Ghost towns

What is your city like when most people are away on vacation? Sometimes places feel like temporary ghost towns during the month of August, especially in Europe. 

A ghost town is a town abandoned by its inhabitants, typically due to economic decline or natural or human-caused disasters, such as earthquakes or wars.

Several ghost towns in the world have become tourist attractions. Many in the US were mining towns that sprang up (grew) during the gold rush in the 19th century. (The one pictured on this page is the ghost town of Goldfield, Arizona.) Miners searching for gold, silver, copper, and diamonds simply moved on to new opportunities in other towns, which is more understandable abandonment than the fates of countless villages and towns in other parts of the world, vacated because of natural disasters (Craco, Italy) or wars (Oradour-sur-Glane, France). 

So if your personal habitat feels a ghost town due to the holidays, enjoy the temporary peace, quiet, and romance of simpler times.

Four Corners

You’re traveling in the USA and you want to visit as many places as possible but you don’t have much time. How do you maximize your road trip to see as many states as you can? Try the Four Corners region.

The southwestern U.S. features an intersection of land that allows you to stand in four different states at once - Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah - and that region is appropriately called the Four Corners. The majority of the land belongs to the Navajo Nation of American Indians and it’s worth stopping to meet Navajo artisans and craftsmen, and of course, get ypur photo taken in all four states at once!

Technically known as a quadripoint, a point on the Earth that touches the border of four distinct territories, it’s not the only quadripoint in the world. Can you locate any others?

American Kitsch: Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas

Kitsch is defined as art, objects, or design considered to be in bad taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic way. I love the nostalgia and humor of American kitsch and here is a kitschy place I've always wanted to visit: Las Vegas' Neon Boneyard.

One of the things that makes Las Vegas so spectacular are the glowing lighted signs that illuminate the town. They're huge, sparkling, and a singularly unique Las Vegas art form. As Las Vegas modernizes, the vintage electric signs that represent motels, local businesses, and famous casino resorts from throughout Las Vegas are collected and saved in a sort of outdoor museum called the Neon Boneyard.

For years this museum has been accumulating the old signs and marquees that used to light up Las Vegas, with some dating back to the early 1930’s, and the reason it’s called the Neon Boneyard is because it's considered a cemetery for old, unwanted signs; in reality, it’s a museum that offers a fascinating, colorful glimpse into the history of early Las Vegas with its collection of larger-than-life, kitschy memorabilia. Though not a glamourous place (the signs are not lit anymore), this vast and amazing collection of huge signage offers a view into the legendary past of Las Vegas and its most memorable art form.