Ghost Towns and Abandoned Mines
Some places refuse to be forgotten. The buildings are empty, the streets are gone, and the people have been gone for decades, but something still lingers in the air of a ghost town that no other kind of place can replicate. I have been exploring these sites for years, drawn in by the stories they hold and the silence they keep.
Below you will find every ghost town and abandoned mine I have visited so far, each with its own history and its own reason for ending up the way it did. More are being added as I find them.
For a broader look at what pulls me toward these places, I wrote about exploring ghost towns and mines across the Southwest.
Visited Ghost Towns and Mines
Out in the remote reaches of southwestern New Mexico, Old Hachita is a ghost town that the desert has nearly swallowed whole.
Born from a silver strike in 1875 and once bustling with over 2,000 people, the town faded fast once the silver ran dry. As a result, only scattered ruins, open mine shafts, and the silence of the Chihuahuan Desert remain to tell the story. Honestly, it is one of the most remote stops I have made and one of the most memorable.
Tucked away in the rugged hills of southern Arizona near the Mexican border, Ruby is one of those places that time quietly walked away from.
Once the state’s largest zinc and lead-producing mine, this privately owned ghost town tells a story of boom, bust, double homicide, and a manhunt that made history. Additionally, the schoolhouse, general store, and jail still stand as reminders of the 1,200 souls who once called this place home. If you only visit one ghost town in southern Arizona, make it this one.
Deep in the Arizona desert outside of Quartzsite, Swansea is a copper mining town that once housed over 5,000 people and now sits as a collection of empty foundations and rusting relics. Founded in 1908 and abandoned by the 1950s, the desert has been slowly reclaiming it ever since. Today it stands as a quiet reminder of Arizona’s boom and bust mining days.
Along the forgotten stretches of Route 66, the desert holds onto its secrets like no other place on earth.
Indeed, Two Guns, Arizona is one of those places, a crumbling ghost town with a past soaked in outlaws, murder, treasure, and a zoo that should never have existed. Moreover, the ruins are still there, slowly fading back into the landscape, just waiting to be explored. Route 66 history, outlaw legends, and a ghost zoo make this one worth adding to your list.