My partner and I will be in exploring your Midwest for a
few months this fall and we were wondering if there were
any old ghost towns left. We weren't looking for any sort
of tour, just somewhere that we could do on our own. I
can't seem to find any information anywhere. Please help.
Thank you.
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Do exist, but mostly in the western parts of our country.
Probably the closest you would find would be in Colorado.
Check out www.ghosttowns.com for listings.
One outside of Barstow, California. There was a book in print
a few years ago.."Ghost Towns of the Old West". Sorry don't
know the author. Check Amazon.com.
There are quite a few in West Texas, but if you're not going
there for other reasons, I'd skip it. Remember, there's a
reason a town becomes a ghost town!
In the area knows as the Midwest, there wouldn't be any, because the land has agricultural value, and would have been plowed and planted wherever there was once a town. Baker, Kansas comes tomind. i once lived near there, and discovered that the town once covered about 12 city blocks. There is now nothing left except the place where the road crosses the railway, and a sign that says "Baker"--not a single building. It looks just like all the other graiun fields that stretch for miles in all directions.
!
True ghost-towns would be in the arid west, where the town existed in an inhospitable place only to serve as a mercantile center for some temporary activity, such as mining. When the mines played out everyone left, but no-one could think of any reason to remove the buildings and re-use the land for some other purpose.
!
Some have had a revival, such as Terlingua, Texas, where a big Chili-cooking festival is held every year.
Just returned from 4 weeks in midwest and although
ghost towns were not part of our agenda, we had a
thoroughly great time, tornadoes notwithstanding.
'Tis the season!
Check out the following URL:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/bottomtext.html
which includes 'ghost' towns which are alive and
well but have the flavour of yesteryear. For
example, we visited DEADWOOD CITY which is near Mt
Rushmore in South Dakota (our original destination)
and found it good value for sight seeing.
If you enjoy yourself as much as we did, you won't be
sorry!
look up the Arizona Highways website. They publish a book
on ghost towns in that state.
A few years ago, I toured south west Montana and stumbled
upon a ghost town around Dillon. Well worth a visit...
Yes, there is one-- I think it's called New Salem,
Illinois. It's not a real, off-in-the-wilderness place,
it's definitely got tourists. But basically no residents.
It was established on a "navigable" river which turned out
to be frozen in the winter and dried up in the summer, so
after ten years they packed it in, and left the buildings
standing there. The town's big claim to fame is that Abe
Lincoln lived there as a young man. It's not far from the
state capitol, Springfield. Check this out with the
Illinois tourist bureau.
there are a few in New Mexico and a lot to do in the state
in general, just spent a week there exploring but i didn't
go to any of them.