I Love Ghost Towns

I love ghost towns. There is something mysterious about visiting old places where people used to live their lives and where suddenly they are found no longer.  People's hopes and dreams abandonded to the ravages of time and the weather.  At some point the reason people lived in the town dissappeared and so did the people.  Sometimes a key employer closed up shop causing people to move to find work to support themselves and their families.  In other cases where natural resources were involved, there simply weren't enough left to support the town anymore.

California has its fair share of old ghost towns.  Some have been turned into tourist attractions such as Calico, Columbia, and Bodie (pictured here).  Most ghost towns are associated with the old west when mining towns sprung up and went away as fast the miners could move from one place to another.  Others dissapeared as the railroads bypassed old cattle towns.

While commonly associated with the old west, ghost towns are still around in modern times.  In the United States we have a few modern examples.  Gary, Indiana has turned into a crumbling ghost town as the steel industry left.  Centralia, Pennsylvania became a ghost town  due to an underground coal fire that caused residents to have to leave.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

Detroit, Michigan is beginning to turn into a ghost town as blocks of houses and businesses sit abandoned.

Other cities around the world have become ghost towns due to dissasters, bankrupt investors, and even war.  Check out this interesting blog I found on some of the most amazing ghost towns in the world today:  http://www.oddee.com/item_96462.aspx

And for those in California with a love of gold rush and old west history, here's a neat web site with information on their history and locations that you can visit today:  http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/ca.html

There are literally hundreds of ghost towns in California, some not too far off the main road, that you can visit.  So load up the family and explore history through a visit to a ghost town.