Ghost towns, old cemeteries, burnt buildings, abandoned parks – there is something about these places that are eerily compelling. So many stories buried in the past seem to come alive every time you visit one of these places. Although these places seem to deteriorate further with each passing day, they have become increasingly intriguing. That is probably because they lend us the power to let our imaginations run wild – to picture what once was and how it could have been.
The United States has some of the world’s spookiest abandoned places. From ghost towns to churches and hospitals, here are 9 of the most abandoned places to visit in America.
1. Rhyolite – Rhyolite, Nevada
The town of Rhyolite, named after an igneous rock, is a ghost town in the US state of Nevada. It was founded in 1905 as part of a group of mining camps that sprung up when news of a gold rush blew up. Rhyolite became the largest of these camps, and eventually turned into a full blown gold rush settlement. Within two years, Rhyolite progressed rapidly into modernity – electricity, telephones, centralized water lines, and an opera house were key characteristics of this bustling town. Not many could have seen the decay that was about to come and make it one of America’s popular abandoned towns.
Rhyolite’s decline was almost as rapid as its rise. Life was good and the town was prospering, but the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the financial panic of 1907 turned out to be back to back blows from which recovery was close to impossible. By 1911, the mines had closed and many unemployed miners had moved elsewhere. By 1920, a mass exodus ensued and left in the remains were the skeletal outline of a town that once was.
It was reduced to a tourist attraction, the ruins a cruel reminder of what could have once been; naturally, it gathered the attention of several Hollywood movies as well, serving perfectly as a dramatically eerie town.
2. Overlook Mountain House – Woodstock, New York
In the 1800s, the mountainous region of Catskills attracted many people’s interests; for its picturesque setting, the region drew several parallels with Europe at the time. From this fascination and attention was born The Overlook Mountain House, one of the first hotels to be built in the region which became immensely popular as the region’s stocks grew and word of mouth started drawing more and more visitors.
Unfortunately, the Catskill Mountain House, which opened ten years later in 1844, proved to be too difficult to compete with after as many as three US presidents visited it and spent extended time using its facilities. The Overlook Mountain House had to eventually close down.
In 1871, a new ownership reopened the hotel for business and expanded to a holding capacity of 300 people. Four years later however, it was forced to shut down due to a fire. It was then reopened a third time, in 1878 and remained so till 1917, before being sold off. It was hit by another fire in 1923, forcing a complete rebuild. Two more fires followed in the 40s and 60s, leaving it to become a burnt, unfinished, and abandoned hotel.
3. The Great Saltair – Utah
When in Salt Lake City, Utah, you’ll definitely hear about the Great Salt Lake (the Dead Sea of America) where you can float on the water. This place is so creepy and abandoned that you will likely be surrounded by corpses of seagulls, swarming flies, all of which come packed with an unbearable stench.
The Saltair is a massive building with Moorish domes, which was constructed to provide a safe recreational space for families in 1893. It was immensely popular for all kinds of events until its pavilion and some other neighboring structures were ravaged by a fire in 1925.
With several such mishaps happening after that one, it was doomed to be shut; perhaps what they didn’t foresee, though, was that it would eventually be arson in 1970 that brought a swift end to their tale.
Still, the management tried to make a third go of it in 1981. The odds of losing to the elements would have been much lower at that point – or so they thought, until the hotel was ravaged one last time by a flood. A brief attempt to rejuvenate it was made once again, but the curse was never lifted and apart from a concert here or there for the novelty value, the Great Saltair has very much seen the end of its tenure. For now.
4. Joyland Amusement Park – Wichita, Kansas
We’ve all seen enough movies to know that nothing can be more unsettling than an abandoned theme park. And thanks to that conditioning, you know you’re going to hear (imagine?) the sounds of past crowds, their piercing laughter all lingering as you take strolls around the abandoned rides.
Joyland was a popular Midwest destination between 1949 and 2004. With wooden roller coasters, bumper cars and a Ferris wheel, this park was a go-to place for good, old-fashioned fun. Over the years, Joyland has lost its charm to fires and auctions and is now left only with graffiti-covered walls, decaying roller-coasters, and sun-bleached ticket booths. As recently as December 2021, a fire broke out at the park which the owner said was devastating – not for the material losses, which he said can be replaced, but for the purported loss of Wichita history.
5. Ohio State Reformatory – Mansfield, Ohio
Prisons are pretty scary and dangerous. Duh. Add to that the setting of the Mansfield Reformatory, which has the reputation for housing the most violent, erratic, “prisoner ghosts” who are said to engage in quarrels even to this day; the result is one of America’s most eerily fascinating abandoned places. Of course, that lends perfectly for a film setting and this prison, over 130 years old, burst into the mainstream when The Shawshank Redemption production used it as its shooting location.
Part of its dark history is a man-hunt that spanned six states, in search for parolees who were, at the time, christened the Mad Dog killers. Their alleged crime? The kidnapping and subsequent shooting down of the reformatory’s farm boss and the entirety of his family.
With that kind of a volatile history, it wasn’t bound to be a place that would exactly thrive – not even as a prison. Eventually, several class action lawsuits were filed by the prisoners and by the 90s, its existence was all but done thanks to the federal courts declaring them shut for providing inhumane living conditions to the prisoners.
6. Orpheum Theatre – New Bedford, Massachusetts
The Orpheum Theatre is an abandoned theater and former movie house that was originally called the Majestic Opera House. The theater was built in Beaux-arts architectural style and had soaring, gilded ceilings – naturally, it was known to be an architectural phenomenon of its time. Much like the other phenomenon of its time, The Titanic ship, which sank on the same day that this theater opened – April 15, 1912.
In addition to a gorgeous stage, the theater included a club, a ballroom, a shooting range and a gymnasium. With a seating capacity of 1500, the theater is believed to be the second oldest in the country. Armed with all this goodness, the theater enjoyed a successful run for close to 50 years, even moving into motion films eventually.
However, the curtains fell permanently in 1958 and the once majestic space was sold to a tobacco company, which promptly turned it into a storage unit as part of its anti-climactic third act.
7. Hudson River State Hospital – New York
Nothing screams creepy like an old, dysfunctional, abandoned psychiatric hospital.
The hospital opened in 1871 as the “hospital for the insane” and admitted its first 40 patients for treatments that included electroshock therapy and lobotomies, which, at best, straddled a grey area in medical sciences, and at worst, were criminally problematic. But perhaps not as criminally problematic as the fact that it remained operational well into the early 2000s, which less than 2 decades ago. It took a while, but the institute was finally shut under the banner of “outdated facility”.
The campus was closed and abandoned in 2003 after which it fell into a state of disrepair. Now, it’s home to ominous looking patient chairs and other such equipment. Like most other places on this list, it hasn’t escaped the wrath of fires and vandalism either.
8. North Brother Island – New York
North Brother Island, located just off the coast of Manhattan, is one of the creepiest abandoned places in the USA. Initially inhabited in 1885 to build a hospital for patients with contagious diseases like typhoid, tuberculosis, yellow fever and small pox, the spooky 22-acre island now remains abandoned.
Riverside hospital was founded in 1850 as the smallpox hospital to treat and isolate patients of that disease. The hospital later moved to North Brother Island and eventually expanded to other diseases that required quarantining. It was also home to typhoid fever’s patient zero, “Typhoid Mary” Mallon.
However, the hospital was rendered obsolete in 1945. After World War 2, the hospital was reopened as a rehabilitative facility for drug addiction. Since the mid 1960s, the island has remained uninhabited and abandoned.
9. Tug Boat Graveyard – Staten Island, New York
What is a boat graveyard, you ask? Well, there isn’t much to it – it is exactly what the name implies, a place where “dead” boats are dumped. The Tug Boat Graveyard is recognised as an official dumping ground for old wrecked tugboats and decommissioned ferries.
Decomposing cargo ships and tugboats sit here with a palpable silence, waiting to be dismantled for years on end, or to just exist in their dilapidated state.
But apart from this somber existence, they have ended up becoming historical artefacts of sorts. This region is sometimes referred to as an accidental marine museum; some of the runs include a submarine chaser and a World War II US Navy ship that is believed to be the first one to have a majority African-American crew.
In spite of a “no trespassing” sign and the location itself being a bit hard to reach, it is not enough to stop some curious visitors and marine historians from exploring this abandoned graveyard of decaying ships, which also make for fantastic photography subjects. The eerie environment, remote location and difficult accessibility, via a makeshift path across wooden planks and muddy marshlands, make this a great abandoned getaway place.
Featured Image by: John Middelkoop – @koopfilms – unsplash.com
