The haunting remnants of America's ghost towns

Barry Peterson takes us to abandoned towns with names like Bodie and Bonanza, where the population is zero (at least among the living!).

[@charlieswearingen500]

I live in Idaho and when I was a young man in the fifties there were ghost towns all over. Now that I'm in my seventies those same places are sadly almost leveled by fires, snow, and wind. Many of the houses I lived in near Shoup, Hailey, and Idaho City, Idaho were built before or just after the turn of the century and I saw the last of the old west...

[@HerbWalker]

What is so eerie is someday , people will look back at how you & I live 'today' and wonder ,How did they do it way back then. Time marches ON!

[@ideoformsun5806]

Every town is a ghost town. We are just too busy and noisy to notice any of them. Imagine all the generations that have died in your town or city since before it was even a town. There were people here long before there were settlers. We need to honor our ancestors, and not fear them. They lived through some amazing times and through difficult conditions, when there were many billions less people in the world to rely on. It's the town itself that is the ghost. The town has died. If it's quiet enough, you can sense the echoes of life in a place. That is the draw of a ghost town. For now, you can still see where the people lived and created energy there. As the buildings fade, so will the echoes.

[@hectorheathcote9495]

Spent the night in Bodie back in the late 80's. Very creepy at night as there wasn't any electricity there at that time. While I did hear some noises that sounded like horse-drawn wagons and voices, I never actually saw anything. Creeped me out, though. Had a similar experience at Death Valley near Furnace Creek. Thought I heard voices and horse-drawn wagons moving through the desert up there as well. Learned later about the borax mining and the mule teams. Must have been what I heard.

[@SQUAREHEADSAM1912]

Bodie actually had 3 churches, from 1881 till 1937

[@ahmetkadioglu6361]

great ghost town old west story

[@alessiosalsano4570]

What you may be feeling are demons, Not ghosts.

[@snowshark117]

Look up "Kristine McGuire a ghost hunter calls on Christ- cbn.com" on youtube.

[@tonybarde2572]

If it attacks you while you are sleeping

[@aprilleerose]

Why did they leave so fast?

[@xevil--beast28x84]

Because of what usually happens to ghost towns - miners left to try their luck elsewhere mainly, but you also had the rise of car travel by about 1915 so everyone started to just up and go I guess

[@rosesfirst2183]

amazing!

[@ondertsn]

9ep

[@diane1390]

Kind of gives a whole new meaning to Rocky Mountain Oysters! LOL!!!

[@marisofly3585]

At 6:32 you can see someone passing the door !

[@noursmili2614]

Marisofly omg

[@aprilleerose]

Yea, it was a kid’s height

[@Aneesa]

Because there are tourist

[@spinningbackfist6632]

Someone simply walked by on the other side you fkn crackpot....

[@ginnymiller2448]

Bodie does have a church. It just wasn't there in the beginning. They should've clarified that. It is one of the more interesting and intact buildings left. www.bodie.com/history/structures/methodist-church/

[@SQUAREHEADSAM1912]

It had 3 churches, only 1 still stands

70 saloons, and no churches....my kind a place! Whiskey and women....heeehaw! Looks like a beautiful place...I wish I could live there now instead of the big city where i'm stuck.... Gimme a ghost town any day!

[@ohmeowzer1]

Richard Lemieux lol 😂

[@SQUAREHEADSAM1912]

Bodie had 3 churches actually

[@matthewmorgan582]

Honestly we weren't meant for living in a city.

[@rogerrichards8101]

id love to love in brodie

[@rodeorob5172]

how do you get a job minding a ghost town as I would love to do that

[@sciwater1642]

Nice place

[@londonguyuk83]

1:55 - She kind of reminds me of Gayle Rankin from Netflix TV Show "G.L.O.W"

[@michaelbodine6142]

Downbursts, and touchdowns, 5 people in 1 town and LARGE brained canine help. Steel wheels to climb Rockies. Test driver, M.A.Bodine

[@citizensofheaven2987]

237 marker right when she says does she's a believer in ghosts in ghost towns The Apparition a few children walking out of the building across the street shadow in the window behind her

[@nemo227]

Seventy saloons is a good start. There are snakes in the desert and a lot of snake bite liquid must be kept handy.

[@MTknitter22]

@nemo227, yes but you will never see most of them.

[@nemo227]

@@MTknitter22 That reminds me of the time I went looking for a snake to pick it up. I was about 17 years old. I had picked up gopher snakes before so I wanted to do it again. I found a big one, almost 4 feet long. He didn't want to be bothered and I decided I didn't need to bother him/her. Now, more than 60 years later it turns out that my son and his family raise snakes for profit. Not something I had ever imagined. But I have a bottle of Jim Beam that I keep in case of snake bite.🙂

[@lepen4652]

i must visit is on my list of to do,s

[@carsonspizzeriaandbar9693]

6:29 look at the bottom of the door... I think I just saw a spirit

[@gemstoneprincess2890]

That was just someone walking by.....

[@ginnybaumeister9561]

Ummm did she have *Bodie* earrings...hahaha

[@mayhemmike1789]

Tori ain't bad lookin at all

[@760jjsole8]

Thats how California is going to end up too if the drought continues. Everyone will pack up what they can and leave as is.

[@GreatIntellect13]

Northern California, maybe.

[@dx5018]

This is a respected TV-Station and they want to tell people that ghosts exist? What is wrong with the U.S.?

[@ILoveJahangeer]

You mean what’s right with it…the answer is, nothing unfortunately.

[@jehovahuponyou]

CLEFT T. BROOM STILL LIVES CLOAE BY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@brooke1236]

Weird

[@amiman23]

BROUHAHA

[@bertharodriguez7160]

texas life

[@elizabethtrainer9732]

A town without a church is a GOOD place to live!

[@smug8567]

Don't let them kid you. Bodie was fixed up for the tourist. Even though things are dusty it was in a lot worse shape when it was last lived in. Notice how everything is arranged neat. Some of that stuff is not even old enough to be there. But it is a good depiction of like in the 1880's I must say

[@wayne-brock7515]

I've been to Bodie California ghost town 2 different times and I never felt like any spirit of anyone before. Of course if so I'm not bother by them. I've lived in a house one time that was haunted and I never freaked out. They never bother me except had my big toe tugged on a few times.

[@destensgaming669]

metal detecting them must be very interesting

[@richardmorrissey7114]

at 2:38 , there are two people wearing red walking along a sidewalk seen in the reflection of the glass when she says, "I am a believer . . . " Is it a fake?

[@aprilleerose]

Ya, that was weird!

[@ideoformsun5806]

Probably most of the short coffins were because a lot of the miners were young kids. And the mines were toxic, so probably a lot of them didn't make it to adulthood. And others were Chinese, who tend to be a lot shorter and smaller as adults.

[@scotnick59]

Alright; 2OO restaurants has GOT to be a gross excess

[@cd6243]

I agree

[@ideoformsun5806]

People left quickly because they had to have the work, there were no government benefits or unemployment back then. So each day you stayed was closer to starvation. And as soon as the mine dried up, so did all the support services. People probably all left in big groups on a train, just taking what they could carry. So the grocer, the post office, the saloon, everything they needed to live out there just stopped existing. I think miners are opportunists. They didn't get sentimental about a place. They didn't build permanent structures to last for the long term, because mines are unsustainable, even today. They are in remote locations far from water, and farms. Everything had to be shipped in. And that's expensive. It's an expensive lifestyle. They were probably more like nomads or gypsies, going wherever the work is.

[@functionalgirl1]

At 3:47 3:48 didn't anyone here a train whistle on the audio as he talks? I hear a distinct train horn blow quickly and then another after that one a little more strong.

[@Pulchrior.Evenit]

It sounds like a dog to me.

[@destensgaming669]

+Pulchrior Evenit it's a train

[@ChumpyCat]

functionalgirl1 I did not hear anything

[@danielheaton]

functionalgirl1 It is a train whistle twice. Wow

[@wayne-brock7515]

The train sound was added into the video on purpose.

[@jeanikasmith165]

2:36 Something seen in the glass of the window

[@alejandropulgarcambra]

It's a reflection. Someone was waking behind the camera

[@tonybarde2572]

The Old West will never die

[@melodybeitzel5378]

I would love to explore an old ghost town so interesting

[@dondressel4802]

Wish I could go back for a week

[@George50809]

Well, fascinating, but I don't believe they broke legs before burying a corpse.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

All of America is becoming a ghost town.

[@matthewmorgan582]

Not yet, but soon.

[@deepalib3096]

Abandoned,,, neglected towns

[@Mic01851]

Lauty daughty.. we like to party

[@violethouseworth5943]

can I have a job with you?

[@tekkenfan01]

America ghost towns older than Europe, maybe

[@alicehallam7949]

They are not abandoned. They are only temporarily forgotten. Just watch.

[@Sheltieshangrila]

Dang that guide has some super white teeth.

[@citizensofheaven2987]

202 marker she's pretty cute

[@jeffevans3193]

There's no such things as ghost.