America's Largest Ghost Town Few Have Ever Seen

is there anything on earth that is quite as chilling as a ghost town to see the evidence of a society that once was crumbled to near nothing homes remain but are empty bars are there but Taps have run dry the town hall exists but nobody attends from Eerie abandoned mining camps to Once thriving Towns now left to crumble these places tell the haunting story of boom and bust these are 20 of America's largest ghost towns that few have [Music] seen number 20 Thurman West Virginia now we'll start in Thurman West Virginia I did mention that

the United States had plenty of materials that made various areas have a boom in the good way but another material that they had was coal Coal is a fossil fuel and in the earlier days of the United States it was considered to be one of the most valuable alongside oil sure we didn't know that we were slowly polluting the planet and causing harm to the people who dug it up from various mining areas but it was a popular material back in the day for places like Thurman West Virginia in the 1900s once a coal mine

was discovered in that area it then led to all sorts of things taking place which included many jobs popping up and the potential to make a fortune by getting it out of the ground huge amounts of coal had flowed into and out of of Thurman in the area's minds and this made it the largest revenue generator on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway having a lot of coal baronss amongst its patrons Thurman's Banks were the richest in the state that really says something right there and it makes the classic kind of Boom Town as it went

from nothing being there to having some of the richest people in the country living there due to all of the money-making opportunities that were around due to the railway that passed through the town was constantly full of various visitors who wanted to check out the coal filled area and see all of the businesses and hotels that were there so then that leaves the question of what happened to Thurman like many other towns on this list it was the victim of change and time specifically once diesel came about we began learning about the effects of coal

on people in the land and a lot of the mines in the area were then shut down once the wealth began to trickle out of existence the town slowly became less populated until it simply turned into a ghost town [Applause] it is still active for the record there's an Amtrak station that's there that runs maybe twice a week it's just not as populated as it used to be many people are trying to preserve the history of the place to highlight how people used to live during the early 1900s now it's time for the sweet Topic

in this video we'll talk about America's largest ghost town that few have seen but for now let's have a detour to focus on China if you don't know China's full of ghost towns basically to fake that the country was more economically successful than it actually was and that's why they just kept on building empty cities they didn't have the people to move there but they did it anyway and now the country is littered with ghost towns look at how big that this one is all of these homes are totally empty and by Design which is

just a shame and a waste as always you can let me know your thoughts in the comments section down below using the hash sweet topic number 19 the Silver City Ghost Town this next one is a Twist on the video's tale because the Silver City Ghost Town is not an actual ghost town that was lived in by various people however it's one that housed many of the ghost towns buildings that used to live in the area that's really confusing and poorly written but I didn't do the script let's rewind a bit to tell you about

California back in the boom period you see while many people were fine with going to the western state of the United unit States for land and expansion reasons once it was found out that gold was there things really began to change people from all over the country flew to California to try and make it rich on gold deposits with so many people trying to stake their own claims it was not exactly hard to predict that the gold in those areas would soon run out and all of the towns that were once booming would then go

bust the buildings that were used to help the miners had to end up going somewhere some areas simply tore their ghost towns down and some left them to rot but in bodfish California they decided to collect the buildings that they could from these various ghost towns in order to highlight how things were done during the Glory Days of California's Gold Rush that's right it's a tourist attraction kind of town and they even have buildings that date all the way back to the 1850s including an old antique jail I found this little ghost town it's called

Silver City Ghost Town it's nice to know that some people are trying to preserve the past in such a way as we should never forget about these old towns and sure they may not affect us today due to how far that we've advanced in the world but that doesn't mean that they should be forgotten plus if we're not careful modern buildings could be added to the collection number 18 Ardmore Ghost Town given the two towns that I've shown you so far you may be thinking that there's only one kind of Ghost Town one that had

a boom because of a material and then lost that material and then had to go bus but that is not exactly true you need to remember that during the time of manifest destiny all sorts of towns were trying to get built to make themselves sustainable alongside the overall expansion of the United States one such place would be Ardmore South Dakota this was a town that was built not because of a material being found but because of its location to a railroad the town was a key stopping point for a railway and the train would bring

in key supplies for the town's people with the biggest one being water why would a train need to bring in water for the people well that's because the local Creek was not what you would call drinkable instead it was rather acidic which made it perfect for the train but not for the people so those people had a rather dependent relationship with the train and you could see where this one's going once diesel trains began coming into the mix they did not need to stop at places like Ardmore anymore and so when the people lost their

water source they had to go elsewhere in order to find it which meant that the town had died out for Rather basic reasons if you can't get reliable water you're not going to last all that long now ironically this was a town that had tried to get around it with its crops as they used a technique called dry farming in an attempt to make plants without water it was a clever idea but it did not exactly work further fueling the transformation into a ghost town number 17 Deerfield Ghost Town now we go from South Dakota

to Colorado to discuss a town named Deerfield this town was unique not because of its location per or the materials that were in it but because of its citizens it was founded in 1910 by a man named olifer tant Jackson he was a successful businessman and decided to follow the words of Booker T Washington by setting up a colony that was for African-Americans you have to remember that back in the early 1900s racism was a heavy and rampant part of of American culture even if other people didn't want to admit it out loud so by

setting up a colony for his own people he had hoped to get around all of that did it work well kind of on the plus side he did get people to live there and they had about 300 residents by the year 1920 they were also a self-sufficient town as they had farmed their own crops and even had businesses that people could work at a restaurant to eat at and even a church for worship I wonder why this structure was fenced in and protected while this one wasn't the two biggest problems that hit the town though

were both land and timing the land was not the easiest to farm which is not the best thing to have when you're trying to set up a new area for people to exist in the real problem though was that they soon were hit by the Great Depression so while life was difficult before it was almost impossible to endure during that period of time and so people began to leave to his credit though Jackson did keep on pushing to make it a reality but it did not pan out and he later passed away in 1948 so

what we have here was a great idea and a good attempt to make something happen for a community that was not being given a fair deal but it couldn't last because of outside conditions that were well beyond their control number 16 red oak 2 now what if I told you that to reinvoke the memories of his childhood a man decided to make a fake ghost town well that's exactly what you'll find when you go to Red Oak 2 in Missouri that begs the the question what actually happened to the original Red Oak in a word

it was timing you see for the longest time the United States had been made up of mostly small towns and then they had a few key cities scattered all throughout the place like Boston New York Detroit and that kind of level city as such there were plenty of smaller towns like red oak Missouri that were doing just fine on their own but once World War I ended and the wealth and Industry of the United States took a boom then things began to really see a big shift all of a sudden cities were popping up everywhere

and people went from wanting to live in a small but nice area to living in a place like the city to get even more opportunities for themselves that's why the original Red Oak fell Into Obscurity because everyone simply left enter LEL David who used to live in the original Red Oak and when he returned after a few decades there was basically nothing there he bought a property not too far from from that location and then decided to rebuild it in his very own way he actually purchased and brought in several buildings from the other ghost

towns in the area and placed them on his farm to give the image of a ghost town that resembled the original Red Oak he put in some sculptures that he created along the way as well now you do have to admit it it was a clever idea and it obviously made him happy so really who are we to judge number 15 Elkmont historic district when you look at a map of the United States you may think that the areas on the map are all filled in and easy to see everything that's in it but that's

not always the case there are various parts of the map that are full of things like parks that can easily hide something that if you don't know where to look you're not going to find and the Elkmont historic district was one such place in Tennessee this was one that was built by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park what began as a logging town in 1908 for the little River Lumber Company eventually morphed into a vacation village for those who enjoyed fishing trapping and hunting given the area that they were in it's not really hard to

picture them seeing something like this and then enjoying it to the fullest you have to remember back in those days that people didn't have things like electronics and movies and such so people were all for going to places that were full of nature to experience them in every possible way eventually once the logging industry had gone down a bit all kind kind of things began happening to the district including the government getting involved and trying to do something with it which never really panned out the district is still there today it's just that you have

to go looking for certain signposts in order to find it and it's really easy to miss but if you do end up finding it it's a place where you can visit for free and you may just have a nice and natural Adventure number 14 Sero Gordo being honest I'm sure that some of you are a little bit disappointed with the ghost towns that I've shown you so far because none of them really scream of the old Wild West days that are depicted in films and shows and the towns don't really wreak of the danger that

had once existed in these places but allow me to fulfill all of your wishes by talking about sarog Gordo a place that could be found in Death Valley and was once a booming silver Town it was also a place that was Infamous for its death rates and no not because of mining accidents or being overheated by the Desert Sun it was Infamous for not having any kind of law enforcement to keep the peace so with a lot of people being there and a lot of whiskey being spread around it all led to all kinds of

fights which then went on to all sorts of death these people were dropping like flies because there was no one to stop the flies from fighting it got so bad that the town's doctor even ran away because he was afraid of getting injured himself fast forward to now and that ghost town has a population of two people that's right two people actually live there and one of them is the caretaker of the land in a weird way that might be the most peaceful ending to a town that went through so much Carnage number 13 Okanogan

Highland ghost towns finding gold in the Western United States was a big reason why so many people expanded to the other side of the country in those days and even though places like California and Nevada had the biggest boom areas of the bunch others like Washington had their own booms which led to various towns being built some of those towns could be found in the Okanogan Highlands this was a place just south of the Canadian border where gold was found both in the nearby creeks and by the cirk mountains that was all it took for

various communities in those places to be built and people to flood in to try and make it rich the problem naturally was that while the terrain was rich for a time it soon became much too difficult to get the material out of the ground you have to remember that back in those days Prospectors and miners had only the most basic of tools in order to help them get things dug up they all had a limit and when that limit was reached people began to leave the area in droves if you were to visit there today

however you may find yourself looking at kind of a time capsule buildings from those towns still remain in the highlands which showcases a time that time forgot and helps you see just how people lived there when the booms were big number 12 Burke now let's head a little bit South to talk about Burke Idaho a place that is sadly yet another ghost town that was once thriving you could even argue that Burke had things a bit better than other ghost towns simply because it had not one but three big minerals for people to go to

for silver lead and zinc all three of which were vital to the United States back then and really even now however while it did Thrive at times it also had some bitter conflicts between both the people who had helped to run the town and those who had helped to get the materials out of the ground for example there were major labor strikes and there was even a mining War plus due to the rather rugged terrain the people had to make burk's housing with various architectural tricks in order to Ure that everything was going to work

for example part of the train station was actually in the hotel lobby however as you would expect it just couldn't keep on going forever after several natural disasters and years of decline in the mid 20th century Burke mining operations finally ceased in 1991 with the closing of the star mine fast forward to now and while there are people who live in the general area of the ghost town there is no official residency there that's sad because the area was once thriving it's really still a beautiful area today it's just that nobody's willing to go and

be there number 11 Fort Eggbert how about another Twist on the ghost tale Saga by now some of you may be thinking that the United States was just a little bit irresponsible at times for allowing various ghost towns to be formed while not having serious oversight to ensure that they were going to be safe and that their people were protected I mean after all there were plenty of towns that might have had the boom moniker but that didn't mean that everyone was winning the riches a tale as old as time you might say the government

did try to make some attempts to keep things stable and safe which also included making places like Fort Eggbert in Alaska this was during the Klondike Gold Rush and the government made this fort to act as a military base while also watching over the local areas until they could make a self-sustaining government now if you don't get what that means what I'm saying is that the military basically ran the place until elected officials could be put in Instead Fort Eggbert was designated as the first station in the Washington Alaska military cable and Telegraph system a

network of telegraph lines connecting Alaska with the contiguous United States various members of the US military resided in that town until 1925 when the relay station burned down effectively making it just a bit useless and now now only certain buildings from the fort remain number 10 nevadaville Ghost Town despite what the name May imply the first town in this final 10 entries was actually in Colorado Timing and naming is everything as you hopefully know what made this town so interesting for a time was that it was almost ruined but the people ensured that it endured

a fire destroyed over 50 buildings in 1861 and the town then rebuilt and reached its peak in 1880 with a population of over a thousand people sadly by the time they had done that the gold that they had come to the town for was already dried up and that would put a huge burden on the place eventually only a couple of people remained but perhaps the most odd thing about this place is easily that there's a masonic lodge there that still has members that come in for meetings that's not at all suspicious in the slightest

now is it number nine Colonel allensworth State Park remember the town that I told you about before that featured a group of African Americans coming together to have their own place and be free of racism and being held down well that wasn't the only attempt to make that kind of thing happen while Colonel allensworth State Historic Park is what it's called now it used to simply be called allensworth it was another farming community that was set up by African-Americans to have a place that they could truly call home black Farmers ranchers Craftsmen and business owners

from all around the country had moved to the place and sadly it didn't last long due to outside factors one of which was the water supply not being what they needed in order to last the other was that the colonel had soon passed away and he had been the driving force behind it all and today the state park still exists there in order to honor the attempt that was made by the group number eight Eerie Street now they did not name a town after a street though that would not be the weirdest of things after

all you've heard of French Lick right in Arizona there used to be a town called L and it was a mining area that was near Bisby and it was your classic style of Boom Town but that's where the twist comes in to help expand the copper mine that they had they had to destroy a lot of the residential areas in the town which meant that a lot of people eventually ended up moving out which slowly led to the town's decline eventually the only thing that would be left was Eerie Street and it's very eerie to

go there today because it looks a lot like it's in its pristine condition despite having nobody lived there for decades that's because a group of volunteers help to keep it clean on a regular basis number seven kencott now you may be thinking that there are a lot of ghost towns in Alaska simply because of the harsh terrain and the fact that it takes us certain kind of person to live there but that's not actually true plenty of people do live in Alaska and there have been multiple movements to go there due to various booms which

include both gold and copper in fact when kencott Alaska was born it was not just another copper mine Town it was the copper mine town as in it was the richest copper mine in the entire world in the 27 years that the mine was in full operation the company behind behind the town made more than $100 million and that Prosperity is what led to the town growing like it did eventually the mine had shut down because the copper was tapped out and the town was abandoned soon after number six kuster Ghost Town located in Idaho

kuster was a town that honestly should never have been as big as it was but because of circumstances that took place in other towns it soon got an influx of people which then led to it being rather robust for a time here that timing coincided with various Booms that took place in the area which had made it something that people wanted to come to that was until everything dried up the people left and the town was abandoned for a time however there are those that have tried to maintain it over the years a few private

cabins the town Schoolhouse and even the Empire Saloon have all been restored and maintained in their 19th century State some people do truly love preserving the past and we should all be grateful for that number five Cairo this town was the exact opposite of the Cairo in Egypt as it was not dry in the slightest it was actually a river town that boomed when the steamboat industry was taking place in the United States in fact this town was perfectly placed at a Confluence of both the Ohio and Mississippi rivers ironically it did keep going once

the industry was replaced by trains however due to both natural conditions like flooding and various racial tensions in the area the town soon went bust and it's truly a shell of its former self today number four Calico Ghost Town when it comes to the Calico Ghost Town in California things are just a little more interesting than you might think you see it was originally your standard Boom Town in California with its specialty being silver but when things went bus there the state decided to turn it into the Calico Ghost Town Park they turned the ghost

town into a full-on tourist attraction and even rebuilt the ghost town in Parts in order to help make it look like it did back in the 1880s as if that wasn't enough a certain Terminator of a governor even proclaimed the place as the official silver Rush ghost town of California number three Eckley miners Village how about another ghost town that was saved for a rather random reason we're heading all the way back to the other side of the United States as we're going to Weatherly Pennsylvania and that's where you will find the Eckley miners Village

this was a village that was mainly comprised of European immigrants and the town itself was made by the various coal miner Barons who had tried to use that town to both keep their workers while also ensuring that they made money off of them obviously the town then went bust eventually and then Shan connory entered the picture no really Shan connory was part of a movie called The Molly magars which was about an Irish mining gang and the town which was well preserved would be chosen as the setting for the film after that it was donated

to the Pennsylvania historical and Museum commission for preservation number two Batu Village we'll stay on the Eastern side of the United States now to talk about the bat stew Village a place in New Jersey where you can find some immaculately preserved buildings some even note that it looks newly built despite being rather old what was the material of choice for this town well that be iron it was one of many key ironworking locals that went South when the industry waned the last person lived there in 1989 and yet 40 of the buildings are still present

to remind people of what was there in New Jersey and here you thought that people only cared about the Jersey Shore number one bod State Historic Park I showed you one Lawless Town earlier so now how about we end up with another that would be bod California another mining town that was feared for how Rowdy that it could get and all of the ways that people would find to harm each other just to get rich or or maybe to get even yet even with all of its problems it was one of the bigger towns that

we've talked about on this list by 1879 bod was boasting a population of about 10,000 people it also had 65 saloons 50 mining companies a thriving red light district in the north end of town and the worst reputation in the state as you may have guessed that would then come to backfire on them as the mines were depleted and the people left by the thousands to try and make their fortunes elsewhere however today the bod State Historic Park remains to remind people of what was and how dangerous that the boom times were well that's about

all from the various ghost towns of the world that were once something special and now they're just something a bit sad how do you see these towns and which ones do you feel are the saddest of the bunch perhaps there's another ghost town that could have ended up on this list be sure to let me know all about it in the comments down below check out the other cool things that are showing up on the screen and I will see you next time