Ghost towns capture our imaginations — haunted or not — about Colorado’s past and the people who braved treacherous mountain terrain or harsh prairies to stake out a life.
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In a ghost town, people can walk in their forebears’ footsteps, studying remnants of their homes and businesses while absorbing the same views and weather that Native Americans and early settlers witnessed.
“With a ghost town, you see the empty building and imagine who lived there. What did they do? Why did they leave?” said Devin Flores, managing editor of the Colorado Encyclopedia for History Colorado. “There’s a story there. With a ghost town, there’s an ending to the story.”
Flore is not sure how many ghost towns exist in Colorado, but books — including “Colorado’s Scenic Ghost Towns” by Bill and Lorraine Bonebrake — and news reports claim there are more than 1,000. Less than half of the sites have visible remains. Many are on private property and not open for public visitation.
There is no definitive designation for a site to become a ghost town, Flores said. Some places commonly called ghost towns might have a few people who still live or work there.
“It’s just a community that really isn’t a community anymore,” he said. “It’s just based on how people feel about the place.”
Flores’ favorite Colorado ghost town was known as Buckskin Joe — named after Joseph Higginbottom, a mixed-race Canadian gold-panner and fur-trapper who founded the community — because it exemplifies the evolution of ghost towns, Colorado lore and tourism.
The Park County community was founded in the 1860s by Higginbottom, who discovered a gold vein in the mountains. Although the community was officially named Laurette, people referred to it as Buckskin Joe.
Prospective miners moved to the community, building homes and businesses, including a saloon, a dance hall and a general store. Early, well-known Coloradan Horace Tabor even spent time in Laurette before he moved to Leadville to make his fortune and before he met Baby Doe, his mistress who became his second wife, Flores said. The population peaked at 5,000 people by 1861.
But a smallpox outbreak and a thin gold vein forced people to leave, making Laurette’s time as a thriving community short-lived.
By 1866, the town’s buildings were empty, Flores said.
When cowboy movies became popular in the 1950s, an MGM Studios director created a Hollywood movie set in Fremont County, removing Tabor’s old general store from Laurette and moving it, along with buildings from other Colorado ghost towns, to a set about 8 miles outside Cañon City, Flores said. Movies and television shows were filmed on site as late as 2010.
Local interest in the movie set and ghost town lore drove tourism. Buckskin Joe operated as a “Wild West” theme park with saloon shows, shoot-outs and horse rides between 1958 and 2010.
The Buckskin Joe theme park closed in 2010 after it was bought by billionaire William Koch, who moved it to a private ranch on the Western Slope. The buildings still stand but are hidden from public view, Flores said.
“It really captures the kind of mundane romance of the old ghost towns with the boom and bust of people moving to the mountains with a dream that doesn’t work out and then the mythology that started in the 1900s,” Flores said.
St. Elmo is a popular Colorado ghost town that features 40 original buildings and a general store that sells antiques, souvenirs, ice cream and snacks.
It was founded as a mining town, but the population dwindled until the 1950s when the last family — a brother and sister who ran a general store — were forced to move because of declining health, said Melanie Roth, a Historic St. Elmo board member and historian.
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“It hasn’t been modified, so you can envision yourself potentially living and walking down the street that people walked in the 1900s,” Roth said.
While the stereotypical Colorado ghost town is associated with mining, there are ghost towns that came to be for other reasons.
For example, Swallows was a town in Pueblo County that was flooded to make way for the Pueblo dam and Lake Pueblo.
Gilman in Eagle County was a silver-mining town from 1886 to 1984, when the Environmental Protection Agency demanded people move because of toxic pollutants in the groundwater. It was declared an EPA Superfund site two years later. It’s now on private property.
Dearfield was founded in Weld County, east of Greeley, in the early 1900s by Black homesteaders. It peaked with about 60 families but collapsed during the 1930s Dust Bowl and Great Depression. A few abandoned buildings remain.
“Again, this is just the result of changing economies and changing resources, and it’s something that’s going to keep happening as long as humans build communities,” Flores said. “Everything goes away with time.”
Here are some Colorado ghost towns that are accessible to the public:
Ashcroft: In Pitkin County, near Aspen. Take a self-guided tour of the buildings, including a jail, a stable and a saloon, preserved by the Aspen Historical Society.
Animas Forks: In San Juan County, near Silverton. It is considered one of the most well-preserved ghost towns in the West. It also requires a high-clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle to visit. The most iconic building is the two-story Duncan House with its front bay window.
Dearfield: In Weld County, east of Greeley. Three buildings from Colorado’s only all-Black homestead remain standing: a gas station, a diner and the founder’s home.
Gothic: In Gunnison County, just north of Crested Butte in the West Elk mountains. A few original buildings remain. The site is now home to the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab where scientists study the local ecosystem.
Old Carson: In Hinsdale County, near Lake City. A sister ghost town, Carson, is on private property. Visitors can see high-altitude, undisturbed buildings. A high-clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle is necessary to reach these two sites. People also can hike in.
St. Elmo: In Chaffee County, 16 miles west of Nathrop. Forty old buildings still exist, and a functioning general store sells snacks and souvenirs.
Vicksburg and Winfield: In Chaffee County, north of Buena Vista. Vicksburg’s streets are lined with poplars planted by the original prospectors, and you can listen to an audio guide about life at an 1800s mining camp. Winfield has four standing log buildings, including a school. Ball Cabin is a museum. Some historical mines and an abandoned fish hatchery are within walking distance.
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