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