Over the years, the American West’s ghost towns have developed plenty of lore, and they’ve drawn plenty of curious visitors seeking a glimpse into the “Wild Wild West” of years past. Out this way, you can find some fascinating and famous ghost towns in California, Arizona, and Nevada, yet you might be wondering which ones are actually worth visiting.
To help you figure out which ghost towns near Los Angeles make a fun road trip, we’ve put together a handy cheat sheet. Here’s a concise collection of cool ghost towns near Los Angeles that you’ll want to grace with your presence.
Llano del Rio
Where is Llano del Rio, and what is its story? Long story short, Llano del Rio was a utopian socialist commune east of present-day Palmdale in the Antelope Valley. Founded by lawyer, ordained minister, and activist Job Harriman after he lost the 1911 and 1913 LA mayoral elections, Harriman drew enough investors to help him secure this 9,000 acre site in an alluvial plain—hence the name, Llano del Rio.
Ironically, Harriman made some typically capitalist moves—such as establishing a company and selling shares of stock—to set up and grow his new socialist utopia of Llano del Rio, and he even decided to make it a racially segregated (as in, whites-only) community. Initially, Harriman actually found several hundred idealistic socialists who were inspired by his promise of guaranteed work and communal living. But over time, food shortages, internal strife, and the failure to secure water rights led to Llano’s demise in 1918 (and subsequent transformation into one of the desert’s ghost towns near Los Angeles).
Nowadays, if you drive about 20 miles east of Palmdale along the CA-138 highway, you can spot some remains of the original (c.1914) Llano del Rio commune. In addition, if you’re traveling during the winter season, you’ll probably get some great views of the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains.
16850 Pearblossom Highway (CA-138), Llano, CA 93544
68 miles from Los Angeles
Bodie
If you’ve ever wanted to dig into California mining history, and you want to see something besides the usual stops at Old Town Sacramento or Sutter’s Mill, add Bodie to your historic ghost towns itinerary. Nestled in the Bodie Hills of Mono County, Bodie looks and feels like the ultimate throwback to a different era, one when California was a faraway fantasyland where anyone could strike it rich… If they knew where to look.
About 10 years after James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill (in present-day Placer County), a group of prospectors discovered gold in these hills. One of the prospectors who hit pay dirt was W.S. Bodey, who sailed all the way from New York and did the full journey around Cape Horn to reach California. You could say he got lucky, except that he died in a blizzard less than a year after he found that gold. This town was later named after Bodey, except that the name changed multiple times over the years, until it finally became Bodie.
Like poor W.S. Bodey, the town of Bodie fell onto hard times once the discovery of the Comstock Lode sparked the silver rush that drew prospectors across the state line to Northern Nevada. Bodie did enjoy a revival and subsequent growth upon the discovery of a new gold ore in 1876, but this gold rush didn’t last long. Despite another hot period of gold mining in the early 1890s, Bodie’s population gradually dwindled until the final local mine closed in 1942. Today, you can come to Bodie State Historic Park and see for yourself one of the most famous ghost towns in California.
Highway 270, Bridgeport, CA 93517
(From U.S. Highway 395, look for Highway 270, then turn and proceed for about 13 miles to reach Bodie.)
356 miles from Los Angeles, 202 miles from Sacramento, 193 miles from Fresno
Goldfield (Nevada)
If you’re a fan of the Discovery series Ghost Adventures, you probably already know about this ghost town along the U.S. 95 highway that snakes through the Nevada desert between Las Vegas and Reno. Yet beyond the spooky made-for-TV lore, there really is a true story of Goldfield that truly is stranger than fiction (and, for that matter, reality TV).
As the name suggests, gold was found here in 1902, and Goldfield quickly exploded in population and wealth. In 1904, Wyatt Earp and his brother Virgil came to town—Virgil was soon hired as a deputy sheriff, yet he died of pneumonia just a few months later. In 1906, the town hosted the “Fight of the Century” lightweight boxing championship match between Joe Gans and Oscar “Battling” Nelson. And in 1908, the cattleman and gambler turned mining and real estate mogul George Wingfield opened the Goldfield Hotel, a magnificent four-story palace of a hotel where Champagne famously flowed down the front steps on opening night.
Yet, once the Goldfield Hotel opened, the town’s fortunes suddenly took a turn for the worse. As the local ores became harder to mine, the prospectors moved away. Then, after a flash flood in 1913 and a moonshine fire in 1923, more people moved away. It wasn’t until many years later when Goldfield would be rediscovered as a hauntingly beautiful remote desert outpost. Hollywood eventually came to town to film movies like Vanishing Point (1971), Cherry 2000 (1987), and The Stranger (1995). Then, of course, Ghost Adventures began filming episodes here in 2008, and the rest is showbiz history.
69 Columbia Avenue, Goldfield, NV 89013
342 miles from Los Angeles, 188 miles from Las Vegas
Rhyolite
If you’re planning a big adventure at Death Valley National Park, you might be wondering if you can squeeze some more interesting side trips and rest stops onto your itinerary. Fortunately, you’ll find a mind-blowingly eye-catching place to stop near Highway 374 soon after you cross the Nevada state line.
As has become a familiar story, Rhyolite suddenly burst onto the map following the discovery of gold in the nearby Bullfrog Hills in 1905. Steel magnate Charles M. Schwab (not to be confused with Charles R. Schwab, founder of his eponymous bank) bought the Montgomery Shoshone Mine the following year, then invested in everything from electric and telephone infrastructure to schools and hospitals to make Rhyolite a full-fledged boomtown. Yet after the richest gold ore was exhausted, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake hit, and the 1907 financial panic took hold, Rhyolite went bust just as quickly as it boomed.
Fast forward to 1987, when Rhyolite suddenly took a new life thanks to the State of Nevada declaring a nearby sliver of rugged terrain to be the new Bullfrog County. This was in the early days of what would become a decades-long fight over the U.S. government’s plan to open a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. Though Bullfrog County would later be abolished in 1989—and the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project would be dropped in 2010—Rhyolite has gone on to become an open air art gallery, a curious monument to Nevada’s fascinating past, and simply a cool place to stop while checking out all the hot spots in and around Death Valley.
1 Golden Street, Beatty, NV 89003
267 miles from Los Angeles, 127 miles from Las Vegas
Calico
These days, you’ll spot a few signs along the I-15 freeway alerting you to Calico Ghost Town. Most folks doing the drive between Los Angeles and Las Vegas tend to pass right by Calico, since it lacks the visible excitement of LA’s Sunset Strip or the world-famous Las Vegas Strip. But if you really want to dive deep into the rich history of this region, Calico Ghost Town really is worth the stop.
In 1881, this remote corner of the Mojave Desert suddenly sprang to life upon the discovery of silver in the mountains. This soon became the Silver King Mine, and San Bernardino County Sheriff John C. King saw his own stock soar thanks to his decision to finance the prospectors who found silver here. Calico quickly grew into a real boomtown, and the boom continued with the discovery of colemanite (a critical ore of boron) around 1890. At its peak, Calico drew in prospectors, entrepreneurs, and dreamers from all around the world, yet the one-two punch of silver devaluation and the end of borax mining proved to be death knells for Calico in the early 20th century.
Fortunately for Calico, an important “family member” later came to its rescue. Remember John C. King? His nephew, Walter Knott, started to find success at his farm when he began growing and selling boysenberries. He really made it big when he opened a farm stand in Orange County that would later grow into the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park in 1940. In 1953, Knott orchestrated a sort of “homecoming” when he bought the old Calico town site, and it’s since been restored and preserved as the county park that lets visitors walk back in time to one of the most iconic ghost towns near Los Angeles.
36600 Ghost Town Rd, Yermo, CA 92398
132 miles from Los Angeles, 144 miles from Las Vegas
Pioneertown
A Joshua tree grows by the trading post in Pioneertown, near Palm Springs. Photo by Gary Bembridge, made available by Flickr.
With so much to see and do in and around Palm Springs, why bother driving to some random ghost town near Yucca Valley? Well, as the saying goes, appearances can be deceiving. This ghost town isn’t quite like the other ghost towns near Los Angeles, and that just adds to Pioneertown’s unique allure.
Though Pioneertown was originally designed to look like an 1880s mining town, it was actually founded by the actor Dick Curtis in 1946. You can say this was a very early prime example of a mixed-use development, as Curtis intended Pioneertown to become a year-round residential community and a motion-picture set for anyone who needed an “Old West” backdrop for their movies. Hollywood A-Listers like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers soon invested in Pioneertown, and this town would go on to provide a prime filming location for 50 movies and TV shows.
Though Pioneertown isn’t much of a working film set any more, it’s still a working town that’s open to the public every day of the year. Even better, you can now peruse a variety of boutiques in town, including art studios and a saloon, plus you can even stay the night at the lovely Pioneertown Motel. Sure, this may not be like the other historic ghost towns we recommend, but Pioneertown simply has that “it factor” that we simply can’t ignore.
53626 Mane St, Pioneertown, CA 92268
131 miles from Los Angeles, 31 miles from Palm Springs
Goldfield (Arizona)
Wait, didn’t we already talk about Goldfield? Actually, this is a different Goldfield—This Goldfield sits about 40 miles east of Phoenix, near the exurb of Apache Junction and at the foot of the Superstition Mountains.
As is the case with Nevada’s Goldfield, Arizona’s Goldfield got its name thanks to the abundance of gold in the area that led to a sudden mining boom in the 1890s. Goldfield got its own post office in 1893. Yet after mining magnate George Ulysses Young arrived that same year, the boomtown got its second/alternative name of Youngsberg. While Young would go on to build a successful career as a politician—he would later become Arizona’s Secretary of State, and he was the acting governor who signed the Arizona Constitution into law in 1912—Goldfield had a rougher go at it. The town enjoyed a few brief revivals in the 1910s. But after George Young suffered a brutal accident at his Derby Mine in 1920, both he and his adopted hometown fell into tragic decline. Young died at his home near Derby Mine in 1926, and Goldfield lost its post office that same year.
Nowadays, Goldfield Ghost Town sits right across the street (in this case, Apache Trail/Arizona Highway 88) from the beautiful scenery of Lost Dutchman State Park, and it serves as a welcoming gateway to the spectacular Sonoran Desert wilderness of the Superstition Mountains. Even if you travel with folks who aren’t really into Old West history, they’ll probably still love the scenic drive here.
4650 N. Mammoth Mine Road, Apache Junction, AZ 85119
417 miles from Los Angeles, 40 miles from Phoenix
Now That We Have These Ghost Towns Near Los Angeles on Your Radar, It’s Time for You to Get Out and Explore.
A look at a pottery studio and boutique in Pioneertown. Photo by Gary Bembridge, made available by Flickr.
With our easy, breezy Mediterranean climate and cool cosmopolitan culture, it might seem exceptionally hard to associate Los Angeles with the Old West and its hallowed ghost towns. But if you know where to go, you can find some exceptionally beautiful and fascinating ghost towns near Los Angeles. From the radically volatile boom-and-bust cycles of Goldfield (Nevada) to the (motion) picture-perfect Mane Street of Pioneertown, you have a lot of great options for historic ghost towns to visit for your next road trip.
We’re glad you stuck with us for this entire ghost town journey, and we hope you now have some great ideas for future trips. Stick around here at LA Digs, and we promise you’ll find even more expert tips and advice to help you make the most of your travels.
