BODIE, CALIFORNIA: Once home to 10,000 people, Bodie boomed in the 1870s
and '80s, when gold was found in the hills surrounding Mono Lake. It's now
a State Historic Park. (Photo by Tom Till / Alamy)
 | CAHAWBA, ALABAMA: The state's first capital takes its name from the state's longest river, situated
at the confluence of the Cahaba and the Alabama. It was abandoned after the Civil War. (Photo by Stephen Saks) |
 | BALLARAT, CALIFORNIA: This turn-of-the-century mining town on the way to Death Valley
still sees some visitors who camp overnight rather than make the 3.5-hour drive back to Los Angeles.
(Photo by Thomas Hallstein / Alamy) |
 | BANNACK, MONTANA: The first territorial capital of Montana, Bannack is known for Sheriff Henry
Plummer, a convict who reinvented himself as a lawman while secretly orchestrating stagecoach heists with
a band of brigands. His success was short-lived, though, and he was found out and later hanged by vigilantes
on January 10, 1864. (Photo by Rob Crandall Stock Connection Worldwide/Newscom) |
 | ELKHORN, MONTANA: Now a state park, a few dilapidated buildings still stand in this former mining
town south of Helena. ( Luc Novoitech / Alamy) |
 | ST. ELMO, COLORADO: This is just one of many ghostly villages in Chaffee County, Colorado,
a veritable goldmine of historic boomtowns. (Photo by John Elk) |
 | TERLINGUA, TEXAS: A former center of cinnabar mining, the ore from which mercury is extracted,
Terlingua is now a gateway to Big Bend National Park, the wild, southern wilderness of Texas.
(Photo by Bill Herndon / Flickr) |
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