Of course not every ghost town really looks like a ghost town. There are a few – like Bodie, CA – where buildings exist in a state of “arrested decay” and others, like Virginia City, NV where people still live in the towns even though they’re designated as ghost towns.
I hit another jackpot on Yahoo where they have a list of nine ghost towns in the US that typically date to the 19th century. The link at the end will be where you can see photos and read information about the history of these towns. Also, if you enjoy ghost towns as much as I do, a great resource for ghost town exploration is ghostowns.com. It is a very well organised site and will tell you how to get there – if you can drive up by car, if you have to rent a 4×4 or if you have to abandon motorized vehicles of all kinds and simply hike. The ones in Colorado and parts of Nevada and California are where you’ll typically find those.
These are the sites listed on the Yahoo article:
- Rhyolite, NV
- Bodie, CA
- St Elmo and Tincup, CO
- Calico, CA
- Ashcroft, CO
- Grafton, UT
- Gleeson, AZ
- Kennecott, AK
- Fairbank, AZ
The Witching Hour 
Cuervo, NM is my favorite.
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About 10 years ago I moved to California and drove from Louisiana to California. Each time I entered a new state, I would stop at the first visitor’s center and pick up a state map. I noticed that New Mexico’s map has ghost towns marked on them. Same with Arizona. There’s one right along I-10 in Arizona that I passed and wish now that I’d stopped to visit.
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Steins is just off I-10, but it’s in NM… by like a half-mile. I meant to get out there to get photos for you, but they’ve had all sorts of drama out there. First, the owner was murdered in 2009. Then, they re-opened recently… but they had to close down because the new owner can’t run tours anymore because it takes time away from her baby. If I asked really nicely, I’m sure I could coax her out to give me a tour… but… I’m kinda sad I missed my window of opportunity. =/
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