1. Madrid, New Mexico
Madrid was a coal mining town that went dark—literally—when the company pulled out in the 1950s and the lights were shut off. In the 1970s, artists discovered the abandoned houses and converted them into quirky homes, galleries, and roadside shops. Today, the whole town feels like an open-air art exhibit, with colorful facades, folk sculptures, and hand-painted signs lining the highway. Around 40 galleries and studios now fill what was once a silent stretch of desert.
What makes Madrid special is how it embraces imperfection. Many of the old mining shacks still stand, patched together with paint, tin, and personality. Artists use them not as polished studios, but as living artifacts of New Mexico’s boom-and-bust history. The result is a town that feels handmade, personal, and wonderfully unfinished—exactly how its residents like it.
2. Jerome, Arizona
Once a booming copper mining town, Jerome nearly emptied out in the 1950s when the mines closed. Artists began moving in during the 1960s, drawn to the cheap, sturdy buildings clinging to the mountainside. They turned old saloons into studios and miners’ boarding houses into galleries, creating a community where creativity replaced copper as the main output. Today, Jerome’s population hovers around 450, most of whom identify as artists or craftspeople.
What’s remarkable is that Jerome hasn’t become a theme park version of its past. Locals are careful to honor its mining heritage while hosting open studios, workshops, and art walks that celebrate the town’s revival. Murals and installations line its winding streets, turning decay into texture rather than hiding it. Jerome is proof that art can be both an act of preservation and transformation.
3. Bisbee, Arizona
Once one of the largest copper mining centers in the U.S., Bisbee fell on hard times after the mines closed in the 1970s. Then came the artists, who found inspiration in the town’s Victorian homes, narrow alleys, and rugged desert setting. Galleries opened in former hardware stores, and studios took over miners’ housing on the steep hillsides. Today, Bisbee’s creative community is thriving, supported by organizations like the Artemizia Foundation and the annual Bisbee Plein Air Festival.
What’s fascinating is how Bisbee balances its blue-collar past with its artistic identity. The town hasn’t erased its rough edges; instead, it’s turned them into character. Local art often uses mining imagery, metalwork, and found materials to connect to its history. It’s a ghost town that didn’t stay dead—it reinvented itself through color, craft, and collaboration.
4. Marfa, Texas
Marfa’s revival began when minimalist artist Donald Judd relocated there in the 1970s, buying up empty buildings and an abandoned army base for large-scale installations. His vision turned a fading ranch town into a destination for contemporary art, drawing artists and curators from around the world. Over time, galleries, nonprofits, and artist residencies sprouted across the desert landscape. What was once isolation became inspiration.
But Marfa’s story isn’t just about art—it’s about how creativity reshapes community. Local residents now mix with newcomers in a fragile but fascinating balance. Old motels, hangars, and train depots have become exhibition spaces and cafés. Marfa reminds us that even the most remote towns can pulse with creative energy if someone sees their potential.
5. Cisco, Utah
Cisco was left for dead after the railroad bypassed it, leaving only a handful of decaying buildings in the high desert. In 2015, artist Eileen Muza bought much of the town and began rebuilding it by hand, creating the “Home of the Brave” artist residency. She invites artists to live and work amid the ruins, restoring structures one by one. Slowly, murals, sculptures, and installations are bringing color back to Cisco’s ghostly landscape.
It’s a painstaking process, but that’s part of its beauty. Cisco isn’t being gentrified—it’s being reborn through resilience and creativity. Artists come here not to escape the world but to engage with it in its rawest form. Each repaired building tells a story about art’s ability to reclaim and reimagine forgotten places.
6. Goldfield, Nevada
Goldfield was once Nevada’s largest city, but when the mines dried up, it nearly vanished. Recently, artists have been moving in, restoring its early-1900s architecture and using the desert’s isolation as inspiration. The town now hosts the Goldfield Art Car Festival and features collaborative projects that turn old vehicles and mining relics into art. Slowly, the streets are filling again—with sculptures instead of prospectors.
The local art scene isn’t flashy, but it’s deeply connected to the town’s frontier spirit. Many residents use found metal and wood from abandoned structures to build new pieces. Their work blurs the line between salvage and sculpture. In Goldfield, art isn’t just decoration—it’s how people remember and rebuild.
7. Terlingua, Texas
Terlingua was once a mercury mining town, emptied out after the market collapsed in the 1940s. In the decades since, wanderers, musicians, and artists have drifted in, drawn by the surreal desert light and solitude. The town’s ruins now double as performance spaces, galleries, and film backdrops. What began as survival has turned into an experimental creative community.
Terlingua’s charm lies in its improvisation. Artists here don’t wait for grants or institutions—they make do with what they have. Adobe ruins become canvases; bottle caps and bones become mosaics. The town’s rebirth is slow, uneven, and entirely human—exactly how art tends to grow in the wild.
8. Bombay Beach, California
On the edge of the dying Salton Sea, Bombay Beach once promised lakeside glamour before pollution turned it toxic. Today, a collective of artists has reimagined the place as a surreal outdoor gallery. The Bombay Beach Biennale, launched in 2016, brings in installations, performances, and sculptures that rise from the desert dust. Each year, more pieces stay behind, reshaping the ruins into a living art experiment.
The transformation feels both eerie and hopeful. Artists here don’t hide decay—they highlight it, using salt-encrusted homes as stages for commentary on climate and collapse. Residents and visitors collaborate on projects that merge life and art in impossible conditions. It’s the rare ghost town where failure itself has become the muse.
9. Shaniko, Oregon
Shaniko was once the “Wool Capital of the World” before being deserted in the early 20th century. Now, a handful of artists and craftspeople are carefully restoring its weathered buildings into workshops and small studios. Local events like the annual Shaniko Ragtime and Vintage Music Festival help bring visitors and energy back. The town’s rebirth is gentle but genuine, powered by people who see poetry in the prairie.
What stands out about Shaniko is its pace—it’s revival by hand, not by hype. Artists come for solitude, not fame, and often end up staying longer than planned. They repair porches, repaint façades, and turn barns into galleries. Every project feels like a small promise that history isn’t over yet.
10. Garnet, Montana
Garnet was once a gold rush town of a thousand people, then completely abandoned by the 1940s. It’s now managed as a historic site, but in recent years, artists-in-residence programs have brought creative life back to its ghostly cabins. Painters, photographers, and writers stay in restored buildings to create works inspired by the quiet wilderness. The blend of preservation and art makes Garnet feel like a living time capsule.
Visitors often describe the town as hauntingly beautiful. The artists’ work helps reframe decay as narrative, turning erosion into expression. Many pieces are later exhibited in Missoula or Helena, extending Garnet’s story beyond the mountains. It’s a slow rebuild—not of population, but of meaning.
11. Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia is famous for the underground coal fire that forced its evacuation decades ago. Yet, despite the ghostly streets and smoke, artists have found a strange kind of muse there. Graffiti-covered Route 61—known as “Graffiti Highway”—became a sprawling collaborative canvas before it was covered for safety reasons. Even now, artists continue to visit and document the town’s surreal transformation through photography and installations.
Centralia’s art revival is less about living there and more about reclaiming its imagery. Painters, filmmakers, and street artists use its apocalyptic landscape as a metaphor for resilience and impermanence. Though the fire still burns underground, creativity has returned above it. The town endures in art even as it disappears in reality.
12. Nelson, Nevada
Just outside Las Vegas, Nelson’s Techatticup Mine was abandoned for decades before artists and preservationists stepped in. They restored the old mining camp and turned it into a backdrop for art installations, photo shoots, and independent films. The site now hosts workshops and pop-up exhibitions among rusted cars and wooden shacks. It’s both a set piece and a living museum.
What makes Nelson unique is its fusion of tourism and artistry. The restoration isn’t sterile—it keeps the patina of the desert intact. Visitors can explore history while seeing it reframed through creative eyes. Nelson shows how even a ghost town can thrive when art becomes the caretaker of memory.
This post 12 U.S. Ghost Towns That Are Slowly Being Rebuilt by Artists was first published on American Charm.
