Ghost town facts for kids
A ghost town is a name for a city or town in which no one lives anymore. It can happen because of economical reasons (for instance, a town of gold miners who cannot find gold anymore), a natural disaster (a flood, a very long drought) or even a man- made disaster (for example, the nuclear fallout that emptied the town of Prypiat, Ukraine).
Some ghost towns are kept intact as tourist attractions. Some examples are Bannack in the United States, Barkerville in Canada, Craco in Italy, Kolmanskop in Namibia, Pripyat in Ukraine, and Danushkodi in India.
The town of Plymouth on the Caribbean island of Montserrat is a ghost town that is the de jure capital of Montserrat. It was rendered uninhabitable by volcanic ash from an eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano.
Reasons for abandonment
Factors leading to the abandonment of towns include depleted natural resources, economic activity shifting elsewhere, railroads and roads bypassing or no longer accessing the town, human intervention, disasters, wars, and the shifting of politics or fall of empires. A town can also be abandoned when it is part of an exclusion zone due to natural or man-made causes.
Images for kids
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Plymouth, Montserrat is the only ghost town that is the capital of a modern political territory.
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As farms industrialize, smaller farms are no longer economically viable, leading to rural decay.
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Prior to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Varosha, now falling into ruin, was a modern tourist area.
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Nature slowly reclaiming the ruins in Aghdam (2010)
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Pripyat, Ukraine, was abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster.
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Rerik West, Germany. Turned into a restricted area after 1992 due to ammunition contamination from a nearby abandoned Soviet Army barracks.
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Kolmanskop, Namibia (2016); a ghost town since 1956
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Unoccupied residential complexes in the Chenggong District, Kunming, China
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The town of Namie was evacuated as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
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The derelict British base in Whalers Bay, Deception Island, destroyed by a volcanic eruption
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Abandoned mining building on the Jussarö island in Ekenäs, Raseborg, Finland.
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Robsart Hospital, one of many abandoned buildings in Robsart, Saskatchewan
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Cook Bank building in Rhyolite, Nevada, a gold mining town
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1884 assay office in Vulture City, Arizona, a gold mining town
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After many years of drought and dust storms, the town of Farina in South Australia was abandoned.
