When gold was discovered in the mid-19th century, the mass migration that followed forever changed the face of the west. The tent cities that followed the formation of the mines quickly turned into boom towns that flourished and prospered until the mines played out. What was left were ghost towns populated only by wind, tumbleweeds and memories. Forgotten for decades, a renewed interest in preserving this unique part of the old west saw the renovation of many ghost towns into tourist attractions or state historic parks where anyone can enjoy and explore a piece of the living past.
California's Silver Strike Town
- Nestled among the Calico Mountains outside of Barstow, in the Mohave Desert, is Calico, an 1881 silver-strike boom town that turned into a ghost town when the plummeting price of silver closed the mines. Left baking in the sun for 44 years, Calico gained new life as a tourist attraction when it was bought and partially renovated by Walter Knott in 1951. Today, all but five of the original buildings have been renovated or rebuilt. You can pan for gold, ride an authentic narrow gauge railroad train and take a tour of the Maggie Mine -- the only remaining safe part of the Silver King Mine. The original post office building is also home to a museum. Calico became a San Bernardino County Park in 1966, and was named a historic landmark and California’s official silver-strike ghost town in 2005 by then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Town that Wouldn't Die
- When Ed Schieffelin left the army to prospect in southern Arizona's Apache territory, his friends told him all he’d find was his tombstone. So he called his claim “the tombstone.” Nicknamed “the town that wouldn’t die,” Tombstone, Arizona, was plagued by fires, earthquakes and outlaws. It was only when the mines flooded in 1887 that the town was nearly finished. Fortunately, renewed interest in the famous gunfight at the OK Corral put Tombstone back on the map in the 1950s. Today, you can visit Boot Hill Graveyard, have a drink at the fully restored Crystal Palace Saloon, see a show at the Birdcage Theater or witness a re-creation of the gunfight -- at the actual OK Corral. There are restaurants and motels aplenty, and there’s even a campground just outside of town. You’ll find Tombstone just south of Benson off Interstate 10.
This Bottle's on the House
- About 117 miles northwest of Las Vegas is what’s left of a boom town called Rhyolite. Established during the Nevada gold rush of 1904 -- and home to nearly 10,000 people at its peak -- Rhyolite crashed when the mines closed in 1909. It was a ghost town by 1916. Once a town with two schools, a multistory bank and two municipal pools, what’s left of Rhyolite is mostly ruins. The bank, the railroad depot and part of the jail remain. The most remarkable feature still standing is Tom Kelly’s bottle house, which was made of 50,000 beer and medicine bottles. The house is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Kelly and a prostitute buried nearby. You’ll find Rhyolite just west of U.S. Highway 95.
And Bad Luck Will Follow You Home
- Northeast of Yosemite National Park, about 8,000 feet up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, is what’s left of Bodie -- a town named after a man who struck gold in the hills around Mono Lake in 1877. Once home to 10,000 people, it’s been abandoned since 1942. Bodie became a National Historical Site and a State Historical Park in 1966, but only a small part of the town still exists. Buildings are maintained in a state of “arrested decay.” But the interiors of these crumbling, splintery ruins are still stocked with goods -- exactly where the townsfolk left them. It’s illegal to remove anything from this historic site -- and it’s said that bad luck follows anyone who takes something from Bodie. Park rangers even say people are returning stolen booty all the time. There are no services of any kind at Bodie, but there is a museum and there are restrooms in the parking lot and picnic area.
Berry cool Move
- In 1940, when Walter Knott realized that his wife’s restaurant in Buena Park, California, was creating mile-long lines down Beach Boulevard, he decided his patrons needed a little diversion during the wait. He went to a ghost town outside Prescott, Arizona, and took apart the Gold Trails Hotel board by board, then reassembled the 1868 structure on his farm. Thus the nation’s first theme park and one of the first Old West tourist ghost towns was born. Containing replicas of and buildings relocated from ghost towns across the southwest, Knott’s Berry Farm’s Ghost Town stands today as a tribute to all those boom towns that fell from grace when the mines supporting them dried up.
