After the bust, boom towns’ ghosts offer clues to living conditions, eventual collapse. Abandoned sites often require more than casual exploration to unearth historical gems only a ghost town can offer. These sites offer snapshots of times and places not always knowable from documents and interviews. Fairfax, Washington is a prime example: it was, from the late 1890s until 1941, a thriving, company-owned mining and lumber town on the west-most leg of the Northern Pacific Railway. Economic expansion occurred rapidly, only to dissipate as the demand for coal waned. Fairfax went from boom to bust in only 40 years.
