Ben, You are going to have a ball with this project. A bit of a warning though. Many of the books written about ghost towns are now pretty old. Many of the towns have been vandalized and the buildings burnt, bashed, or otherwise destroyed. Some property owners get pretty touchy is they find you rummaging around the ruins. Check in with the locals, and bring kids if you can. The old folks love to talk about the history of their little part of the world and often will give you a great tour for free, or let you wander off on your own. If you want to wander a bit further, may I suggest visiting the ghost towns of Garnet and Granite in western Montana. Both are located an hour or so east of Missoula. Garnet has been maintained by the BLM, and still has a few summer residents. Granite is just east of Phillipsburg. At one time it was vying with Helena to become the new state capital. Then the price of silver dropped and the town was deserted in a matter of a couple days. The old local Uniion Hotel was pretty cool until a couple drunk Montanans burnt it down in the '80's. Bodie, WA is also a neat place to visit. There are numerous old ghost towns in the NE section of WA dating back to the gold rush days. The same holds true for areas just north in BC and Alberta. Back in those days, peope moved pretty easily between the States and Canada following mineral strikes. |