Have you ever visited a "Ghost Town"?

I have been to a few ghost towns up here in western canada , but none in the states, and the ones we did visit where cool and interesting.

I basically grew up in one.

I love ghost towns and have been lucky enough to visit many in the American west. I have a book about them with maps. At the time I was able to fly to some in a small plane because they were inaccessible otherwise. It was great. Best: Silver city, stovepipe wells, rhyolite

Yes, several, this one was the coolest. The descendents of prospectors burros still wander into town every day for handouts.

www.legendsofamerica.com/az-oatman.html

Yep, St. Elmo in Colorado. Right before I took an Oldsmobile Firenza over Tin Cup Pass because the car company did not think I needed the 4wd I requested and gave me a Cadillac which I bitched about long and hard enough that they changed it out for a a smaller Firenza. They could not believe I was not happy with my Cadillac upgrade.

FU!

I said I wanted a 4wd for a reason and by god just because you gave me a middle class kid wagon does not mean I am changing my plans to take a 4wd road over the mountains.

FWIW I made it over only bottoming out twice and sliding off the trail once.

There were a lot of folks who had to look twice at a family car going up, being at the top of, and going down Tin Cup Pass but we did it!

Jerome, AZ in the 1950’s. It had under 50 people that lived there, now it is above 400.
Also in some other states including Vermont where a village collapsed during the 1940’s from the people moving out after WWII.

Yes, several in Utah, Nevada, and Colorado.

We visited a place called Iron Knob a few years ago. There was (is?) a big pub there but there were only two people in it. We were staying on a sheep station a way out of the town and that was weird too. We were staying in the shearers’ accommodation but when we got there we found a note on the door to the main building saying where our rooms were but that was it. We didn’t see anyone while we were there. We were the only people staying there. The beds were made up but there was no food, nothing.

So we drove to the closest town. Iron Knob, where we found a convenience store run by two old people and bought some eggs and bread. The town was deserted. All these empty houses and filled in pools. It used to be a mining town but the mine had closed. When we were there the people in the shop said something weird was going on because someone was buying up the property. No idea what happened with that situation but it was odd to be in this town with nobody there.

We went back to the sheep station and found the kitchen but there were barely any utensils. We found a frying pan and a knife but that was about it. So we cooked up the eggs and ate them out of the pan. It was actually quite funny and an adventure. It was also very beautiful out there. No light pollution. No noise. Just us in these pretty basic but clean sheds. Definitely the weirdest accommodation I’ve ever stayed in. Very odd situation.

I just found this! With pictures of the pub and the shearers’ quarters and THAT kitchen (it looks pretty good here. Better than it did the night we were there in the dark).

I visited Jerome, AZ also in the mid-seventies. It was rough and hilly and named after Eugene Jerome, first cousin to to Jennie Jerome, the mother of Winston Churchill. Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill. Eugene was a New York investor who owned the mineral rights and financed mining there.

Apparently Jerome (the town) became a notorious “wild west” town, a hotbed of prostitution, gambling, and vice. On 5 February 1903, the New York Sun proclaimed Jerome to be “the wickedest town in the West”. Source for paraphrasing.

In France there is a town called Oradour-sur-Glane where, during WW2, the Nazis killed everyone in the village. The men were herded into one area and the women and children in to the church. All were slaughtered. Only about 5 people escaped. They then burnt all the bodies and the houses.

The village was not rebuilt but left as a memorial to the dead. It’s possible to visit and walk through the streets. It’s a sombre place.