So why is the city in such great shape today? You can thank the state of California for adopting the town and turning it into a State Historic Park in 1962. Not long after though, Bodie transitioned into a period of steady decline (as mining towns are wont to do) until reaching ghost town status around 1915, according to California Department of Parks and Recreation records. Once home to 10,000 people, Bodie boomed in the late 1880s after gold was found in the hills surrounding Mono Lake. Here's the story: Now this is the Old West ghost town you're looking for. Once you arrive, you can explore on your own using the demarcated trails or book a tour in advance through Friends of Waiuta, Inc. How to visit: Drive westward from Reefton on State Highway 7, and keep following the signs for Waiuta onto an unpaved road until you reach your destination. Spooky photo op: Original signposts pointing to a mining industry that no longer exists. The department even converted one of the buildings, the Waiuta Lodge, into a 30-bunk facility for school groups and campers needing overnight accommodation. Today, the Department of Conservation works to preserve the remaining buildings and hiking trails around the site. The isolated city thrived until the main mining shaft collapsed in 1951, forcing residents to abandon their town. By the 1930s, the town had its own hospital, police station, and post office, plus a population of 600. Here's the story: In the early 1900s, miners built a town right on top of a whole lot of gold-bearing quartz rock-which would go on to produce 750,000 ounces of gold from 1.5 million tons of quartz, according to New Zealand's Department of Conservation. You can also take a multi-day guided tour through Spitzbergen Adventures or Grumant Arctic Travel Company. From there, Visit Svalbard says you can reach Pyramiden by boat (in the summer) or snowmobile (in the winter). How to visit: Plan to stay in Longyearbyen, Svalbard's largest city. Spooky photo op: The world’s northernmost statue of Lenin. As for the site today? Rachel Nuwer of Smithsonian Magazine sums it up perfectly: "It was as if several hundred people had abruptly stopped what they were doing and simply walked away." The tragedy slashed morale and the site was fully abandoned in 1998. The biggest hit came in 1996, when an airplane flying from Moscow to Svalbard crashed en route, killing all 141 passengers on board, many of them Pyramiden residents. (They also built graveyards for both humans and cats, because pet cemeteries are always a good idea.) The coal mines here were never profitable, however. After WWII, they started spending more money on the enterprise, building hospitals, cafeterias, and houses-all in the block-style fashion typical of Soviet-era architecture. Pyramiden came to prominence in the 1930s, when the Soviets took ownership of the area's coalfields and quickly began mining operations. Here's the story: The archipelago of Svalbard, located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, is home to about 2,145 humans, 1,000 polar bears, and one seriously bone-chilling ghost town: Pyramiden, named for the pyramid-shaped mountain looming nearby.
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