 This was Dad's dream, to bring this town back to life. Ernie and his brother would often play in the area. His dad, Ed, bought several of the town's buildings in the 1970s and began refurbishing them with the hope of bringing tourists back. Welcome to Shanico, Oregon. Oregon's favorite ghost town. Shanico, on Highway 97 in south-central Oregon, was once the thriving wool capital of the West. Thousands of people flooded the town, and the wool trade set all kinds of records here.