8 Ghost Towns in Nevada to Make a Road Trip Exciting
Batul Nafisa Baxamusa
Dusty roads, broken down cabins, old mines, abandoned hotels, and overgrown equipment lying with a vacant glare. The Ghost Towns of Nevada were once hustling bustling towns before they ended up to nothingness.
Paradise Valley
With just about 100 people who still live here, Paradise Valley appears like a place right from a tombstone novel.
It gives a rustic look of a movie set of the 1800s and definitely has a view of heaven on earth.
Virginia City
This city has a history of over 150 years and is the largest historic districts in the U.S. It came to life overnight after the discovery of silver.
Called Comstock Lode, the silver helped the town flourish leaps and bounds. The town is known for its paranormal activity and ghost tours of the historic buildings.
Candelaria
This remote ghost town had a tumultuous past as if it was destined to fail from the start.
Located along a dirt road in Nye Country, it was once blooming with hopefuls during the massive silver strike.
It had whiskey cheaper than water and marred with loots, shootings, fire, and murder. It was officially closed by 1900; as a town that was never meant to be.
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Rhyolite
The dusty dirt road of Rhyolite was once a busy town with hotels, casinos, school, hospital, and more.
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It was during 1916, the financial panic leads to electricity to the town cut off. Soon, everyone abandoned the lively town with structures remaining as a mirror to the past.
Belmont
This silver boom town was founded in 1866 and soon had good fortune facing it.
However, when the silver mines dried up, the town was unable to survive economically. By the 1900s, it was gradually abandoned.
Nelson
This town was settled by Civil War deserters as it was rich in gold, silver, copper, and lead.
It boomed at the scandalous site of Techatticup Mine which was marred with murder and frequent flash flooding. It had to be abandoned due to these and many other land disputes.
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Bodie Ghost Town
This gold-mining ghost town was once home to over 10,000 people. Today, only a part of it survives in a state of ‘arrested decay’.
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Gradually, the town faced decline, the Bodie Railway scrapped, and the last mine was shut in 1924 during the WW2.
Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park
The huge stone ovens stand out in the Nevada desert.
This historic site is buzzing with whispers about the prospectors, silver lodes, and stagecoach bandits.
The silver had to be smelted out of ores in the huge ovens. Soon, the area ran out pine to burn the fire in the ovens along with the silver lodes. By 1885, the boom ended and the town abandoned.
The decaying buildings, the forgotten streets, dust-covered towns, all stand silently as a witness to the town’s former glory.
There are around 600 ghost towns in Nevada who patiently wither away with time. On your next road trip do spend some time in these abandoned towns to get a feel of the bygone days.