Ghost Towns

I should have realized the recent A-Hed piece in the WSJ that starts off with a Ghost Town in Italy was not going to be about what I think of when I hear the words "ghost town." There are at least two definitions.

The one I think about is some dusty, tumbleweed outpost in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Montana or California that contains a few wooden buildings of warped clapboard that are just about falling down, that were once the center of life when the veins in the local mines were producing, or the railroad was still running and making stops. It's Black Rock, with no one in it.

Then there are ghost towns that are said to possess manifestations of paranormal happenings, ghosts, the spooky Halloween kind. These ghost towns have places for you to stay in the with the hopes that your luggage will unpack itself, or there will be a knock on your door in the middle of the night and no one will be there. Haunted.

The A-Hed piece headline and sub-headline go: Travelers Discover Vacationing In a Ghost Town Can Be Grim: Abandoned locales pitch longer stays, but visitors say that's too spooky.

The story opens with a traveler visiting Fossa, Italy, "a town deep in the middle of the country that was abandoned after a 2009 earthquake. Hardly a gunslinger Western locale that had dancing girls in the saloon, roulette wheels and card tables, and the occasional shootout.  

It took Ramy Awad and his fellow travelers three days to find Fossa. GPS directions kept sending them in circles. They heard voices, but were followed around by a drone that flew overhead for the next three days. At that point they got out of Dodge.

There is nothing that no one keeps track of, and that includes ghost towns. We love numbers. The  reporter Kailyn Rhone tells us in the States there are more than 3,800 deserted towns, according to "a company that provides data analytics, including GPS locations, Geotab."

Geotab open to a website of stunning photos and a narrative about the abandoned places in America's West. You really could plan a vacation with these place on the itinerary.

Berlin, Nevada

Thus, there are ghost town hunters who are looking to have their like to amble through town and take lots of pictures.

Kailyn Rhone describes a pair of women who sought out Gunslinger Gulch, Montana. I love trying to see that places might look like using Google Earth. Gunslinger Gulch, on the outskirts of Anaconda, Montana they stayed in 1880s-style cabins and joined in for a "ghost hunt."  When one of them felt themselves being pulled out of bed they considered cutting their stay short, but stayed for the days they paid for. Isn't that what they wanted? To be scared to death? Stay longer.

Google Earth doesn't come down to details, but does show a few buildings at the foot of some mountains. It does look like it's in the middle of nowhere. In fact, it would be the definition of nowhere.

Want to buy a ghost town? You can. Asking about ghost towns for sale yield a website that offers a few: $250,000-$1.25 million, complete with numerous abandoned buildings and even a few squatters. There is nothing that can't be bought.  

Considering Geotab claims that there are 3,800 ghost towns, the few that are for sale shows you that the towns are either owned by the public, or privately held.

Go west, while supplies last.

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