Hello all,

How many ghost towns has everyone been to? I was checking online today and found a site that lists every ghost town in America and Canada, and found there are quite a few in California. So I figured I would ask everybody if they have been to any, and if so, how many?

I have only been to two so far, and one of those was in Arizona. That one was Oatman, and is south of Bullhead City on the old Route 66 highway. It still has residents there, and they have shops, and street gunfights on the weekends, and even wild burros walking aimlessly thru town. I have been there twice.

The other one was Calico, and for anyone who does not know where that is, it is just north of Barstow. Still some residents there, and they also put on shows on the weekends. That one also has nearby campgrounds, and cabins to sleep in, and numerous 4x4 trails, (which I had not known about until I saw the Calico cleanup post in the So-Cal chapter!) in the surrounding hills, and mountains.

I have only heard of one other ghost town, and that was Georgetown up by Placerville. Anyone been there? I just recently read about Virginia City, (Nevada) and how big a town it once was in its heyday. Being only 50 miles south of Lake Tahoe, I would imagine Tim has been there at least once. I would like to make it out there once I get the Ranger up and running.

Any others that anyone has been to that they would recommend seeing?

 

How about Bodie State Park? I was there when I was a little kid on one of our two week whirl wind camping tours of The West. It was much cheaper than staying in motels so my dad was happy. The people who lived there eventually just walked away leaving most of what they had. Many of the buildings are full of the things they used every day. It's really kind of strange walking through there from what I remember.

From the State Park website this is where it is...

"The park is northeast of Yosemite, 13 miles east of Highway 395 on Bodie Road, seven miles south of Bridgeport.
Latitude/Longitude: 38.2122 / -119.0111"

No one lives in Bodie, but the park rangers hang out a lot of course.

There is also Shasta on SH299 west of Redding. It's another state park, but it's right on the side of the highway and really easy to get to.

 

Yes, Bodie is one I found out about only recently. It sprang up and disappeared in 4 years, but during that time it was a big boomtown. I would like to see that one, and it is also the closest one to me.

 

I've been to Bodie, Aurora, Silver Mountain City, Monitor, and of course Virginia City. Virginia City is the same one as portrayed on Bonanza. Allot of it burned down back in the day. Lots of great history there, and a fun place to go and walk the streets. Casinos and blood line the street. At least the feel of the blood on the street is there, preserved to the theme of the old west. Neat place, I strongly recommend it. Make sure to see the Fire Department Museums. Very interesting, the clan wars etc...
Bodie is really cool too. That used to be one booming town! Run by the California State Parks, they do a good job on their tours. If I remember correctly, 95% of the town of Bodie burned to the ground, but there is still quite a bit there.
At Silver Mountain City and Monitor, that I referenced, there isn't too much left, but you can still find residual reference. The Silver Mountain City bar was dismantled and brought to my town, Markleeville, and re-constructed. It is now known as the Cutthroat Saloon, or recently renamed as Wolf Creek Lodge. I suppose Markleeville could also be considered a ghost town, maybe. The old cemetary is neat to walk through. Not marked at all and fairly difficult to find. The musium in Markleeville has some interesting nostalgia as well.
The neat thing about the Eastern Sierras is that there is a huge amount of history, still recognizable. Just typing this note, I remembered a few more historical towns that I have walked through. Lots of stories and history throughout Northern Nevada as well.
If you like to explore, you can find lots of stuff that probably hasn't been documented, but those places are usually very remote. They are the places that haven't been scavenged by collectors. I have found a few old miners camps where what's left of rusty coffee pots, shovels, and wiskey bottles are laying on the ground, just as they were left 100 years ago. Kind of cool. I leave the artifacts there for someone else to experience.

 

I checked the ghost town map of Nevada, and found they have a lot of towns there. Looks like Nevada is the ghost town king of America. I defintely want to get to Virginia City and check it out.Don't know when it will be, but I will try and make it out there at least once.

 

Don't forget Bodie. Virginia City is really neat, but kind of commercial. Bodie is more preserved by State Parks, than commercialized. Both are worthy of a visit.

 

Bodie is a must vist, but I also want to visit Virginia City. Looks to be like Georgetown and Calico, commercial businesses for the tourist trade.

 

I think Bodie is a "real" Ghost town, Virgnia City, Columbia/etc, are sort fo a side attraction.

Everytime I here "Bodie", it reminds me of a trip me and a buddy made 20 years ago...a big bottle of Tequilla, 12-pack of beer, a few illegal substances, a JC Higgins .22 and a Park Ranger.

Needless to say...there's some real cool back roads (all dirt) you can take to leave Bodie when you're in a hurry...sorta brings you to some big lake.

Without going into details, I'll jump to the end of the story, when we finally found our way back to the highway it was dark and we needed a place to sleep, so we pulled into what we thought was a campsite/campground...drove in till we found an open spot...backed the pickup in, unloaded it..fired up the BBQ, ate, drank some more and went to bed.

Woke up in the morning and started looking around and realized we pulled into a Mobile Home park (no wonder they didn't have an admissions office) and decided we'd better load up and get the heck out of there.

OKay, back to family programming before I start remembering more details...

 

Sounds like you must have ended up in Walker, Nevada. Don't know of any other developed areas with a big lake, except maybe Bridgeport. If so, you drove right past the town of Aurora. It's back in on those roads behind Bodie. Not too much left but a few foundations. A true ghost town though.

 

Have any of you been to Calaco.? Its on I 15 south of the nev cal bourder.!!

 

I've heard of Calico, but haven't been there yet. What's it like?

 

Been to Calico twice. It is cool. Has quite a few buildings to it, but according to Numberdummy only 2-3 of them are original. The others were brought in by Walter Knott. They have events there, and on the weekends have gunfights in the streets. Campgrounds, and cabins are not too far from there. They have a working narrow gauge railroad, and tours of some of the mines.

 

A scrub desert version of Knotts Amusement Park in Orange County.

Walter Knott was famous (or in-famous, as the case may be) for removing old buildings from existing ghost towns and moving them to his former berry farm in Buena Park, and to Calico...after he bought the site.

Where he found the narrow gauge RR now at Calico, I dunno...but it wasn't there in 1961.

Bannock, Montana is the town I alluded to in another post. The ppl of Montana were p!ssed off when he bought Bannocks most interesting buildings and then moved them south.

Last Sunday's LA Times in their California section had a story of former world champion heavyweight boxer James J. Jeffries' workout barn located at his former LA home.

Jeffries established this facility to train local youngsters to fight back in the 1930's.

Where is the barn today?

Did you say at Knotts in Buena Park?

Righto...and there's not one word about its heritage (or any of the other historic buildings Knott moved)...unless one looks close...some of the faded paint stating Jeffries is still visible.

The barn is being sporadically used as a GTG facility today.

JMO: Once one removes artifacts from their original location...their heritage is usually lost.

One thing Knott did do that he's famous for...he "invented" the boysenberry.

Further reading: GHOST TOWNS OF THE WEST.

I have the book around here...somewhere in the disaster area that serves as my library...I'll see if I can find it and post the publishers info.

EDIT: Not surprisingly...I couldn't find the above book on the spur of the moment, but here's another I did find:

CALIFORNIA GHOST TOWN TRAILS ~ Published by Gem Guides in 1978 ~ ISBN: 0-935182-21-7. Calico is spoken about-mainly regarding Knott's involvement, but have you heard about nearby Ragtown and Coolgardie? Both are shown on the map.

Once traveling the west to visit various ghost towns and indian war battlefields was a passion of mine...buying obsolete parts from Ford dealers along the way, was another reason for going.

 

Wow Bill, Sounds like your an authority on this subject. Old Western history has always been an interest of mine too. Probably not as much as yours though.
I think it would be facinating to sit down, over a few beers, and hear stories of your findings of the old West.
My mother in law's family came West in a covered wagon. I really enjoy hearing her family's stories as well. Pretty darned cool.

 

Hey,what a coincidence,so did my mother in laws'!But my wife made me feel so guilty,I sprung for their airfare back to Ohio.