Ghost town

A ghost town is a town that has been abandoned, usually because the economic activity that supported it has failed or because of natural or human-caused disasters.

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There are many ghost towns in the American Great Plains, whose rural areas have lost a third of their population since 1920. There are more than 6,000 abandoned sites of settlement in the state of Kansas alone, according to Kansas historian Daniel Fitzgerald. Ghost towns are almost stereotypically common in mining areas: Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Montana, and California in the western United States and West Virginia in the eastern USA. They can be observed as far south as Louisiana, Georgia and Florida. They are also seen in Northern Ontario, British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador (see outport) in Canada, as well as in parts of Australia. Old mining camps that have lost most of their population at some stage of their history, such as Central City, Colorado, Aspen, Colorado, Virginia City, Montana, Tombstone, Arizona, Park City, Utah, or Cripple Creek, Colorado are sometimes included in the category, although they are active towns and cities today.

Related Topics:
Great Plains - Kansas - Mining - Colorado - Arizona - Nevada - Montana - California - United States - West Virginia - Louisiana - Georgia - Florida - Northern Ontario - British Columbia - Newfoundland and Labrador - Outport - Canada - Australia - Central City, Colorado - Aspen, Colorado - Virginia City, Montana - Tombstone, Arizona - Park City, Utah - Cripple Creek, Colorado

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Other factors leading to abandonment of towns include natural resources such as water no longer being available, railroads and highways bypassing or no longer accessing the town as was the case in many of the ghost towns along Ontario's historic Opeongo Line, shifting economic activity elsewhere, human intervention such as highway and river rerouting (see Aral Sea), and nuclear disasters (see Chernobyl). Chance significant fatality from epidemics has also produced ghost towns; for example, some places in eastern Arkansas were abandoned after near-total morbidity during the Spanish Flu pandemic.

Related Topics:
Railroad - Highway - Opeongo Line - Aral Sea - Chernobyl - Epidemic - Arkansas - Spanish Flu

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In Europe many villages were abandoned over the ages, for many different reasons. Sometimes, wars and genocide have ended a town's life, and it is never resettled. This happened to the Swedish town Sjöstad, in Närke, in 1260, when the town's 700 merchants had crossed the ice of lake Vättern and been cut down by the Danes. The Danes then proceeded to the town and ravaged it and burnt it down. The town was never resettled. A farm named Skyrstad, Ruins and a silver treasure which yielded 4000 coins are all that testify to its existence.

Related Topics:
Villages - Sjöstad - Närke - 1260 - Vättern

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See Abandoned village. This process continues to this day, with the village of Etzweiler in northwestern Germany being abandoned in the 1990s to make way for a coal mine http://www.xs4all.nl/~kazil/etzweiler.html http://diggelfjoer.swalker.nl/index.php?main=aband&sub=abandetz.

Related Topics:
Abandoned village - Etzweiler - Germany - 1990s - Coal

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The city of Prypyat and dozens of smaller settlements in northern Ukraine were abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and turned into a closed alienation zone. It has been largely untouched since then, and as such is a large time capsule of the late Soviet era.

Related Topics:
Prypyat - Ukraine - Chernobyl nuclear disaster - Alienation zone - Time capsule - Soviet

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Following the 1974 turkish invasion in Cyprus, the southern part of Famagusta, also known with the name Varosha was abandoned by its original inhabitants without being settled. While the problem is not resolved, Varosha is a ghost town.

Related Topics:
Cyprus - Famagusta - Problem

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Jonestown in Guyana became a ghost town following the mass suicide of the People's Temple community that lived there.

Related Topics:
Jonestown - Guyana - People's Temple

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Ghost towns may also be created when land is expropriated by a government and everyone living there is told to leave, such as when NASA needed a rocket propulsion testing center and built the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, which required a very large (approx. 500 square kilometers) surrounding buffer zone because of the loud noise and potential dangers associated with testing huge rockets. This created abandoned communities and roads overgrown in the middle of the forest. There are also underwater ghost towns brought about by the building of dams. A good example of this would be the settlement of Loyston, Tennessee, which was inundated by the creation of Norris Lake. The settlement was reorganized and continues to exist today on nearby higher ground.

Related Topics:
Expropriated - NASA - Rocket - John C. Stennis Space Center - Mississippi - Buffer zone - Dam - Loyston, Tennessee - Norris Lake

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Some ghost towns are tourist attractions, especially those that preserve interesting architecture. Visiting, writing about, and photographing them is a minor industry. Other ghost towns may be overgrown, difficult to access, or illegal to visit.

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A few ghost towns even manage a second life, often due to the tourism surrounding ghost towns of historic note propogating an economy able to support residents. Walhalla, Australia, for example, was a town deserted after its gold mine ceased operation. Owing in part to its relative accessibility and partly to proximity to other attractive locations, Walhalla has had a recent surge in economy and population.

Related Topics:
Walhalla - Australia

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A recent attempt to declare an "Official Ghost Town" in California collapsed when the adherents of the town of Calico, in Southern California, and those of Bodie, in Northern California, could not come to an agreement as to which of their favorites was more deserving.

Related Topics:
Calico - Southern California - Bodie - Northern California

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See also: List of ghost towns

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