Stanley Paher’s two volume work “Ghost towns and mining camps of Nevada” has loads of great imagery from the era before as I term it “ the advent of the cheap off road vehicle”. Places like Tombstone survived because they always had some folks around but there were literally hundreds of towns and camps that existed in deserted stasis until idiots got the means to reach them easily and recreationally or accidentally burned them down or deconstructed them for materials/souvenirs.
The photography in them was done by a woman who quit the news business and spent her later years hunting these sites down and photographing them.
I have seen the remnants of many of those old towns many times over the years, there is a couple real close to me now. The old buildings around here were mostly adobe and were in decent shape until people decided to gather/steal doors, windows, and old tin from the roofs. Of course the adobe buildings melted down at that point. Sad to say the least. There is an old church near me, the old bell was even in the bell tower until about 30 years ago- one day it was there and the next gone.
Thank you for the book recommend, I am sure I will like them.