Abandoned California: Lost Locales of the Golden Coast

California's lost histories, from mining towns to forgotten cities, lie buried in the ruins awaiting rediscovery.

Throughout its rich and storied history, California has seen the rise and fall of countless individuals, industries, and empires. Men have dug deep into her rich soil in search of mineral wealth, hauling out tungsten, silver, mercury and, of course, gold. Loggers plied their trade in the dense forests of her northernmost corners, harvesting redwood, fir, and pine that would build the metropolises of San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. Entire cities have been dreamt up, built, and then left to rot in the desert sun or salty coastal air. Along the way, untold thousands of locations have slipped through the cracks of time, seemingly forgotten in mankind's eternal quest for greater things. Such is the nature of time that nothing lasts forever; all over the Golden State, the lost histories of California are waiting to be discovered by those intrepid, and perhaps, foolhardy enough to seek them out. From the sunbaked beaches of Los Angeles to the rugged cliffs of the Lost Coast, wherever humans have briefly tread can be found the decaying remains of the world that once was.