Gilman, USA
The town of Gilman, located on a steep cliff above Eagle River in Colorado, seemed to be one of the best places to be in the early 20th century. The city was close to the Eagle mine, which was the main producer of silver for the state, but in the early 1930s, they also started to exploit the lead and zinc that could be found in the mine. Taking into consideration that the mine which started to excavate lead and zinc led to massive contaminations in the surrounding zones, you can tell where this story is headed.
By 1977, the several hundred inhabitants got the news that the mine was closing, and it wasn’t long until the Environmental Protection Agency ordered the complete evacuation of the city: the water and soil around the mines were contaminated with lead. It remains like this to this day, as the town fell into ruin and is still highly toxic. There are still high levels of cadmium, copper, lead, zinc, and arsenic found in the area, and despite people wanting to speed clean up and turn the site into a sky resort, nothing has come to fruition.
The 235 acres that make up the town of Gilman are privately owned and still host the now ruins of a once fruitful town. The only ones who visit it, are daring vandals who desecrate the historical buildings and photographers who want to take pictures of the ruins.
New Idria, USA
This is one place in sunny California that you should definitely avoid! Located in the northern part of the Diablo Mountain Range, New Idria was founded in 1845, to house the miners who worked in the nearby mercury mine. The mine became one of the biggest producers of metal in America, making the town inhabited by a lot of people, creating a big community, having a number of shops, a school, a post office, and a church.
Despite being a very profitable business, the mine closed in 1927 leaving everyone unemployed and stripping away their livelihood. This led to the people abandoning the city and making it a ghost town. It wasn’t until the 1990s that concerns over the area being contaminated with toxic metals and mercury appeared, and since then these substances have been found in the town and in downstream of the mine.
In 2010 part of the site burned down, which ended up with the south part of the settlement being fenced off. Over the course of the next three years, the site had gone through a clean-up operation, yet the town remains uninhabitable and highly toxic. To make matter worse, besides the mercury and toxic metals, part of New Idria has been added to the Asbestos Hazard Area list. There seems to be no hope that this town will ever be inhabitable again.
