During the glory days of Route 66, Amboy was a popular tourist trap, where the all-American family could get a malt in the soda shop, have their tires rotated, and enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep before they got back on the road. A woman smiles when you peek into the windows of the adorable motel’s reception office. The Cody Nite Rodeo takes place every night and is truly one of the most unique rodeo experiences you’ll get in the West. Calico’s second wind would come in 1951, when Walter Knott, whose uncle had made his fortune with a Calico mine, bought the collection of dilapidated shacks and mines that were left. You can take a ride through an old mine on a tram, pan for silver, take pot shots in the shooting gallery, and camp overnight under the Calico hills. These days Silverton is a little more respectable. However, the industries and factories that Mendelsohn promised to lure to the city never came. “He would take people up on a hill overlooking the land and explain to them about the city that would be there one day,” his secretary Renate Saremba recalled. Of course, steam locomotives needed water. In the 1950s, it was reinvented by Walter Knott, the very man who brought us Knotts Berry Farm. In the town’s large barn, craftsmen are working. “It is a little too crowded for me,” longtime resident Jim Austin told the New York Times last year, having just sold his home to a couple from Oakland. He promised to restore and reopen Roy’s, a goal which he seems to have minimally accomplished. Then get your kicks off Route 66 (now the National Heritage Trail) in the ghostly midcentury modern nightmare known as Amboy. Once again, it serves as a friendly way station, selling maps, candy bars, and nostalgia to visitors battling the cruel desert sun. Okaton – A Prairie Ghost Town Most look like they have been there for many years. Rough, rowdy and dangerous, the pioneer town became famous for the western icons who passed through, such as the saloon-keeper turned lawman Wyatt Earp. Okura has a soft spot for Americana; he also bought the refurbished, original McDonald’s in San Bernardino. For that reason, we name Abilene our top Western Town for 2018. Soon it became the lynchpin for several small towns sprouting up around the area’s largest mines. Corral. Just west of the town of Lone Pine on Highway 395, at the foot of Mount Whitney, are the Alabama Hills. Also be sure to catch the Ghost Rider Gunfighters show in the town center, which takes place daily at 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM. The story does have a happy ending, however, as Oatman eventually gained her freedom. Calico is a desert ghost town, theme-park style. Corral and view reenactments of the famous gunfight, or even spend the day at the Tombstone Wild West Theme Park where there are daily gunfight shows (no, you don’t have to participate). And if you happen to be visiting the “Rodeo Capital of the World” between June 1 and August 31, you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t see a rodeo. It was truncated during the 1964 renumbering and its signage removed in 1974. By 1969, the year Mendelsohn pulled out amid a torrent of lawsuits and government investigations, California City had only 1,700 residents. According to the history, “Kelso was perfectly situated to fill both roles, since it is located near the bottom of the 2,078-foot grade, and had a reliable water source from a nearby spring in the Providence Mountains.”. The days of Wyatt Earpp and Billy the Kid may be over, but there are still several towns throughout the US that evoke that old fashioned Wild West spirit. Mar 15, 2020 - Explore Free Range Living's board "Wild West Towns" on Pinterest. See if you can find the good, fallen tree nearby, rest for a moment, and think of ghost trains gliding across the unforgiving desert. mobile app. The shootout pitted Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earpp and Doc Holliday against Ike and Billy Clanton, Billy Claiborne, and Tom and Frank McLaury. Most work in the local jail, at nearby Edwards Air Force Base, and in the large Boron mine to the east. Buy a cowboy hat from the hip guy with an alt-country beard in another store (and pay over Venmo) and consider purchasing a beautiful earthenware mug in another. Modern Abilene has done a first-rate job of preserving those wild times, especially in its celebration last year of the 150th anniversary of the Chisholm Trail. Who knew a deserted, rough-and-tumble mining boomtown in the Wild West could be so delightful? At dusk, an Oldsmobile driver turns his bright lights on to go down a perfectly straight road, with not a building or second car in sight. That year, a group of Hollywood investors, including cowboy stars Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, Dick Curtis, Bob Nolan, Russell Hayden, and Tim Spencer, bought 13 acres of desert land 25 miles from Palm Springs. After gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, people flocked to the Deadwood area to make their fortune. In the general store on Main Street, there are fat peppermints and candy cigarettes. Chandler – Last Gunfight of the Old West. Next door is the glassed-in hotel lobby, its cracked Mad Men-esque furniture fading in the sun. Behind the post office is a small wood-frame house, where it appears someone still resides. Nestled in the San Juan Mountains, this picturesque mountain town, now known as the “Switzerland of America,” was once a rowdy wild west town where silver prospectors came for fast fortunes. At its height during World War II, the population of Kelso reached around 2,000. The dust in the air chokes. Union Pacific planned to tear down the depot, but it was saved by a group of historians and environmentalists. Prostitutes - or 'soiled doves' and 'sportin' women' as they were commonly known - were a fixture in western towns and cities. The town was fast abandoned, leaving behind a bygone relic. One was the boarded-up depot’s caretaker O.B. South Dakota. Today, the picturesque tourist trap is all charm, with no true grit (or ghosts) in sight. What it's like now: Dodge City's economy is ce… Tired of the incessant travel that came with filming Westerns, they built Pioneertown as a permanent Wild West set. According to the LA Times: An ambitious street system was designed and roads were cut into the brush, making the grid that can now be seen from the air. Driving through California City today is an eerie experience. The hills nearby are covered in sleek white windmills. Everyone knows the expression “get the hell out of Dodge,” but in reality, you should probably get the hell to Dodge. You can even book a ranch tour and learn how to shoot a rifle. Who knew a deserted, rough-and-tumble mining boomtown in the Wild West could be so delightful? El Reno -Home of the Oklahoma Land Rush. 36600 Ghost Town RoadYermo, CA 92398Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Down an endless road, deep into the beautifully barren Mojave National Preserve, the wind pushes your car around, and your lips feel like parched sandpaper. A hub for the meatpacking industry, Dodge hosts the Dodge City Days annual festival — a 10-day festival featuring a longhorn cattle drive and the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo. Mane Street is a friendly place, not a grimacing desperado in sight. In 1924, the grand Spanish Revival Kelso Depot and Clubhouse opened. Amboy passed through the hands of different owners before it was bought by Albert Okura, founder of the Juan Pollo restaurant chain, in 2005. 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A booming mining town established in 1859 during the discovery of a major silver deposit called the Comstock Lode, the town was named after Virginia miner James “Old Virginny” Finney. At Roy’s Motel and Café, an old man sits by the gas station: is he working? Soon a post office, cafeteria, and rudimentary homes for Union Pacific workers and prospectors sprang up in the isolated spot. Calico. Top 10 Wild West towns in America . In the recreated print shop, a friendly skeleton wears an old-fashioned green visor and kitschy wanted posters of madams and madmen are displayed on the walls. The world’s love affair with America’s Wild West has always burned bright, and nothing in the country’s history compares to the period from 1865 to 1895 when prospectors and pioneers pushed their way towards better lives and scrambled for pots of gold. Before Las Vegas and Reno, Virginia City was Nevada’s premier destination. Three hours east of Los Angeles, this small settlement in the Mojave started off as a railroad community. An authentic mining ghost town that hosted more than 60 saloons and dance halls at its peak, its decay has been frozen by park authorities. In 1946, Hollywood came to the high desert to stay. The settlement was born when workers laying tracks for a railroad came to the edge of the canyon, with no way to cross over until a bridge was built. But for many 19th- and 20th-century pioneers, the desert wasn’t just a place they wanted to visit—it was a place they wanted to stay. Finally, a place to stretch their legs, breathe some fresh air, and have a drink or 10. Just outside of Barstow in the Mojave Desert—designated the state of California’s official “silver rush ghost town” in 2005—Calico started its life as a lawless 19th-century mining camp. You can also take a walking tour along the Dodge City Trail of Fame, which commemorates the famous Wild West residents of Dodge, or kick back at Miss Kitty’s Long Branch Saloon just like the gunslingers used to do. Wild West Town is a wild west themed amusement park in Illinois. The Wild West represents a unique period in the growth of the US, when borders were being expanded and new lands discovered during the late 19th century. The term “ghost town” has an ominous tone, but most of the ghost towns in the United States used to be mining towns that boomed quickly then died out when the mines dried up and the townspeople left in search of better luck elsewhere.The dilapidated buildings and ruins of these towns serve as a living history of wild west living in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A ghost town is a term used to describe towns that failed to stand the test of time and died off the same time the gold mines stopped producing gold. Over the years, the roads were reclaimed by the city of Mojave. Western Towns - Our Top 10 True Western Towns - What makes a True Western Town? Kelso Depot 90942 Kelso Cima Road Kelso, CA 92306. A sales office and model houses were constructed, and work was started on Central Park, an 80-acre recreational area that eventually included a 20-acre lake, outdoor swimming pool, playing fields, par-three golf course, picnic areas, tennis courts, indoor sports center and community building. Fittingly, Schieffelin called the town “Tombstone” because he was initially told he would find nothing there but his own tombstone. There is a restored lunch counter, telegraph office, and exhibitions that tell the history of the area. You can visit the Oatman Jail and Museum to view the town’s old holding pens and sheriff’s office, or check out the several local shops selling classic Americana. Nowadays the town has shed its gunfighting reputation and leaned into its cattle history. 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