15 Wyoming Towns That Are Slowly Dying (And Why)

15 Wyoming towns that are slowly dying — and the true documented reason behind every single one. Wyoming is the least populated state in America. Fewer than six people per square mile. Behind the silence, dozens of communities that used to be alive. In this video we count down 15 Wyoming ghost towns and dying towns and trace the exact economic forces that brought each one down. No myths. No filler. Verified history, real U.S. Census data, and the boom-and-bust cycle that defines the American West. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TOWNS COVERED ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #15 — Hiland, Natrona County | Pop: 0 | EPA fuel storage regulations forced every local gas station to close #14 — Bosler, Albany County | Pop: ghost town | Interstate 80 was built miles south, cutting off all highway traffic overnight #13 — Van Tassell, Niobrara County | Pop: 24 (2020 Census) | Collapse of small-scale homestead farming; peak ~200 residents in 1913 #12 — Bryan, Sweetwater County | Pop: 0 | Severe drought dried up the Blacks Fork River, ending Union Pacific steam operations at the site #11 — Lost Springs, Converse County | Pop: 6 (2020 Census) | Coal mine closed ~1930; one of the smallest incorporated towns in America #10 — Baggs, Carbon County | Pop: under 400 | Extreme isolation + medical clinic closure; residents drive 40+ miles for basic care #9 — Chugwater, Platte County | Pop: ~240 | Youth out-migration; no local doctor, pharmacy, or grocery store #8 — Superior, Sweetwater County | Pop: under 180 | Last coal mine closed 1962; 60 years of slow decline from 3,000+ residents #7 — Gebo, Hot Springs County | Pop: 0 | Coal demand collapsed; mine closed 1938; town bulldozed in 1971 #6 — Sunrise, Platte County | Pop: 0 | Iron ore depleted; Colorado Fuel and Iron systematically demolished every structure when the mine closed in 1980 #5 — Atlantic City, Fremont County | Pop: 30–40 | Died twice — gold depletion in the 1870s, then U.S. Steel iron ore mine closure in 1983 #4 — Piedmont, Uinta County | Pop: ghost town | Union Pacific’s ~1.5-mile Aspen Tunnel (~1910) bypassed the town entirely; three original beehive charcoal kilns still stand as a Wyoming State Historic Site #3 — South Pass City, Fremont County | Pop: near zero | Gold depleted in the 1870s; birthplace of Wyoming women’s suffrage, December 1869; Esther Hobart Morris became the first female Justice of the Peace in the US in 1870 #2 — Kirwin, Park County | Pop: 0 | Catastrophic avalanche off Bald Mountain on February 5, 1907 killed 3 residents; Amelia Earhart had a cabin under construction here in 1934 — never finished after her 1937 disappearance #1 — Jeffrey City, Fremont County | Pop: ~45 | Uranium market collapse accelerated by Three Mile Island (1979); mine closed 1982; 95% of 4,500 residents left within three years ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ABOUT THIS VIDEO ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Every fact, population figure, and historical claim in this video is sourced from verified records including U.S. Census Bureau data, Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office documentation, the Wyoming State Historical Society, and university-level historical research. When a story could not be fully confirmed, we say so on camera. If you grew up near one of these towns, or know a Wyoming place that belongs on a future list, leave a comment. There are more of these stories out there than most people will ever find. 🔔 Subscribe for more documented history and hidden places across the American West.