Tag: ghost towns

California’s Calico ghost town invites you on a desert adventure

Indulge your sense of adventure.

Back in the 1880s, silver miners found work and built homes in the desert town of Calico, California. But those days of prosperity couldn’t last forever. By the mid-1890s, silver had dropped in value, leading miners to abandon the town. However, this wouldn’t be the end of Calico.

In the 1950s, Walter Knott, founder of Knott’s Berry Farm, bought the town and began restoring several historic buildings. Since then, the Calico ghost town has found new life as a tourist destination. Today, you can explore Calico Ghost Town Regional Park in the desert of Yermo, California. Take a look at what adventures await you there with this photo guide.

Investigate the remnants of these 11 US ghost towns

Are you brave enough?

Walking down the street of Rhyolite, Nevada, facades of empty buildings loom over me. Nobody is here but my husband and me — and some wild burros giving me the stink eye. A creepy feeling comes over me as I stand in this empty town that was once full of thousands of gold miners with dollar signs in their eyes. Now, the lights and power have been off for over a century.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a ghost town as “a once-flourishing town wholly or nearly deserted usually as a result of the exhaustion of some natural resource.” Lots of people like me feel the lure of these empty places, which are most common in the spacious western United States. Make the most of Halloween season by exploring these 11 ghost towns in all their spooky glory.