You don’t have to leave Multnomah County to find a ghost town. Bridal Veil, a once-bustling lumber town, lies just a half hour east of Portland; its namesake Bridal Veil Falls is one of many waterfalls that dot the Columbia River Gorge. Beginning in the 1880s, Bridal Veil functioned as the Bridal Veil Falls Lumbering Company, which logged at Larch Mountain. The mill ran until 1988, when timber dwindled, and residents departed.

Visitors today will find only a cemetery and a post office that happens to be one of the smallest in the country—but hums during wedding season, when newlyweds can get a specialized stamp on their wedding invitation.

Drive east on I-84 to The Dalles, turn south onto US 197, and begin a tour of Wasco County ghost towns. First up is the former farming town of Boyd, founded in 1870. The town, once home to between 150 and 200 people, boasts only a few residents nowadays as well as the remnants of an 1883 wooden granary. After another 15 or so miles, you'll reach Friend, where you’ll find an old general store, a one-room schoolhouse (now a community center for the few residents in the area), and a cemetery. About an hour southeast, tourist-friendly Shaniko, the former “Wool Capital of the World,” awaits. Shaniko is easily one of Oregon’s most famous ghost towns, with beautifully weathered buildings and a surprisingly lively atmosphere. The town is home to some 30 residents, who hold annual events; the historic hotel has also recently reopened. Finally, about an eight-mile drive south, you’ll find Antelope, an old ranching town perhaps most famous for briefly serving as the home of the Rajneesh commune.

More of a ghost site than a ghost town, Fort Stevens, now managed by Oregon State Parks, is a former military installation established to defend the mouth of the Columbia River during the Civil War, but it wasn’t until World War II that the site saw combat. The attack by a Japanese submarine fortunately caused no casualties and only minimal damage, but it did bestow on Fort Stevens the distinction of being the only military installation in the continental US to be attacked by the Axis during World War II.

Visitors today can explore the abandoned historic military site and, during the summer, take underground tours of a World War II–era gun battery. For an added abandoned bonus, check out the wreckage of the Peter Iredale. In October 1906, the British sailing vessel ran ashore so hard that three of the masts broke off. During low tide, you can walk right up to its rusted skeleton.

Originally a gold mining camp established near Coyote Creek in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the aptly named Golden developed into a fully established town around 1890 and was home to around 100 or so people—mostly religious sorts who had forsworn saloons and bars in favor of churches and orchards. Early miners recovered some $1.5 million in gold from nearby streams and hillsides, but by the 1920s, with mined-out creeks and a downward-sloping economy, Golden was abandoned.

Today, only four structures remain: a church, store, post office, and one home, which together comprise the Golden State Heritage Site. Located about a half hour north of Grants Pass, it's open for day use year-round.

In Portland, we put a bird on it. In Sumpter, they put a P on it. According to the Rust, Rot & Ruin: Stories of Oregon Ghost Towns online exhibit, this former mining boomtown just west of Baker City found its name when early settlers discovered a “large, round stone which reminded them of a cannonball and, inexplicably, Fort Sumter in South Carolina.” Shortly after its founding in 1898, the railroad arrived, the deep-shaft gold mines expanded, and the population grew to more than 2,000. Sumpter became a bustling, modern town, with a brewery, saloons, an opera house, and three newspapers. But a devastating fire hit in 1917, burning down nearly 100 buildings over 12 city blocks. With the mining industry already dwindling, many residents chose to move away.

Sumpter is still home to about 200 people, and visitors can pan for gold at Sumpter Valley Dredge or take a ride on the historic Sumpter Valley Railroad. The town is also a gateway to adventures on the Elkhorn Crest Trail and at Olive Lake, plus other nearby ghost towns like Bourne, Granite, Greenhorn, and Whitney.