According to Wikipedia, a ghost town is: “A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed or ended for any reason.”
Bodie, California, is the United States’ most popular ghost town, with about 200,000 annual visitors.
Do you enjoy visiting ghost towns? If so, do you seek them out or plan trips specifically for/around visiting them, or do you like them but will only visit if it’s convenient? If you’ve never been to a ghost town, we encourage to find one near you and check them out!
And make sure you read some of Dave Helgeson’s Ghost Town Trails columns right here on RVtravel.com. Dave and his wife love exploring ghost towns and they’ll inspire you to plan a visit!
Love imagining them in their heyday! We are fortunate (in some ways?) to live nearby a bunch of them (rural eastern NM). Time travel at its best.
Us too. Living in NV, there are tons of them. They never get old – in terms of our visiting them.
I always wonder what economic activity supports the many small settlements that we drive into on the blue highways of America.
Yes but hold the ghost so I refer to the towns as unoccupied.
Our favorite “ghost” town to visit, is our home town. We refer to the houses by the names of the families who occupied them while we lived there; “the old (insert name) place”. Very few have remained in the same family, with most having sold numerous times.
As a side note; multi-generational home occupancy is primarily a rural phenomena. My paternal family farm is one of the few remaining “century farms” in our area (owned and occupied by the same family for over 100+ years).
As most RVers live or fantasize about the transient life style, this would make for a good Reader Poll question; How long has your family lived on the same property?
You know, by the supplied definition, the city of Detroit was very, very close to being a ghost town. Many abandoned factories, many, many abandoned run down residences.
When there are a lot of people passing through, it doesn’t fit my definition of a ghost town. It is either a tourist attraction or property wanting redevelopment.
I’ve been to quite a few, but always leave with unanswered, nagging questions…
I said yes, but do not seek them. Actually that is likely to change. Dave Helgeson’s regular column about ghost town has elevated my interest. He also reminded me of my fascination with two different abandoned mining camps we visited while in Alaska. It is thrilling to see evidence of long-ago activity that long-since stopped and to imagine, with the help of the remaining artifacts, how life there was. So, I think that I will seek similar nearby places when we travel. DW will be happy to see me take a more active part in planning our trip itinerary, rather than leaving it all to her. Thank you RV Travel! 🙂
We met up with some RV friends in AZ and drove to Tombstone. There they had a midnight ghost walk and though my husband wouldn’t go, I did with the other couple. There were at least a dozen other folk along with us. It was very intriguing and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The guy friend really felt some things.
I am fascinated by their story, ie what caused them to be deserted. Often it was mining, forestry, or some other industry that dried up. We don’t go out of our way to visit any but will stop and visit one along the way.
Yes I visit them. I’ve actually planned multi-month trips specifically around ghost towns around the country.
We enjoy visiting Ghost Towns …. on days that we believe in them.
Yes! Ada and I enjoy and continue to do so from our home base in Las Vegas. There are quite a few within a reasonable distance. Just remember that many of them require you to boondock.
Ghost towns can be found in surprising locations. My wife and I went from home in California to rendezvous with my sister in Colorado to visit Logan, Kansas where she had previously explored to see if she could find the house where our parents and their siblings grew up. Not only did she find the house, we stayed there, now a B and B. Using that as base camp she had found the farm house and barn of our long-deceased uncle Grant. The property, abandoned for decades, had no vandalism and windows intact. As a master craftsman the huge barn had amazingly strong and precise wood joinery. A very nice nearby town was abandoned. The closed gas station still had fan belts, oil cans and tires.