The ghost towns of Far West
There are so many abandoned places and things in the United States, cities still intact among whose houses you can only hear the rustle of the wind, cars, lots of cars and vans left to rust at the mercy of the natural elements, train cars, mines...
We are accustomed to seeing the glorious and living metropolises of the USA, made of steel and glass, swarming with people and cars; yet they are only one of a thousand facets of this enormous country, which hides a ghostly world among its desert expanses or prairies.
These abandoned settlements are mainly found in the Far West, west of the Mississippi, where in different periods and for different reasons, small settlements were born in inhospitable areas, later abandoned. Some were born during the gold and silver rush, in the 19th century, when small towns were raised up to host the workers of the mines and the searchers of precious metals. When the mining veins were exhausted, they moved elsewhere, leaving behind a cluster of wooden houses, some wagons and a labyrinth of tunnels dug into the rock.
Others were born during the boom of Route 66, which was progressively abandoned until the 1980s, when it was finally replaced by the more modern highways, the Interstates, and the settlements born for the needs of the Mother Road, ceased to exist.
GLENRIO [NM], Route 66
The tiny settlement of Glenrio was built between New Mexico and Texas, two states that had different policies regarding the sale of alcohol, the price of gasoline, and other goods that could be more advantageous to buy in one state than another.
At this border-settlement there were several exchanges, and the storage of goods that had to be brought from one state to another. Crossed by Route 66, the tiny village was gradually abandoned when the mother road was bypassed by the Interstate, and the traffic through this outpost was cut to the bone.
OATMAN [AZ], Route 66
In Oatman you'll get a taste of the Wild West, between inhospitable mountains and sunburnt desert plains. This settlement was born around a gold mine at the end of the 1800s and remained active until the 1940s, when the lode was finally exhausted. Today the access to the mine remains, complete with abandoned rusty tools, a beautiful street lined with creaky wooden buildings housing a couple of bars and gadget shops of Route 66, and a large population of donkeys roaming free in the street.
RHYOLITE [NV]
A small set of carcasses of buildings that fall down. A magnificent abandoned train wagon, skeletons of representative buildings, stretches of rusty cans among the brambles. This city dating back to the early 1900's had a short life, as it saw the birth of banks and stock exchange buildings, which closed during the financial crisis that hit the USA a few years later, when the city was abandoned.
VIRGINIA CITY [NV]
The best preserved of the ghost towns we've come across on our path. Virginia City was also born during the gold rush in the late 1800s, and although it was abandoned during World War II, it has kept its charm and buildings mostly intact. Having been proclaimed a World Heritage Site, the city never really died, and although it meets the definition of a ghost town, you'll find saloons and dress shops in perfect Far West style on the city's main street.
