and…

Park open dailyRiver and lake
All 58 guides by state, A to Z

Alabama 4

Alaska 3

Arizona 9

Arkansas 5

Florida 2

Georgia 1

Illinois 3

Indiana 1

Iowa 1

Kansas 1

Louisiana 2

Michigan 2

Minnesota 3

Mississippi 3

Missouri 1

Nebraska 2

New Jersey 3

North Dakota 1

Ohio 1

Oregon 1

Pennsylvania 1

South Carolina 3

Texas 3

Washington 1

Wisconsin 1

Other town types