12 Forgotten Ghost Towns In California That Are Beautifully Eerie
Had enough of the same old weekend plans? Binge-watching Netflix again? What if we told you California holds adventures far more thrilling and Instagram-worthy than your living room?
Imagine stepping onto a deserted movie set, but it’s all real: tumbleweeds, creaky saloons, and an otherworldly quiet. We’re talking about 12 beautifully eerie ghost towns, hidden gems that offer a unique escape from the everyday.
They’re cinematic, hauntingly beautiful, and begging to be explored. Choose how you want to journey into the past… and prepare to be captivated by California’s most forgotten, yet utterly unforgettable, places.
1. Bodie
Morning fog drifts through the weathered wooden structures of Bodie, creating an atmosphere that’s both melancholic and magical. Once home to 10,000 gold-hungry souls, this remarkably preserved town now stands frozen in time at 8,400 feet elevation in the Eastern Sierra.
I’ll never forget rounding that final dusty bend in the road and seeing Bodie spread before me like a movie set without the cameras. Inside the buildings, pool tables remain mid-game and store shelves still display goods from the 1880s.
The state maintains Bodie in a condition of “arrested decay,” meaning nothing is restored. Only preserved exactly as it was found, making it America’s most authentic ghost town experience.
2. Calico
Rising from the colorful hills that gave it its name, Calico once produced over $20 million in silver during its 1880s heyday. Unlike most ghost towns, Calico underwent extensive restoration in the 1950s under the direction of Walter Knott (of Knott’s Berry Farm fame), transforming it into a living museum.
Today’s visitors stroll wooden boardwalks past 500 mines that once defined this boomtown. The original schoolhouse, jail, and several miners’ cabins remain, while the cemetery on the hillside tells silent stories of those who never left.
Though commercialized, Calico’s authentic core and dramatic desert setting still evoke the spirit of the Old West mining era.
3. Cerro Gordo
Perched at 8,500 feet in the Inyo Mountains overlooking Death Valley, Cerro Gordo feels like stepping onto the edge of the world. This once-thriving silver town produced so much wealth it was credited with helping Los Angeles grow from a small settlement into a major city.
The American Hotel, general store, and several miners’ cabins stand in varying states of decay against the harsh mountain elements. Recent private owners have begun careful restoration efforts while maintaining the site’s haunting authenticity.
The winding, treacherous road up to Cerro Gordo mirrors the difficult lives of those who once sought fortune in this isolated outpost. Violence once claimed a life per week.
4. Ballarat
Named after an Australian gold mining town, Ballarat emerged in 1897 as a supply hub for nearby mining operations. The town’s weathered adobe walls and wooden structures seem to shimmer in the desert heat, creating mirages of its former life.
During my visit last spring, I sat on the porch of the crumbling general store as a dust devil swirled through what was once Main Street. The caretaker shared stories of Charles Manson, who apparently used Ballarat as a temporary hideout, adding a dark chapter to its already colorful history.
Today, only a handful of structures remain, including the jail and a few scattered foundations. Silent sentinels in the harsh Panamint Valley landscape.
5. Panamint City
Panamint City began as an outlaw hideout before silver discoveries transformed it into a booming mining town. The settlement’s remote location made it notoriously difficult to access, earning it the nickname “the toughest, rawest, most hard-boiled little hellhole that ever passed for a civilized town.”
A devastating 1876 flash flood destroyed much of the original town. Today, adventurous hikers who make the challenging 7-mile trek are rewarded with stone ruins, mining equipment, and the town’s iconic 25-foot brick smelter chimney still standing defiantly against time.
The isolation that once protected outlaws now preserves what remains from vandalism and excessive tourism.
6. Randsburg
Randsburg defies the typical ghost town narrative by refusing to completely die. Founded after a gold discovery in 1895, this Mojave Desert town still maintains a population of about 70 resilient souls who live among the relics of its mining heyday.
The town’s main street features the still-operating 1904 General Store where miners once traded gold dust for supplies. On weekends, visitors can enjoy a phosphate at the Randsburg General Store soda fountain, a tradition unchanged for over a century.
Mining equipment rusts quietly alongside inhabited historic buildings. it creates a surreal blend of past and present where you might spot a local resident walking past abandoned structures that once housed thousands during the gold rush.
7. Darwin
Nestled in the shadows of the Darwin Hills near Death Valley, this former lead and silver mining town peaked with 3,500 residents in the 1870s. Now, fewer than 40 hardy souls remain, creating an unusual blend of ghost town and living community.
I drove through Darwin last autumn, where a longtime resident explained how the town survived when others failed. “We’re too stubborn to leave,” he laughed, pointing to the abandoned mine headframes that still dot the landscape.
Darwin’s cemetery tells the most honest story of boom-and-bust mining life. Wooden markers with faded names stand alongside unmarked graves of miners who came seeking fortune but found only their final resting place.
8. Shasta
Brick facades stand like Roman ruins along what was once the busiest thoroughfare in Northern California’s gold country. Shasta, now preserved as a state historic park, was once called the “Queen City of the Northern Mines” during the 1850s gold rush.
The town’s unique brick buildings create a distinctly different ghost town aesthetic than their wooden counterparts elsewhere in California. The partially restored courthouse now serves as a museum housing artifacts from the town’s prosperous days.
Behind the imposing brick storefronts, most buildings are hollow shells. Their wooden interiors long since collapsed or burned, creating dramatic frames for the oak-studded hills beyond.
9. Drawbridge
California’s most unusual ghost town isn’t in the desert or mountains but slowly sinking into San Francisco Bay’s southern marshlands. Drawbridge began in the 1880s as a railroad stop on a narrow island and grew into a community of 90 buildings.
Environmental changes, including subsidence and rising water levels, forced residents to abandon their homes by the 1950s. Today, the remaining structures lean at precarious angles, gradually surrendering to the marsh.
Unlike other ghost towns, Drawbridge cannot be visited up close, it’s protected within a wildlife refuge and visible only from passing trains or designated viewing areas, adding to its mysterious allure as the Bay Area’s forgotten community.
10. Goffs
Goffs emerged in 1883 as a crucial railroad stop in the eastern Mojave Desert, later gaining new life when Route 66 brought a stream of westbound travelers past its doorstep. The restored 1914 schoolhouse stands as the crown jewel among scattered ruins of this once-vital transportation hub.
When I visited during a cross-country road trip, the caretaker showed me the old railroad scales where millions of pounds of ore once passed through this seemingly insignificant spot. The desert has reclaimed much of Goffs!
But schoolhouse remains as a time capsule of early 20th-century desert life. The town’s water tower foundation and scattered mining equipment create a poignant tableau of how quickly civilization can disappear in the harsh Mojave.
11. Keeler
Once a bustling port town on the shores of Owens Lake, Keeler’s fate was sealed when Los Angeles diverted the water that fed the lake, creating one of America’s worst environmental disasters. As the lake dried, toxic dust storms replaced shipping activity, driving away all but the most determined residents.
The abandoned train depot, processing plants, and shoreline equipment rust quietly along what was once a thriving waterfront. A handful of occupied homes stand among dozens of abandoned structures, creating an eerie juxtaposition of life and decay.
Keeler represents a cautionary tale of environmental consequence. The vast salt flat that was once Owens Lake stretches to the horizon, with abandoned pier posts marking where water once lapped at the town’s edges.
12. Skidoo
The name “Skidoo” originated from the popular 1890s expression “23 skidoo” meaning “get out while the getting is good”. Ironic for a town that boomed and busted within a decade. Once, it supported 700 residents and produced over $1.5 million in gold.
Today, stone foundations and the massive stamp mill ruins are all that remain visible to visitors. The town gained notorious fame when its citizens lynched a man named Joe Simpson—the only execution in Death Valley’s history.
Unlike more accessible ghost towns, Skidoo requires determination to visit. The remote location and minimal remaining structures create a haunting sense of how completely a once-thriving community can disappear into the desert landscape.