Ghost towns -- villages platted and sometimes settled, which cease to exist -- are generally associated with the American West.

Before the California Gold Rush, Indiana was a part of the American West. And there are several ghost towns in Vigo County to prove it.

In early 1819, Caleb Arnold platted the town of Smyrna, consisting of streets, blocks and 138 lots, in present Prairieton Township at the mouth of Honey Creek. However, all remnants of a settlement there soon vanished.

On March 5, 1819, Otis Jones, Henry French, Amos P. Balch and Jeremiah Raymond recorded the plat of Greenfield in Prairie Creek Township near the Greenfield Bayou. It included a public square, 180 lots and several streets.

Several lots were sold, but Greenfield failed to materialize. Nearby, however, Jared Lykins' unplatted Battle Row settlement -- with several mills, a cotton gin, a distillery and a hotel -- thrived. It was a major commerce center until part of Middletown, now Prairie Creek, was platted by James D. Piety and Elijah Thomas on Aug. 24, 1831.

The anticipated arrival of the Wabash and Erie Canal inspired the platting of several communities. On July 4, 1836, Nathaniel Donham prepared a plat of Hazel Green, which included 80 lots and six streets, in Riley Township.

However, on Nov. 23, he revised the plat and Hazel Green became a part of Donham's new settlement, called Lockport (now Riley), a bustling and important community during the canal era (1849-1860).

Two years later, prominent Terre Haute contractor and Indiana legislator William Wines united with canal engineer William J. Ball to found the village of Winston immediately east of Lockport. The plat of Winston, recorded Dec. 11, 1838, included a bridge over the canal on Carlisle Street. However, a village did not take shape.

On Oct. 12, 1836, Johnson Clarke recorded the plat of Brownsville, encompassing 64 lots and eight streets on the east bank of the Cross Cut Canal three miles southeast of Hazel Green. If Brownsville was settled, it did not last long.

On Aug. 4, 1837, Ann Potts recorded a plat for the village of Harrison, situated in the southeast corner of Fayette Township about a mile south of Coal Creek. It included 61 lots, five streets and a large mill yard. Several lots were sold, but Harrison did not thrive. The area is still referred to as Pottsville or Harrison.

Names of many rural settlements changed. The original name might be altered by the name of the post office or by the name of a nearby railroad flag station.

Durkee's Ferry was an unplatted settlement founded by Dr. John Durkee and Salmon Lusk in Fayette Township in about 1821. The post office which later served it was called Tecumseh and the community at Durkee's Ferry assumed that name.

In September 1838, Addison Williams platted the village of Centreville, later called Centerville, and now known as Lewis, in the southeast corner of Pierson Township. On Oct. 9, 1838, Jacob Kester recorded the plat of Urbana, a village on the Louisville road about five miles northwest of Centreville.

Centreville thrived during the canal era, but Urbana disappeared. Soonover, another hamlet northwest of Centreville, met a similar fate but survived as a post office.

Several unplatted communities founded before the Civil War succeeded. Few were more flourishing than the African-American settlement in northern Lost Creek Township, founded in about 1830.

The Terre Haute Alton Railroad was responsible for the establishment of the town of Sanford, platted in 1854 at the state line in western Fayette Township. Ultimately, its name was changed to Sandford.

South of Sanford, Bloomtown -- platted in 1858 by Hiram Bloom on the Paris Road in Sugar Creek Township -- was a thriving village for two decades. However, it did not survive long after separate fires destroyed its flour mill and saw mill. The railroad stop and post office serving Bloomtown was known as Nelson.

Atherton, platted by Newton Rogers and others on Oct. 7, 1871, and Otterville, platted by William Campbell on March 17, 1873, still exist in Otter Creek Township. Atherton retains its name, but Otterville abandoned its identity to the Burnett post office.

Flag stations or post offices at Markle's Mill, Heckland, Grant, Sand Cut, Meltonville and Otter Creek Junction attained prominence as settlements. North Terre Haute was Ellsworth for many years, but the post office serving it was called Edwards.

Pioneer coal operator Daniel Webster founded the village of Coal Bluff in eastern Nevins Township in 1871. Webster's successor, Coal Bluff Mining Co., expanded the nearby settlement of Fountain, now known as Fontanet, a few years later.

Coal Bluff and Fontanet survived, but other Nevins Township coal mining settlements, like Ehrmandale founded by the Ehrmann Coal Co., have vanished.

Grand City, an ambitious community of 505 lots founded in 1890 by the Grand City Coal Co., flanking The Vandalia in western Sugar Creek Township, did not flourish.

Hutton and Vigo in Prairie Creek Township, Ferrel and Kellar in Riley Township and Swalls in Lost Creek Township have enjoyed fleeting fame.

Watkins, Malcolm, Gilbert, Wauhoo, Roundhouse Corners, Vedder, Cusick and Spring Mill are other names associated with former Vigo County settlements.