Not confined to N America. Here are some in France: http://www.abandoned-france.org/portal.html
Based on the pictures from ghosttown.com, I suspect you are right. There isn’t much of a structure left.
It’s pretty crappy based on my checks. E.g., it lists Sumpter, OR as a ghost town. It’s population has been mostly stable around 200 since the post-gold mining days. It does a pretty good tourist business, summer and winter. I have relatives that own vacation places there and cool off in the mountains in the summer and snowmobile in the winter. Also a good jumping off point for hunters and fishermen. Restaurants and bars do good business, esp. on the weekends.
Hardman, OR is not completely dried up. Maybe still a dozen families in and around it.
I’d love to visit an abandoned something-or-other (building, factory site, theatre, farm, town), but they’re almost always fenced off, or just dangerous, around these parts. The only way to get there is to sneak in, but I’m afraid I’ll get caught trespassing.
We have one of those, too. It’s a famous mansion around these parts that you can see from Exit 57 of Interstate 81. The owner was the son of a local trucking magnate. He built a mansion complete with a carillon tower back in the woods off the highway. When he was charged with tax issues he fled to the Caribbean. His son, who once worked for me (and stole money, it must run in the family), still lives in the guest house, presumably not part of the ownership settlement.
Anyway, about 18 years ago a bunch of teenagers were partying in the empty house and one fell to his death from the tower. Shortly thereafter most of the mansion burned to the ground, though a good bit still exists and the tower still stands.
Here’s an 8-minute video on YouTube made by some visitors. Visit at your own risk, the cops don’t much like trespassers there and will chase you away but if you’re subtle you’ll be fine.