Where is ghost town

A new Oradour-sur-Glane was built nearby after the war ended, but French President Charles de Gaulle ordered that the burned-out ruins of the old town be left untouched as a monument to the victims.

The facades of dozens of brick buildings and charred storefronts still remain, as well as graveyards of rusted cars and bicycles, scattered sewing machines and unused tram tracks. The site is also home to a museum, which holds a collection of relics and mementos recovered from the rubble. Today, Hashima Island is a vacant labyrinth of crumbling concrete, sea walls and deserted buildings, yet it was once among the most densely populated places on the planet.

The small island off the coast of Nagasaki was first settled in as a coalmining colony. Hashima remained a hive of activity for the next several decades, especially during World War II, when the Japanese forced thousands of Korean laborers and Chinese POWs to toil in its mines. By the s, the acre rock was packed to the gills with more than 5, residents. Most workers found the cramped conditions unlivable, and the city was promptly abandoned after the mine closed in Forty years of neglect have left Hashima a dilapidated ruin of collapsed staircases and condemned apartments.

Many of its high-rises are still filled with old televisions and other relics from the midth century, and its once-teeming swimming pools, barbershop and school classrooms now sit in shambles.

Famagusta's coast with the deserted hotels of the tourist area of Varosha in the background, fenced off out of bounds in the Turkish occupied north of the island December 13, The suburb boasted a thriving tourism economy, and celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot were known to take in the sand and sun at its high-class beachfront hotels.

All that changed in August , when Turkey invaded Cyprus and occupied its northern third in response to a Greek nationalist-led coup. Most assumed they would return once the fighting stopped, but ongoing political strife has seen Varosha waste away behind a heavily-guarded barrier ever since.

What is left stands as a spooky time capsule of the s, including bellbottoms in shop windows and year-old vehicles still parked at car dealerships. The old Standard Company ore mill is a landmark at Bodie, a gold-mining ghost town from the late 's in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. However, it makes up for this in eeriness and potential for actual ghosts because Centralia is literally on fire… and has been for decades.

Residents understandably evacuated and the town never recovered. Over time, the population dropped to the handful who remain today. When they die, the state will take their property through eminent domain. People long enjoyed driving four-wheelers down the buckled Graffiti Highway , but property owners covered the landmark with dirt in April after trespassers flocked to Centralia for joy rides amid the COVID pandemic.

Within five years, Ashcroft was home to more than 3, residents. But like most mining towns, at some point they ran out of stuff to mine, and by the end of , only residents remained. By the s, the Winter Olympics brought a new wave of attention to the area, including, at one point, plans to construct a huge ski resort.

Billy Fiske, captain of the American bobsled team and the newly minted youngest gold medalist in any Winter Olympic sport , and his business partner Ted Ryan built the Highland-Bavarian Lodge. Ashcroft has remained a ghost town since Plans for the ski resort, though, moved about 10 miles north—to a little up-and-coming town named Aspen. The Black Hills are sprinkled with ghost towns, dozens of relics of a bygone gold boom.

By , Mystic had a post office; by , it had a rail line; by , it had a second rail line; and shortly after, Mystic was responsible for importing coal into the Black Hills and exporting timber and gold out of them. Floods destroyed bridges and rail lines, the town's sawmill burned down, and the Great Depression put the place in dire straits, but the town just kept rebuilding and recovering.

Soon enough, passenger trains stopped going to Mystic, and the once-thriving train hub began chugging to a halt. In , the sawmill ceased to exist, followed by the post office, the parlors, and the population. Over a dozen buildings left behind were added to the National Register of Historic Places, including the picturesque McCahan Chapel, which is still used occasionally for special events. If visitors are willing to venture down a mile gravel road, they can see the remnants for themselves and get a feel for the area by trekking the Mickelson Rail Trail.

In , the Columbia Southern Railway was extended to the area, connecting it to other parts of Oregon and surrounding states. Shaniko was officially incorporated in , and that same year the town produced 2, tons of wool to service communities along the rail line.

Around the same time, two fires in the business district destroyed any remaining hype, sending Shaniko on the path toward abandonment only 10 years after its founding.

Finished in , it was initially a jack-of-all-trades gathering place, with guest rooms, a bank, and a dance hall. Other surviving buildings include the Sage Museum, Shaniko School, city hall, jail, post office, and a wool barn.

Want more Thrillist? Sponsored By. Things didn't bode well for Bodie, California. Kennecott, Alaska. Elmo, Colorado. Bodie, California. Cahawba, Alabama. Virginia City, Montana. Rhyolite, Nevada. Batsto Village, New Jersey. Dawson, New Mexico. Garnet, Montana.

Centralia, Pennsylvania. Ashcroft, Colorado. Mystic, South Dakota. Shaniko, Oregon. Kyler Alvord loves a good ghost and a good town. Find him on Twitter and Instagram. There are 6 ghost towns within 50 miles of Lincoln. There are 13 ghost towns within 50 miles of Henderson.

There are 6 ghost towns within 50 miles of Nashua. There are 3 ghost towns within 25 miles of Newark. There are 6 ghost towns within 50 miles of Albuquerque. There are 7 ghost towns within 50 miles of Troy. There are 5 ghost towns within 50 miles of Asheville. There are 5 ghost towns within 50 miles of Bismarck. There are 10 ghost towns within 50 miles of Lancaster.

There are 11 ghost towns within 25 miles of Norman. There are 13 ghost towns within 50 miles of Keizer. There are 71 ghost towns within 50 miles of Pittsburgh. There are 3 ghost towns within 50 miles of Greenville. There are 51 ghost towns within 25 miles of Rapid City. There are 25 ghost towns within 25 miles of New Braunfels. There are 13 ghost towns within 25 miles of Lehi. There are 11 ghost towns within 50 miles of Richmond.

There are 14 ghost towns within 25 miles of Auburn. There are 11 ghost towns within 50 miles of Charleston. There are 20 ghost towns within 25 miles of Racine. There are 5 ghost towns within 50 miles of Cheyenne. Scroll down to find out. Peter Ling Professor of American Studies. Ghost towns are primarily associated with the Wild West frontier and people flocking to areas with valuable mineral resources, including gold and silver in the Rockies and oil in Texas.

Just as it was important that the mines of Colorado and California could ship their riches out by rail, the vast cattle ranches of western plains needed to reach the rail head to turn their steers into cash. So the majority of ghost towns date from the period of westward expansion and industrialization.

Great Plains states such as Kansas, Oklahoma and the Dakotas have the ruins of farming communities destroyed by the Dust Bowl and economic downturns of the s. In recent decades, heritage tourism has given some ghost towns a second chance to thrive, attracting visitors from around the world.

Named by German prospectors who came looking for gold, Berlin was a company mining town. Established in the s, the town was largely abandoned by the s after the mine closed in response to strike action. The well-preserved structures are now part of Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, known for fossil discoveries of a prehistoric marine mammal. Nearest city Hawthorne, NV. The mines were depleted by and the town largely abandoned.

Since the s, the town has become an increasingly popular tourist destination. Nearest city McCarthy, AK. It also served as a prison during the Civil War, then became a quarantine station and a navy refuelling point before it was abandoned in due to hurricane damage. Fort Jefferson has been a National Monument since and is open to tourists.

It continues to be the largest brick structure in the U. Nearest city Key West, FL. In the s Garnet was a thriving mining town with a population of over a thousand served by up to 13 saloons. The community emptied as miners left for World War I. A revival of gold mining in the s was halted by World War II, and the town has been abandoned ever since.

Around 30 buildings remain today, and an annual Garnet Day allows visitors to experience life in this 19th-century mining town. Nearest city Missoula, MT. Established as a mining camp in , Bodie boomed after sizable gold discoveries during the s.

The town was in decline by the s; the newspaper ceased publication in , and the railway was abandoned in The last mine closed in as dynamite and other resources were redirected towards the war effort. Today, the town is open to visitors with around structures still standing. Nearest city Bridgeport, CA. This well-preserved ghost town attracted over 2, residents by the s, when gold and silver mining were at their peak. However, increasingly poor quality ore sent the town into decline by the end of the decade.

A new mine temporarily revived prospects in the s, but the industry abandoned the town for good in A few inhabitants remain and its picturesque setting is a favorite summer tourist destination.

Nearest city Buena Vista, CO.