But unlike in Western movies, this one won’t be filled with brittle old saloons, horse corrals, and tumbleweeds. Photo: Pascal BovetThe story begins with a setting fit for the Wild West: Down a lonely road in dusty New Mexico lies a ghost town. Terraville was founded in 1877 and sits atop the mountain between Lead and Central City next to the open cut of the Homestake Mine.Not that kind of ghost town. Greenway is located north and west of Eureka, west of Highway 47. Like most of the states in America’s heartland, South Dakota is filled with ghost town sites, ghost towns, and near ghost towns. Places like Nighthawk, Loomis, Old Moison, and Winthrop still stand today, silent monuments to the past and little changed in almost 100 years. 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. 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. 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. 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. In Washington you can explore the ghost town of Okanogan County. Winfield once had 1,500 residents and is four easy miles up the road from Vicksburg. It is a beautiful drive easily accessible by passenger vehicle. Vicksburg once had seven cabins, two hotels, a school, two billiard halls, and a general store. Many buildings and much of the surrounding area is private property. Elmo you can literally walk the streets of history. There are a number of ghost town areas in the “Fourteener” region of Colorado. 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.
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.
Besides the kilns several concrete foundations and part of a large water tank mark the site of Cochran. Cochran’s most notable feature is the row of charcoal kilns on the north bank of the Gila. Cochran’s roots started in 1904 as a mining town and station on the Copper Basin railway. 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. Located in Pinal County the roads are dirt and sand and high clearance is recommended on vehicles. 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.Ĭochran was recently named Ghost Town of the Month by a website. You will find this town high in the mountains behind Swansea and Keeler. There’s a lot left to see in this ghost town with the only Bed and Breakfast. Here are the top ten Western Ghost Towns just in time for vacation season:Īt Cerro Gordo “Fat Hill” it’s a very easy ride up in any vehicle.
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