These 10 American Towns That Were Thriving 10 Years Ago Are Now Ghost Towns
A lot can change in 10 years in small-town America, especially in places tied closely to one industry or one employer. These 10 towns were drawing workers, residents, or tourists around 2015, but by 2025 each had seen a documented drop in population, activity, or occupied buildings that made the comparison hard to miss.
McDowell, Kentucky
McDowell in Floyd County once reflected the larger Eastern Kentucky coal economy, which still supported thousands of regional jobs in the mid-2010s. By the 2020 Census, McDowell had 231 residents, down from 262 in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Coal’s decline across Appalachia hit Floyd County hard during the past decade. The U.S. Energy Information Administration and Kentucky labor data both showed long-running production and mining job losses statewide, and towns like McDowell lost population as work moved elsewhere.
For residents, the change is visible in fewer active storefronts and lower traffic on local roads. What is confirmed is the population decline and the broader coal contraction; no official source has designated McDowell a literal ghost town.
Gary, Indiana
Gary was never a boomtown in the same way as shale towns, but parts of the city were still significantly more active 10 years ago. The U.S. Census Bureau counted 69,093 residents in Gary in 2010 and 66,377 in 2020, continuing a long decline.
The city’s fortunes have long been tied to steel, including U.S. Steel’s Gary Works. Local and state officials have repeatedly pointed to decades of industrial job losses, disinvestment, and demolition as the main reasons entire blocks now sit largely empty.
That does not mean Gary is abandoned citywide, because neighborhoods and the lakefront still have active residents and businesses. But vacant homes, cleared lots, and reduced population in several districts make it one of the clearest examples of a once-busier place that now feels much quieter.
Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia is the best-known example on this list because its decline is tied to a single documented disaster. A coal seam fire that began in 1962 led Pennsylvania officials to relocate residents over decades, and by the 2020 Census the borough had just 5 residents.
Even 10 years ago, Centralia still drew curiosity tourism from people visiting the nearly empty town. In 2017, Pennsylvania covered the former graffiti highway, removing one of the site’s biggest remaining attractions, according to state and local reporting at the time.
For visitors, Centralia today is less an active town than a near-empty borough with a handful of holdouts. The key facts are not disputed: the fire never fully ended, the population collapsed, and the town’s decline is one of the most documented in the country.
Picher, Oklahoma
Picher was formally disincorporated in 2009, but the aftereffects still define what people see there in 2025. The town was devastated by decades of lead and zinc mining contamination and by an EF4 tornado in May 2008, according to federal and state records.
The Environmental Protection Agency placed the Tar Creek area on the Superfund list in 1983. While Picher had already emptied out before 2015, the last decade cemented its status as one of the clearest ghost-town landscapes in the United States.
Travelers should know this is not a functioning town center in any normal sense. What remains is tied to contamination cleanup, abandoned structures, and the legacy of one of Oklahoma’s best-known environmental disasters.
Paradise, California
Paradise was a busy Sierra foothill town before the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018. The fire killed 85 people and destroyed more than 18,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, making it California’s deadliest wildfire.
The town’s population fell sharply after the fire. The U.S. Census Bureau counted 26,218 residents in 2010 and 4,764 in the 2020 Census, though rebuilding has slowly brought some residents back in more recent local estimates.
For anyone passing through, Paradise is not empty, but it is still visibly rebuilding years later. The documented story is one of abrupt loss rather than slow decline, with debris removal, reconstruction permits, and new housing shaping the town’s current reality.
Monowi, Nebraska
Monowi is small enough that every headcount matters. The village had 2 residents in 2010 and 1 resident in the 2020 Census, according to federal data, leaving it as America’s best-known one-person incorporated town.
A decade ago, Monowi already attracted national attention because Elsie Eiler operated the town’s library and tavern by herself. The difference in 2025 is not a sudden collapse, but a clearer sense that the place survives more as a curiosity stop than a thriving community.
That makes Monowi a special case on this list. It was never a large boomtown, but it was still a more active roadside stop in the 2010s than it appears now to most travelers crossing northern Nebraska.
Thurmond, West Virginia
Thurmond was once a Chesapeake and Ohio Railway hub, and the National Park Service preserves it today within New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. By the 2020 Census, Thurmond had 5 residents, down from 7 in 2010.
The town’s railroad importance faded long ago, but tourism and heritage interest kept it visible into the 2010s. Even so, federal park materials make clear that Thurmond functions more as a historic district than as a living town with a substantial year-round population.
For visitors, the depot and preserved buildings are the main draw. The facts are straightforward: Thurmond remains historically important, but its residential footprint in 2025 is tiny compared with the activity it once saw.
Cairo, Illinois
Cairo sits at the meeting of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, a strategic location that once made it a regional hub. The U.S. Census Bureau counted 2,831 residents in 2010 and 1,733 in 2020, one of the steepest percentage drops on this list.
Local decline has been tied to decades of job losses, flood risk, housing abandonment, and disinvestment, according to regional reporting and census trends. Buildings in the historic downtown have sat vacant for years, even as preservation groups continue trying to save parts of the core.
Cairo still has residents, government services, and redevelopment efforts, so it is not abandoned. But compared with its already diminished 2015 footprint, the town in 2025 feels much closer to a ghost-town landscape than many Illinois communities its size.
Williston, North Dakota
Williston surged during the Bakken oil boom, with thousands of workers arriving in the early and mid-2010s. North Dakota census estimates showed rapid growth during that period, but slower oil activity and housing normalization changed the pace by the early 2020s.
Unlike Centralia or Picher, Williston is not empty and remains a functioning regional center. Still, the man-camp era, packed hotels, and around-the-clock drilling traffic that defined roughly 2012 to 2015 have eased, according to state energy data and local reporting.
That makes Williston a softer version of this story. The contrast is between a boomtown at full throttle and a more stable, less frenzied city in 2025, not a complete disappearance.
Bombay Beach, California
Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea has long been shaped by environmental decline around the lake. Imperial County and California agencies have documented shoreline retreat, fish die-offs, dust concerns, and falling recreation tied to the Salton Sea over many years.
The community had a reputation as a rough but active resort area decades earlier, and even in the mid-2010s it still drew artists and curiosity travelers. By 2025, much of its identity rests on sparse occupancy, abandoned properties, and the shrinking sea beside it.
For travelers, Bombay Beach remains a real place with residents and art events, not an abandoned fiction. But the documented environmental decline around the Salton Sea explains why it feels dramatically quieter than the resort community it once aimed to be.
