Unearthing Hollywood Treasure in an Arctic Ghost Town

Dawson City, Canada’s favourite “living ghost town,” is finally starting to flesh out again after decades of falling into ruin. The Yukon settlement located about 350 miles south of the Arctic Circle was born from the glory and greed of the Klondike gold rush, and ushered in 40,000 people in just two years. Today, its story…

Once Upon a Time in a Real “Westworld” Hoax Town

The American West has had a reputation of being wild since the continent was first colonized, but the inhabitants of one Nevada town, Palisade, made sure they really embodied the sentiment. During the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, Palisade (named for the valley that obstructed the railroad’s construction) was the site of an elaborate hoax during the…

How Black Cowboys Built the American West: A Living History

You may hear it, before you see it. The gentle trotting of hooves backdropped by the sounds of New York City’s JFK Expressway. Even locals do a double take when they cross paths with a member of the Federation of Black Cowboys. When they ride, they tell the true story of the Wild, Wild West:…

Play the New Sheriff of this Ghost Town for Sale

Cerro Gordo was “the Silver Thread to Los Angeles,” the once violent pioneer town whose grounds saw the rush of miners and cowboys mark it on the map in blood. The literal translation of its Spanish name, “Fat Hill,” helps express that unshakeable bond to good ‘ole Western greed in Nevada — even if these days, Cerro Gordo is spread rather…

Vacationing at the West’s Smallest Ghost Town

Is luck just another word for good timing? It is for the town of Gold Point. Under the endless stretch of sky in Esmerelda County, Nevada, at the gateway of Death Valley, the little ghost town sleeps with dreams of bygone glory. Of chattering saloon life and gold dusted guns. Once upon a time –…

When Americans Lived in Tree Stumps

There are trees, and then there are trees out west. “Ancient sequoias,” “Mammoths,” or “Big Trees,” as John Muir liked to say – the nicknames varied, but the trees’ contribution the grandeur of the storied West Coast remained the same. Pioneers worked, breathed, and seriously lived in the darn things. Improbable today, but common in…

She Lied About Everything, except Marrying Wyatt Earp

A vagabond and speculated prostitute of the Wild West, nothing Josephine Earp ever did was seemingly adventurous enough even for herself. She thrived off the change of environments and had a certain mystique about her that followed her around like too much perfume. But that’s what drew people to her. That was Josie Earp’s style. Born in…

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The Last Stagecoach Tavern of the Wild Wild West

Cold Spring Tavern isn’t your average bandit’s watering hole. In roughly 150 years, it’s housed everything from a baby leopard named Ricky, to a Frenchman’s failed ballet school, and it’s one of the last surviving stops of California’s perilous stagecoach days. To get there, your car will have to hug miles of winding road off the highway…

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America’s Underground Sin City

There’s the Wild West, and then there’s it’s even wilder underbelly. For locals of Hill County, Montana, that underbelly hides in the subterranean village of Havre, whose passages once bustled with saloons and opium dens, bordellos and mercantile shops galore. For decades, it was on the brink of crumbling away in silence. Now, it’s finally…

Inside the Castle in the Middle of the Death Valley Desert

On my first California road trip a few years ago, one of our stops I was looking forward to the most was Death Valley’s mysterious Scotty’s Castle, a sprawling Spanish style manor built in the middle of nowhere in the roaring twenties. We were dangerously low on gas but determined to find this isolated oasis, and to my…