Comments on: Strange Geographies: Ghost Towns of California

By: Kate in St. Louis

Kate in St. Louis — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:28:13 +0000

Hubby & I went to Bodie about 23 years ago — in his Buick SkyHawk (nearly left the undercarriage of the car on the road there) — and took some amazing photos, including one involving the truck you’ve included and the church you didn’t show. “Bodie” has become a code word for huge potholes/unimproved roads since then. Thanks for the memories!

By: Nerak

Nerak — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:46:10 +0000

Scotty A, The same thing happened to me.
I closed the page and reopened and it was fixed.

By: Scotty A

Scotty A — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:19:47 +0000

eat article. e letters are still cut off though. ierd.

By: Nerak

Nerak — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:50:09 +0000

Great photography!

There’s Calico Ghost Town near Barstow.
http://www.calicotown.com/
It was an old west silver mining town.

Completely different than those you have posted because it is very touristy, there’s a campground, shops, restaurants, etc.

Just thought I’d mention it anyway though. It’s a little like what Tombstone is in AZ.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:29:40 +0000

Ransom – I idn’t think about the proximity of the state line when I mentioned… but glad you got to see it…

@Leah – There’s an old speakeasy town along the Bay in Alameda Co. called “Drawbridge.” Hard to get to… not sure what all is left out there now. http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/drawbridge.html

Also, for a “Ghost Town”-esque experience that’s easy to reach, check out the closed Naval Air Station on Alameda… Go during the day and bring a friend and a camera. VERY cool. I went on a few photo trips there with another photog. We both have some great shots. Closed military facilities are a trip.

By: Marty

Marty — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:30:57 +0000

That last pic is amazing!

By: Kerstin T.

Kerstin T. — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:50:02 +0000

I enjoyed your article and found myself wishing I had stopped at some of the shanties we saw while driving across the desert a year ago. Cool stuff! Great work!

By: kyle

kyle — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:21:45 +0000

You should really call this article “Ghost Towns of Western Nevada” They are as far removed from what people view California being as they can be.

Currently residing in Ridgecrest, a town of about 30,000, and we certainly regard ourselves of more Nevadian then Californian. Not a ghost town but certainly surrounded by them, and if not for the rather large Navy base that supplies quite a few jobs, would be itself. But that’s why the navy base survives, no nearby towns to complain about the low flying aircraft or explosions.

By: tacanz

tacanz — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:15:00 +0000

there was a documentary called ‘Bodie- ghost town frozen in time’ that I saw on discovery channel or pbs a while back that was really fascinating, there are lots of ghost towns in Nev and AZ that I accessed with a 2wd car.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:42:44 +0000

Awesome, and great pics!

I just saw something over the weekend about Burro tunnel. Took him most of his life, 40 something years or so to dig a tunnel thru a mountain by hand, about a half mile long.

I used to live in Ridgecrest, well, on NAWS China Lake realy, the nearby Navy base. There’s practically nothing there, and so far from anything else, Id bet that if the base werent there, it would probably be much more ‘ghostly’…

Whenever we would drive thru Trona, the smell from all sulfate is just terrible, so we call it Trona-Aroma.