onedc SM Developer/Designer

Photograph: Alamy

St Elmo, Colorado, US

One of Colorado’s best-preserved ghost towns
and another icon of the gold rush, St Elmo was
founded in 1880 and clung on until 1922, when,
legend has it, everyone who lived there took
the last train out of town. Now St Elmo
epitomises what we imagine when we think of
dust bowl communities: ramshackle wooden
houses neatly lined up on “Main Street” in the
middle of nowhere. The general store opens
for tourists during the summer and those
wanting to help boost the population (briefly)
can take up residency in a cabin for the night.