THEN AND NOW: Vintage photos of haunted ghost towns in the US

Talia LakritzSep 25, 2020, 19:56 IST

Thurmond, West Virginia, then and now.NPS, Malachi Jacobs/Shutterstock

In the ghost town of Kennecott, Alaska, visitors have reported vanishing tombstones and hearing long-dead miners' voices.
Kelly's Saloon in Garnet, Montana, is said to be haunted, with reports of music and laughter coming from the empty building.
The old mining town of Calico, California, offers ghost tours.

Some abandoned towns across the US might not be as empty as previously thought.

With reports of mysterious sounds and sights, these ghost towns have earned their title.

Here's a look back at what these now-barren towns looked like in their heyday.

Garnet, Montana, was a bustling mining town of 1,000 people in the late 1800s.

Garnet, Montana, in 1966. Archives & Special Collections/Mansfield Library/University of Montana-Missoula

By 1917, the mines in Garnet had produced around $950,000 worth of gold.

Garnet, Montana. Archives & Special Collections/Mansfield Library/University of Montana-Missoula

Garnet now calls itself "Montana's best preserved ghost town."

An old building in Garnet, Montana. MISHELLA/Shutterstock

The town sits abandoned today, but the old Kelly's Saloon is said to be haunted, with reports of music and laughter coming from the building.

Garnet, Montana, today. Marty Nelson/Shutterstock

Thurmond, West Virginia, was founded in 1873.

Two steam engines meet at the Thurmond Depot. NPS

Thurmond had two banks, two hotels, a school, a theater, and numerous stores and businesses.

Thurmond School students in 1919. NPS

As diesel locomotives rose to prominence and the supply of coal in local mines ran dry, Thurmond's residents moved elsewhere beginning in the 1940s.

Thurmond Depot. David T. Stephenson/Shutterstock

The abandoned town is now the site of ghost hunts to explore the area's paranormal activity.

Thurmond, West Virginia, today. Malachi Jacobs/Shutterstock

Calico, California, was founded around 1881 as a mining town in the Mojave Desert.

A miner in Calico, California. Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images

In its short time as a populated town, Calico produced over $20 million in silver.

Mining in Calico. Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images

The town only lasted 12 years.

An abandoned church in the ghost town of Calico. tobiasjo/Getty Images

Walter Knott of Knott's Berry Farm restored much of Calico in the 1950s — now, ghost tours are available.

Calico today. tobiasjo/Getty Images

The Kennecott Mining Corporation was founded in 1903 in Kennecott, Alaska.

Kennecott in its glory days. Charles Rotkin/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images

At its peak, around 200 to 300 people worked in the mines, and another 300 worked at the mill in town.

Workers at a kennecott copper mine, May 1966, USA. Charles E. Rotkin/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

The price of copper dropped during the Great Depression, and the supply of copper in Kennecott eventually run out.

One of several structures that still stands in the abandoned ghost mines. cybercrisi/Shutterstock

The Anchorage Daily News called Kennecott "perhaps the greatest concentration of paranormal activity in Alaska's vast lands."

The remains of a mine in Kennecott, Alaska. tjgarvey/Shutterstock

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