This text depicts how the Westward Expansion left a lasting impact on America. The massive migration of people to the American West during the gold rush required building towns to house people. However, when all the gold and other resources in an area were depleted, the towns were often deserted. These deserted towns were called ghost towns. (McGraw-Hill Imagine It!, 2008)

This lesson was created as part of the Basal Alignment Project, during which teachers created CCSS-aligned lessons for existing literary and information texts in basal readers. All page numbers and unit/week designations found in this lesson relate to the edition of the basal reader named above. If you are using a trade book or different edition of this title, the page/unit/week references in this lesson will not match. Consult the content referenced in the body of the lesson to determine appropriate page numbers for your text.