Abandoned Towns

Town type

Silver mining ghost towns

Towns built on silver lodes. Many boomed in the 1870s and 1880s and collapsed with the price of silver in the 1890s.

69Town guides
11States

Town guides

69 silver mining town guides

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

A tour stagecoach pulled by two white horses on Allen Street in Tombstone, past storefronts with covered boardwalksGuide

Tombstone

31.71, -110.07

Cochise County, Arizona

Arizona's richest silver district and the scene of the 1881 gunfight near the O.K. Corral. The mines flooded and the census count fell to 646 by…

Living townSilver mining
Weathered wooden houses along Wood Street in Bodie with the Standard stamp mill on the hill behindGuide

Bodie

38.21, -119.01

Mono County, California

A gold camp that held 5,417 people at the 1880 census and lost them all by 1950. About 110 buildings still stand in arrested decay, kept as they were…

State historic parkGold mining
C Street’s commercial buildings and boardwalk, August 2010Guide

Virginia City

39.31, -119.65

Storey County, Nevada

The 1859 Comstock discovery built a city of mines, newspapers and theaters. Virginia City still has residents and a busy historic business district.

Living communitySilver mining
The Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings, under a blue skyGuide

Goodsprings

35.83, -115.44

Clark County, Nevada

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…

Living townOther mining and oil
Calico seen from the hillside above town: tin roofs, the railroad trestle at left and the Mojave Desert beyondGuide

Calico

34.95, -116.86

San Bernardino County, California

A silver camp of the 1880s in the striped Calico Mountains. Walter Knott bought it in 1951 and rebuilt it, and it has been a county park since 1966…

County parkSilver mining
Black-and-white infrared view of rusting old trucks in front of Cerro Gordo's wooden buildings and mine dumpsGuide

Cerro Gordo

36.54, -117.80

Inyo County, California

In 1869 this camp high in the Inyo Mountains led the country in silver and lead, and its bullion helped build early Los Angeles. It's privately owned…

Open dailySilver mining
Trailers, sheds and a white dome house of Darwin scattered across sagebrush between two bare hillsGuide

Darwin

36.27, -117.59

Inyo County, California

A silver and lead camp of 1874 that a new highway bypassed in 1937. About 30 people still live here, and they'd like you to know it isn't a ghost…

Living communitySilver mining
Main Street in Pioche curving down between old storefronts, with a bare hillside behindGuide

Pioche

37.93, -114.45

Lincoln County, Nevada

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…

Living townSilver mining
Old two-story storefronts with balconies along US 50 in Austin, with a church steeple further down the streetGuide

Austin

39.49, -117.07

Lander County, Nevada

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…

Living townSilver mining
Weathered wooden buildings, including the two-story store and post office, along St. Elmo's dirt main street with snowy peaks behindGuide

Saint Elmo

38.70, -106.34

Chaffee County, Colorado

A gold and silver camp of 1880 near 10,000 feet in the Sawatch Range. Its main street of false-fronted wooden buildings still stands, a few people…

A few residentsGold mining
Contention CityGuide

Contention City

31.77, -110.20

Cochise County, Arizona

A mill town that crushed Tombstone's silver ore for less than a decade and gave its name to the climax of 3:10 to Yuma. Mill foundations and a few…

Public land · hike inSilver mining
Pinal around 1880: a mill shed with tall smokestacks and stacked cordwood in front of the town's houses, with mountains behindGuide

Pinal

33.28, -111.14

Pinal County, Arizona

The mill town of the Silver King mine, on Queen Creek below Picket Post Mountain. It emptied after 1889. A hiking trail now runs down its old Main…

Open on footSilver mining
All 69 guides by state, A to Z

Arizona 36

California 4

Colorado 4

Idaho 5

Montana 2

Nevada 7

New Mexico 3

Texas 1

Utah 3

Washington 3

Wyoming 1

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