Top Ten Western Ghost Towns
At Cerro Gordo “Fat Hill” it’s a very easy ride up in any vehicle. There’s a lot left to see in this ghost town with the only Bed and Breakfast. You will find this town high in the mountains behind Swansea and Keeler. Situated near the summit of Buena Vista Park at an elevation of 8,500 feet the isolated mining outpost became known as Cerro Gordo meaning “fat hill,” the meaning, of course, that it was fat with silver.
Cochran was recently named Ghost Town of the Month by a website. Located in Pinal County the roads are dirt and sand and high clearance is recommended on vehicles. It’s in the town of North Butte, AZ and sits on the south bank of the Gila River about 15 miles east of Florence. Cochran’s roots started in 1904 as a mining town and station on the Copper Basin railway. Cochran’s most notable feature is the row of charcoal kilns on the north bank of the Gila. Besides the kilns several concrete foundations and part of a large water tank mark the site of Cochran.
New Mexico’s colorful past is reflected in over 400 known ghost towns consisting of old mining camps, railroad towns, farming communities, and lumber mills which are rapidly disappearing as the old wooden, adobe, and even brick structures are deteriorating from the effects of the elements, vandalism, and modern development.
Leadville’s historic mining district, consisting of over 20 square miles of mining history is considered by many to be one of the largest ghost town areas in the state of Colorado.
There are a number of ghost town areas in the “Fourteener” region of Colorado. In St. Elmo you can literally walk the streets of history. Walk down the old wooden sidewalks. Many buildings and much of the surrounding area is private property.
Vicksburg once had seven cabins, two hotels, a school, two billiard halls, and a general store. It is a beautiful drive easily accessible by passenger vehicle.
Winfield once had 1,500 residents and is four easy miles up the road from Vicksburg.
In Washington you can explore the ghost town of Okanogan County. In 1886 the North Half of the Colville Indian Reservation was thrown open for mineral entry and hundreds of prospectors flooded in, staking claims within weeks. This county was considered the land of Moses, Tonasket, Joseph, and Sar-sarp-kin, famous Indian chiefs from another century, and those men of the early west that made a name for themselves in this place like Okanogan Smith, Guy Waring, Colonel Tom Hart, Chee Saw, and many others. Okanogan is a Salish Indian word meaning “Rendezvous.” Here a person only has to use their imagination and they can wander past long forgotten ghost towns and abandoned townsites with colorful names like Ruby, Bodie, Loop Loop, and Silver just to mention a few.
There is much to hold the passerby, legends of hidden gold and long lost mines, several of them still searched for by treasure hunters and others intrigued by the age old quest for gold, and some of the historic boom towns of yesteryear. Places like Nighthawk, Loomis, Old Moison, and Winthrop still stand today, silent monuments to the past and little changed in almost 100 years.
Like most of the states in America’s heartland, South Dakota is filled with ghost town sites, ghost towns, and near ghost towns. Greenway is located north and west of Eureka, west of Highway 47.
Terraville was founded in 1877 and sits atop the mountain between Lead and Central City next to the open cut of the Homestake Mine.
