History Main / GhostTown

* The infamous Yi City of ''Literature/MoDaoZuShi'' wasn't too unsettling before it was abandoned despite being a city that traded primarily in funeral goods as well as being in a location with pretty lousy feng shui. After the tragedy that eventually cost it nearly all its (living) residents, it becomes downright spooky, the streets so full of OminousFog you won't know when you're near a walking corpse until it's too late.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': [[spoiler: [[FirstTown Narshe]] was abandoned after the [[WorldSundering cataclysm]] and subsequently became overrun with monsters, turning the place into a DungeonTown.]]
* Pretty much every town on Gran Pulse in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' qualifies but particularly [[spoiler:Oerba, as it is the only one with infrastructure still mostly intact--just no people to use it]].
* The aptly-named Ghost Port Kolobos form ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyBraveExvius''. Once a bustling port, the town died down once crystal farming, the main industry of the island, was no longer able to sustain it.

* ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' Ebon Keep. The original city within Gothica, it was completely vacated when Queen Bluegarden's evil twin usurped the throne, with the residents all being moved to Ivor Tower under the pretense that cleaning up their old city was harder work than just building a new one and according the a few folks, to have more control over the place. Only [[FinalFantasyIV Cecil Harvey]] remained behind, later joined by the real Bluegarden and Tinker after she escaped from prison. Once the twin is defeated, the situation gets flipped with the populace relocating to Ebon Keep again.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quneitra Quneitra, Syria]]

** Spain has also in some regions a significant number of villages that ended abandoned when young people looking for a better life left to the cities and the remaining old one died. Said situation is currently a major problem there.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Ne Monte Ne, Arkansas]][[note]][[ItIsPronouncedTropay Pronounced "mahn-tay nay",]] supposedly from the Spanish and Omaha words for "mountain water"[[/note]], a popular Ozark resort town of the early 20th century located near Rogers, AR, and founded by William "Coin" Hope Harvey. The town at one time had a general store, a livery stable, a grist mill, a post office, and a hotel. After failed attempts at a railroad and a turnpike, he helped co-found the Ozark Trail System, a forerunner of the U.S. Highway system. After the death of his son Hal, his wife and other son left him, and he attempted to build a pyramid as a monument to his legacy, but only a retaining wall was ever constructed. He attempted to run for president in 1932 as a member of the short-lived Liberty Party, gathering 53,425 votes but ultimately losing to UsefulNotes/FranklinDelanoRoosevelt by a landslide. Harvey eventually died in 1936 after a losing bout with deteriorating health, and after the property was sold off in lots, the rest of the resort and town was submerged after the construction of Beaver Dam, which formed Beaver Lake.

* The state of Oklahoma, which has gone through numerous booms and busts over the years (oil, coal, lead, etc) is littered with literally thousands (to be exact, over 2,500) of these, to the point that there's actually an official state list and classification system for them. There are even several which are partially underwater due to the construction of artificial lakes, and many more which are ''entirely'' underwater but still visible from the shoreline. The most notable is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma Picher]], a dangerously toxic and structurally unstable former lead mining town polluted from lead mining residue and featured in an episode of Series/LifeAfterPeople. Picher's last resident, a pharmacy owner named Gary Linderman resolved to stay in Picher until the last resident left. Linderman died in 2015, bringing Picher's population to zero. The last families of nearby [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardin,_Oklahoma Cardin]] received notices that the town's water supply would be shut off, and the last remaining residents accepted buyout offers, making it an official ghost town with zero residents.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adak,_Alaska Adak, Alaska]], an otherwise standard isolated fishing town which was for many years home to a naval operations base. Several buildings were constructed to complement it, including a college, movie theater, and a bowling alley. They even had Pizza Hut, Baskin-Robbins, and UsefulNotes/McDonalds. Almost all of the town was abandoned in 1993 when the naval base closed. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw_u7A_eFxY Here]] is a video showing the abandoned [=McDonald's=].

* The city of León, Nicaragua was originally situated at the Western shore of Lake Xolotlan or Lake Managua as it is known today. After several natural disasters, the city was moved dead in the cemeteries saints in the churches and all a bit further to the West to the place where it stands today. Nicaragua's only UNESCO world heritage sites are the ruins of old León and the cathedral of new León.

** [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Puerto del Hambre (Port Famine)]] is the country's oldest ghost town. It was funded in the Straits of Magellan in 1584. By the time that English explorer Thomas Cavendish arrived at the place three years later, the town was in ruins; starvation and the harsh climate had killed all of its inhabitants.

** Sewell was a CompanyTown known as the "Ciudad de las Escaleras" (City of Stairs) due to being built on an exposed slope too steep for wheeled vehicles. The city was founded in 1905 and abandoned in the late 70s when UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet's regimen deemed the settlement no longer viable. It became a UNESCO Heritage site in 2006.

* Agniritha, the capital city of the Mechonis in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''.

* Cromwell from ''Videogame/LastScenario''. Abandoned after the war many years prior to the events of the game, it serves a pivotal role in the backstory of several characters.

* Agniritha, the capital city of the Mechonis in ''{{VideoGame/Xenoblade}}''.

* ''VideoGame/WarioLand4'''s Crescent Moon Village, in both senses of the word (no inhabitants, but plenty of bloodthirsty undead ghosts).



* In idSoftware's adventure shooter ''VideoGame/{{Rage}}'', the level "Dead City" is an abandoned megapolis, complete with crumbling skyscrapers, sand-covered vehicles, and bloodthirsty mutants. But then again, most of the planet is post-nuclear-disaster, with crumbling everything and bloodthirsty inhabitants...)
* The town of Oakvale in ''VideoGame/FableI'' used to be a small village of farmers and carpenters deep in the forest coasted by the sea, surrounded by [[TheLostWoods a haunted cursed forest called Darkwood]]. It's a hub and the hero's home. [[VideoGame/FableII After 300 years from the first game]], the town had enlarged and the Barrow Fields region was unified with Oakvale, but because of Reaver and the Shadow Court, an evil and magical organization, the villagers were all killed and the town was cursed and eventually abandoned; within a few decades, the Darkwood forest claimed the village and the surrounding areas, turning it into the Wraithmarsh, a [[BigBoosHaunt dark and haunted]] [[BubblegloopSwamp wetland]] infested with [[NightOfTheLivingMooks undead, balverines, and banshees]]. The town's sign is still up when the player visits, though Oakvale's signature bridge is in ruins. The path leading in the inner town is flooded, making it impossible to explore the town further.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''
** Nipton and Searchlight in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' became this after the Legion came to town. The former had its residents beheaded, crucified, or enslaved, while the latter was irradiated, turning the NCR troops stationed there into feral ghouls.
** ''VideoGame/Fallout1'': After the [[PlayerCharacter Vault Dweller]] passes through the area, Necropolis' ghoul population is wiped out by a Super Mutant attack, "leaving a truly dead city behind them".
* The town on an island you and some other people washed up on in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonIslandOfHappiness'' appeared to be abandoned at first. However, when you get to work, it will become thriving once again.
* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'': After completing the Waterway, you end up in [[spoiler:Mimiga Village, but with all of its inhabitants gone due to being kidnapped by the Doctor.]] All of one intelligent being, [[spoiler:Professor Booster,]] shows up if you fulfilled a certain [[GuideDangIt obscure]] requirement.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLongDark'', one of the key features of the Coastal Highway map is a very small community. Not a single soul lives there and there are no bodies lying around, suggesting that the inhabitants moved out before the geomagnetic calamity struck. The gas station in the centre of the ghost town is a fairly good choice for a player safehouse as it has inside a work bench, plenty of storage space, and a burn barrel next to a small bed; however, wolves tend to lurk around the place so you'll need to stay on your toes while you're there.
* Agniritha, the capital city of the Mechonis in ''{{VideoGame/Xenoblade}}''.
* Cromwell from ''Videogame/LastScenario''. Abandoned after the war many years prior to the events of the game, it serves a pivotal role in the backstory of several characters.

* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' and ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' uses this and GhostCity. Almost no living human is left in any place you go to since they've all become zombies.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Cinnabar Island became this during the TimeSkip that separates ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]]'' from ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Gold and Silver]]''. Because the town was ravaged by a volcanic eruption, the inhabitants and Pokémon who once lived there were evacuated and moved elsewhere. The few people still residing in Cinnabar stay in the now-rebuilt Pokémon Center, though even then it's implied that Cinnabar is now merely a stop-gap location.
* Nancy Drew visits one called Dry Creek in ''[[VideoGame/NancyDrew Secret of Shadow Ranch.]]''
* In ''Videogame/{{Myst V}}'' Myst Island became this after Atrus and Catherine abandoned it after ''{{VideoGame/Myst}}'' because it held too many memories. Nothing on the island works anymore, and even flipping one of the switches causes it to break. The imaging room is inaccessible, and there are no linking books or journals to be seen. [[spoiler:If you visit the age of Myst at all in this game, Eshar will leave you stranded here, which also makes this [[TheAlcatraz The Alcatraz.]] Don't count on Yeesha coming to rescue you either since she wrote in one of her journals that she will never return.]]
* Astoria from ''VideoGame/TrialsOFMana''. Not too long after the heroes visited the place, the lakeshore village was razed to the ground by the Beast Kingdom of Ferolia. It remains destroyed for the rest of the game.
* The aptly-named Ghost Port Kolobos form ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyBraveExvius''. Once a bustling port, the town died down once crystal farming, the main industry of the island, was no longer able to sustain it.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda:'' Promise and Resilience on Eos, the Andromeda Initiative's first attempts at making colonies in Andromeda, until the kett found out about them. By the time Ryder shows up, both sites have been abandoned and left to the elements, save for one black marketer (who's only getting by thanks to an AdventureArchaeologist operating nearby). Even after Ryder makes Eos more liveable, no-one seems in any hurry to try and resettle the areas.
* The City of Hanwell in ''VideoGame/TheCouncilOfHanwell'' was evacuated due to an outbreak of "anomalies". Unlike most examples, the residents knew the exact time and date that the outbreak would occur on, so most of the townsfolk made it out of the city.
* The Gravemark Village from ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' is exactly WhatItSaysOnTheTin. What remains of the settlement is a cemetery and a lone hut where a trio of old foggies live. One of them explains that a great plague killed almost all inhabitants and the village was quarantined by the [[PathOfInspiration Crystal Orthodoxy]] to prevent the malaise from reaching the rest of Eternia. Edea's parents, Braev and Mahzeer, hail from this place. It is theorized by the old man that Braev's support of the Anticrystallism movement is the result of the Orthodoxy sacrificing his hometown to protect the rest of the continent.
* Molcum from ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV''. The motavian town was razed to the ground by [[THeDragon Zio]] who also murdered most of the inhabitants, including the parents of Gryz and Pana. The survivors managed to relocate to the small village of Tonoe, north of the devastated settlement.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria'' has Aball, Velvet's hometown. Thought to be lively and inhabited despite what happened years prior, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Melchior used his illusion magic to create illusions of the people of Velvet's past.]] Once Velvet [[spoiler: breaks the illusion and defeats Orthrus, all illusions dissipate and Aball becomes an utter Ghost Town with not a single soul inhabiting the city]].
* ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork2'' has an online equivalent: This game introduced the Net Square concept to the series. These are spaces on the web where Navis are safe from viruses, can interact with each other, buy stuff from stores, and read notices from bulletin boards. Basically, the online counterpart of your round-of-the-mill town. During the events of the game, [=ShadowMan=].EXE, under the command of Gospel, destroyed the Net Square of Yumland, deleting all of its inhabitants, including their King [=CookMan=].EXE. Save from a lone [=MrProg=], the square remains uninhabited for the rest of the game.
* In ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', Avatar's home town [[DoomedHometown falls under attack by Dr. Eggman's robot army]], forcing the survivors to flee. Classic Sonic is the first hero to arrive in the area to fight back Eggman's robots, and the stage in which he does so is aptly named "Ghost Town." [[spoiler:The city's inhabitants, including Avatar, return by the end of the game.]]

* Wakatu from ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'': Mondo from [[OneNationUnderCopyright Trinity]] used his connections to be assigned as the ambassador of this region and then proceeded to destroy it, massacring all of the population, to built his secret base here. Gen was the SoleSurvivor and can be found [[DrowningMySorrows drinking himself into a coma]] at the bar in Junk over [[MyGreatestFailure having failed to protect his home region]]. He's needed to access Wakatu as it is otherwise declared off limit by travel agencies.
* Garvoy Valley from ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts From the New World'': Shania and Natan's DoomedHometown. The place was destroyed and all its inhabitants killed by [[BigBad Lady]]... Simply because [[DisproportionateRetribution the settlement was in her way]].
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': [[spoiler: [[FirstTown Narshe]] was abandoned after the [[WorldSundering cataclysm]] and subsequently became overrun with monsters, turning the place into a DungeonTown.]]

* ''Series/TheCallOfWarr'' is set in an abandoned town with only one remaining resident. The entire town is surrounded by forest, and may not be controlled by the government.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' had a "historical flashback" episode starting by the Chan clan stopping in a ghost town.
* One of Scott Adams' Adventure games, ''Ghost Town'' (1981).

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' with the Dad's hometown, now a ghost town even by wild west standards. He went for the feeling of nostalgia before remembering that it was just plain awful.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'': In "Where Lies the Engulfer", Doyle takes Zak on training mission in an abandoned Canadian resort town. It turns out there was a very good reason why it had been abandoned.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersCyberverse'': In the episode "Ghost Town", Windblade takes the Allspark to a seemingly abandoned city on an unknown alien world without explanation. It is revealed that the city is the dormant form of a [[GeniusLoci titan named Croaton]] who's inhabitants have been taken by mysterious abductors.

* In ''LightNovel/DragonCrisis'', several of the main girls get sucked into a painting of a ghost town. Unfortunately for them, there's also an AxCrazy murderer here.

* ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranxx'': The children discover one while exploring a tunnel with lots of overgrowth near the beach. Kokoro finds a pamphlet discussing babies when she wanders into an abandoned clinic.
* [[TheHero Saitama]] from ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'' lives in the Z-City Ghost Town, a mostly uninhabited district of City Z which was abandoned by most of its former residents due to an unusually high frequency of [[OurMonstersAreDifferent monster]] attacks which began to plague the area. Despite this however, Saitama's apartment building still has electrical power and running water.

* Lawless, Arizona in ''ComicBook/MarvelTwoInOne #14''. This one had a literal ghost, a hanged {{outlaw}} that the ComicBook/TheThing and ComicBook/DaimonHellstrom AKA the Son of Satan battled.

* In an old ''WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost'' comic book, the Ghostly Trio came home from their vacation upset, claiming that the ghost town they went to had no ghosts, only a guy selling souvenirs. It ''did'', however, have a "little haunted house" that they were terrified of, which followed them home. (Actually, it was a ghostly dog in a doghouse, owned by a prospector who was using it to sniff out gold.)

* Coast City from the ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' comics became a ghost town after its destruction at Cyborg Superman's hands. In ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'', while still under the Spectre's power, Hal Jordan seems to unconsciously recreate the layout of the pre-devastation Coast City. Nonetheless, it took a while until people dared to return to the rebuilt town.

* Knowhere from the ''ComicBook/{{Nova}}'' series first appears like this. No-one's around, the lights are off, and there's blood on the walls. The only beings left are Cosmo and the Luminals. Oh, and some zombies.

* Clearwater Commune in Roleplay/DCNation was built on one of these. Currently a thriving hippie commune and farming community, it was once a notoriously nasty mining town in ComicBook/JonahHex's day, and popular with cultists, as it's sitting on a node of magical energy. The hippies are clueless about this.
* ''Fanfic/{{Respect}}'': At the end, [[spoiler:[[Anime/SmilePrettyCure Nanairogaoka]] has become this, after Yayoi's rampage.]]

* In ''Fanfic/KaraOfRokyn'', [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} the main character]] returns to her abandoned hometown Argo City and finds it's still a silent, cold place littered with corpses.

* ''Fanfic/JurassicWorld2020'': A grey guard platoon crosses the ruins of San Fernandez during their track of the Indominus. San Fernandez is a mining colony that the Spaniards had built on Isla Nublar in the 16th century and was destroyed during an eruption of Mount Sibo.
* ''Fanfic/TheWorldIsFilledWithMonsters'': Maplebridge. While its inhabitants are still there, they're all left irresponsive and catatonic [[spoiler:in the wake of the dreamora attack]] by the time the heroes arrive.

* In Book 19 of the ''Literature/LoneWolf'' series, Lone Wolf can visit two Ghost Towns on his cross country trip back home. One village was hit hard by a plague and is completely abandoned. Another one, the town of Amory, is a literal GhostTown. The spirit of old enemy Roark still haunts his former home and his evil presence frightens away any living thing that tries to stay there. After Lone Wolf defeats Roark for the last time and banishes his spirit forever, he is delighted to hear birdsong in the morning after the battle -- life is already returning to Amory. Lone Wolf also finds some hidden money in the floorboards of the house he was sleeping in -- almost as if the town itself was thanking him.

* Momson, Vermont, is described as one of these at the beginning of Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/SalemsLot'', and the title village winds up as one [[spoiler:due to an outbreak of vampirism]].
** Gatlin, Nebraska, initially appears to be one in King's short story "Literature/ChildrenOfTheCorn". [[ReligionOfEvil It is not.]]
** And ''plenty'' of these in ''Literature/TheStand'', post-Captain Trips.
** And the titular town of Literature/{{Desperation}}.
* The town where the Twentieth Century Motor Company used to exist in ''Literature/AtlasShrugged''.
* Snowfield, California, in Dean Koontz's ''Literature/{{Phantoms}}.''

* The unnamed protagonist encounters vampiric activity in Creator/BramStoker's short story "Dracula's Guest" when he goes to investigate an abandoned town in the German countryside.
* In ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheWell'', Kagura is interested in finding Aitou village, a long-lost village rumored to be haunted.
* A flashback in ''Literature/{{Holes}}'' reveals that Camp Green Lake, the juvenile detention center the protagonist is sent to, actually used to be a beautiful lake that served as the life blood of a thriving town. But when the locals lynched a black onion farmer for kissing the white {{Schoolmarm}}, a drought gripped the area, causing the lake to dry up and the town to go down with it. The narration even states that the drought can be seen as [[LaserGuidedKarma divine punishment]].

* ''Literature/BenSnow'': In "Ghost Town", Ben visits the ghost town of Raindeer looking for a place to spend the night, and is captured by a quartet of train robbers. Then someone starts [[TenLittleMurderVictims picking the robbers off one by one...]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E1WhereIsEverybody Where Is Everybody?]]".
* ''Series/{{Land of the Giants}}'' episode "Ghost Town".

* ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' episode where the Bradys drive to the Grand Canyon on vacation and stop at a ghost town along the way.
* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' had an episode involving a cursed ghost town that seemed to have disappeared off of the face of the earth.
* On ''Series/TheXFiles'', Scully gives birth to her son in an abandoned Georgia town to escape those who wish to kidnap and kill the baby.

* ''Series/DustysTrail'': When Dusty and the gang stumble upon an apparent ghost town in "Brookhaven, U.S.A", Mr. Brookhaven decides to rename it and turn it into a real town again.
* The town where the events of the episode "Showdown" in ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' set turns out to be this, decades later in the future, as its future fate is a tourist attraction that is devoid of residents.

* The Specials' ''Ghost Town'', about Coventry in ''UsefulNotes/TheWestMidlands'', a bitter and ironic song about a city devastated by Thatcher's destruction of heavy industry in Britain in TheEighties.

* Knott's Berry Farm has a western-themed area that's outright called "Ghost Town". It was closely modeled after real-life ghost towns, such as Calico, California.

* A location in ''VideoGame/Mother3'', at the end of chapter 7. It's [[spoiler:Tazmily Village]].
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''
** The Hidden Village in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', and its Western music.
** Earlier than that, in ''[[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink Zelda II]]'', the town of Kasuto. Especially because [[spoiler: there are ''literal'' ghosts flying around, which can't be seen without the aid of a magic Cross.]]
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' has quite a bit of these in the desert areas (Las Brujas and Aldea Malvada are two examples).
* In ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail II'', Fort Boise and Sutter's Fort are abandoned in the 1850s, as in real life. The Whitman Mission will also be abandoned after 1847 or so.

* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'', the town of Ghoulash is abandoned but for one resident.
* ''Red Dead'' games:
** Tarnation from ''VideoGame/RedDeadRevolver'' was about to be recognized as a bona fide settlement by the local authorities until the town's sheriff was murdered. No other lawman was willing to replace him, so criminals and other evildoers quickly seized up the place and the original inhabitants fled.
** ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' has the aptly-named Tumbleweed. Except for the bandits that hole themselves up there, it lives up to its name (and yes, you can clean up the town to fully restore its uninhabited state). The town is filled with disturbing Easter eggs, including ghost footprints on the steps, bizarre animal behavior, and strange barking coming from the graveyard.
** The town of Pleasance in the {{prequel}} ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' had only been established for a month before a double whammy of mass murder and plague outbreak rendered it abandoned. [[spoiler:Tumbleweed is still populated but clearly on the decline, while the town of Armadillo, which is thriving and well in the future, is nearly deserted due to a cholera epidemic.]]

* ''Franchise/SilentHill'' was once a prosperous large town that seemed to have been suddenly abandoned by everyone except a handful of locals and people who either purposefully or accidentally end up in it. Perhaps it was the dwindling tourism industry or, more likely, the monsters and the periodic threat of the Otherworld that led to its abandonment. It has been theorized that the abandoned version of Silent Hill is in fact an alternate dimension, and in the real world, it is a normal, prosperous town.
* ''VideoGame/ChampionsOnline'' has a region called the Southwest Desert where there are two ghost towns, both very different. One is a traditional old deserted mining town, Burnside, complete with ghosts from way back. The other is a nameless town ravaged by the effects of nearby atomic bomb tests in the 1950s and completely deserted apart from a few radiation mutants straying around the edges of the atomic wastelands. Quite chilling really.
* In Telltale Games' ''VideoGame/BackToTheFutureTheGame'' Episode 5, [[spoiler:Hill Valley has become this, due to Edna setting a fire which destroyed the early town]]

* In ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'', Columbus, Ohio has apparently become a ghost town.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_%28commune%29 Oradour-sur-Glane, France]] - Unlike most examples on this page, the town is abandoned not because of economic reasons, but because nearly the entire population was massacred by Waffen SS troops from UsefulNotes/NaziGermany in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII 1944]]. A new Oradour has been built nearby since, the old town's ruins still stand as they were left as is after the massacre as a haunting memorial to the incident.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_dead_tumbleweed_3848.jpg]]]]

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Epecu%C3%A9n Villa Epecuén, Argentina]] was a tourist town destroyed in a freak flood caused by a seiche (a standing wave in an enclosed body of water) in a nearby lake in 1985. The town was deemed a total lost and was abandoned. Two decades and a half latter, the water receded enough for the ruins of the place to reemerge.

* ''Franchise/{{Tremors}}'':

** Sadly, this happens again in the later films as the constant graboid problems and lack of opportunity take its toll on the inhabitants of Perfection. In ''Tremors 6'', Burt is the only permanent resident left, with everybody else having moved away, and even he packs up and leaves by the next film when he refuses to deal with the US government any longer.

* In ''Film/Tremors4TheLegendBegins'', the Old West town of Rejection is largely abandoned after "dirt dragon" attacks cause the local mine to be closed down. Most of its buildings were barely more than tents to begin with.

* In Creator/ZackSnyder's version of ''[[Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague Justice League]]'', the fictional town of Pozharnov is abandoned because of a nuclear incident that happened there, not unlike [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} Pripyat]] in 1986 or Kyshtym in 1957. This provides [[ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding nice ground for a destruction-heavy]] FinalBattle.

* In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', Silva has his base in an island ghost town.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_%28commune%29 Oradour-sur-Glane, France]] - Unlike most examples on this page, the town is abandoned not because of economic reasons, but because nearly the entire population was massacred during the Nazi occupation. The town still stands as it was left after the massacre as a haunting memorial to the incident.

* ''Film/TheOldGuard''. The protagonists have a safehouse in a village outside Paris that has been abandoned because it's directly under a busy airport's flight path.
* In ''Film/KeepOffMyGrass'', a group of hippies is relocated from a small city to a run-down ghost town 50 miles away to keep them out of everyone else's way.

** Theddon in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' becomes this, due to being unfortunately close to Baramos' Lair and, therefore, subjected to Baramos' assault. It's entirely devoid of people in the daytime, while its former residents go about their business at night.

* The town where the events of the episode "Showdown" in ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' sets turns out to be this, decades later in the future, as its future fate is a tourist attraction that is devoid of residents.

** Gerzuun from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX''. By the time the hero and Co. arrived, the town has already been overrun by monsters. The only inhabitants left are the ghosts of the townfolks who, unaware of their deaths, still look over the [[McGuffin Bodura grass]].

** Other books in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse explain that in the initial days of Tibanna gas exploitation on the gas giant [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack Bespin]], numerous floating boom towns were constructed to try to get in on the market. When most of these went bust, their owners simply cut the power to the repulsorlifts and let the installations fall into the gas giant's depths. The exception is Tibannopolis, a floating ghost town that's been stripped by scavengers to a bare skeleton. Its generators are slowly failing so that the thing currently hovers at a slight tilt, but it serves as Bespin's local "haunted house," a place for daredevil pilots to show off, or for lovers to have a private moment. And in the Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy, it's where Luke recruits Streen, a Force-sensitive hermit whose PowerIncontinence drove him away from other people's thoughts.

* ''Son of Paleface'' (1952) takes place partially in a Ghost Town.