Afton is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Elko County Elko County is a county in the northeastern corner of Nevada, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,702. Its county seat is Elko. The county was established on March 5, 1869, from Lander County. Elko County is the fourth ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, in the United States.

History

Afton was settled by Mormons from

Afton, Wyoming Afton is a town in Lincoln County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 2,172 at the 2020 census. Afton is home to the world's largest arch made of elk antlers. Spanning across the four lanes of U.S. Highway 89, the arch, completed in ...

and the new site was named with name, but also known by "Taber City". The town has started in 1910 and had fifty homesteaders. Afton was located north of the large Mormon dry farming experiment at

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

. The post office at Afton was in operation from September 1914 until January 1918. The site was plagued in 1915 by a lack of rain and for an invasion of

rabbits Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated form ...

. Crops were poor and in 1917 only half of the original settlers remained. Conditions improved somewhat, but not enough to use the land again. Nowadays, the area is still used for farming and raising livestock. The existing ranches are owned by descendants of the original settlers.

References

Former populated places in Elko County, Nevada Elko, Nevada micropolitan area Former populated places in Nevada Ghost towns in Nevada {{Ghost-town-stub