12 Ashcroft, Colorado
This town was established in 1880 thanks to silver being discovered there. Soon, 3,500 people lived there. By 1885, the silver was gone, and all but 100 residents relocated.
In the 1930s, it garnered new attention thanks to the Winter Olympics. Olympic bobsledder Billy Fiske planned to build a ski resort there but died in WWII. The project died too and by 1940, Ashcroft was deserted.
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