Buncom
A ghost town in Buncom, Oregon, Buncom is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Historic settlement and ghost-town heritage. The archive files it under ghost towns. The dossier holds 1 documented fact — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. Visitor status is unverified; confirm before making the trip. Names, dates and reports are filed together here, so the record stays honest about which is which.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Buncom haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
Buncom is the ghost town that may have been the first on the internet — the Sterling Creek mining camp the Chinese miners started in 1851, named in the Gold Rush's joking way (someone mispronouncing a Pinkham, or the slang 'bunkum' for nonsense), the supply town for the Little Applegate ranches when Jacksonville was a day's wagon ride. The post office came in 1896 and left in 1916 — the automobile killed the day-long trip and Buncom with it.
Three buildings stand at the crossroads now — the bunkhouse, the cookhouse, the post office, two of them moved from down the creek to reconstruct what the town looked like. The historical society's been running the website since 1995, when it may have been the first ghost town on the web — the camp that was 'completely overflowed' in 1861 and outlasted its usefulness a century later.
The file keeps Buncom: the 1851 Chinese camp, the wagon-stop economy, the 1916 post office closing, and the three buildings at the fork.
Buncom is the archive's Applegate file — the mining camp the automobile ended and the internet found.
Why this file matters
Buncom is the archive's Applegate file — the 1851 mining camp and the first ghost town online.
A town the car killed keeps its three buildings — the file's suggestion being that Buncom's hold is the obsolescence: the day's wagon ride that became a short drive, and the crossroads that survived as a ghost town before 'ghost town' was a website.
Buncom may refer to: Buncom, Oregon, a mining town Frank Buncom, an American football linebacker
BuncomDocumented history
An uninhabited mining camp with three surviving historic buildings. Buncom's history is documented — boom, bust, and desertion all on record, the lore layered on top. It enters the file through media reporting — documented coverage, not folklore. The detail is preserved in 'The Secrets of Oregon’s Ghost Towns'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.
Media reportedTravel Oregon
Sources on file
- 01The Secrets of Oregon’s Ghost TownsTravel Oregon · tourism · A3
Field notes & open questions
Pass 1 discovery. Inclusion is for ghost-town heritage; no haunting claim is implied. Parcel access and coordinates remain unverified.