The Old West is said to be dotted with ghost towns, shells of once-thriving communities abandoned because of blight, economic necessity or just changing times.

In rural Maryland, towns have vanished so completely that not even the husks remain.

There are dozens of lost villages in Carroll County alone – communities that exist only in the fading memories of older residents. An 1877 county map lists more than 30 post offices in towns and villages, and nearly as many small communities that did not have a post office. In 2007, there are less than a dozen post offices and the handful of surviving unincorporated towns exist, at best, in name only.

[Read](http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1151519 “Read the Story”) (AP via WTOP)