Ghost Towns, California
40 locations. View on the interactive map
- Atolia — Ghost Town · San Bernardino County, CA
Mojave Desert tungsten (scheelite) camp east of Randsburg. Veins discovered 1904–05; Atolia Mining Company organized 1906 (Atkins + DeGolia portmanteau). WWI…
- Bagdad — Ghost Town · San Bernardino County, CA
Former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad and Route 66 service town in the Mojave between Amboy and Ludlow. It served as a water and section stop with ho…
- Ballarat — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Remote gateway to the Panamint Mountains with crumbling structures, old cemetery, and usually one lone caretaker. Charles Manson's Barker Ranch is a rough dr…
- Bennettville — Ghost Town · Mono County, CA
Failed 1880s silver-camp site of the Great Sierra Consolidated Silver Company on the high east side of Tioga Pass, just outside Yosemite’s east entrance. Pla…
- Beveridge — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Hard-to-reach 1870s–1880s silver camp high in the Inyo Mountains above Saline Valley, once home to the Keynote Mine and a short boom of stores and miners’ ca…
- Bodie State Historic Park — Ghost Town · Mono County, CA
California's best-preserved gold-rush ghost town sits at ~8,400 ft in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra, maintained by State Parks in a deliberate state of …
- Calico Ghost Town — Ghost Town · San Bernardino County, CA
Silver-rush mining town (founded 1881) in the Calico Mountains of the Mojave Desert, later restored and operated as Calico Ghost Town Regional Park by San Be…
- Cerro Gordo — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
High Inyo silver-lead boomtown (est. 1865) perched above Owens Lake; once among California's richest mines with a peak population in the thousands. Original …
- Chloride City — Ghost Town · Death Valley, CA
One of Death Valley’s earliest mining camps on the Funeral Mountains crest near Chloride Cliff—scattered ruins and workings above a rough dirt road, with cli…
- Chrysopolis — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Short-lived Owens Valley mining camp on the east side of the valley north of Independence approaches. A thin Inyo ghost for a named silver-era settlement tha…
- Cima — Ghost Town · San Bernardino County, CA
Railroad pass town inside Mojave National Preserve on the Union Pacific (ex–Los Angeles & Salt Lake) line between the Ivanpah and Mojave River basins. A stor…
- Darwin — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
1870s silver-lead camp on the west approach to Death Valley, between the Argus and Coso ranges. Boom population once numbered in the thousands; a tiny living…
- Dog Town — Ghost Town · Mono County, CA
Site of the first major gold rush on the eastern slope of California’s Sierra Nevada (late 1850s), near the junction of Clearwater/Virginia and Dog Town Cree…
- Dolomite — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
An Owens Valley industrial ghost community on the east shore corridor of Owens Lake, born as a Carson & Colorado Railroad siding and expanded after 1885 when…
- Garlock — Ghost Town · Kern County, CA
1890s stamp-mill camp at the foot of the El Paso Mountains that crushed ore from the Rand Mining District (Yellow Aster and neighbors). California Historical…
- Gold Town — Ghost Town · Kern County, CA
Historical mining camp on the western edge of the Mojave Desert near the Soledad Mountain / Mojave approaches. A thin Kern desert ghost-town pin for the Gold…
- Greenwater — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Short-lived copper boom town (1906–about 1909) on the east side of the Black Mountains in Death Valley country. At its peak Greenwater claimed banks, newspap…
- Harrisburg — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
1905 Shorty Harris / Pete Aguereberry gold camp in Death Valley National Park, better known today for Aguereberry Camp, the Eureka Mine, and Cashier Mill rui…
- Hart — Ghost Town · San Bernardino County, CA
Short-lived 1907–1915 gold boomtown in the Castle Mountains / eastern Mojave, now inside or on the edge of Mojave National Preserve / Castle Mountains landsc…
- Johannesburg — Ghost Town · Kern County, CA
Living ghost town on the Rand Mining District opposite Randsburg—once billed the “Queen City of the Rand” after 1890s gold strikes. Weathered false-front blo…
- Keeler — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Cerro Gordo shipping town on the dry east shore of Owens Lake—smelter, soda works, and Carson & Colorado narrow-gauge terminus. Once a steamship and rail hub…
- Leadfield — Ghost Town · Death Valley, CA
One of the great mining frauds of Death Valley — promoter C.C. Julian sold thousands of worthless claims before the scheme collapsed in 1926. The town lasted…
- Lila C — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Early Death Valley–Amargosa borax camp at the Lila C mine that spurred the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad spur from Death Valley Junction. Later operations shi…
- Lookout City — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
1880s silver camp of the Lookout Mining District on the Argus / Lookout Mountain side of Panamint Valley country west of Death Valley. Brief boom left stone …
- Lundy — Ghost Town · Mono County, CA
Defunct gold-camp community (formerly Mill Creek) at the west end of Lundy Lake in Lundy Canyon, northwest of Mono Lake. Grew after 1878 around the May Lundy…
- Masonic — Ghost Town · Mono County, CA
Gold camp about ten miles northeast of Bridgeport near the Nevada line, named by Freemason prospectors and also called Lorena. Upper, Middle, and Lower Town …
- Millspaugh — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Mining camp in the Argus Range country west of Panamint Valley, associated with early twentieth-century prospects away from the better-known Ballarat and Dar…
- Montgomery City — Ghost Town · Mono County, CA
Short-lived 1860s silver camp on the west slope of the White Mountains east of Benton, organized after rich float discoveries and the Montgomery Mining Distr…
- Ogilby — Ghost Town · Imperial County, CA
Southern Pacific railroad siding and supply town (est. 1877) that served the Cargo Muchacho gold camps and the Imperial sand-dune Plank Road era. Buildings a…
- Owenyo — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Abandoned Carson & Colorado / Southern Pacific narrow-gauge transfer townsite ~5 miles north of Lone Pine in the Owens Valley. Owenyo was the valley’s rail s…
- Panamint City — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Silver-and-copper boom town in Surprise Canyon on the west slope of the Panamint Range (GNIS name Panamint). After 1872 discoveries the camp grew by 1874 to …
- Picacho — Ghost Town · Imperial County, CA
Colorado River gold camp turned remote California State Recreation Area on the Imperial–Arizona border. Late-1800s placer and hard-rock mining built a rivers…
- Randsburg — Ghost Town · Kern County, CA
Living Mojave Desert gold camp on Rand Mountain, founded after the 1895 strike and peaking near 3,500 residents by 1899. Rand Mining District is California H…
- Reilly — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Panamint Valley mining camp south of the Ballarat approaches, short-lived and thinly built. A classic Death Valley–region ghost pin for named camp geography …
- Saltdale — Ghost Town · Kern County, CA
Salt-harvesting company town founded in 1914 on the shore of Koehn Dry Lake in the northern Mojave, northeast of California City near Garlock. A narrow-gauge…
- Schwab — Ghost Town · Death Valley, CA
Short-lived 1906–07 gold-camp townsite in Echo Canyon on the Funeral Mountains side of Death Valley National Park—named for steel magnate Charles M. Schwab’s…
- Skidoo — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
Death Valley gold camp at 5,600 ft in the Panamint Mountains, famous for a man being hanged twice — once alive, then again as a corpse for a late-arriving ph…
- Swansea CA — Ghost Town · Inyo County, CA
1870s Owens Lake port and silver-lead smelter town that processed Cerro Gordo ore barged across the lake. Remnants of the California Historical Landmark #752…
- Tumco Historic Mine — Ghost Town · Imperial County, CA
California Historical Landmark No. 182 gold camp in the Cargo Muchacho Mountains—formerly Gold Rock, then Hedges (peak ~3,000 residents 1890s), later Tumco—B…
- Vanderbilt CA — Ghost Town · San Bernardino County, CA
1890s New York Mountains gold camp founded after ore was struck near Vanderbilt Spring; briefly a multi-hundred-person tent-and-frame town served by the Neva…