Map & Directions
This map is not drawn to scale and it is not representative of the vast province of British Columbia. It exists to give you an approximate indication of where the towns are located. The three regions are many hundreds of miles/kilometres travelling distance. Ghost towns are marked in black, nearby towns are in brown. The written directions read from east to west. Get yourself a good road map, follow the directions and have fun exploring.
Southeast B. C.
Crowsnest
As westbound travelers approach the continental divide and border of Alberta and British Columbia on Hwy. 3, there will be a service road on the south side of the highway. It leads into the hamlet, about a kilometer off Hwy. 3.
Corbin
About 15 kilometres west of Crowsnest on Hwy. 3, westbound travelers should watch for a sign to the current mine operations at present-day Corbin. Take the paved Corbin Road for about 25 kilometres and it will take travelers directly to the town site and mine.
Michel/Natal
About 10 kilometres past the Corbin Road turn off, westbound travelers on Hwy. 3 will first pass a bridge over Michel Creek. About a kilometer past the bridge travelers will see the pink Michel Hotel on the south side of the highway. The hotel is all that remains of the former coal mining town. About a kilometer further west, is the site of Natal. Nothing remains.
Hosmer
Twenty kilometres south of Natal on Hwy. 3, travelers will see the Elk River Hotel on the east side of the highway, which is part of Hosmer. Half a kilometer further on the east side of the highway is a road into the town site.
Coal Creek
Leaving Hwy. 3 to enter Fernie, travelers can get to Coal Creek by heading east to Coal Creek Road, a gravel roadway. Once on Coal Creek Road, the ghost town is eight kilometers east. Very little remains of the former mine and town sites.
Morrissey
Fourteen kilometers south of Fernie on Hwy. 3, travelers will come up to a road on the east side of the highway called Morrissey Road. Drive about one kilometer east over a bridge and turn north Cokato Road. The former town site is about half a kilometre from the turnoff.
Waldo
Fifteen kilometres past Morrissey Road on Hwy. 3, travelers should exit south on Hwy. 93. Another 10 kilometres south take the Baynes Lake Road turn off, which will take travelers to Lake Koocanusa, where the town site of Waldo lies underneath.
Valley of the Ghosts
Nashton
The former town site is located on the south side of Hwy. 31A, nine kilometres west of Kaslo. Access to the town site is by service road. There is an abandoned campground visible as visitors enter the site.
Retallack
About 20 kilometres west of Nashton on Hwy. 31A is the former town site of Retallack. Travelers will come up to two large red abandoned mine buildings on the north side of the highway.
Zincton
Five kilometres west of Retallack on the south side of Hwy. 31A is the abandoned mine and town sites of Zincton. The sites are almost invisible from the highway as vegetation has overtaken both. The only access to the site is by foot and it is difficult.
Three Forks/Alamo
Six kilometres west of the Retallack site on Hwy. 31A travelers will come up to the road to Sandon. At this intersection is the former town site of Three Forks. Nothing remains. Also at the intersection, there is a sign marking the Galena Trail. Visitors can walk five kilometres west on the trail to the mine and town sites of Alamo. The ruins are spectacular.
Sandon
From the Three Forks turnoff on Hwy. 31A, travelers can drive seven kilometres south on the gravel road and they will reach the ghost town of Sandon.
Cody
About two kilometres east of Sandon on the main gravel roadway from Three Forks is the ghost town of Cody. The mine and town sites are clearly visible on the north side of the road.
Boundary Country
Eholt
The former town site of Eholt is 14 kilometres northeast of Greenwood on Hwy. 3. Travelers will see a commemorative sign on the north side of the highway. On the south side of the highway, there are some concrete ruins. Nothing else remains of Eholt.
PhoenixThe former site is off a service roadway called Phoenix Road, which can be accessed from Greenwood. The former mine and town sites are about 11 kilometres east of Greenwood. Before reaching the sites, travelers will pass the cemetery on the south side of the road. A little farther east is the war memorial. Nothing remains of the town site, now an abandoned pit from surface mining that ended in 1978.
Anaconda
The town site is about a kilometer south of Greenwood on Hwy. 3. Anaconda is clearly distinguishable by the abandoned smoke stack – once considered the highest in British Columbia – used in past mine operations.
