About Urbex in the USA
Urbex Planet is a community-driven map and platform for urban exploration and discovering abandoned places. Browse curated urban exploration locations (aka urbex locations), contribute your own pins, and connect with explorers.
Use the map to filter by category, status, and popularity. Whether you are looking for industrial ruins, historic sites, or modern derelict structures, you can find inspiration for your next trip.
Top Abandoned Places in United States
Agnews State Hospital
The Ruins of Agnews State Hospital, historically known as Agnews Insane Asylum or Agnews Developmental Center, are a decaying landmark in San Jose, California. This East Campus site, part of a once-vast complex, features overgrown grounds and Mission Revival-style buildings like the Rapport Building, now graffiti-covered and reclaimed by nature. Established in 1885 as California's third mental health facility, it followed the Kirkbride Plan for therapeutic environments, growing into a self-sufficient community with farms, shops, and its own train station by the early 1900s. The site's tragic turning point was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which collapsed unreinforced buildings and killed over 100 patients and staff, leading to mass graves on the grounds. Rebuilt in 1911 with earthquake-resistant Mediterranean Revival designs resembling a campus layout, it expanded with the East Campus in 1926. Over time, it shifted from mental illness treatment to developmental disabilities care, fully closing in 2009-2011 amid deinstitutionalization. Today, the East Campus stands neglected, with hazards including asbestos, structural instability, falling debris, and hidden holes. It has cultural significance as a filming location for movies like Birdy and The Dead Pit, plus Green Day's "Basket Case" video, and fuels paranormal tales of ghosts. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, parts are being redeveloped into schools and parks, with demolitions underway—urging explorers to visit responsibly and legally before it's gone.
Bodie (Huge Gold Rush Ghost Town)
Bodie, California, is a legendary gold rush ghost town located in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Mono County, about 75 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe. Discovered in 1859 by prospector W.S. Bodey—who perished in a blizzard before seeing its success—the site exploded into a booming mining camp after rich gold strikes in 1876, attracting up to 10,000 residents by 1879 with over 2,000 buildings, including 65 saloons, opium dens, a red-light district, and a Wells Fargo bank, earning a reputation for lawlessness, gunfights, and harsh winters. During its peak from 1877 to 1881, Bodie's mines produced nearly $34 million in gold and silver, making it one of California's most productive sites, supported by innovative technologies like the Standard Mill for ore processing. The town's decline began in the 1880s due to depleted veins, economic downturns, and devastating fires in 1892 and 1932 that razed much of the community, reducing the population to a few hundred by the early 1900s and labeling it a ghost town by 1915. Mining ceased entirely by 1942, and the last residents departed in the 1950s, leaving Bodie abandoned until it was designated a California State Historic Park in 1962 and a National Historic Landmark in 1961. Today, preserved in a state of "arrested decay" with about 170 weathered buildings, including homes, a schoolhouse, church, and jail. Bodie attracts over 200,000 visitors annually to explore its eerie, time capsule atmosphere, accessible year-round via State Route 270.
Northland Center (Southfield)
Opened in 1954, Northland Center was the first ever suburban shopping mall in the world. It was opened in Southfield, Michigan along 8 Mile Road (the division street with Detroit) and the John C Lodge Freeway. During the 1980s, Southfield, just like the city of Detroit, would undergo population loss (although not nearly as extreme). This would decrease a lot of that business that would have gone to Northland. During the 2000s and 2010s, suburban shopping malls would start to decline as fears of crime alongside the rise of online shopping would take away traffic. Northland Center would eventually be close and be abandoned in 2015. Demolition started on the mall in 2021, but the old Sears Department store was left standing due to it's historic value. The plans would add significant amounts of apartments and some mixed-use housing, turning Northland Center into a well-needed urban centre for Southfield.