3 Wild West Ghost Towns with Fascinating Backstories...

In a way, ghost towns from the wild west are the best preserved footprints of the frontier we now only experience through textbooks and encyclopedias, their crumbling architecture and wayward atmospheres now the symbol of the period’s makeshift attitudes. If one thing is for certain, it’s that with every ghost town comes an incredibly rich story full of both optimistic beginnings and haunted endings, much like the general history of the wild west itself. To gain a better picture of the types of ghost towns still left unpopulated across the barren, dusty plains born of the American frontier’s yesteryear, here are three fascinating ghost towns with a deep connection to the wild west.
0:00 Introduction
1:17 The Ballad of Buckskin Joe
14:44 From Garnet to Gold
21:51 Prisoners of Freeman
Music produced by CO.AG: / @co.agmusic
Thank you for watching.
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[@spusbobmom]

My grandmother was born in Garnet in 1936. Her cabin is no longer there but it is still neat to visit the site.

[@ttigerbell6060]

Iff u can prove she owned the plot of land u have a for ever place to go get away

[@dreamspce]

@@ttigerbell6060Weirdo

[@AevidaMaedez]

Going to Buckskin Joe's as a kid and growing up was truly something magical. It felt like I was almost really there in the 1850's. So sad it's gone now that's its inthe hands of a private collector, never to be enjoyed again.

[@fireorb2]

How selfish do you have to be to have freaking building moved for your own desire. I swear, that guy is ridiculous.

[@michelle.pearl.]

I feel like the guy who bought Bucksin Joe's is every Coloradoan's enemy number one for what he did to the park.

[@jameskrupka5105]

My 3rd great-grandpa was a famous figure in the Old West-Alec Majors, one of three creators of the Pony Express, moving freight on the backs of oxen literally pioneering Colorado-and I live here in CO, where his portrait is displayed in stainglass in the state capital’s rotunda. Rando personal comment, but there ya go…

[@pamavery9352]

Love the narration by a human not a robot!!! You have captured my interest, just subscribed! TY. You make American history interesting!

[@katharinecarmichael7759]

Bring these times back! The Freedom, Wagons, Horse's Running and more. Pure Freedom. Not the bull and crap of today! We have lost so much. Bring it back!

[@lukesoutdoors5205]

I’ve never wanted something more

[@johnshields6852]

Born in Boston in 1960 I've always been fascinated by the frontier, brave souls traveling west into the unknown, I've seen much change in my short time but the human spirit will live on, seeking their place on this beautiful earth. 🌎🙏

[@Heathershusbandbear]

Keep up the hard work. I have enjoyed your videos and content

[@DramaMustRemainOnTheStage]

I'm so glad you tube put your channel in my path. New sub

[@andychris7647]

Same here. Hi there how are you doing today with your family?

[@TrevorNet]

Fascinating. I would love to see more videos like this.

[@EyeofApep]

Awesome, really enjoyed the content and the narration

[@55Aarronneedham]

What an amazing video! For sure subscribing, can’t wait to hear more stories

[@EmmaRawling]

Good job! Mispronunciations or not, clearly a lot of effort went in to this and it paid off 👏🏼

[@alitlweird]

I love living in Northern Nevada! 🤠 I love *The Old West™️!!*

[@bobbygsadventures]

Really enjoyed this. Subscribed to your channel. I live in northern Nevada. I spend a lot of time exploring old ghost towns and started making videos a little while back. I can appreciate all of your research. I try to research the towns I explore. Sometimes it tough finding details so your narration and details are impressive. Thanks

[@footprintsofthefrontier]

Thank you for tuning in, Bobby! Your feedback is much appreciated. There is truly nothing quite like walking through the relics of history, feeling the ghosts of yesteryear welcome you into a time capsule unlike any other. Enjoy your adventures and never stop sharing!

[@rickburnett3021]

Great stuff!! I just subscribed. Keep it coming

[@lubusbtch]

I have only one complaint about this video, and I hate to be that guy but, in 1934 "Franklin" Roosevelt was the President, not Theodore.

[@brittb592]

I really enjoyed this, thank you!

[@davidbreen4353]

neat video. i have seen other video's of Garnet, which is really cool. the other towns i never heard of, but truly fascinating. thank you.

[@InglouriousBradsterd]

Just subscribed! Love your content. Thank you. You'll have over a million subscribers one day.

[@garrettjack9228]

This video was awesome! I hope you find much success

[@mimib8032]

I read about Silverheels years ago. Thank you for mentioning her !

[@guitarman11000]

Great video. Subscribed!

[@bigwhoopi6764]

And millionaire Texans have officially became the largest land owners in Colorado.

[@jordanhicks5131]

Good, maybe they'll take back the state from the granola eaters, drive out all the hippies

[@lennarthagen3638]

@@jordanhicks5131 No

[@silverii089]

@@jordanhicks5131 Colorado isn’t far off from California at this point 🤣

[@TR-yi8up]

@@jordanhicks5131 yeah, those hippies are awful when compared to venture capitalist billionaires. You seem like you’re super smart

[@jordanhicks5131]

@@TR-yi8up I mean, not only do those billionaires actually contribute more to society those billionaires also smell better than hippies, so I'd say net win all around

[@ghosttownsandmore]

Great Stories, Good work!

[@Rustybucket303]

Thankyou Sir for the history lesson 👏👊awesome Job.

[@vaughnslavin9784]

Thank you!

[@jim-do5pt]

good job!

[@marfadog2945]

I think you mean garnet, darn-it.

[@grandmakellymcdonald]

Very cool 🌺❤️💕👵

[@calilife805]

Silver heels 👠! What an amazing lady ! Good video man ! Super cool stuff !

[@kylec171]

Binge watching your videos

[@c0re93]

I love videos like this

[@footprintsofthefrontier]

Thank you! We hope you stick around!

[@paul06660]

Ill never forget the old Buckskin Joe signs that advertised "daily hangins" on the side of the road. Was one of the darker aspects about that place lol. The day I found it, I was trying to go to Royal Gorge bridge but they had it closed that day. So i went to Buckskin Joe's and ended up riding the miniature railway that took you to the other scenic end of the gorge. I was saddened the day I heard it closed, as I was hoping to take my future children there to experience it.

[@footprintsofthefrontier]

Thanks for sharing the memories! We agree, it's a shame more folks couldn't pass down the Buckskin Joe experience to their kids. It was like time traveling in a way.

[@karenallen5208]

Fascinating that William Greenberry Russell traveled so far for gold when Dahlonega, GA had more and even purer gold than did California.

[@andychris7647]

Oh that sound nice. Hi Karen how are you doing with your family i do hope you’re safe from the Covid?

[@markfitzurka9995]

Another great pice of history. I have been mainly listening to the videos but it seems like every time I looked down to my tablet this video it was a clip of something local to me. I live in the Imperial Valley and noticed Bomb Bay beach with the swing set in the water. Also what looks like the mountains that separates us from San Diego. And the California monument you showed looks like one that the ECV probably had some hand in getting placed and I am part of that brotherhood. I am flying through your whole video library and am really enjoying them. Keep up the great content

[@wheredidthetimego8087]

Grew up going to Buckskin Joe! Then took my kids there. Loved going to that place Many happy memories there. We were all sad when they took it away!!

[@footprintsofthefrontier]

A beautiful eulogy nonetheless! Thanks for sharing. We're guessing the sadness was shared by many!

[@Mojo-Beans]

I enjoyed the video. Great work! You have a very good voice for narration. I look forward to seeing more content from you. Keep it up!

[@basedury]

fascinating, i just spent a weekend in the shadow of mount silverheels in alma.

[@clairea-t7045]

It would have been nice if you would have used pictures that matched the country side.

[@andychris7647]

Same here I did imagine that as well. Hi Claire how are you doing with your family?

[@philipcallicoat3147]

"The yellow good for nothing metal that makes the white man crazy!" (Native American talking about the gold rush.)

[@hakkuhliquicitizen8261]

17:23 looks like a real footage of strawberry

[@pattialmason1655]

Love the content. I would appreciate correct pronunciation. Placer is "plasser" like glass-er. Ballou correctly sounds balloon without the "n". Alleghany and Downieville CA was where I played as a kid. I would love to see some history about them. The 16-to-1 mine was famous in its day.

[@phil3671]

Good video, but “TRY BITCH YOU AIRY” is just TRIB YOU TARY…. But seriously the video and narration is pretty great. Thanks for the content, super informative and you made it interesting and easy to listen to. Keep up the good work!!!

[@Mojo-Beans]

Toe-mate-oh, toe-maht-oh 🤷‍♂️

[@cherylcampbell9369]

@@Mojo-Beans no.

[@k1j2f30]

Uh...The movie was not Cat Bayou, it was "Cat Ballou," pronounced cat-ba-loo! Lol.

[@ethanewart1716]

You can tell if someone’s not from Montana because they butcher the pronunciation of our town’s names

[@jenroche8994]

I'm born and raised whitefish and that's how I've been raised to say it: "gar-net"

[@bobmoto3528]

California was not the first “gold rush”. The first significant gold rush in the United States was in Cabarrus County, North Carolina in 1799 at today's Reed's Gold Mine. Thirty years later, in 1829, the Georgia Gold Rush occurred.

[@jjdjj5392]

Very interesting!

[@briandstephmoore4910]

Silver heels had that gawk gawk 3000 lol

[@kscleanup8125]

Great video. You did really good. Thanks. Never mind the classroom professor's in the comments, that think they are better than. Pricks!!

[@garyhiggins4315]

Could Buckskin Joe have been the original model for Paint Your Wagon?

[@nataliemay415]

Sliver heels sounds like a Mary poppins story, arrives when you need her, leaves when you no longer do.

[@footprintsofthefrontier]

It definitely mirrors popular folk tales and oral traditions brought to the western frontier from the eastern regions of the US, and Europe before that. Our next video will be the first in a long series of discovering folklore and legends that stem from the wild west!

[@GhostRider-sc9vu]

@@footprintsofthefrontier Also Calamity Jane and various "soiled doves" who treated the sick throughout the West during this time.

[@kukapuouhaagunderson8693]

That was a pretty messed up closing line

[@granthryze2694]

only one thing, you showed Gilman and some desert town, while talking about Garnet. Otherwise great video

[@nikolasblodgett8933]

hey that cabin was ong's hat!

[@MrAtlantafalcon]

Hold-up. Are there places like this in modern day west Kansas? Or is it similar to how Las Vegas was once considered New Mexico? I’m confused, or not as well travelled as I thought.

[@timharper3390]

Las Vegas is in New Mexico. I was just there. There’s also a city by the same name, established later, in Nevada.

[@jessebaeza3063]

With that thumbnail I thought it was blackwater from red dead redemption 2 .lol

[@karriefalon7779]

would make one sit back and wonder about all those minning towns, how much got left behind in them Tailings Piles. wonder what it would be like to put them through a modern very fine tuned wash plant and see how much went to the so called trash piles. Send Digger Dave Turon in there with freddy dodge

[@davidroberson8030]

Pretty strange that one picture of Garnett all in color except one guy he was in black and white what the hell is that bro that was weird I go back and check that out they must have had a malfunction on the camera.

[@robaufderheide489]

Garnett, How about Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933, not Teddy!!! Makes me question the veracity of the video.

[@rec1412]

True Grit was filmed in Ridgeway, Colorado.

[@irvingr.fatback886]

Oh no!

[@mikekelly9368]

True! This country is horrible at preserving our history! Just horrible! We barely learn it, let alone preserve it!

[@jonathanrichardson1586]

so scattered

[@justinsane7128]

Silver Heels 👠 danced for those who can't.

[@PrezVeto]

13:22 "Regurgitated mining camp"? 🤨

[@keithkearns93]

Why is there a clip of the Australian bush in the first story ?

[@bertrach]

4:35 Do you mean Tributary?

[@porcine83]

Note about Garnet - the US didn't enter WWI until 1917.

[@ronniedelahoussayechauvin6717]

Crimes💯

[@roniel.casaljay4797]

😁😁😁😁😁. If you are looking for gold, " YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FIND IT EVERYWHERE". 😁😁😁😁😁

[@user-tw9pc7uc2k]

ONE OF THE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT SILVER HEELS AS SHE WAS MARRIED TO ZIG ZIGGLER DAVID ADAM GRENIS BOULDER COLORADO

[@verifiedactualgamer]

pronuciatons are off mizoola not missooola garnite not gar net

[@jakerumpf8223]

False, the first gold rush in the US was in North Carolina

[@harleyhawk7959]

false, first gold rush was in Georgia.

[@jakerumpf8223]

@@harleyhawk7959 North Carolina occurred in 1799 as opposed to Georgia in the late 1820's...

[@brushcountry6361]

Read anything by J Frank Dobie.

[@chientimeide]

Everything from the narrator, sound,... to the camera shots is extremely well done, and I really enjoyed the lack of glorifying the violence. But the images of random places that are not from the place the story is from were too distracting and disappointing. I'd rather vicariously "explore" the area with less polished and professional video creators.

[@footprintsofthefrontier]

Thank you so much for the constructive feedback! A lot of the remote areas mentioned in these videos have very limited available footage, and some of this footage has copyright claims that only allow for personal or private use. As a very new channel, we are very much looking forward to growth that will allow us to obtain more resources and actually travel to various locations around the west, capturing our own footage with our own videographers. We hope you stick around and help us reach that goal!

[@madelinenelson3233]

I also found this quite jarring, but perhaps a solution in the meantime would be using more generic footage of the topography of the region. For example you used b-roll of what looks like the Castle Valley in Moab Utah while discussing the Kansas Territory and Rocky Mountain region near Denver. That being said, you still got a good amount of the general regions correct, but the same thing happened with California and what looked like a region south of Sedona Arizona. Close enough, but truly strange when your familiar with the areas/ghost towns mentioned. You did however do an excellent job with Western Montana. I will however also mention it is quite jarring to hear the pronunciation of Missoula, Nevada, Placer, and tributary... but perhaps that is more of a regional thing from a coast far far away 😉

[@chientimeide]

@@footprintsofthefrontier Your off to a fantastic start then! As I said, everything else is superb!!!

[@robertmcgee7083]

These old timers seem to have always screwed themselves, by telling everyone where they found gold. Loose lips have always sunk ships.

[@thomascaprio5589]

Intro was so unnecessarily wordy it made me click off the video…. Came here for content not a 3rd grade history essay.

[@cbwilson2398]

Please learn to pronounce tributary and placer.

[@lovetheeloquence]

And the names of people and places...

[@mikehagan4320]

Your narration and commentary is So Politically correct. The True History of which you Speak will Fade into Realm of Forgotten Ignorance as Fast as Some of these Ghost towns. But those of us that have Studied and Learned from History Know that Ignorance of History is the Real Reason for Political Correctness. Best Wishes! M.H.

[@johncox2865]

8:16 Are you kidding me? Do you think those men were ballet enthusiasts? ‘Art of Dance’ ⁉️ Get real. She earned her living the same way every other unmarried woman did in the old west. With her heels in the air (silver or not).

[@michelle.pearl.]

........please read more than a few random novels about that time period lol

[@jimdunsworth652]

Good stuff too bad one rich dude hordes it

[@completesalvation1755]

Nice commentary. I think you would do better with simpler language that is easier to understand.

[@lovetheeloquence]

...or words that are prounounced correctly...there are so many mistakes in this video. They should be mortified.

[@marlenebowan2799]

Please. Check your pronunciation of words. Otherwise enjoyed the stories.

[@rosemariejoy4578]

It's not kool to keep history to yourself as we are supposed to learn from it...why doesn't. The new owner hire some help and openthetowntovisitors???

[@glockmaestro]

Here we go, another apologizer interjecting politics. Learn how to pronounce tributary

[@ArcFixer]

Do one at a time and I'll subscribe. I find more than one story makes the telling more shallow and less satisfying so I don't watch them, let alone subscribe.

[@TheFrogballz]

Need a better narrator

[@MaineUSA]

I don't agree . I loved it.

[@TheFrogballz]

@@MaineUSA love the content but doesn't have the voice for narrating..Sonuds to much like a little kid..Just keepin it real..

[@lowcountryantiques3696]

@@MaineUSA Same he did a outstanding job...

[@lowcountryantiques3696]

@@TheFrogballz If it (sonuds) we understood you didn't hear anything....

[@TheFrogballz]

@@lowcountryantiques3696 ok...what...just being honest sorry..I

[@BrandonM10]

That's definitely Strawberry in the thumbnail 😏

[@rebeccawoehler-moss9627]

You have mispronounced so many names in this video. Not sure why, they are all pretty common.