Unit 5: Week 5

Most went bust because of economic failure—all the gold or silver was mined or the cattle were driven to another market town.

Loading all of their possessions in Conestoga wagons with billowing canvas tops, settlers seeking independence moved westward to homestead farms, staked a mining claim, or set up storekeeping in a new town.

Yet, over time, people came to refer to the sawmill as "Sutter's Folly" as the land of John Sutter was overrun with prospectors.

In ghost town cemeteries, names of the dead were sometimes scrawled on rough boards.

"With a large number of vacant cabins it contained several empty buildings and quite a large hotel, closed and silent."

Although ghost towns can be found throughout the world, in the United States they are most often thought of as the mining camps, cowboy towns, and other settlements of the sprawling western frontier.

Although ghost towns can be found throughout the world, in the United States they are most often thought of as the mining camps, cowboy towns, and other settlements of the sprawling western frontier.

They were a mix of Americans and immigrants—Germans, French, and other Europeans, and gold seekers from China and Chile, along with British convicts from Australia.

They laid out streets and put up buildings in hopes of growth and prosperity.

In 1860, a letter to the editor of the Rocky Mountain News from the new settlement of Breckinridge, Colorado, read: “A few very respectable looking women have ventured over to see us. Send us a few more.”

Perched on mountain cliffs, tucked into a wooded valley, or baking in the desert sun, these ghost towns are so remote that they are almost impossible to find.