Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is in the Bullfrog Hills, about 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park.
Ruins of the Cook Bank building in Rhyolite, Nevada
Rhyolite Mercantile, a general store built in 1906 that burned to the ground in September 2014 after being hit by lightning (image circa 2007).
The town's former train station (Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad) as it appeared in 2011
Amargosa Desert and Bullfrog Hills near Rhyolite
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed or ended for any reason. The town may also have declined because of natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, prolonged droughts, extreme heat or extreme cold, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, pollution, or nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents. The term can sometimes refer to cities, towns, and neighborhoods that, though still populated, are significantly less so than in past years; for example, those affected by high levels of unemployment and dereliction.
Plymouth, Montserrat, is the only ghost town that is the capital of a modern political territory. It was rendered uninhabitable and evacuated in 1995 after being inundated with volcanic ash from the eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano.
As farms industrialize, smaller farms are no longer economically viable, leading to rural decay.
Prior to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Varosha, now falling into ruin, was a modern tourist area.
Akarmara, a mining town in Abkhazia/Georgia, was abandoned in the early 1990s due to the War in Abkhazia.