A Georgia ghost town has ties to the state's Gold Rush

There are thousands of abandoned "ghost" towns across the United States, including one in Georgia that's considered one of the country's first "Gold Rush" communities.

Why it matters: While many of them are no more than memories, a few hundred still have free-standing structures or museums you can visit.

Yes, but: Many of these places are disappearing with time due to newer towns or by nature.

Zoom in: Auraria in north Georgia's Lumpkin County is the state's most well-known ghost town.

• Established during Georgia's Gold Rush in the late 1820s and 1830s — well before California's — the town began to decline as a federal mint and businesses opened nearby in Dahlonega.
• More than $20 million in gold was extracted from the land surrounding the town, according to a 1962 Atlanta Constitution article. Several buildings remain.

Zoom out: Other famous ghost towns include Bodie, California, an abandoned gold mining town turned state historic park, and Capitol City, Colorado, a remote town near Telluride created in the hopes of becoming the state capital.

Between the lines: Geotab has mapped out more than 3,800 of these places but the data isn't conclusive.

• In this map, the locations of ones confirmed to have at least some sort of building ruins are shown.

Go deeper with a 1962 Atlanta Constitution article about Auraria