The Official Guide to All of Nevada's Ghost Towns

In its heyday, Aurora was truly a “wild west” town. In 1860, a trio of miners staked their claim—four years later it was a town of 18 mills, newspapers, schools and a hotel. Mark Twain’s book Roughing It, is a memoir of the time he spent living and mining in Aurora before he became a full-time professional writer. Unfortunately, Aurora is not as well-preserved as the nearby ghost town of Bodie, but it still offers some intriguing rubble amidst stunning scenery.

The Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park contains both the remains of a late 19th century mining town and the world’s largest collection of Ichthyosaur fossils. Its park status means that Berlin is better-preserved than most ghost towns. You can peek in the windows of miner’s cabins at zinc bedsteads and iron skillets, admire rusting machinery overgrown with wildflowers and listen to the wind creak through faded mill boards. Want to go back even further in time? Check out fossils of the Ichthyosaurs, a marine reptile that swam the ocean that covered central Nevada 225 million years ago.

Not exactly a ghost town, but a facsimile of one, Bonnie Springs Ranch has a museum, petting zoo, saloon, motel, chapel and mock western village complete with “cowboys” having “gunfights.” The ranch was opened in 1958 by the eponymous Bonnie McGaugh; in 1974 the “Old Nevada” portion was opened as a replica of an 1880s mining town. The museum features old Nevada relics as well as wax figures, and is rumored to be haunted.

The Pioneer Saloon has been pouring for over 100 years. It’s been the location of gunfights and ghost sightings, movie shoots and video games, many shots and many beers. The bar was built in 1913 and the cast iron stove and the bullet holes in the wall are original—the latter from a cards-related gunfight. The Pioneer was built during the boom days of Goodsprings, when it was a lively mining town with homes, shops, churches and even a hotel. Today, the old schoolhouse and the Pioneer remain and you can still stroll down the block for a look at abandoned miner’s cabins and mine sites, as well as a graveyard dating back to the 1880s.