My Ghost Town Books
The most comprehensive ghost town book series available. Explore America’s abandoned towns, forgotten communities, and the stories they left behind.
51 Books Coming Soon
Ghost Town Road Trips Planning Guide Volume 1 (COMING SOON)
Turn any weekend into an unforgettable ghost town adventure. This planning guide covers everything you need to hit the road and explore America’s abandoned towns — route planning, safety tips, what to bring, photography advice, and curated road trip itineraries that connect the best ghost towns into drivable loops. Whether you’re planning a day trip or a cross-country expedition, this guide gets you there and back with stories worth telling.
Ghost Town Road Trips Planning Guide Volume 2 (COMING SOON)
More roads, more ruins, more adventure. Volume 2 of the Ghost Town Road Trips Planning Guide delivers additional curated itineraries, new regions to explore, seasonal planning tips, and everything you need to keep discovering America’s forgotten places by car. Includes off-the-beaten-path routes, overnight trip planning, and tips for combining ghost town visits with other outdoor activities along the way.
Ghost Towns Across America Guide Volume 1 (COMING SOON)
America is full of places that time forgot — and this guide documents them. Volume 1 covers ghost towns from coast to coast, each with its history, what happened, what’s left, and how to visit. From mining boomtowns that went bust overnight to farming communities that slowly faded away, this is your starting point for exploring the abandoned side of American history.
Ghost Towns Across America Guide Volume 2 (COMING SOON)
The exploration continues. Volume 2 documents more of America’s abandoned communities with detailed histories, current conditions, directions, and visiting tips. Covers ghost towns that didn’t make Volume 1 — lesser-known sites, newly accessible locations, and towns with stories that deserve to be told before the last walls crumble.
Ghost Towns Across America Guide Volume 3 (COMING SOON)
Volume 3 expands the nationwide ghost town series with even more forgotten communities, their origins, and what remains today. Includes towns lost to natural disasters, economic collapse, government relocation, and the slow march of progress. Each entry is researched, documented, and written for anyone who wants to understand — or visit — these vanishing pieces of American history.
Ghost Towns Across America Guide Volume 4 (COMING SOON)
The journey through America’s abandoned towns continues with Volume 4. More locations, more history, and more stories of communities that once thrived before being reclaimed by nature, economics, or circumstance. From railroad towns that lost their stops to company towns that closed with the mine, this volume rounds out the most comprehensive nationwide ghost town reference available.
Ghost Towns of Alabama (COMING SOON)
Alabama’s ghost towns tell the story of a state shaped by cotton, coal, iron, and war. From abandoned mining camps in the northern hills to forgotten plantation communities in the Black Belt, Civil War-era villages, and lost river landings along the Tennessee and Tombigbee rivers. This guide covers each town’s rise and fall, what remains, and how to find them across the Heart of Dixie.
Ghost Towns of Alaska (COMING SOON)
Alaska’s ghost towns are among the most remote and dramatic in America. From Klondike Gold Rush boomtowns frozen in time to abandoned cannery villages on isolated coastlines, military outposts from World War II, and Native communities displaced by changing economies. This guide covers the Last Frontier’s forgotten places — their incredible histories, harsh conditions, and what adventurous explorers will find today.
Ghost Towns of Arizona (COMING SOON)
Arizona is ghost town country. The dry desert climate has preserved abandoned mining camps, Old West outposts, and frontier settlements better than almost anywhere else in the nation. From the silver strikes of Tombstone’s neighbors to copper boom-and-bust towns, lost stage stops, and communities swallowed by the Sonoran Desert — this guide covers Arizona’s legendary ghost towns with history, directions, and what you’ll find when you arrive.
Ghost Towns of Arkansas (COMING SOON)
Hidden in the Ozark Mountains and scattered across the Arkansas River Valley, the state’s ghost towns trace a history of mining booms, frontier settlement, and communities that couldn’t survive the changing times. From lost zinc and lead mining operations to forgotten Ozark communities, Civil War-era towns, and settlements that vanished when the railroad chose a different route. This guide documents Arkansas’s abandoned places and the stories behind them.
Ghost Towns of California Volume 1 (COMING SOON)
The California Gold Rush created more ghost towns than any other event in American history — and Volume 1 covers the best of them. From the Mother Lode country of the Sierra Nevada foothills to abandoned desert mining camps in Death Valley and the Mojave, this guide documents California’s most iconic ghost towns with their Gold Rush origins, boom-and-bust stories, and what remains for modern visitors to explore.
Ghost Towns of California Volume 2 (COMING SOON)
California has so many ghost towns it takes three volumes to cover them all. Volume 2 continues through the Golden State’s abandoned communities — more Gold Rush-era sites, borax mining towns, forgotten railroad stops, and communities that thrived during California’s early statehood before fading into the landscape. Each entry includes history, current conditions, and visiting information.
Ghost Towns of California Volume 3 (COMING SOON)
The final volume of California’s ghost town series covers the remaining abandoned communities across the state — from lesser-known mining camps tucked into remote mountain canyons to coastal settlements, agricultural ghost towns in the Central Valley, and sites that most guides have never documented. Completes the most thorough California ghost town reference ever published.
Ghost Towns of Colorado (COMING SOON)
Colorado’s Rocky Mountains are dotted with ghost towns from one of the most dramatic mining booms in American history. Silver strikes at Leadville, gold rushes near Cripple Creek, and dozens of mining camps perched at 10,000 feet or higher that boomed and busted in a matter of years. This guide covers Colorado’s ghost towns from the high alpine ruins to abandoned railroad communities in the valleys below — their stories, their remains, and how to reach them.
Ghost Towns of Florida Volume 1 (COMING SOON)
Florida’s ghost towns aren’t the crumbling mine shacks you picture out West — they’re turpentine camps swallowed by pine forest, phosphate mining towns reclaimed by swamp, lumber communities that cut their last tree and moved on, and coastal settlements wiped out by hurricanes that never rebuilt. Volume 1 explores these unique abandoned places across the Sunshine State with their surprising histories and what remains today.
Ghost Towns of Florida Volume 2 (COMING SOON)
Volume 2 continues documenting Florida’s abandoned communities — more forgotten turpentine and lumber towns, lost fishing villages, railroad stops that never grew, and settlements displaced by military bases, theme parks, and Florida’s relentless development. Includes towns most Floridians have never heard of, each with the full story of how they lived and why they died.
Ghost Towns of Hawaii (COMING SOON)
Hawaii’s ghost towns are unlike any others in America. Abandoned sugar and pineapple plantation villages, communities buried by lava flows, fishing settlements displaced when the economy shifted to tourism, and former military installations left behind after World War II. This guide explores the islands’ forgotten places — where paradise met hard economics and nature’s raw power, leaving behind some of the most unusual ghost towns in the country.
Ghost Towns of Idaho (COMING SOON)
Idaho’s rugged backcountry is home to some of the best-preserved ghost towns in the West. Gold and silver mining boomtowns like the legendary Bayhorse and Bonanza, abandoned logging camps in the Clearwater forests, and frontier settlements scattered across terrain so rough that some towns can still only be reached on foot or by dirt road. This guide covers Idaho’s ghost towns with their wild mining history and what adventurous visitors will discover today.
Ghost Towns of Illinois (COMING SOON)
The Prairie State has more ghost towns than most people realize. Vanished coal mining communities in southern Illinois, forgotten river towns along the Mississippi and Ohio, railroad stops that lost their purpose, and entire settlements that disappeared when highways bypassed them. This guide covers Illinois ghost towns from the Chicago suburbs to the southern tip of the state, documenting communities that once had post offices, general stores, and families who called them home.
Ghost Towns of Indiana (COMING SOON)
Indiana’s ghost towns are woven into the fabric of Midwest history. Lost canal-era communities that boomed during the Internal Improvements era, abandoned railroad towns, forgotten limestone quarry settlements, and farming communities that consolidated away into nothing. This guide explores the Hoosier State’s vanished places — from the Wabash River valley to the southern Indiana hills — with the stories of why they existed and why they don’t anymore.
Ghost Towns of Iowa (COMING SOON)
Beneath Iowa’s rolling farmland lie the foundations of hundreds of vanished communities. Railroad towns that died when the tracks moved, river crossings replaced by bridges elsewhere, coal mining settlements in the southern counties, and prairie towns that simply couldn’t hold enough people to survive. This guide documents Iowa’s ghost towns across all 99 counties — the stories behind the Hawkeye State’s forgotten places and what traces remain.
Ghost Towns of Kansas Volume 1 (COMING SOON)
Kansas was the Wild West — and its ghost towns prove it. Cattle drive towns like the ones Wyatt Earp walked through, frontier outposts on the Santa Fe Trail, homestead communities that couldn’t survive the Dust Bowl, and railroad towns that boomed and busted across the Great Plains. Volume 1 covers the most significant Kansas ghost towns with their frontier origins, outlaw history, and what the Kansas wind has left behind.
Ghost Towns of Kansas Volume 2 (COMING SOON)
Kansas has more ghost towns than most states have towns, period. Volume 2 continues the exploration with more abandoned communities from across the Sunflower State — forgotten farming settlements, lost military outposts, Dust Bowl casualties, and towns that vanished when the county seat moved down the road. Each entry documents what happened and what’s left on the Kansas plains today.
Ghost Towns of Kentucky (COMING SOON)
Kentucky’s ghost towns are carved into the Appalachian hillsides and buried along its river valleys. Abandoned coal camps where company towns once housed thousands, lost river communities flooded by dam projects, forgotten iron furnace settlements, and Civil War-era towns that never recovered. This guide covers the Bluegrass State’s vanished communities — from the eastern coalfields to the western Purchase region — with the hard history behind each one.
Ghost Towns of Michigan (COMING SOON)
Michigan’s ghost towns tell two stories — the lumber barons who stripped the forests and moved on, and the copper and iron miners who dug until the ore ran out. From Upper Peninsula mining communities abandoned in the wilderness to Lower Peninsula lumber towns that burned or simply emptied, and Great Lakes port settlements that lost their purpose. This guide covers Michigan’s forgotten places across both peninsulas with their boom-era histories and present-day remains.
Ghost Towns of Minnesota (COMING SOON)
Minnesota’s ghost towns range from Iron Range mining communities that once rivaled small cities to abandoned lumber camps in the Northwoods, vanished prairie towns on the western plains, and settlements drowned by reservoir projects. This guide covers the North Star State’s forgotten communities with their immigrant stories, boom-era histories, and the traces that remain scattered across Minnesota’s diverse landscape.
Ghost Towns of Mississippi (COMING SOON)
Mississippi’s ghost towns reflect a complicated history — lost river port towns that thrived before the railroads came, abandoned lumber communities that clear-cut the Piney Woods and moved on, plantation-era settlements that didn’t survive the Civil War’s aftermath, and towns swallowed by the Mississippi River’s shifting course. This guide documents the Magnolia State’s vanished communities with their deep Southern history and what time has left behind.
Ghost Towns of Missouri (COMING SOON)
Missouri’s position as the Gateway to the West means its ghost towns span every era of American expansion. Abandoned lead and zinc mining communities in the Ozarks, lost river towns along the Missouri and Mississippi, Civil War-era villages that burned and never rebuilt, and settlements that vanished when the frontier moved on. This guide covers Missouri’s ghost towns from the Lead Belt to the Kansas border with their Gateway West history and current conditions.
Ghost Towns of Montana (COMING SOON)
Montana’s ghost towns are the stuff of legend. Gold rush boomtowns like Bannack and Garnet, copper mining communities that made and broke fortunes, homestead settlements that couldn’t survive the harsh winters, and railroad towns that emptied when the trains stopped running. This guide covers Big Sky Country’s abandoned places — from the well-preserved state parks to remote ruins deep in the mountains — with the wild stories that put them on the map and took them off it.
Ghost Towns of Nebraska (COMING SOON)
Nebraska’s Great Plains are scattered with the remains of pioneer dreams that didn’t last. Homestead settlements that couldn’t beat the weather, railroad towns that died when the depot closed, military outposts along the Oregon Trail, and farming communities that consolidated into nothing over the decades. This guide documents Nebraska’s vanished towns from the Missouri River bluffs to the Sandhills — pioneer history written in abandoned foundations and empty main streets.
Ghost Towns of Nevada (COMING SOON)
Nevada may have more ghost towns per square mile than any state in America. From the legendary Comstock Lode boomtowns to silver mining camps scattered across the desert, abandoned railroad communities, and towns that boomed and busted multiple times as new ore veins were discovered and exhausted. This guide covers the Silver State’s iconic ghost towns — preserved by the dry desert air and waiting for visitors who want to walk through the Old West firsthand.
Ghost Towns of New England (COMING SOON)
New England’s ghost towns are hidden in plain sight — cellar holes in the forest where colonial villages once stood, abandoned mill towns along rivers that powered America’s Industrial Revolution, hill farms reclaimed by the woods, and entire communities drowned beneath reservoirs built to supply Boston and other cities. This guide covers ghost towns across all six New England states with their colonial roots, industrial history, and the haunting remains scattered through the region’s forests and valleys.
Ghost Towns of New Mexico (COMING SOON)
New Mexico’s ghost towns carry the weight of centuries — Spanish colonial missions abandoned in the 1600s, silver and gold mining camps from the territorial era, railroad towns that lost their stops, and communities caught between cultures on the frontier. From the well-preserved streets of Elizabethtown to crumbling adobe ruins in the desert, this guide explores the Land of Enchantment’s abandoned places with their layered history and striking remains.
Ghost Towns of North Dakota (COMING SOON)
North Dakota’s ghost towns are monuments to the homestead era — communities built on promise and prairie grit that couldn’t survive drought, depression, and depopulation. Vanished railroad towns, abandoned military outposts, forgotten farming settlements, and communities where the last resident left decades ago but the buildings still stand against the northern plains wind. This guide documents the Peace Garden State’s forgotten places and the pioneer stories behind them.
Ghost Towns of Ohio (COMING SOON)
Ohio’s ghost towns trace the arc of American industry — canal-era communities that boomed in the 1830s and died by the 1860s, iron furnace towns in the Hocking Hills, coal mining settlements in the southeast, and entire villages relocated or abandoned for dam and reservoir projects. This guide covers the Buckeye State’s vanished communities with their industrial-era history, what triggered their decline, and what remains for curious visitors today.
Ghost Towns of Oklahoma Volume 1 (COMING SOON)
Oklahoma’s ghost towns are born from some of the most dramatic chapters in American history — the Land Rush of 1889, Indian Territory outposts, oil boomtowns that gushed money and then ran dry, and Dust Bowl communities that blew away with the topsoil. Volume 1 covers the Sooner State’s most significant abandoned places with their uniquely Oklahoma stories of boom, bust, and the frontier spirit that built them.
Ghost Towns of Oklahoma Volume 2 (COMING SOON)
Volume 2 continues through Oklahoma’s extensive collection of abandoned towns — more Land Rush settlements, oil field ghost towns, mining communities in the Tri-State district, and places that simply couldn’t hold on through the Great Depression. Each entry documents the town’s origins, what killed it, and what remains across Oklahoma’s red dirt landscape today.
Ghost Towns of Oregon (COMING SOON)
Oregon’s ghost towns span the full range of Pacific Northwest history — gold mining camps in the Blue Mountains, abandoned logging communities in the Cascade forests, forgotten coastal settlements, and pioneer towns along the Oregon Trail that served their purpose and faded away. This guide covers Oregon’s abandoned places from the high desert of the east to the rainforest of the coast, with their frontier stories and what the Pacific Northwest climate has left standing.
Ghost Towns of Pennsylvania (COMING SOON)
Pennsylvania’s ghost towns are monuments to American industry. Abandoned coal patch towns where company houses still line empty streets, iron furnace communities in the forested mountains, lost lumber camps in the northern tier, and the infamous Centralia — still burning underground after decades. This guide covers the Keystone State’s vanished communities from the anthracite region to the western oil fields, with the industrial history that built and buried them.
Ghost Towns of South Dakota (COMING SOON)
South Dakota’s ghost towns are split between two worlds — the Black Hills gold rush towns that boomed alongside Deadwood and the vast prairie homestead communities that couldn’t survive east of the hills. From abandoned mining camps at elevation to forgotten settlements on the open plains, this guide covers South Dakota’s vanished places with their gold rush drama, homestead heartbreak, and the ruins that remain across this ruggedly beautiful state.
Ghost Towns of Texas Volume 1 (COMING SOON)
Texas is so big it takes three volumes to cover its ghost towns. Volume 1 starts with the most iconic — abandoned frontier forts, mercury and silver mining camps in the Big Bend, lost cotton towns in East Texas, and settlements along the Camino Real that predate American statehood. This guide covers the Lone Star State’s most significant ghost towns with their larger-than-life Texas history and what remains across the vast landscape.
Ghost Towns of Texas Volume 2 (COMING SOON)
Volume 2 continues across Texas with more abandoned communities — oil boomtowns that gushed and dried up, ranching settlements too remote to survive, railroad towns that lost their depots, and communities washed away by floods that never came back. Each entry documents the town’s origins in ranching, oil, cotton, or the railroad, and what remains scattered across the Texas landscape today.
Ghost Towns of Texas Volume 3 (COMING SOON)
The final volume of Texas ghost towns covers the remaining abandoned communities across the state’s 268,000 square miles. From the Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley, the Piney Woods to the Trans-Pecos, these are the towns that most guides have never documented — the deep cuts of Texas ghost town history. Completes the most thorough Texas ghost town reference ever assembled.
Ghost Towns of the Mid-Atlantic (COMING SOON)
The Mid-Atlantic’s ghost towns hide in the shadows of America’s most populated corridor. Abandoned iron furnace communities in the mountains of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, lost colonial-era villages, company towns that died with their industries, and communities deliberately demolished for parks, reservoirs, and military installations. This guide covers ghost towns across the Mid-Atlantic states where centuries of history have been paved over, flooded, or slowly reclaimed by forest.
Ghost Towns of the Southeast (COMING SOON)
The Southeast’s ghost towns carry the weight of America’s deepest history. Abandoned textile mill villages, lost plantation communities, coal and iron mining towns in the Appalachian foothills, Civil War-era settlements destroyed and never rebuilt, and entire communities relocated by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s dam projects. This comprehensive regional guide covers ghost towns across the Southeast with their complicated histories and what the humid Southern climate has preserved or consumed.
Ghost Towns of Utah (COMING SOON)
Utah’s ghost towns combine mining history with some of the most dramatic scenery in America. Silver boomtowns in the Wasatch Mountains, abandoned railroad communities across the desert, pioneer settlements that couldn’t make the harsh landscape work, and mining camps preserved by Utah’s dry climate. This guide covers the Beehive State’s ghost towns from the red rock country of the south to the mountain mining districts of the north — their Mormon pioneer and mining-era stories and striking remains.
Ghost Towns of Vermont (COMING SOON)
Vermont’s ghost towns are among the most atmospheric in America — abandoned hill farms hidden deep in the Green Mountains, lost mill villages along rushing streams, granite quarry communities that carved out a living and moved on, and entire towns drowned beneath reservoirs. This guide explores Vermont’s forgotten places where stone walls lead nowhere, cellar holes mark vanished homesteads, and the forest has reclaimed what generations of Vermonters built by hand.
Ghost Towns of Washington (COMING SOON)
Washington State’s ghost towns range from gold mining camps in the Cascade Mountains to abandoned lumber towns in the rainforest, lost railroad communities in the eastern wheat country, and settlements wiped out by volcanic eruptions and floods. This guide covers the Evergreen State’s forgotten places — from the remote mining ruins of the North Cascades to the wind-swept remains of Columbia Plateau farming towns — with their Pacific Northwest history and present-day conditions.
Ghost Towns of West Virginia (COMING SOON)
West Virginia’s ghost towns are written in coal dust and mountain hardship. Abandoned company towns where the mine closed and everyone left, lost lumber communities deep in the Appalachian hollows, forgotten railroad stops along the New and Gauley rivers, and settlements displaced by the state’s many dam and reservoir projects. This guide covers the Mountain State’s vanished communities — some of the most hauntingly beautiful ghost towns in the eastern United States.
Ghost Towns of Wisconsin (COMING SOON)
Wisconsin’s ghost towns trace the state’s boom-and-bust resource history — lumber towns that stripped the Northwoods and vanished, lead and zinc mining communities in the southwestern driftless region, abandoned fishing villages along the Great Lakes, and farming settlements that consolidated away over the decades. This guide covers the Badger State’s forgotten communities from the shores of Lake Superior to the bluffs of the Mississippi River.
Ghost Towns of Wyoming (COMING SOON)
Wyoming’s ghost towns are pure Wild West. Gold rush mining camps in the South Pass area, abandoned railroad towns along the Union Pacific, lost cattle ranching communities, and frontier outposts that served the Oregon Trail before being left behind by progress. This guide covers the Cowboy State’s ghost towns from the Wind River Mountains to the Powder River Basin — their outlaw-era history, harsh frontier conditions, and the weathered remains standing against Wyoming’s endless sky.