Buena Vista was a ‘planned city’ or a ‘promoted city’ -- one that wasn’t successful. After the War the ‘victors’ changed Virginia’s laws and Cartel promoters freely bought land, gained a charter, and built a city to attract people to work the nearby mines which had produced low grade ore for 100 years. However, the mines played out and the promoters left Buena Vista only partly finished to build elsewhere. Its skeleton was left to amaze passers-by.