Nevada’s Forgotten Ghost Towns: 7 Eerie Relics of the Great Basin’s Boom-and-Bust Past
NEVADA — Tucked into the remote, high-desert landscape of the Great Basin are seven ghost towns that seem suspended in time — remnants of Nevada’s explosive mining era that rose with gold and silver, then faded into silence.
These towns once buzzed with activity, but today, they offer visitors a quiet yet haunting look into what was, and what might’ve been.
Rhyolite: A Desert Town Built Big — Then Left Behind
Rhyolite wasn’t your typical scrappy mining outpost. In its prime around 1908, it had over 8,000 residents, electricity, a three-story bank, an opera house, and more than 50 saloons. It even had its own stock exchange.
Today, the town is a shell of its former self, but you can still walk past the crumbling train depot, the Bottle House (built with over 50,000 beer bottles), and peek at the remnants of the once-grand bank building.
Venture past the main road and you’ll find weathered miner cabins, collapsed mine shafts, and rusted tools slowly sinking into the desert sand.
Belmont: A Legal Legacy and Quiet Cemetery
Belmont is one of the few ghost towns that still sees occasional visitors — some even own summer cabins here. What sets Belmont apart is its remarkably preserved 19th-century courthouse, complete with woodwork and original documentation still inside.
Scattered throughout the area are stone mill ruins, weather-beaten but defiant, and a cemetery where a few descendants still leave flowers, maintaining a gentle link to the past.
Berlin: Protected by Time and State Parks
Part of Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, this ghost town is a snapshot of Nevada’s mining history frozen in place. Berlin boasts a rare intact stamp mill, one of the few still standing in the West.
You’ll also find bunkhouses, mining carts, and rusted-out equipment nestled along hiking paths. With low humidity, many artifacts remain surprisingly well preserved, making it an open-air museum of the mining boom.
Goldfield: From Boomtown to Nearly Empty
Once Nevada’s largest city, Goldfield exploded in 1906 with more than 20,000 residents. It featured the most luxurious hotel between Chicago and San Francisco, and the largest mines in the state.
Today, the Goldfield Hotel is one of Nevada’s most famous haunted sites — a grand shell of its former opulence. The town’s old high school is now shuttered and crumbling. A few residents remain, but the atmosphere is eerie, with abandoned buildings lining dusty roads.
Eureka: Living History on the Loneliest Road
Located on U.S. Route 50, famously dubbed the “Loneliest Road in America,” Eureka isn’t entirely abandoned. A few shops still operate, but the feel is undeniably old-world.
The Sentinel Museum, housed in a historic brick building, contains 1800s-era newspaper equipment, and scattered around town are mining relics and wagons that hint at the once-bustling silver industry.
Hamilton: A City Burned and Buried by Time
Hamilton’s story is one of dramatic rise and repeated destruction. By 1868, it was Nevada’s second-largest city with 12,000 residents. But fire after fire razed it, and today, all that remains are stone foundations and the skeletal ruins of the courthouse.
Wander through the hills and you can still find the traces of roads and a forgotten cemetery, buried in the sagebrush and swept by relentless wind.
Pioche: The Wildest of the West
Dubbed one of the most dangerous towns in the Old West, Pioche was so violent that it’s said more people were buried from gunfights than illness. California lawmen were brought in just to establish order.
Today, ore buckets from the old tramway still dangle mid-air, suspended like forgotten ornaments above the desert. The courthouse, once so financially burdensome that it sat empty for years, is still standing. There’s even a reportedly haunted 1940s-era hotel, but the real ghosts linger in the dark shafts of the surrounding hills.
Why These Towns Still Matter
These ghost towns are not just relics. They are living museums of America’s mining frontier — places where stories seep from old walls and echo in empty saloons. Whether you’re a history buff, a photographer, or just someone chasing quiet beauty, Nevada’s Great Basin offers a time capsule of the West most people overlook.
Have you visited any ghost towns or abandoned places that stuck with you? Share your experience with us at SaludaStandard-Sentinel.com.
