Hidden among the ponderosa pines of South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest, Mystic is one of the state’s best-preserved ghost towns: that is, a place where abandoned buildings, silent rail beds and weathered mining relics recall the once boom-and-bust cycles that shaped the western American landscape. In accordance with HistoryNet’s report, in 1876, Mystic was founded as a placer gold camp during the Black Hills gold rush; the settlement then evolved into a thriving community sustained by mining, railroads, and later the timber industry before economic decline emptied its streets. According to the South Dakota State Historical Society and the National Park Service, the surviving townsite was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, thus preserving a rare snapshot of frontier life that has largely escaped modern development.
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