Dusty whiskey bottles line warped shelves. Dog-eared hymnals rest in church pews. Framed black-and-white photos, veiled in spider webs, hang on crooked nails. The haunted ghost towns of the American West recall a desperate era. Located on high plains and open deserts, where sand storms and cold winter nights have embalmed any semblance of life, these towns still whisper their legends to anyone willing to drive through and listen.

Pull over and step outside, and you'll hear the stories of the men, the women and the children who abandoned their homes and gave up their claims so fast that they seem to have vanished mid-stride and mid-sentence. As Halloween nears, they seem more than eager to speak.