Took a trip up to Caribou, Colorado last weekend. First time I have visited in about five years. Not much has changed since my last visit other than more graffitti spray painted on the inside walls of the ruins- A sad phenomenon that has become more and more common across Colorado in the last decade.

There isn’t much left at Caribou (which about 10 miles northwest of Nederland, Colorado in Boulder County) just the concrete and stone walls of two buildings on the far eastern edge of the old town site, and one forlorn log cabin, scarcely detectable among the tall grasses and shrubs of the northern slope of the site. It won’t be long until the log cabin is reclaimed by nature.

Caribou began life in around 1860 as Conger’s Camp, named after the prospector who first discovered silver and gold at the site. A mine called “The Caribou” was opened, and the camp soon took that name for its own.

Caribou boomed as a top silver producer in the 1870s and 1880s. The town boasted the typical furnishings of any mining camp of the era- A hotel, boarding houses for the miners, a small row of general merchandise stores, and a schoolhouse which only held class in the summer months because the high winds of the other three seasons were too severe- It is said that only particularly windy or snowy days, teachers would string out a rope which the children would cling to as they made their way to class.  Lightning also plagued Caribou residents, many decades after the town had been abandoned it was discovered that the town had been built on right on top a huge, natural, iron dike.

Caribou once had a cemetery, but in the 1960s and 1970s all of the headstones were stolen. Which leads to the question who and why? A short hike over a small rise on the southeast edge of the town site leads to the approximate location of the cemetery, but I have never been able to find any trace of it personally.

Ten years ago, Caribou was relatively unknown except for locals. Today it has become a popular hiking and mountain biking destination, which can be overrun with people, dogs, and cars by 7:00am on a weekend. It is best to visit early in the morning on a weekday of you want to experience any solitude.

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