I live in Northern California, in "The Gold Country". There are oodles of old abandoned mining towns, every couple of miles. Very cool. I'm a history nut so I can spend hours exploring them, and then go home and research them on the internet. (A VERY colorful history those miners had)
Some of the old mining towns are restored very beautifully and some stand the way they stood when the miners left after the gold "ran out" 100 years ago.
One of my very favorite things to do is jump in the car and go find old towns.There are sooooo many here.