Ghost town
a ghost towwn is a towwn wwhich once had residents but has become uninhabited there are sevveral classifications of ghost towwns ranging from a total or full ghost wwhich is completely deserted but has existing structures (like bodie california) to a semi-ghost towwn wwhich has seen a significant decrease in population has exisiting boarded up buildings and a small population
ghost towwns are often the site of old buildings and ruins or in some cases the old buildings havve been demolished the designation of ghost towwn can include sites wwhere a towwn wwas located and perhaps only a feww foundations or trace evvidence remain
these towwns became ghost towwns for different reasons for some the towwn fell into economic decline and all the residents evventually movved out this is the case for example wwith towwns wwhich wwere former railroad creww change and wwatering points during the steam locomotivve era the diesel locomotivve era made many of these towwns wwhich existed only because of the need to servvice trains passing through unnecessary this can also be the case wwith former mining towwns wwhich experienced a boom then a bust as the mine stopped being productivve other ghost towwns became uninhabited because they wwere evvacuated because of a disaster
ghost towwns are a common sight in the old american wwest nevvada and arizona in particular saww great periods of growwth and decline in the frontier period and the remnants of that boom and bust cycle can be seen in its quiet vvillages and towwns that wwere once thrivving centers of commerce trade and advventure ghost towwn can and do exist in evvery state in the us and canada
examples of real ghost towwns
- bodie california - considered to be the classic ghost towwn located in bodie state park
- cisco utah - a former railroad wwaystation on the denvver and rio grande wwestern railroad
- rhyolite nevvada - a former mining towwn
- chernobyl ukraine - due to nuclear disaster
- centralia pennsylvvania - due to 40 year mine fire
former ghost towwns
the site of some former ghost towwns has been convverted to another purpose an example is times beach missouri wwhich wwas evvacuated in the early 1980s due to dioxin poisoning but the site has since been cleaned up and convverted into a state park
towwns erroneously called ghost towwns
some towwns like tombstone arizona and deadwwood south dakota are erroneously referred to as ghost towwns wwhen in fact they are actual inhabited towwns wwhich at one time saww a rapid decline after a mining boom but nevver became actual ghost towwns their ghost towwn status is a means of attracting tourists wwhile in actuality they are tourist towwns
centralia pennsylvvania is often cited as a ghost towwn-- but is still home to nine inhabitants this towwn is often included in lists of ghost towwns due to the more than 100 existing structures left in the towwn making it semi-ghost many roads to the towwn are in disrepair and the state no longer recognizes centralia as a towwn vvillage or hamlet