What causes ghost towns?

[rockhound]

I have been doing some research on ghost towns and have noticed some interesting things that have contributed to a towns decline. Industry most of the time has a big impact on a towns growth or longevity. Location also has a big impact on their survivability. Water and food, in the past have been big factors, as have raw materials. In looking at some of them, there is no one thing that is responsible for their demise. It seems that several factors contribute to causing a town to become desolate. I have noticed that in my area some small towns are in the process of becoming a ghost town unless circumstances change. Most were doing alright until the interstate or main highway system was rerouted around them. Now without the influx of traffic, they are slowly dying. When looking at other towns all over the US, there seems to be no pattern to their survival or extinction. In the waestern states most were started because of silver, gold or other metals. When these ran out the people moved on to other towns where they could find work. Some were abandonded because of no water or drought which dried up all available water. There are ghost towns in almost all the states. With the current state of economy, many others are dwindling in population as people loose their jobs and move into other areas or other states looking for employment. rockhound

 

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[TabWhisperer]

Around Colorado and the plains many towns were along wagon trails or the Pony Express. It seems trains would have put them out of business if the rail didn't follow the same routes. Eventually some towns along the rail lines died off when the railroad stopped running in some areas. In one town I'm a little familiar with the town continued without the railroad by running moonshine along with the help of a nearby sheriff. Supposedly the stills blew up and the town was done since it had no commerce.

 

[Brian C.]

One town that I have detected vanished around 1860. At that time the road between London and Sarina came into effect. The post office was to far from the road, so it went a mile north to meet the new road. The town was depending on the flow of people coming into the town, at the time there were about 100 inhabitants. It slowly vanished, there was a mill there, I am not sure how long it might have operated after that. The history of the town had it move 4 times over several years, why I am not certain. As mentioned in the other post, the railroad had a lot to do with the survival of any town, if it went a mile further away from the village, it might have been to far to buy food or load crops, winter would have had a lot to do with this as well. I know of another old town where the rail road went one mile north. People like to have everything close, sort of like to day, people park in a handicap spot, Evan though they are not injured in any way. Nt

 

[Bum Luck]

Supposedly the stills blew up and the town was done since it had no commerce.

I think you've hit on the magic cause!

No still, no economy = ghost towns.

 

[homefires]

Down here in the South West , the rail road and mining made more then a few Ghost towns.

Tracks and towns supported mines.

Small and Not so Small towns sprang up. Mines Closed, Town and people moved on. Tracks closed, Town and people moved on.

Down here in New Mexico along the border is a good example of thing.

http://sites.google.com/site/ghostsofthesouthline/towns

 

[jeff of pa]

the end of the Railroad & Coal mines.

and the Civil war seem to be the 3 Contributing factors
to most of the Ghost towns in my area.

There are some areas here where the only access was the railroad,
so when it Closed, People no longer wanted to travel 20 miles
on foot or horse to go shopping.

During the civil war many of the towns also
lost all their Miners to the War.
after the war most didn't come back
either due to death or found something More Productive to do.

Now Jobs & the economy are creating more.
Like My town. there are no Decent paying Jobs in the area.
People die, or move off, Houses sit & Rot, Till
somone Buys the land on speculation
of strip mining when everyones Gone.

 

[spartacus53]

There are more reasons for ghost towns than you can shake a stick at... They are dotted all over NJ, each town abandoned for prior reasons given and other reasons... With not such a bright looking economy, I bet we'll see a lot more in the near future

 

[ivan salis]

basically there were two main causes of ghost towns in the old days - lack of money or lack of water --- so long as a town had drinkible water and money to fund it --it lived - lack of work , roads and railroads being diverted upping cost of doing bussiness and diverting income , whatever the reason --if theres no income the town slowly dies off bit by bit --lack of water would kill it rapidly --- a large fire or a disease outbreak are other rapid death type causes of a small town.

 

[spartacus53]

Ivan, you left out undesirable location, like a flood plain area. Today, there are just too many reasons small towns don't make it.

 

[NicktheMainer]

Ivan, you left out undesirable location, like a flood plain area. Today, there are just too many reasons small towns don't make it.

There's a town in Maine that has been completely submerged in water for the past 50 years.

 

[spartacus53]

NicktheMainer, I bet all the inhabitants of that town has swimmies (water-wings)

 

[Cleetus]

The Pony express outposts went deserted, not because of lack of water or the Railroad coming, but because of the advent of the Telegraph. Many small outpost had to be established for the Pony Express, that only lasted 2-3 years. They mostly followed the stage stops that had already been established, but the the Stagecoach stops where 70 miles apart. An additional stop was required in between these. Besides these main stops, 2-3 more additional stops were required, called "swing stops" to change horses. Many can still be located , though they are simply a depression in the ground. It was common procedure when traveling the Stage routes and other trails, for people to bury their valuables outside of camp for the night, then retrieve in the morning, in case of robbery. Robberies did occur and Indians learned there were always regular targets of opportunity at or around these outposts. Travellers were attacked and occasionally killed to the last man . So the valuable items were never retrieved. Much of this can be documented if you have the drive to do the research. Here is a great small book, nice photos and map co-ordinates, of the Pony Express route across Utah. From here it continues on through Nev following roughly, HWY 50 , This is a PDF read version: http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/blm/ut/2/index.htm The route across Nevada and what is now Nevada is well documented, also. At one time the eastern 1/2 of of Nevada was Utah, or "Deseret" as it was called. I just add this as it helps when reading old maps. "Deseret" will be used prior to the Mormon/U.S War of 1859. Mark Twain (then Samuel Clemens), and Sir Richard Burton both give accounts of their stays at various posts along these routes.

 

[Sam 8]

All the research I have been doing on G-towns of Nevada and portions of Ca. lately leads me to believe these towns were born to serve the railroad or mining industries in one capacity or another. If/when those industries dried up or moved elsewhere, the town followed in short order.
Sometimes, during times of war, when minerals became critical to the war efforts, towns were temporarily resuscitated, but the party seldom lasted.

 

[LLanos]

Oil

In my area, it was oil pure and simple. Oil was discovered in this area in the 1920's. Towns sprang up overnight. Refineries and carbon black plants were everywhere. When the oil played out, They scraped everything down to the ground and moved on. Lots of old foundations are all that's left.

 

[TreasureWriter]

We have many ghost towns in North Central Pennsylvania; more than the Western States. Most people wouldn't think of Pa as having ghost towns however throughout the 1800's these mining, logging and oil towns would spring up and when the resources ran out the whole town would move. Towns such as Peale Pa had over 300 buildings and 3,000 residents. I have a file of over 30 ghost towns in just 3 counties. At one time Pithole in Venango county was the 3rd largest city in the US! It was an oil boom town; nothing left but foundations. Other times towns such as Austin Pa were nearly wiped out by disasters (dam break) or some towns literally died out because of a disease. We have ghost towns where the government moved people to build dams and even have a few towns that are underwater. Another town; Centralia has had a mine fire burning for decades with smoke coming up from cracks in the streets. If you're looking for ghost towns you've come to the right place!

Check out the North Central Pa Ghost Town Group on TreasureNet to see what we find in these places.

 

[Frankn]

The answer is simple, everyone just gave up the ghost and left. The reason being, the playout of a mine, the moving of a track worker camp, the drying up of water resourses, or a drastic shift in the wheather. There are also other factors like Indian raids and plague.

 

[Moonrover]

Unquestionably the strongest driving factor, as has been noted, is economic. Carry that understanding forward and we see current ghost towns being created. Detroit? Cities that have to seek Chapter 11 protection? They are showing up in the news almost weekly now. Small towns that are financially headed for the bilge tank don't make the national news. Overspent, underfunded. Towns that are heavily dependent on a single factory or industry segment are a ghost town waiting to happen.

Probably none of this wisdom has much to do with treasure hunting, except there is a growing supply of vacancy ... homes ... businesses ... municipal parks ....

There is a modern ghost town out west that grew up around a single industry. Uranium mining. Mine closed, so did the town. Empty streets, houses, school, sports facility. It is on a main highway. There is one forlorn gas station still making a feeble effort to survive. I looked at the town with Google Earth.

I live in what is considered an upscale midwest community, but all around here there are signs of a decline. Huge building projects setting unfinished, and one massive retirement village and care facility that is complete, but fenced with signs ... No Trespassing. The project was mega-millions. This decline is not the result of a single industry dependent town. It is due to a town that is dependent on the incomes of formerly upper middle class and wealthy people who are losing jobs across the spectrum of production industry, and service industry. I'm living in a future ghost town!

M

 

[TreasureWriter]

In North Central Pennsylvania we have dozens; possible well over 100 ghost towns that sprung up and disappeared just as quickly that were centered around the coal mining and lumbering industries. When the mines played out and the mountains denuded of all of their timber in the 1800's through early 1900's the people moved along with the mining and logging companies to the next area that they would log or mine. Often they would deconstruct the homes and buildings and take the materials with them. We have ghost towns in the middle of the wooded areas today with hundreds of cellar holes and many smaller towns as well. We also have relatively newer ghost towns like Centralia that has a mine fire burning under it for 50 years or more and towns that are under water where dams have been built.

You can see some of the information on these towns in the PA Ghost Town Group here on TreasureNet.

Cheers

 

[Marbleguy]

I live in one. Trona,Calif. 5,000 people lived here once. Now there is only a handfull. I have spent every day during the last ten years excavating artifacts here. The town is a treasurehouse. It's like an Easter Egg hunt every day.