what is going on everyone welcome back to the world according to Briggs I am
Briggs and I kind of like my neighbor's my old house I didn't really like my
neighbors but I like my neighbors do you hate your neighbors a study published by
home comm showed that thirty percent of all Americans dislike their neighbors
and have had at a minimum a full-blown argument with said neighbors another
forty percent said they avoid their neighbors while ten percent said they
would like to do the nasty with the neighbor's spouse a lot of people wish
they could live in a ghost town for these reasons no one to fight with
avoid or catch snooping your wife sort of like the people that prefer to live
in the secluded towns in my past video series ghost towns are sprinkled all
over the United States with a few states like Colorado having so many they'll get
their own video in this series this is one of those videos that people have
been asking for for a while and I like to keep you guys happy seeing
that without you I'm just some dude that travels films and says stupid crap ghost
towns happen for a multitude of reasons most commonly they have some sort of
industry like mining or manufacturing that for whatever reason went away with
no way to make money people leave hence a ghost town unless you're of course
Thurmond West Virginia they got no jobs and they got five residents hunting
squirrel or something or moonshine I don't know what they're doing there but
they're still living there so why don't we find out where these vacant towns are
and how they became vacant in my top ten ghost towns in America
number ten Centralia Pennsylvania in 1962 Centralia was a bustling coal
mining town that had just experienced a fire in one of their coal mines no big
deal life went on in 1979 locals started becoming aware of some weird things
happen around there like you know smoke coming out of the ground cracks in the
ground things like that but the scale of the problem really wasn't known till a
gas station owner who was also the mayor at the time John Coddington inserted the
dipstick into one of the underground tanks to check fuel levels when he
withdrew do you notice it was kind of hot he lowered a thermometer into the
tank on a string and was shocked to find out that the temperature of the gasoline
in the tank was about a hundred seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit today the
fire still burns in 1981 Centralia was condemned by the state and the city was
evacuated a few stubborn residents still reside in Centralia the state has
allowed them to live the rest of their lives out there how
once they passed their property will be claimed by eminent domain in 2017 five
homes and about six or seven people remained you can go see it now but I'm
sure eventually it'll be closed up not sure how but they will stop people from
going to Centralia eventually
you
number nine Bannack Montana panic was founded in 1860 as a gold mining town
and was actually the Montana territory capital for one year they moved the
capital to Virginia City another mining town that wasn't as remote and also
didn't have a sheriff that was running a gang that robbed and dispatched people
heading west yeah that was a thing the sheriff's crime spree came to an end
like most criminals back in the Old West let's just say it involved a rope at its
peak Bannock had a population of about 10,000 people this was one of the
longest standing mining towns in Montana most the residents had left by 1950 in
the last residents actually left in 1970 so not terribly far back today the state
has made Bannock an official state park with more than 50 buildings still
standing this place looks like a place a Western was filmed and two younger
people who have no idea what a Western is think Clint Eastwood back in the
1970s go ahead and google it put it on pause and go ahead and google it number
8 old Cahawba alabama Cahaba was Alabama's first state capital from 1820
to 1825 again what is the deal with these towns turning into ghost town
after they moved the state capitol good thing for the United States Philly in
New York didn't close up shop after they settled up DC right this is Alabama's
most famous ghost town it was used as a trading and transport center for cotton
before the Civil War and as a village for slaves after the war nearly all the
residents had skipped town by 1900 and now it's it's pretty well maintained
it's a nice place to go visit there's a lot of videos on it on YouTube although
the area is no longer inhabited the Alabama Historical Commission maintains
the site as old Cahawba archeological park it was added to the National
Register of Historic Places in 1973 the town and later abandoned site has been
the setting for many ghost stories as you can imagine any place that's got
this kind of history is gonna have some ghost tales kind of like scooby Doo but
a little more realistic a widely known one tells of a ghostly orb that kind of
floats around this area that used to be an old garden maze the old guard maze no
longer there but apparently the orb is there on Friday the 13th at about Mitton
I'm just kidding I don't know when it's there but anyway it's supposed to be
there and it's a glowing orb number 7 Orla Texas Orla was a town design
doesn't stop on the Pecos River Railroad of course after the automobile was
invented the Train fell out of fashion and Orla was left to decay
Orla was founded in 1890 the population reached a high of around 250 people when
oil gas and sulfur brought more workers into the region in the 1960s now here's
a real oddity this hardly ever happens two ghost towns
Orla has sprung back to life I'm not kidding back as early as 2014 there were
still just old buildings that were rundown and a historical site marker but
since 2015 or so construction companies have moved in and started putting up
buildings and warehouses oil in the area has brought people back now it is still
registered as a ghost town but it has a trucks up and a few other businesses now
it's kind of weird this place is out in the middle of nowhere I guess if there's
money to be made people will show up money is like teenage boy hormones it
brings you to some really strange places you wouldn't normally go to number six
Bombay Beach California Bombay Beach became a vacation destination in the
1940s and 50s and it's in the middle of the desert on what is known as the
Salton Sea which is actually a lake families and individuals lived here in
vacation here for many years after local farmers used the lake for dumping the
water became so toxic that it had a putrid odor to it and it killed all the
fish living in the lake I mean all of them nothing lives in that lake now
there are boats that were just abandoned and left in the mud it really looks look
like all the humans just got up one day and left this place is an environmental
nightmare you can go there to this day and see dead birds that never got the
memo about not drinking the water of the Salton Sea this was of course way too
toxic for humans and quickly most the residents just moved on left their homes
there it's just it's sad it really is been by there a few times in my life
actually one of the strangest dudes I have ever known in my life he lived
there for a while like when it was abandoned strange guy
number five Goldfield Arizona Goldfield was discovered in the late 1800s and had
run out of gold before the turn of the century and as humans do when there's no
gold or pumpkin spice lattes they move on an attempt was made to revive the
city in 1921 when it was renamed Young's burg
which sucked Goldfield the Young's burg what genius decided that was a good idea
probably some dude that had been out in the Sun too long without a hat or
sunblock and was getting all dizzy and said my name is Young's burg or
something and then it's stuck in reality didn't matter it was abandoned once
again just five years later in 1926 in 1940 the US military was training in the
area and started a grass fire that burned half the town down today it's a
tourist attraction with a museum saloon and more there's actually a guy that's
considered the mayor of the town but there's no real residents so I find that
strange talk about a giving yourself a title we're out giving out titles I'm
the king of YouTube by the way if anyone's asking number four I did rot
Alaska the town of Iditarod was named after the idea to Rod River not the dog
race on Christmas Day 1908 prospector John beaten and billed Dyckman found
gold on Otter Creek a tributary to the Iditarod River and of course when
stories of gold or pumpkin spice latte start floating around people show up
miners started building a gold field and a small camp was built later known as
flat people and supplies traveled to the gold fields by boat from the Yukon River
and up the Iditarod River to the current town site Iditarod first appeared on the
1920 US census as an incorporated city of just 50 residents the boom had
already played out so you know there was only like 50 people then at its peak
they suspect it was closer to about 300 people they're not totally sure in 1931
it was dis incorporated leaving just a single resident by the 1940 census I did
her odd never appeared on the census again and no it's not on any Alaskan
cruise I checked number three rhyolite Nevada rhyolite is
within Death Valley and like many ghost towns rhyolite was a booming mining town
in the early 1900s in its heyday the city had a hospital a stock exchange and
even an opera house they had about 8,000 residents at one point but by the 1920s
almost every resident had left thanks to natural and financial disasters in the
1920 census they had one resident left and he was in his 90s when they asked
him why he had never left he said I don't know
number two Thurmond West Virginia Thurmond makes it on back-to-back lists
good job Thurmond I don't know why I just said that the five remaining
residents will never hear it I don't think they can get Internet Thurmond
located in southwestern West Virginia the city's purpose was originally being
a stop on a rail line and for local mining operations the city racked up
over four million dollars in freight revenue over its lifetime
however when the automotive industry took off it kind of killed Thurmond
today a few residents still reside here but it's still considered a ghost town
that's just I know it just seems weird if there's people still living there
it's really not a ghost town but they still have it registered as one anyway
moving on here's a strange fact about Thurmond if in fact it is a fact one of
the two hotels in Thurmond back in the day is known for being where the longest
game of poker ever was played according to Ripley's Believe It or Not this card
game lasted fourteen years I hope it wasn't a strip poker game could you
imagine that I'm sure at some point someone would have yelled come on lady
I've been at it five years all I've seen is an elbow and number one calico
California here's one I've been to a few too many times in my life and I don't
know why my parents took us there like three or four times as kids my younger
brother and I believe they were looking for a good place to leave our older
sister sadly our dreams never were answered no matter how many birthday
wishes wish bones and coins into wells I wasted on it calico was a booming new
city in 1881 when silver was found in the mines there by 1890 the town had hid
its population peak with about 3,500 residents in that same year the Silver
Purchase Act was enacted and drove down the price of silver calico silver mines
were no longer economically viable today it's a historical landmark and tourist
attraction you can pan for gold take a ride on the Calico Odessa Railroad watch
people argue in the parking lot or explore Maggie mine the only mine in
America that's safe for visitors that argue in the parking lot thing is
something I saw as a kid and I always remembered it the couple was having a
screaming match in the parking lot with a bunch of people around and if I
remember correctly the man didn't want to leave and the lady did I don't know
he wanted to stay like forever or just longer that day maybe you wanted to get
a cheap home loan nothing like having a mortgage on a ghost town right calico
these days is mostly used for a backdrop of commercials like Geico and you know
other type of commercials but they still get visitors and you could see it from
the highway so that's well you can see the sign they got calico written on the
hillside which kind of interesting I remember seeing that as a kid and all
the time by I'd look for it the whole time we
drive through the desert it was weird
all right so that's my top ten best ghost towns in America I hope you guys
enjoyed hope you got some information out of it this one's kind of interesting
I really enjoyed it hopefully we'll get a bunch of views and I'll do some more
anyway don't forget all the links below don't forget to subscribe leave me a
comment tell me if there's one you know about that should be on the next list
everybody have a great day be nice to each other