13 Ghost Towns Worth Visiting

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Bodie, California

About 75 miles from Lake Tahoe, in Bodie, is where you’ll find one of America’s most perfectly preserved ghost towns. Established in 1876, the former mining town was one of the area’s most heavily populated – and bibulous; as many as 65 saloons lined the streets of Bodie, offering its 10,000 residents an abundance of choices when it came to parking on a barstool. (Rumor even has it that there was a red light district.)

The frivolity came to a halt in 1932, when a fire destroyed most of Bodie’s business district, forcing residents to relocate. There aren’t many buildings left to speak of, but those that remain look exactly as they did 82 years ago – stocked shelves and everything. Just don’t try and make off with an unauthorized souvenir; an alleged curse will follow anyone who disturbs the site.

Getting there: Bodie State Historic Park is open year-round to visitors, but winter hours can vary depending on weather conditions. Translation: May through October is the best time to plan a visit.

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Seattle Underground, Washington

Beneath the city of Seattle is the ghost town of, well, Seattle. In the aftermath of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which decimated the city’s entire central business district, it was determined that the best way to rebuild would be to do so one story higher. Which meant that an entire collection of business storefronts had literally been buried underground when new sidewalks were constructed.

Or at least that was the rumor. As part of his efforts to save Pioneer Square, Seattle Times columnist-turned-historian Bill Speidel set to determine the veracity of these claims. It turns out they were true. In 1965, Speidel and his wife, Shirley, conducted their first subterranean tour of what was once the city’s ground level. And though Speidel passed away in 1988, the tours continue on a daily basis today.

Getting there: Bill Speidel’s Underground Tours kick off every hour on the hour daily in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. (They begin at Doc Maynard’s Public House, an underground – and restored – 1890s saloon.)

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Machu Picchu, Peru

Attracting nearly one million visitors per year, one of the biggest misconceptions about Machu Picchu, according to Davis, is that it was some sort of “lost” city. “When actually it was only ‘lost’ in the imagination of Hiram Bingham,” the American explorer-turned-U.S. Senator who rediscovered the site in 1911. “If you go to Machu Picchu, you see the evidence of the network of rural roads that connected it back to the heart of the empire,” he says.

Situated 7,970 feet above sea level on the eastern slope of the Andes, the site – which was abandoned during the Spanish Conquest in 1572 (122 years after it was built by the Incas) – is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for most visitors. For Davis, who has visited Machu Picchu at least 40 times, it’s also a place for personal discovery. “When you do revisit a site literally dozens of times over a lifetime, it’s not just that you’re learning new things about the site; you can’t help but learn more things about yourself,” says Davis. “In that sense, you can trace your memory to times of almost beguiling innocence to deeper levels of knowledge both of yourself and, more importantly, the place where you are.”

Getting there: PeruRail offers several morning train departures from Cusco to Machu Picchu, which includes one transfer and takes approximately four hours.

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Kolmanskop, Namibia

Kolmanskop is yet another case of urban development gone wrong, in the Namibian Desert no less. After the discovery of a diamond nearby in 1908, prospectors flooded the area with the hopes of striking it rich. And the facilities they built in Kolmanskop – including a hospital, school, theater, and power station – are a testament to the potential wealth they saw buried here. What they didn’t bank on was World War I, and the diamond price crash that would follow.

Eventually, all of Kolmanskop’s state-of-the-art structures became too expensive to maintain, and by 1954 the town was completely deserted. Today, one of Kolmanskop’s most striking features is the harsh terrain upon which it was established; visitors must wade through several feet of sand in order to tour the area (yes, even indoors).

Getting there: Tours of Kolmanskop must be pre-booked, and a valid passport must be presented.Lüderitz Safaris & Tours offers daily tours.

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Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat was home to about 50,000 people, most of them employees of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and their families. So when the destruction of Reactor No. 4 led to the worst nuclear power accident in the history of the world on April 26, 1986 – sending radioactive clouds as far away as Norway – the town of Pripyat cleared out, too, in a hurry. The deserted homes, schools, hospital, and (particularly creepy) theme park of Pripyat appear in the exact state of abandonment in which the townspeople quickly left them (1980s propaganda posters and all).

Getting there: Because radiation levels have dropped significantly since the disaster of 1986, touring Pripyat is now legal, though you will have to carry a radiation detector and certain official papers are required. The best way to navigate this process is with a tour group like SoloEast Travel, who offer full one- and two-day tours of the area starting at $149 per person.

Photo: Bill Gracey/Flickr

Chaco, New Mexico

When one thinks of the best places for touring ancient dwellings, Greece, Egypt, and Italy quickly spring to mind. But smack dab in the American Southwest is the area’s densest collection of pueblos, dating back to the year 850 A.D., which showcase the impressively ahead-of-their-time organizational, engineering, and masonry skills of the pioneering Pueblo population with 15 major complexes. Located within Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Chaco was a major cultural center between 900 and 1150 A.D. but became an early victim of climate change; residents began migrating out of the canyon shortly after the arrival of a 50-year drought in 1130 AD.

Wade Davis and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Chaco Canyon during the making of Greg MacGillivray’s IMAX documentary, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk. “It’s just a very humbling thing to see the scale of places like Chaco Canyon or Mesa Verde and realize that [we] had these sort of networks of roads and a pretty high level of civilization complexity that were clearly wiped out, if you will, by climactic change.”

Getting there: As part of the U.S. National Park Service, visiting Chaco is a simple – and multi-optioned – affair. Enter at the Visitor Center, which features an information desk, museum, theater, bookstore, and gift shop. A paved road offers self-guided trails to five major Chacoan sites, each of which takes an hour or less to visit. There are separate trails for biking and hiking and from April through October, there are a number of specialized hikes and programs, including astronomy events courtesy of the Chaco Night Sky Program.

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Oradour-sur-Glane, France

On June 10, 1944, the tiny town of Oradour-sur-Glane, in west-central France, became the site of one of World War II’s worst massacres when Nazi soldiers invaded and killed all but six of the town’s inhabitants (leaving a final death toll of 642 men, women, and children). In an effort to preserve the memory of the people who perished here, the French government – under orders from then-president Charles de Gaulle – insisted that the village be left exactly as it was found. The only addition to this eerily beautiful memorial is a sign at the entrance that urges visitors to “Souviens-Toi” (“Remember”).

Getting there: For those who choose to drive, The Centre de la Mémoire visitor center offers ample free parking. Alternatively, one can take a train to Limoges and travel the additional 15 miles toOradour-sur-Glane via taxi or bus.

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Nevada National Security Site

A former nuclear testing site may not be everyone’s idea of a good time, which is just fine by the United States Department of Energy which operates the 1,360 square miles of desert and mountains that were previously known as the Nevada Test Site. Its public tours (which are free) happen only once a month, offer an extremely limited number of spots, and fill up quickly. If you do manage to snag a reservation, you’ll venture about an hour outside of Las Vegas and cover 250 miles of NNSS terrain, including Frenchman Flat, site of Able, the area’s first atmospheric nuclear test on January 27, 1951. Just don’t expect to bring home any souvenirs; cameras, cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices are not allowed, nor are shorts, skirts, or sandals.

Getting there: Though all 2014 tour dates are already full, you can add yourself to the wait list by completing an official “badging form,” which can be downloaded online, then faxing or mailing it back to the Department of Energy’s Nevada Field Office.

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Rhyolite, Nevada

LikeKolmanskop, the failed promise of wealth led to the downfall of Rhyolite, Nevada. Founded in 1904 near Death Valley National Park, the promise of gold served as a great temptation for early investors likeCharles Schwab, who sank a ton of cash into developing the town (which he purchased in 1906) as a cultural center. By 1907, Rhyolite hadits own school, a hospital, a stock exchange, hotels, shops, two electric plants, and even a symphony. But within a few years it became clear that there was no gold, and so the town became more popular as a western movie set.

Getting there: Rhyolite is part of Death Valley National Park, which is open daily year-round.

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Berlin, Nevada

Though it dates back to the turn of the century, Berlin didn’t have much of a history. At its peak, it had about 250 residents, most of them silver miners. When they were denied a raise in pay in 1911, they took off – even leaving many of their belongings behind (which remain in place today). The town, which is comprised of 13 structures and a cemetery, is now part of Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, home to the 225-million-year-old fossils of several ancient marine animals. Which makes for at least two great photo ops.

Getting there: Tours are given daily at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park.

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Hashima Island, Japan

The future wasn’t kind to the residents of Japan’s Hashima Island, which is sometimes called Gunkanjima or Battleship Island (because of its shape) or Ghost Island (because of its residential population). At its peak in the late 1950s, approximately 5,200 coal miners and their families lived on the island because of its easy access to the nearby undersea mines. But then along came petroleum, which replaced coal as the country’s main fuel source during the 1960s, and the island’s population of miners packed up and moved on, leaving what looks like an abandoned battleship in their wake.

Getting there: In 2009, the site opened up to visitors, though the weather will determine whether you’ll be able to sail around the island or actually step foot on it. Tour operator Yamasa Kaiun offers two daily cruise departures.

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Centralia, Pennsylvania

Tragedy struck this Pennsylvania coal mining town in 1962, when a fire at the local dump kindled an exposed vein of coal, which in turn ignited an underground fire that, over the course of the next two decades, eventually destroyed nearly every building, home, and structure in its path. Centralia, a tight-knit community of 1,400 residents, was transformed into a ghost town. The fire is still raging on today, and some scientists believe it could take another 250 years to fully extinguish it. But that fact hasn’t convinced all of the town’s residents to relocate; approximately 10 of them remain today, including more than one priest.

Getting there: Because toxic gases and subsidence are still very much realities in Centralia, it’s not a tourist type of “ghost town.” And the truth is that there’s not much to see in Centralia today, which probably explains why so many people drive right through (local routes 42, 54, and 61 all pass through it) without ever knowing its history. If you do drive through, use caution and common sense: Heed any and all signs against trespassing and dangers, and if you see steam and/or smoke rising out of the ground (a common occurrence), remember that a faraway glimpse can equally satisfy your interest.

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Flagstaff, Maine

The conditions need to be just right if you want to see any part of Flagstaff, a now-underwater town in Maine that was submerged in 1950 to make way for a hydroelectric dam. And even then we’re not promising you’ll actually see anything. But because not all of the buildings were removed at the time of its flooding, you can still get a peek at a few chimneys and rooftops.

Getting there: It’s best to let an expert like Jeff Hinman, who runs a two-and-a-half-hour pontoon boat tour, guide you.