Gold Rush

The ruins of this long-abandoned unsuccessful gold mine can still be found.

An engineering masterpiece, or “Scheme of Madness?”

A classic gold rush hotel can be expected to pick up some ghosts along the way, and the Golden North is no exception.

This once bustling boomtown hotel is now the hottest spot in Nevada for ghost hunters.

This Colorado hiking trail provides a small gold mine of abandoned gold mines.

Silver in the hills led to the speedy creation of this boom town and a lack of it saw the town abandoned nearly as quickly.

A monument to a one-legged kidnapper, horse thief, and charlatan asks visitors to throw rocks in a pile.

Downieville's largest Gold Rush structure still standing has one of the longest bars in California.

According to legend it was a nap taken under this tree that kicked off the California Gold Rush.

Odd stone and concrete monuments in the "Poet of the Sierras" eclectic folly garden.

The first U.S. town to secede from the Union, only to vote themselves right back in.

"You don't need a rocket scientist to build a steam engine, but we've got one." -Museum docent on the credentials of a restoration volunteer.

This former boomtown "island" is now submerged below Folsom Lake.

Dentist's hated concrete colossi are now beloved icons of the community.