Very few visitors who spend a weekend in the booming tourist town of Breckenridge, Colorado are aware that there is a ghost town within walking distance to explore- Preston. Preston is a tiny mining town located at the head of Gold Run Gulch in the pine tree covered slopes right next to the Breckenridge Municipal Golf Course. Preston can be reached by a short hike, mountain bike, or 4×4 using Gold Run Road/Forest Road 300 near the Jessie Mill.

Preston dates to around 1874 when the Jumbo Mine began to pay big dividends, and a couple hundred miners and their families brought the camp to life. There was general store, lumber mill, bunk house for bachelor miners, and an on-and-off Post Office at Preston which operated intermittently between 1874 and 1890. Preston was stopping point for supply trains and miners heading in between the mining towns of the Swan River valley, and the camps located in French Gulch.

A few old cabins nestled at the base of towering stands of pine trees remain at Preston today. The tumbledown walls and boards of other once-important buildings are scattered around the town site as well as the customary rusted bits and pieces of yesterday. A sign at the edge of the site gives a brief history of Preston and its mines. If you find yourself with an afternoon to kill the next time you visit Breckenridge, take the short and scenic journey to nearby Preston.

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