Top Ten Ghost Towns in Nevada

Visit safely, and leave things as you find them

These sites are remote. Cell service can fail. Summer heat is hard on people and cars, and high camps get snow and ice. Bring extra water, food, sun protection, a full tank of gas, and a paper map. Tell someone your route.

Stay out of abandoned mines and unstable buildings. The Nevada Division of Minerals warns the public to Stay Out and Stay Alive. For more on mine hazards, see our page on abandoned mines in Nevada.

Do not take artifacts, fossils, boards, or trash-pile “souvenirs.” On federal land, artifacts and fossils belong to the government, and permits are required to remove them, according to the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office. The Antiquities Act of 1906 is one of the federal laws that protect archeological sites on public land. Nevada State Parks also forbids removing or damaging historic structures, artifacts, or fossils. Stay on roads, respect private property, and leave gates as you find them.

The ten places at a glance

This is the same list of ten names that was on the live page, corrected and put in an order that helps a Las Vegas reader plan. Mile figures below are only those found in sources checked on November 10, 2026. Other rows describe the route, not a measured drive time.

Closest to Las Vegas: Rhyolite and Goldfield

Rhyolite

Rhyolite is a true ghost town in the Bullfrog Hills of Nye County, about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, near Death Valley National Park. Prospectors found gold in 1904, and the town rose in 1905. Scholarly estimates of the peak population are about 3,500 to 5,000, not 10,000. The boom faded after the ore declined and after the financial panic of 1907.

The Bureau of Land Management manages the Rhyolite Historic Area. It is four miles west of Beatty on State Route 374. It is day use only; camping is not allowed. The Cook Bank ruin and a bottle house made of glass bottles are the buildings most visitors come to see. The Goldwell Open Air Museum, with outdoor sculptures, sits on private land next to the townsite. Beatty is the place to get gas and supplies. See also homes in Beatty.

Goldfield, Nevada

Goldfield, Nevada, is not a deserted movie set, and it is not the tourist camp of the same name in Arizona. Gold was found here in 1902. By 1906 the town had about 20,000 residents and was briefly the largest city in Nevada. It became the Esmeralda County seat in 1905 and still is. The 2020 census counted 225 residents. The town is about 188 miles northwest of Las Vegas on U.S. 95.

Historic buildings include the Goldfield Hotel, the county courthouse, and the old high school, in a National Register historic district. There is no Superstition Mountain mine tour, zipline, mystery shack, or staged gunfight here. Those belong to Goldfield, Arizona. If you go, treat Goldfield as a small living town.

Want a shorter outing from the valley? Contact Diana about day-trip planning, or see places to visit near Las Vegas by car.

Central Nevada: Belmont and Berlin-Ichthyosaur

Belmont

Belmont was established after a silver strike in 1865, in Nye County north of Tonopah. A rumor that 15,000 people lived there is unlikely. The whole county did not reach 9,000 people until 1980. A more careful estimate is about 2,000 in the 1870s. The Nye County courthouse dates to the 1870s, and the county seat moved to Tonopah in 1905. Some buildings still stand, including mill ruins. This is a longer trip than Rhyolite or Goldfield.

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park protects a ghost town built in the 1890s and a major fossil site. The park covers 1,540 acres on the west slope of the Shoshone Mountains, 23 miles east of Gabbs. Mining in nearby Union Canyon began in May 1863, but the Berlin Mine itself was established in 1896. At its height, Berlin and nearby Union supported 200 to 250 people, not “over 300.” The town was empty by 1911.

Ichthyosaurs swam in a sea that covered this area about 225 million years ago. Fossils here were first found in 1928, and they are shown at the Fossil House. The park is open all year. The campground has 14 sites; some can take RVs up to 25 feet. Water is seasonal. Entry fees apply, and cash or check may be required. Services are in Gabbs, not in Ione. Removing artifacts or fossils is prohibited.

Eastern and northern Nevada: Hamilton, Cherry Creek, Unionville, and Metropolis

Hamilton

Hamilton is an abandoned mining town in the White Pine Range. The state historical marker says the White Pine district’s mines began in 1865, and that in 1868 and 1869 some 10,000 people lived in huts and caves on Treasure Hill, at 8,000 to 10,500 feet. The town, first called Cave City, was renamed for mine promoter W. H. Hamilton. It became the first White Pine County seat in 1869. A fire on June 27, 1873, destroyed the main part of town. Another fire in 1885 burned the courthouse, and the seat moved to Ely. The towns are clustered 11 miles south of the marker on U.S. 50, west of Ely. This is not a 6,000-foot desert flat, and it is not a staffed museum with a stagecoach stop that opens daily. Roads can be rough, and the elevation makes winter travel serious.

Cherry Creek

Cherry Creek is in northern White Pine County, west of U.S. 93 and north of Ely, not 75 miles northeast of Elko. The state marker says Peter Corning and John Carpenter staked the Tea Cup claim in 1872, and that the town’s peak in 1882 was over 1,800 people. The 2010 census counted 72 residents. The Pony Express used a station at the west opening of Egan Canyon, about five miles south, not in Cherry Creek itself, which is also how the National Park Service list of Nevada Pony Express stations records Egan Canyon. Approach from U.S. 93 on a marked road. Respect private property in town.

Unionville

Unionville sits in a canyon south of Interstate 80 in Pershing County. It was founded in July 1861 and was the first seat of Humboldt County until 1873. During the 1860s boom, the population was reported as high as 1,500. In 1862, Samuel Clemens, later Mark Twain, came to prospect for silver and did not stay long. The 2020 census counted 27 residents. Unionville does not appear on the National Park Service list of Nevada Pony Express stations, so that claim is not used here. It is a quiet living hamlet, not an empty park.

Metropolis

Metropolis is a ghost town 12 miles northwest of Wells, not 50 miles east of Wells, and not a mining camp. In 1910 the Pacific Reclamation Company tried to build a farm town in the desert. A dam and railroad spur went in, and the population grew to nearly 700. Water rights, drought, and pests undercut the plan. What remains are ruins, including a schoolhouse arch, not a market, gallery, or motel. There is no town of 100 people selling pies. You are looking at a failed colony on the flats north of Wells.

Often listed, but still lived in: Virginia City and Jarbidge

Virginia City

Virginia City is a living historic town, the seat of Storey County, about 24 miles southeast of Reno on State Route 341. It grew after the 1859 Comstock Lode discovery. In the mid-1870s it may have held about 25,000 people. The 2020 census counted 787 residents. Local folklore says James Fennimore, known as Old Virginny Finney, gave the town its name. It was not named for Queen Elizabeth I. Mark Twain worked as a reporter on the Territorial Enterprise here from 1862 to 1864. Visit it as a historic town with shops, museums, and residents, not as a ghost town.

Jarbidge

Jarbidge is a small, remote community in Elko County, about 10 miles south of the Idaho border, in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest near the Jarbidge Wilderness. Gold was found in 1909, during one of the last gold rushes in the Lower 48. That is not a late-1800s founding. No paved road comes within about 20 miles. Many visitors reach it from Rogerson, Idaho, on Three Creek Road. From Elko, the trip uses State Route 225 and then unpaved county roads that can be closed by snow. People still live here. It is a long way from Las Vegas and is not a casual day trip.

Day trips, neighborhoods, and rural Nevada homes

If you live in Las Vegas or Henderson, Rhyolite is the realistic day trip on this list. Goldfield can be a long day or an overnight on U.S. 95. The rest are weekend drives. For other outings, see places to visit near Las Vegas by car.

Some historic mining towns nearer the valley, or on the way north, still have homes and land. Start with Goodsprings, Beatty (the base town for Rhyolite), or Pioche if you are curious about rural Nevada living. Those pages are about real estate, not ghost-town tourism.

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About Diana Valento

This guide is by Diana Valento, REALTOR® with RE/MAX Reliance. She has 16 years helping Las Vegas Valley buyers and sellers, and she has sold 500+ homes. Nevada license S-0169007. Each Office Independently Owned and Operated.