Ghost Towns West

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A long-abandoned silver mine for sale sounded like an adventure too great to pass up, but it turned into much more—a calling, a community of millions, and hard-earned lessons about chasing impractical dreams. “Inspiring and meditative—the story of man vs...

Step into the abandoned settlements of the American frontier, where relentless gold rush dreams met brutal realities. Perfect for your next road trip or daily commute, this atmospheric journey reconstructs the fragile domestic lives, wild mining pursuits, and vigilante justice that defined a...

The story of the American mining frontier can be traced in the ghost towns - from the camps of California's forty-niners to the 20th-century ruins in the Nevada desert. They mark an epoch of high adventure, of quick wealth and quicker poverty, of gambling and gun-slinging and hell-raising. We who have seen too many Western movies sometimes think that the legends of the Wild West were invented by scriptwriters - but the ghost towns remain.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Three lives, one hundred years, one ghost town: an explosive novel about a mysterious place called Sunrise, where the secrets of the past refuse to stay buried, from the award-winning author of The Tiger’s Wife “Masterful . . . [Obreht] delightfully mashes up several...

Explore the haunting history of the American West as you journey through forgotten boomtowns hiding lost fortunes. Perfect for your next scenic road trip or evening escape, this atmospheric travelogue unearths the gritty reality of ambition, risk, and survival on the rugged frontier. Step past...

Three Strangers, 3 days, Trapped in a Ghost Town 100 Years in the Past. Winner, American Fiction Awards Finalist, Eric Hoffer Book Awards Brilliant but burned-out CIA operative Richard Hart has a midlife crisis. He wants out of the intelligence game for good... A CIA operative. A black-site time experiment. A ghost town that shouldn't exist. Three strangers. Three days. Trapped 100 years in the past — and hunted by the dead. 🏆 Winner, American Fiction Awards Finalist, Eric Hoffer Book Awards Burned-out CIA operative Richard Hart wants out of the intelligence game for good. But a career...

Macon Fallon had never needed more than a deck of cards, a fast horse, and a ready gun; he was counting on those things now as he led an unsuspecting group of settlers to an abandoned mining town. But while Fallon prepared to pass the ghost town off as a gold mine in the making, a funny thing...

Throughout Teller County, history lovers can find abandoned towns and forgotten main streets that once bustled with life and commerce. Even before Teller was carved from surrounding counties, the scenic mountains and lucrative mines of the gold rush era brought thousands of settlers and attracted resort owners and tycoons eager to exploit the rich setting. Seemingly overnight, towns in the Cripple Creek District and other places popped up, flush with gold and people looking for opportunity. As the ore disappeared, the miners moved on in search of the next big lode.

Vera Winslow arrived in Santo Tomás, Texas, as a mail-order bride. When the man who sent for her mistreated her, Caleb Delaney —owner of the Casa Texana— stepped in to offer her a job and a roof over her head. Now, Caleb has mysteriously vanished, leaving Vera alone to run a business that isn’t hers while facing pressure from a powerful man determined to wrest it from her. As Vera struggles to keep the store afloat, she discovers the true nature of the man she has lost through the journals he left behind. Meanwhile, a legend circulates along the road between Santo Tomás and Marfa: ...

She thought she’d heard it all. Then the hangman called. Psychic witch Allison Lopez has dealt with angry spirits, ancient gods, and haunted radio stations. But nothing prepares her for the call that comes in during her live show: a man describing the unseen hands squeezing the life from his throat in the dead of night. Desperate to help, Allison heads into California’s high desert, where an old mining town’s bloody history refuses to stay buried. There’s a spirit here with murder in its heart, fueled by anger, greed, and a century-old hanging tree. As Allison’s visions reveal a ...

Grab your pan. Pack your patience. And for heaven’s sake, do not trust every shiny rocks. Gold panning is one of the few hobbies where a grown adult can stand knee-deep in a freezing river, swirl mud in a plastic dish, stare at a speck the size of a flea’s kneecap, and whisper, “This could be it.” Welcome to the ultimate, dirt-under-your-fingernails road trip across America's historic gold country. This isn't your standard, dry history textbook written by someone in sensible shoes. Weird Gold Panning Road Trips is a witty, delightfully unhinged travel guide that takes you past the ...

A historical fiction book set in the Kansas prairie during the late 19th century. Step into a world where dreams are built on barren soil and the ghosts of the past linger in the windswept landscape. In "The Ghost Town," follow Calvin Morgan, a tenacious man determined to carve out a life as a farmer in the unforgiving Kansas prairie. As he battles the harsh realities of lawlessness and despair, his journey reveals the thin line between hope and destruction in the small, chaotic town of Levi. As Calvin arrives in Levi, he quickly discovers a community haunted by tragedy and moral decay. The...

A dime novel for a new age! Tales of the frontier in the terrifying territory of New Golgotha. In the haunted frontier of Lone Creek, resurrected-outlaw-turned-monster-hunter Billy Choate is ensnared by dark forces and a sinister figure known only as the Man in the Crimson Hat. Teamed up with another hunter, Delilah Kane and her spectral coyote, Ash, Billy battles deadly shadows and confronts a past that refuses to die. Every step draws him closer to a fate written in blood—will he break the curse or be forever lost to the darkness? "Shadows of Lone Creek" is a gripping supernatural ...

Local matchmaker and PI Demeter West gets called in to investigate some interdimensional turbulence in the basement of the local library. Over the course of the investigation, Demeter learns some new approaches to tarot work, some local history, some new information about Casper's situation within the multiverse, and some things she didn't know about her husband and daughter.

Are you ready to visit the strangest state in America? Arizona isn't just a state. It's a fever dream baked into red rock and desert sand — where gold mines swallow treasure hunters whole, where ghost towns outnumber living ones, and where thousands of people once watched a massive silent spacecraft glide over Phoenix while the government shrugged and said "probably flares." Weird Arizona Stories takes you on a wild ride through the Grand Canyon State's most jaw-dropping legends, baffling crimes, haunted hotels, desert monsters, and moments of pure human madness that no screenwriter could...

He wanted peace. She wanted to be remembered. Neither expected to find love between the living and the lost. When blacksmith, Earl Bateman, receives a letter addressed to another man—and a shipment of trunks belonging to a woman named Betsy Sweet—he thinks it’s a mistake. Until the nights turn strange. Until the air in his empty house starts to breathe. Betsy died on her way west to marry a man who never met her. Now her spirit lingers, tethered to the forge that bears his name. She doesn’t know why she’s here or what she’s meant to finish, only that the quiet man by the fire ...

They built cities in the desert. They died for gold. They left behind monuments to ambition and ruin. In 1892, a prospector rode into Southern Cross with saddlebags full of gold. Within three years, 15,000 people lived in a town that hadn't existed before. Within twenty, it was dying. This is the pattern that shaped Western Australia: boom, prosperity, collapse, silence. From Coolgardie to Wittenoom: Stories of Australia's Lost Mining Towns Mining Boom & Bust in Western Australia reconstructs the lives behind the ruins—the miners who chased fortune through waterless country, the women who...

Ghosts. Murder. Love. Time Travel. T.P.S.I. Agent Burke Jameson travels to Eagle Gulch, Colorado to investigate a report of ghost activity at a house where a murder took place in 1881. When his vehicle carrying his P.S.I. equipment dies, and a riderless mare appears, he mounts up, hoping the horse will lead him to her fallen rider. What he finds is a whole new life beyond his imagination. Clorinda Halstead believes she’s a widow. After all, she was the one who shot her husband, Horace, on a violent night in 1881. He deserved it, the jury concluded. Living with the town marshal and his ...

Ghosts of Silver Maple Island A Jamie Blackwood Mystery When a promising archaeology student is found murdered at a remote river island in West Virginia, Professor Jamie Blackwood is pulled into the darkest case of his career—one that threatens not only a sacred past, but the fragile peace he’s fought to build. Silver Maple Island is more than an archaeological site. Once home to a major Shawnee settlement and the birthplace of the Seven Nations Consortium, it holds artifacts powerful enough to rewrite history—and valuable enough to kill for. As evidence of professional looting ...

Explore haunting ghost towns and lost Gold Rush communities where ambitious pioneers collided with unforgiving nature. Perfect for your next road trip or an evening of armchair travel, this atmospheric history uncovers the spectacular rise and sudden collapse of the West's forgotten settlements...