America's Forgotten Cities

The major cities of the United States are among the most influential in the world. Today, more than 5 in every 6 Americans live in an urban area, and cities like New York and Los Angeles are centers of the world’s economy and culture. But America has also been home to many cities that won’t show up on a map today. Together, we’ll take a look at these cities left behind by history. Let’s explore!
CORRECTIONS:
Recent research suggests that the turquoise in Mesoamerican art did not come from Oasisamerica but was instead mined locally.
Cities in this video:
Bodie, California
Bannack, Montana
Goldfield, Nevada,
Virginia City, Nevada
Jeffrey City, Wyoming
Bingham Canyon, Utah
Centralia, Pennsylvania
Brooklyn, New York
Northern Liberties, Southwark, and Spring Garden, Pennsylvania
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Newport, Rhode Island
Salem, Massachusetts,
Albany, New York
Detroit, Michigan
New Amsterdam (New York City)
Alburquerque (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Cahokia
Moundville
Pueblo Grande
Casa Grande
Mesa Grande
Snaketown
Gila Cliff Dwellings
Paquime
Mesa Verde
Chaco Canyon
__
Image Credits:
All Creative Commons Images are free to use under their respective licenses
Bannack: Mark Holloway, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikime...
Cahokia City: Herb Roe, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
"Jakob with the brush": Odense Bys Museer, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Gold pan: AlaskaMining, CC BY 2.5, commons.wikime...
Visitors: tq2cute, CC BY 2.0.
Bannack from above: Mark Holloway, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikime...
Goldfield High School: Vivaverdi - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikime...
VC, NV: Loren Kerns from Tigard, Oregon, USA - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikime...
Centralia Road: Brian W. Schaller, FAL, commons.wikime...
Clapping: Mozilla, CC BY 4.0, commons.wikime...
10: Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC - OGL v1.0, commons.wikime...
Marblehead boats: Oceanhistory, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Detroit Packard Plant: Albert duce, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
USA relief map: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Cahokia locator maps: Signore Galilei, CC BY-SA 3.0 based on above
St. Louis: IIP Photo Archive, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikime...
Select images courtesy Google Earth
Cahokia Causeway: Herb Roe, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Cholula: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
"Lingyin Temple": Banalities, CC BY 2.0.
Baghdad: Hammody.90, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Natchez Flag: Xasartha, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Emerald Mound, Mississippian map, Natchez mound: Herb Roe, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime... commons.wikime...
commons.wikime...
Cahokia Sunrise: Herb Roe, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
"Greetings from Cahokia" thumbnail: Signore Galilei, CC BY-SA 4.0, based on above
Moundville: Herb Roe, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Sugarloaf Mound: Parker Botanical, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Pueblo Grande Canals: Scotwriter21, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Pueblo Grande Village: Marine 69-71 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Hohokam Canal: Argon233, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Replica Hohokam home: Marine 69-71 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Oasisamerica map: Yuchitown, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Casa Grande: Greg Hume, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Mesa Grande: Argon233, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikime...
Sites map: Ricraider, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikime...
Mesa Verde: Rationalobserver, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
Copper bells: AlejandroLinaresGarcia, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...

[@chiefmonrovia6691]

I just got back from a vacation to Shenandoah and West Virginia, and I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it. I was told that the abandoned sites in west virginia starts off funny, becomes alarming when you see how much there is, and leaves you sad when you realize how much worse its going to get. I genuinely couldn't believe my eyes, houses on the side of the interstates were just left to rot EVERYWHERE. I would hazard to say that it was nearly 40% abandoned or decayed buildings there, I was crestfallen. If you haven't had the chance yet you should really go, the saddest part is how beautiful west virginia is, and I mean everywhere you look there's something more breathtaking than what you just saw. Forgotten is unfortunately the best word I can think of to describe west virginia, a sad fate for the state that did everything it could to break away from the confederacy is cursed to waste away forever :c

[@SignoreGalilei]

It's sad to see places on the decline and know what former glory they had, but I take some comfort in knowing that every place, and indeed every thing, has its life cycle. And who knows, maybe someday West Virginia will be booming again and it'll be a Phoenix of its own.

[@Fetherko]

WV mines closed when they ran out of coal. Towns were abandoned.

[@dsxa918]

Fact still remains, it was sad that they made such effort (as rejecting the confederacy) in an effort to work toward future. I lnow youre right but I'd say it's a matter of diversification not beimg relevant as much as it is cultural shift or impermanence as a principle.

[@chiefmonrovia6691]

@@dsxa918 I respectfully disagree, there wasn't a lack of diversity from what I saw, there was simply an absence of hope. Nobody we talked to seemed optimistic, everyone seemed to take the stance of "well I'm here, there's not much I can do about it, not much I can do to fix it, so I'm gonna enjoy it here while I can". No such thing as garbage trucks or factory jobs when every road has a 9% grade and every flat bit of land left has a gutted ranch house on it

[@brianmiller5444]

@@SignoreGalileii am guessing the Sunbelt, especially Arizona, won’t be so attractive when phoenix and las vegas average 120 most days in the summer?😫

[@MidnightCheerios]

A fun ghost town to research (actually really close to the Bingham Canyon mine) is Iosepea, Utah. A ghost town settled by Native Hawaiians in one of the most inhospitable places in the country. They tried for a few decades before giving up. Its a fascinating story.

[@SignoreGalilei]

That sounds really interesting, thanks!

[@Aerumora]

This was really informative! I'm European and barely know anything about America so it was nice to learn something about its forgotten cities, thank you!

[@SignoreGalilei]

You're welcome!

[@duffal0]

The USA is so tough to classify on a snake scale because it’s almost like a continent itself, with each state representing a country. Each state is so vastly different.

[@lopiklop]

@@duffal0 no. not really. each state would need it's own individual military. the amount of land and scale of the united states may convey that idea, but culturally they are very homogenous

[@lopiklop]

We all speak the same language, for instance. Europe is not like that at all. ALmost every country has it's own language, their own military, some have their own currency. Really the only similarity is the scale of the territory. Those are just three things. This is something most Europeans get wrong about USA. Russians use this idea to try to divide us with memes. It's really something I think only Americans can understand. We are not at all like a group of countries. we are very much like one extremely large country. That's the way we see it.Like i said i don't think foreigners can understand.

[@duffal0]

@@lopiklop I’m Russian-American and idk what memes you’re talking about lol. But obviously I wasn’t talking about it on a level of languages and military I was talking on how different each state is.

[@mitchellbenbrook2041]

As an Illinoisan who has always been fascinated by Cahokia, actually visiting the site was incredible. There frankly isn't much to see today aside from Monk's Mound (which does have some great views if you get there on a clear day), the nearby smaller mounds and the woodhenge, but the interpretive center is truly excellent. Even the archaeological experts behind the center's exhibits are unsure of what exactly caused the city's decline though it gives some great insights into what life may have been like there. I have always wondered what incredible stories that site holds and how much we could learn from just a tiny scrap of contemporary writing on their history.

[@SignoreGalilei]

I visited one time, it is indeed very cool. If only they had written records.

[@gd2234_]

Now you’ve got me wondering why there aren’t any mounds in northern Illinois. Looking at the map at 8:38 there’a just a gap there, even though there’s lots to the south and further north

[@pupyfan69]

​​​@@gd2234_ there is the huber culture of northern illinois whose sites are considered part of the broader upper mississippian world. so its not that we dont have a rough idea of what was going on in northern il contemporaneously to cahokia, it just doesnt seem to have included mound-building or proto-states

[@CallMeJameskii]

As a West Virginian I can say there are many abandoned small towns (if you can even call some of them that) and just ruins and houses all around if you know where to hike. You’ll see small old gone but not forgotten towns on the interstate or highways and even on backroads but the real cool ones are where you hike for and hour to find a 7 house town where no one lives and haven’t in forever. Saddly I haven’t been hiking in a long time but I miss the historic hills of Wv

[@SignoreGalilei]

Wow, that sounds like an interesting collection of places

[@colinsteadland]

Hibbing, MN should get an honorable mention. The town isn't abandoned per say, but the entire town moved a few miles to the south in the 1920's because iron was discovered underneath the town. The old roads are still there as well as a few old buildings

[@SignoreGalilei]

I didn't know about that one, thanks!

[@tomfields3682]

You can actually view the remnants of the old townsite on Google maps street view (pavement, sidewalks, street lights, curb stones.) Just a stone's throw from the open pit mine, still active.

[@colinsteadland]

@@tomfields3682 in person is much better! very eerie, reminds me of centralia PA

[@artmoss6889]

The Cahokian people had a large network of settlements throughout the Midwest. One of the northern most was found along the banks of the Crawfish River near the modern town of Aztalan in Wisconsin. The remains of this community are fascinating to visit and well worth investigating.

[@user-ck3bo8wd4p]

Virginia City is actually a really cool tourist destination! Lots of people visit and in the winter the snow is beautiful.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Cool!

[@benmcreynolds8581]

The city on the Oregon coast that got swallowed by the Pacific ocean near Tillamook is crazy. I'm born and raised in Oregon and my grandparents lived here when it happened and it's crazy it occurred from poor construction choices on the jetty they were building. Locals did a lot to speak up about it but they didn't listen and the entire town is now in the ocean...

[@SignoreGalilei]

Dang, I just read about it - Bayocean? That's a crazy story.

[@normanclatcher]

Life is Strange that way...

[@elwoodblues9613]

Thornton CA experienced a similar fate; it was built near the crumbling cliffs south of San Francisco, and had fallen into the ocean by 1960. Coastal Pacifica is facing the same thing.

[@MajoraZ]

Speaking as somebody who helps history and archeology channels with content on Mesoamerica (Aztec, Maya, etc), I have a slight correction, in that there's been some recent studies in the past 2 years which establish that most, if not all Turquoise used in Mesoamerican art was sourced locally rather then via trade with Oasisamerica/the US Southwest as previously believed, so we're actually not quite sure what the Mesoamericans were getting out of the macaws, cacao, rubber balls, etc they were importing up into Northern Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, etc. There's also a few other Cahokia sized sites in the Mississippian culture beyond Cahokia itself, but again my specialty is more Mesoamerica so I can't speak at length about them. Some notable more medium sized sites are Etowah and Moundvile, though.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Thanks for the information! I'll put it in the video description.

[@craigstephenson7676]

There are also some sites dates to well before Cahokia, like Poverty Point

[@thomasfoss9963]

I live just south of an abandoned Mississippian site related to Cahokia near the Rock River in Southern Wis-- "Aztalan" was a major cultural site, abandoned around the same time, as was Trempeleau up near Prairie Du Chien, Wis with large mounds in the area--- Many large animal effigy's built into the hills are in the area also-----

[@colintoth9277]

A good one to look up would be Springfield Ohio. Still present today but much smaller in terms of population. At one point during the late 1800s it had the second largest factory in the world, only behind one in Ruhr valley in Germany. It was a manufacturing haven until the 70s when it bottomed out

[@SignoreGalilei]

Didn't know about that one, thanks!

[@thukututu]

Even in modern puebloan cultures today (particularly Acoma to my knowledge) the parrot is a recurring motif in their pottery work, a tradition dating back to pre-Spanish times. It’s also fascinating to me how New Mexico has locations that meet each of the categories laid out in the video. Las Vegas, NM for instance was once the state’s most populous city, but has since declined to not even the top 10 largest. Albuquerque also sits on top of several Pueblo ruins, including Pierdras Marcadas and four hills. The ruins are entirely buried today. Pinos altos was once among the largest cities in the state, but declined to an abandoned ghost town after the decline of mining in the state. It has since seen some resettlement due to its location by silver city. The Salinas missions of Abó, Gran Quivera and Quarai were among the largest settlements in pre-Pueblo revolt New Mexico due to tge salt trade. They were abandoned after 1680, but were se settled with the return of the Spanish. However, they were all once again abandoned due to the coming of the Comanche to New Mexico, as well as various other Indian raids. There’s plenty of other examples of ruined/abandoned towns falling from grace, such as Pecos Pueblo, San Gabriel/San Juan (first permanent European settlement and first capital of NM), The town of Chloride etc. They’re all worth a look, New Mexico is a fascinating place

[@SignoreGalilei]

That's very cool! I'm actually going to be in New Mexico soon, I might make a short video from some of these spots if I get the opportunity.

[@thukututu]

@@SignoreGalilei that’s neat! I’ve lived here my whole life and (at least I like to think) I know quite a bit about the state. If you need any help with info, I’d be more than happy to help. Where are will you be visiting?

[@SignoreGalilei]

Plans aren't fully settled, but I'll be in or near Taos and Santa Fe

[@fawfulfan]

I've visited Virginia City, Nevada several times. It's rebuilt around tourism and is a pretty fun visit. And the mountainside is beautiful.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Cool! I've only been in Montana briefly but it was very beautiful.

[@fawfulfan]

@@SignoreGalileito be clear, I meant the Nevada one.

[@SignoreGalilei]

@@fawfulfan ohhh, I see that now, sorry. Nevada also has very nice landscapes, though Las Vegas was overwhelming for me.

[@fawfulfan]

@@SignoreGalilei you might consider checking out Reno. It's got almost everything that's good about Vegas but smaller, quieter, and in the mountains with nicer weather. In some ways, Reno itself is a bit of a forgotten city... until the 1950s it was actually the largest city in Nevada, then it kind of got overshadowed. But it's been quietly getting bigger and more diversified in recent decades. I lived there a couple years and it's a really cool place.

[@SignoreGalilei]

@@fawfulfan Cool, I might check it out some time!

[@Wailwulf]

2:53 Goldfield was used, in 1970, as a filming location for Vanishing Point. All of the scenes of the Radio DJ, "Super Soul," were filmed in Goldfield, with the Radio station being situated in the Goldfield Hotel.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Cool!

[@catdemon922]

since when do you have 4.8k subs? good job man

[@SignoreGalilei]

Since about February haha. My "forgotten countries" videos took off and got 100k views each. I'm doing a little experimentation to figure out what it is that people liked about them.

[@TheKewlPerson]

The real question is when will he get more

[@andrewtaylor3167]

Alabama's got some interesting ones besides just Moundville. Goldville was a gold mining town that was killed off by the California goldrush (only 5000, but one of the biggest populations in the state at the time). Blakely was a city that died off primarily due to disease, but the final death knell was war (A bit of an odd combo to say for a US city). Old Cahawba is both an old native town that later became a ghost town. Nowadays it's a little bit outside Selma, AL, but Selma's not exactly growing. So it's unlikely to also get "absorbed" by another town and meet all three categories.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Thanks for sharing the info! These sound like cool places.

[@JimoftheSlim]

Old Cawhaba is a really neat place to see. The poignant thing is that you've got to go through what is quickly becoming another ghost town (Selma) to get there.

[@tomfields3682]

Years ago I visited Muscle Shoals. Back in the 20s Henry Ford planned a sort of Detroit of the South there. There were some abandoned overgrown streets still there beyond where the existing town is today. Last time I was there I couldn't find them, not sure if they are gone now or I misremembered where they were. The streets of the existing town are named after Detroit's main streets though.

[@erzma9908]

I love these videos, this channel is gonna blow up someday, keep the effort up brother

[@SignoreGalilei]

I'll keep doing my best!

[@Maus542]

I live very close to Jeffery City, and have worked there in recent years. It’s terrifying being in a place that was once home to thousands and now not even a hundred. Lights are on on random dilapidated buildings and yet you see NOBODY. Not necessarily haunted but every time I was there for work I got wigged out

[@SignoreGalilei]

Wow, that sounds crazy.

[@_d0ser]

Missed a good opportunity to talk about Cairo, Il. While not a "forgotten" city in that it still exists. It SHOULD have been way bigger than it is now. Fascinating story there.

[@SignoreGalilei]

True, that would be a good one.

[@rhob2422]

Its baffling there is an entire unknown civilization that existed in the U.S. during the crusades that we no virtually nothing about.

[@SignoreGalilei]

I know, right? It's not that long ago in terms of world history.

[@lettybastien4624]

Deliberately covered up, because the official story is Natives then Europeans.

[@humptusdumptus4123]

@@lettybastien4624 yikes

[@person3070]

​@@lettybastien4624?

[@twintimeproductions8700]

Great video! I come from Upstate NY, and there isn't much "abandoned" cities up here, rather a bunch of small towns that have one claim to fame (i.e. Chobani) and a few urban areas that were once much larger (i.e. Albany, Utica, Binghamton). These places, including my hometown, are all slowly crumbling, and I'm not sure how many people are noticing.

[@adriennegormley9358]

Virginia City MT also lost population after the gold there petered out. The capital then later moved to another gold mining area, Last Chance Gulch, later renamed Helena, although the original name was kept for the main street. By then MT was a state so Helena remained the capital. I was born in Hrlena, but my dad's family was from the Virginia City area, and fiw a while when I was in grade school, we lived notvfar from Bannack. Virginia City still exists; it's the county seat of Madison County.

[@SignoreGalilei]

That's pretty cool! There were quite a lot of gold rush boom towns out there.

[@geoffreylee5199]

Buffalo NY was once the 10th largest, now 50th.

[@ellen4956]

Danville, Virginia is trying to make a comeback by restoration projects of entire blocks of historic houses, and selling them for very little to people who have the means to come in and restore them, with a contract to then live in them for a number of years. The town was originally a tobacco town on the river, and it's a beautiful place. I hope their project is successful! I considered buying one of the houses myself. It's a great way to give people a chance at owning a home if they don't have a lot of income and don't mind hard work.

[@hughesbenjamin3158]

Great video!

[@SignoreGalilei]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@thebigdog2295]

You missed so many cities that have become virtual ghost towns. Gary, Indiana for one. And there are many others just like Gary.

[@SignoreGalilei]

There are many of those, yes. Each with its own story.

[@lephantomchickn3676]

I drove through there, and I didn't know an American heartland city could be so dreary and decrepit

[@duffal0]

Gary isn’t fully abandoned tho. I went there last year and there are parts of the city that are surprisingly lively

[@hopsiepike]

The thing that strikes you when visiting Bodie is how forlorn its setting is. Over 8000 ft elevation on a remote, dry, treeless, windswept hilly plain. There is no reason to live there other than mining.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Haven't been in person but that sounds crazy.

[@cameronpottle5409]

Another one would be Picher, Oklahoma. A town for lead and zinc mining, mounds of hazardous waste stand tall amid the ruins of the town, a town that can only be described truthfully as the closest thing to an American Chernobyl we have. I think it's even closed to the public, too

[@low_key_f_key3237]

If you do a second part, Long Island City (Queens NY) used to be a separate city and had one of the larger populations in the country, but was also incorporated into NYC and now is a part of the borough of Queen. The Bronx used to be a part of Westchester county until it was bought by the City of NY. The Bronx neighborhood of Westchester Square used to be called Westchester village and Westchester County was named after Westchester Village. I also remember going on a tour of Yorktown VA and they mentioned that the population of the town declined bc the over farmed the land with tobacco and that killed a lot of the vitamins and minerals in the soil. Im sure there are a lot of other towns and small cities (in the mid Atlantic) that declined bc of over farming of tobacco.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Interesting! Soil nutrient depletion is a big issue in a lot of places.

[@JlahDrofloh]

great video. i would suggest getting a mic pop filter for your s sounds.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Thanks for the advice. I have bought one after this was released

[@golfboy83]

The video just started, but I saw Monk's Mound in the thumbnail, and I live very close to Cahokia in the St Louis metro area. Cahokia mounds was an often visited place for us on school field trips. I'm glad it's getting some recognition 🙌

[@SignoreGalilei]

It's a cool place for sure! I got to visit once and it was real interesting.

[@py8554]

I didn’t expect Salem MA to be in the forgotten list…..

[@SignoreGalilei]

Yeah it's pretty well known for the whole witch trials thing, but it would have been weird to exclude.

[@ACoolKidsProduction]

Surprised you didn't mention Charleston, SC in the segment on cities that haven't disappeared, but aren't what they used to be. Charleston was in the Top 5 biggest US cities in the first three US censuses. Today it ranks #172. As an NC resident, learning how high it once ranked was akin to learning that a local band once charted right below the Beatles.

[@joshdot9244]

man these videos make me want to be a content creator as well, good job as always

[@SignoreGalilei]

Thanks! If you do end up making some videos, let me know!

[@joshdot9244]

@@SignoreGalilei For sure! I might start one about the Ainu soon.

[@pyrorock8143]

I’m surprised you didn’t include Indianola, Texas. It was a city that possibly could’ve grown to be bigger than Houston. But in 1875 and 1886, two hurricanes destroyed the city and it was abandoned. After the storm, some reconstruction was done, such as some district buildings and the town hall, but any little hope for growth was gone in 1961 when Hurricane Carla destroyed it again. The only thing left now is a couple of beach houses and restaurants.

[@xxTriple_Txx]

There’s this crazy obscure abandoned uranium mining town somewhere in the dust bowl of Wyoming. I can’t remember the name, but it exists. I also used to live in Lead Deadwood, SD. There’s a giant open cut in the middle of the town!

[@SignoreGalilei]

Wow, that's an interesting place to put the mine cut!

[@tikkukko]

This Lead town looks crazy on google earth!

[@systemakhaosu810]

Yerevan is the uranium mining town. It was completely razed by the federal government and is encased in a giant stone tomb

[@jeffreyhawthornegoines8727]

Thank you, excellent

[@floopusdoopus]

One of my favorite forgotten cities is “Vanport” it was a poor city built by shipyard builders next to Portland Oregon and was completed destroyed in a massive flood in 1948 and nothing remains today.

[@SignoreGalilei]

That's quite a story. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[@hopsiepike]

Yes, because the black population brought in to build WWII ships weren’t allowed to live in Portland. In fact, they weren’t able to live in the state at all until the Oregon constitution was changed.

[@_Devil]

Another forgotten but not abandoned town I wanna talk about is Yermo, California, a city right between Barstow and Newberry Springs. Mainly because I lived there back from 2010 to 2012. It was founded in 1902 as Otis, and it served as a major junction point in the Union Pacific line that ran (and still does, though not as frequently) through the heart of the town. From what I was told by the people who lived there, it was actually a pretty big town. Peak population was around 11,000. It was booming up until 1968, when Interstate 15 was built, and all of that traffic that would go through Yermo completely bypassed the town. Since then, it's just been losing people left and right. The population as of 2009 was only 1700 people, and I think as of 2021 it was 1200 people. It used to actually be a very well known city in that part of California, but not anymore. The only 3 notable places there are Calico Ghost Town, Peggy Sue's, and the fact that the first Del Taco's building is still up and being used

[@kayzeaza]

The fire in Centralia also caused a town just south of them to be completely abandoned. Ironically it was called Burnsville

[@residentgrey]

CausING. It is still going on.

[@rvaugh230]

That is the most flawless description of Detroit I've ever heard "it's the o ly us city that used to have a population of 1 million and no longer does"

[@SignoreGalilei]

It's a bit sad there. Makes you wonder if Silicon Valley will go the same way one day.

[@yeetermcidfk]

While Albany, NY proper technically does have only under 100,000 people, the Capital Region metro area is still one of the largest in New York State with a population of over 1.1 million. The surrounding area is just very suburban and comprises two (arguably 3) other cities which legally operate separately, but still compose a single metro area

[@yellowbearanimations]

I love Bodie so much. I’ve been there twice and it’s just so much fun to go up there. You have to take a dirt path to get there and it’s a bit of a drive to get there, but it’s totally worth it. It’s frozen in time. You can still look through the windows and see what was left behind (a lot was left behind). My parents always explained to me that people left all that stuff behind because they thought they were gonna come back for it; they could only take so much with them as they moved away. I highly recommend anyone from California heading to Lake Tahoe to check it out if history’s your thing.

[@gautamchatterji7557]

An eye-opener.

[@InlandSeas]

Another few places you could add could be Ashtabula, OH, Conneaut, OH, etc.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Yeah I didn't do too much of the "rust belt"

[@AJKPenguin]

Millgrove and Tylersville, OH and Petroleum Center, and Pithole City, PA come to mind.

[@satdownzebra]

Centralia Pennsylvania is completely demolished now, and the graffiti road was covered with dirt and had trees planted over it. All that's left driving through it was the church with it's graveyard (which was covered with no trespassing signs and cameras) and ironically enough the fire department. Definitely not worth a visit.

[@SignoreGalilei]

On the one hand it's sad to see it go but on the other it's probably good to keep tourists out.

[@jamesmooney8933]

Mt. Savage MD. in the early 1800's. Mt. Savage was the 3rd largest City in Maryland. Mt. Savage was an Iron maker. My great grandfather grew up in Mt. Savage. He became a Black Smith. The iron mining ran out, Mt Savage iron mills shut down. My great grandfather moved to Pittsburgh.

[@schweppley1614]

I highly recommend looking into Picher Oklahoma, it’s extremely depressing, it looks like a very lively small american town where everyone left, which granted is exactly what happened. It’s really sad to see what Picher is now, it was only abandoned in more recent times.

[@randomtinypotatocried]

Damn didn't expect to hear Poughkeepsie in this. I grew up near there as a kid

[@MK-of7qw]

Allegheny was a separate city on the north side of Pittsburgh. Now it's just the north side of Pittsburgh.

[@andersbuchjeppesen5493]

I find it funny how much Edgerton and Lincoln look alike

[@SignoreGalilei]

Yeah it's pretty amusing

[@jamespyle777]

Chadwick, Missouri. It has 100 or less people now but back when it had that railroad connection which was before the 1930s due to the timber production. It was claimed that Chadwick had more people than what Springfield had in that time.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Cool info!

[@ashkechum101]

Atlanta used to be called terminus and thrasherville

[@wan1edguy382]

Also another example is wheeling in West Virginia which used to be the capital and was a trading hub

[@dawsonhebert5601]

Caribou, Maine. Presque Isle too. All of Aroostook County really. Ever since Loring shut down. 100k people in 1960 and now 65k… just elderly people up there. Safe place to be but not exciting for a 22 year old.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Dang. There's a lot of stories like that around the country.

[@ianthompson6951]

That photo at 6mins when you are talking about Massachusetts looks like atlantas skyline

[@SignoreGalilei]

I do believe it is, yes.

[@weapon9891]

Johnstown, PA had a pretty fascinating population crash

[@SignoreGalilei]

Interesting!

[@CowSaysMooMoo]

1:30 that sign only has one screw holding it up. That means it was hanging down, and the camera angle was adjusted to make it appear straight. I just thought that was interesting....

[@SignoreGalilei]

Huh, that is interesting!

[@toddnolastname4485]

Google seems to be pretty good about including names of old towns on the virtual maps. Outside of my home town, which is relatively small, I notice names in areas where there's maybe one or two businesses and a few houses. Many along the rail road routes, suggesting that they were set up to fill the steam trains with water. Wish someone could come up with a way to stop the coal from burning. We've only got so much fossil fuel, and we've got a long way to go before we no longer need it.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Would be nice. I don't know if the holdup is that it's too hard or just not economically worth it.

[@JakeLikesTech]

Maybe Bodey changed to Bodie becasue the namesake "die"d. The town name is just a pun.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Haha I mean it might be, you never know

[@celebalert5616]

fun fact: this is actually a list of every city in the united states, these ones are just early 🙂

[@tomfields3682]

St. Anthony, MN. Used to be on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from downtown Minneapolis. Now is Southeast Minneapolis.

[@clarinetgaming1708]

MOUNDVILLE MENTIONED!!! LETS GOOO

[@clarinetgaming1708]

I’m a UA (who is in charge of the site) archaeology student, and I love Moundville so much

[@SignoreGalilei]

That's cool!

[@gregrobinette8620]

Considering Cahokia's proximity to "Hopwell culture" and that experts believe their was an airburst (natural aerial strike), I think we have an answer! Lol. Thankyou for telling me about Phoenix, I didnt know that one 🙏🏽🪶

[@SignoreGalilei]

You're welcome!

[@skim5857]

marblehead represent yesssir

[@SignoreGalilei]

Nice!

[@00Mandy00]

I went to Bingham High School, they had built a new school and I went there as they emptied Bingham and Lark and the farm kids became suburban kids.

[@tone_bone]

6:00 is Atlanta.

[@SignoreGalilei]

I don't remember for sure but it might be.

[@r.williamcomm7693]

There’s also a a pre-Columbian city outside of Little Rock, Arkansas that was heavily populated. I’m not an anthropologist but I’ve wondered if some of these cultures had traded w/cultures like the Aztecs. If so could that trade have caused the spread of fatal contagions carried by conquistadors to cultures further north before they even had direct contact with Europeans? Use of LIDAR is now revealing cities near the Amazon River exactly as described by one explorer that had already disappeared years later when other Spaniards finally traveled that far. They accused the man of lying about these great cities & cultures that were completely unknown until their ruins were re-discovered with LIDAR since it penetrates the jungle canopy as well as modern land clearing activity.

[@SignoreGalilei]

I don't know enough about the population and disease dynamics at play, but the people of Oasisamerica definitely did trade with the Aztecs. Maybe the trade routes continued East.

[@blacknoise7997]

Edgerton is my maiden name. I just looked at my online family tree. Sidney Edgerton is my 4th cousin 6x removed. 😂😂😂

[@SignoreGalilei]

Oh, nice! Fun connection there.

[@blacknoise7997]

@@SignoreGalileiIf you're really into history, you should look up the Pequot war. My 9th great Grandfather, Richard Edgerton was in that war. It was technically the first official war in New England. Richard was one of the first 8 founders of Norwich Connecticut. My 8th g-gpa petitioned and won government approval for the first church in Franklin Connecticut. Doc Edgerton, (renowned for his work in flash photography), From MIT is also a relation. When this story about Sidney was happening, my 4th g-gpa, Ruben Edgerton, used his farm in Montana to hide black people emigrating to Canada. I believe Reuben was Sidney's uncle.

[@SignoreGalilei]

@@blacknoise7997 Very cool! I might take a look at that.

[@500stoney]

You might also include Galveston. Obviously not abandoned as nearly a 100000 people live there, but Houston (msa 7M) only became a big city because of the Galveston vulnerability to Hurricanes

[@SignoreGalilei]

That makes sense. It could be a good one to include too.

[@elwoodblues9613]

Focus could be put on the 1900 hurricane.

[@okeus]

native's wanting rainbow birds is... so unexpectedly wholesome to me

[@SignoreGalilei]

Lots of people like rainbow birds, they're fun.

[@okeus]

@@SignoreGalilei that's what i'm sayin, someone saw one on the trade routes and went "i need it" lmao

[@SignoreGalilei]

@@okeus It's pretty fun, yeah

[@julius8249]

more recent examples of former major cities would probably be Atlantic City and Oakland

[@cliffordcrimson7124]

Amazing video. You may want to work on talking more slowly.

[@SignoreGalilei]

I've been trying to time my scripts out in my newer videos to force myself to slow down. I naturally just talk very fast haha

[@cliffordcrimson7124]

@@SignoreGalilei I do too. I only said that because it was a huge problem for me getting into recording/marketing jobs irl. I fixed it by continuing to live in Tennessee and developing a drawl like molasses. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to decouple the accent from the cadence.

[@SignoreGalilei]

@@cliffordcrimson7124 That sounds like an interesting problem, and one I wouldn't have thought of.

[@israeldavila27]

Make a video on other cities around the world 🗺️

[@SignoreGalilei]

Could be fun

[@Romp-]

The coal fire under Centralia, PA is interesting a fire that has been going on for more than 50 years

[@SignoreGalilei]

Yeah it's pretty wild

[@ebberton]

I live in the greater st.louis area all my lofe and I've been to Cahokia soo many times (when I was young till today) I can't believe they all up and left. There wasn't any evidence of a famine or drought or and major calamity. But something had to have happen for them to leave, I'm so curious till this day

[@SignoreGalilei]

I heard speculation that it was getting polluted, but I'm not sure either.

[@hkhjg1734]

kaskaskia, illinois first state capitol is now on the left of the Mississippi river and completely forgotten

[@SignoreGalilei]

That's a good city too. It's technically not entirely abandoned but it's pretty close.

[@vinsemi9734]

Bloodbath McGrath used to say Amerigo Vespucci. 😂😂😂

[@wyocowboynblue9011]

Phoinex, AZ was first named Pumpkinville.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Yeah, another commenter mentioned that too!

[@x_hibernia]

I was half expecting Gary Indiana to be in this list

[@feyrie]

I always thought Brooklyn was a city anyway. Makes sense to hear it did use to be one. It just seems like a big place.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Yeah it's still kind of its own thing within NYC to sime extent.

[@JoshO423]

Montana had a gold rush before California did. The capital-town of Helena was built around the creek where one of the first gold rushes happened & they preserved the creek in a cool memorial. As for Bannack, you left out how the sheriffs turned out to be thieves on the run who manipulated the town’s development. They were hanged in the town and their final words were they could see where they buried millions $$$ in gold from the gallows. The gold was never found.

[@cdsmock4512]

This narration made me check if I had accidentally set the playback speed to over 1x. Wah, slow down.

[@hung8969]

Almost all Texas towns. If you drive through west Texas down to the border. There is 100’s of empty little towns. Very weird but most were oil towns

[@SignoreGalilei]

Makes sense.

[@garylangley4502]

A town that has disappeared as a separate town is East San Diego. It was land that was bought and subdivided in the 1880's and known as City Heights. In 1912 it became a separate town, and its name was changed to East San Diego. In 1923, it was annexed into The city of San Diego. One relic of the city of East San Diego is Boundary Street, the old boundary of the city. There were 2 survey maps made, one in the 1880's and one later, probably when the city was formed in 1912. There are some large differences in the maps, and as San Diego grew towards East San Diego, this was discovered. A lot of the streets at the old boundary are offset by 1/2 a block or more. There was also a swath of land that did not appear on the maps, and did not belong to anyone. It was never built upon, and this is where the 805 freeway runs today. Very little land in the area had to be purchased for the freeway. The area is called City Heights again.

[@SignoreGalilei]

It's cool that the freeway follows the old city boundary - thanks for sharing!

[@koobs4549]

Just a quick fyi, O’odham is pronounced ah-thum.

[@thegrumpydragon7601]

I was just in couple ghost towns in Colorado

[@Beer_]

I remember reading a series about romans coming to america and encountering one of the Mississippi tribes, and the centurion thats captured and eventually leads the tribe. It was so unreal hearing about the different tribes of the area that i legit thought it was just part of the fiction. If i remember correctly it even features Aztec traders coming upriver at one point

[@SignoreGalilei]

That's pretty cool! Yeah, there's a lot that's ripe for fictional worlds buried in real history.

[@gabrielmorton8054]

why they got a pic of a brooklyn bridge in the thumbnail tho

[@SignoreGalilei]

Because Brooklyn is in the video I guess.

[@stevens1041]

Speaking of changed city names, San Francisco was originally called Yerba Buena.

[@GayvonFartin]

interesting tid bit! have some gold kind stranger

[@SignoreGalilei]

Cool!

[@Rikrik1138]

And then there’s Cerro Gordo in California who mined enough silver to basically finance the building of Los Angeles…

[@ethanswartz5161]

Phoenix used to be called pumpkinville

[@SignoreGalilei]

Looked it up, that's sort of the case. Phoenix was established independently of the nearby Pumpkinville, but the area that was once Pumpkinville is now a fairly central part of Phoenix.

[@caseysmith544]

Middleton Wisconsin is another example of a soon to not be their town to become a part of Madison Wisconsin in the 2020's sometime after 2024, similar to Brooklyn NY now a part of NYC.

[@whodat1721]

To this day the only part actually considered NYC is Manhatten. Whatever borough or other areas in New York you live in. Only Manhatten is consider The City.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Manhattan is "The City" but the other four boroughs are still part of the City.

[@whodat1721]

@@SignoreGalilei exactly.

[@nairbvel]

Georgetown, now part of the District of Columbia.

[@westonprather3157]

Bro you’re just gonna gloss over the 5 “holdouts” living in a town that inspired Silent Hill

[@burrito8443]

Seems like a lot of the western ghost towns were for mining and would often have been left by the people that lived there because of mine depletion and funding issues

[@SignoreGalilei]

That was very common, yeah

[@shubdotclub]

Interesting but new fact is now Detroit is now one of two cities that used to have a million people but now don’t, the second is San Jose, CA! But people left because of different reasons - it’s too too expensive

[@michaeldesilvio5532]

Sixteen million abandoned houses in this country.

[@SignoreGalilei]

Yeah.