Field atlas of American ghost towns
The towns America left behind.
Find ghost towns near you — where they are, how they died, and what's still standing.
210 records on file · 52,740 sites surveyed · all 50 states
From the archive
Famous American ghost towns
Bodie, CA
1859–1942Verified Ghost Town
A gold-rush boomtown of 8,000, kept in arrested decay since 1962.
Last known population: 0
Rhyolite, NV
1904–1916Verified Ghost Town
Concrete ruins of a five-year gold boom, minutes from Death Valley.
Last known population: 0
Centralia, PA
1866–1992Near-Abandoned
The coal town condemned over a fire that is still burning underneath it.
Last known population: 5
Terlingua, TX
1888–1946Near-Abandoned
A mercury-mining ruin near Big Bend that came partway back to life.
Last known population: 58
The old surveys
The country as the surveyors drew it, on today's map
Society Pro lays the USGS survey sheets of 1879 to 1919 over the map, with a swipe between then and now, and marks every mine shaft, prospect pit, lost post office and schoolhouse the federal record holds. Forty dollars a year, ad-free.
See Bodie on the 1909 survey →The frontier, replayed
Watch 186 years of boom and bust
Every charted town in the atlas. Gold flares are foundings, embers are living towns, a puff of smoke marks the year each one died. Hover any dot — click to open its record.
Filed by state