Archive for the ‘Mines, Mills and Smelters’ Category

A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Day #29- Boston, Colorado

Posted: April 29, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, Mining Camps
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Day #29 feautures Boston, Colorado

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Boston, at the head of Mayflower Gulch

Boston is an 1890s era mining camp situated at the head of Mayflower Gulch in Summit County.  There are around a half-dozen log cabins in varying states of decay, the sagging ruins of the boarding house, and rusted mining implements scattered around the site. Boston sits in a natural bowl, or ampitheater, and is surrounded by snow capped crags on three sides, making for some great photos. When I visited, there was a dense fog, and I was not able to capture the rocky spires that make a stunning backdrop to the camp.

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A cabin along the trail to Boston

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A combination hiking trail/seldom used 4×4 trail leads two miles into the site from a parking lot just off the side of Highway 91 that runs from Copper Mountain to Leadville. It is a popular hiking spot, and it is usually overrun with people on weekends. It is best to visit Boston early in the morning on weekdays to avoid crowds. Unfortunately, easy access also means Boston has suffered heavy vandalism and the trail in to the site is strewn with garbage from unscrupulous hikers who think it is the Forest Service’s job to clean up after them. Some “visitors” have even torn down log cabins at the site and burned the logs in bonfires.

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A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Day #27- Geneva City, Colorado

Posted: April 27, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, Mining Camps, old west, Road Trips
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Day # 27 features Geneva City, Colorado

 

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Geneva City is one of the most remote ghost towns in the Centennial State located at the headwaters of Geneva Creek in Clear Creek County and sitting in a bowl at timberline. Surrounded by snowcapped year-round, Geneva City can only be reached in the summer months, usually late-July through early-September, outisde of that the narrow, rugged 4×4 trail into the site is covered in snow.

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Geneva City is an old-timer- Prospectors first set up camp here after the end of the Civil War in the mid-1860s. Sturdy log cabins were built at the very edge of the pine trees to shelter prospectors from the harsh elements and electrical storms that plague the basin where Geneva City is located.

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The mountains surrounding Geneva City are rich in iron deposits, and Geneva Creek itself features extremely rare natural iron fens- a geological occurence where iron rich mineral water springs bubble up from the ground and creates rusty colored natural terraces. The high iron content of the Geneva basin area makes metal detecting nearly impossible, and attracts fierce electrical storms.

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Prospectors and miners have worked the rock in Geneva basin for over 100 years, finding small deposits of gold, and largeer depositis of silver, along with the plentiful iron. A smelter was built in the valley far below Geneva City in 1870, and the primitive rfining methods result in the slag from the old smelter still holding about a 10% silver content. The smelter has long since tumbled down, but crumbling red bricks and piles of black slag mark the spot. A sawmill was once operated nearby as well providing support beams and other wood products for the mines of Geneva City.

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The Brittanic Mine was the last mine in operation at Geneva City, and small scale operations were still carried out there into the early-1960s. Geneva City is unique because it never had a year-round population in its entire 100-year history. The winters at the site were just too harsh, and the town too remote to warrant year-round settlement. A number of log cabins, a large saloon/mess hall, a boarding house, and at least one small home, built of milled lumber which still exists, albeit precariously today. Mining remnants can be found all around the Geneva City site, as well as the Brittanic Mine site.

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A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Day #21- Dyersville, Colorado

Posted: April 21, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, Mining Camps, old west, Road Trips
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Day #21 features Dyersville, Colorado

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In 1880 Father John Dyer, an itinterant Methodist preacher and Colorado legend, along with two other prospectors staked claims on a silver vein near the headwaters of Indiana Creek on the west slope of Boreas Pass near above the town of Breckenridge.  The Warrior’s Mark mine was built on the vein and Father Dyer and his partners built cabins at the site.  Over $10,000 worth of silver ore was hauled out of the Warrior’s Mark in the first six months of operations, and soon the small town of Dyersville sprang up to house the miner’s and their families.

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Dyersville had a church, where Father John would preach the gospel, a branch of the Breckenridge-based Adamson’s Blue Front clothing store,  a large mess hall, a saloon called the Angel’s Roost, and a school house. Mail was brought to Dyersville via Breckenrdige, but no Post Office was ever established in the town.  The Warrior’s Mark continued to produce until around 1900 when the vein played out, and Dyersville was abandoned.

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For decades Dyersville was lost to time, buried in the dense timber along Indiana Creek, its whereabouts known only to a few old-timers.  Dyersville was “found” again a few decades later, virtually untocuhed since it was abandoned around the turn of the 20th Century.

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Today, Dyersville still retains about a dozen log cabins in verious stages of repair, the roofs are gone on all, so it won’t be long until they vanish. In the last five years, vandals have damaged some of the esier to locate cabins at Dyersville. The ruins of the Warrior’s Mark can still be found nearby. Ruts from the old wagon road that once serviced thre town can still be seen cutting through the trees.

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You can see where there the mess hall was, broken plates, rusted cans, and bones from meals gone by litter a slope adjacent to the mess hall ruins. Another log building tucked away in the trees has the looks of the saloon based on a slit-trench dug along the back wall of the building running downhill- So saloon patrons could relieve themselves without having to step outside into the elements!

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A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Day #20- Summerville, Colorado

Posted: April 20, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, Mining Camps, old west, Road Trips
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Day #20 features Summerville, Colorado

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A view down Gold Run Road as it cuts through the center of Summerville

Summerville is a seldom mentioned ghost town on Gold Run Road between Salina and Gold Hill in Boulder County, Colorado. Dating to around 1870 when gold deposits were discovered, Summerville eked-out an existence on low grade ores for a few years until it became unprofitable. In the early-1900s when better refining and extraction practices were developed, Summerville came to life again, albeit shortly.

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One of the first ghost town photos I ever took was of this, of a Summerville shack

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Summerville shacks, some are still used seasonally, others appear to be vacant

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One of the vacant shacks at Summerville

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Embossed tin siding on this miner’s shack

 

Summerville was abandoned for a time, then peope returned restoring the small cabins and shacks for seasonal use. An impressive two-story, part log, hotel was built in 1877 and had served as a private residence in its final form. Sadly, a devastating forest fire swept through Summerville in 2004, and the historic hotel burned to the ground, today only an empty lot marks the spot. In 2013 Summerville was hit by a flood, but its position at the high head of the canyon limited damage. A handful of shacks, cabins, and out buildings in varying stages of decay remain today, all are private property.

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The historic Summerville Hotel, built in 1877, before it burned to the ground in a 2004 forest fire. Photo Credit: www.rockymountainprofiles.com

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One of the seasonally occupied cabins at Summerville

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Sandbags piled high, remnants of the massive floods of 2013 that swept through Summerville and the canyon below causing much damage and devastation the length of its path

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A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Day #19- Engleville, Colorado

Posted: April 19, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, old west, Road Trips
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Day # 19 features Engleville, Colorado

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A solitary sunflower contrasts with the ruins of two Engleville homes

 

Engleville lays just a short distance southeast of Trinidad, Colorado at the base of Fisher’s Peak- A local landmark which can be seen for miles signalling one’s approach to Raton Pass and the New Mexico border.

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Engleville, in the shadow of Fisher’s Peak

Engleville was a coal town dating back to around 1877. Locals in the trinidad area had always supplied their stoves and furnaces with the plentiful coal found in the region, simply loading carts with it from the open coal seams that dotted the hills around town. In the 1876, when the Sante Fe Railroad reached El Moro, a town just north of Trinidad, Colorado Coal and Iron, which would later become the famous Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., took note, and established large coke ovens at El Moro to supply the railroad. Sortly thereafter, Colorado Coal and Iron developed the coal seams at the foot of Fisher’s Peak and the company town of Engleville sprouted. A peak production figure at Engleville was recorded in 1881 when the mine there produced 200,000 tons of coal for the ovens at El Moro.

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A crumbling adobe at Engleville, piles of leftover coal from the mine can be seen in the background, slowly being reclaimed the earth

Engleville remained a steady producer through the early days of the 1900s, then faded as the railroads were replaced by the automobile and airplane, and gas and electric replaced coal as the nation’s top heating sources. Today, five or six abandoned dwellings remain at the Engleville site in the shadow of Fisher’s Peak, all on private property, but easily viewed and photographed from the county road. One old dwelling peers out over the vast expanse of the southeastern Colorado prairie offering an amazing view for countless miles. There is also a cemetery at Engleville, located beyond the fence line of a private residence which remains occupied.  Mountains of black coal, deemed too low-grade to ship at the time still surround the town site.

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The view over the mesa from this Engleville house, and out across the southeastern plains of Colorado is breathtaking and goes on for miles and miles

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Another shot of the same house, surrounded by blooming cholla cactus and a random sunflower here and there. Engleville is a picturesque ghost town in the summer months.

 

Engleville is easy to reach in dry months with a passenger car, or an SUV in wet or snowy conditions by taking Engleville Road southeast out of Trinidad.

 

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A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Day #18- Granite, Colorado

Posted: April 18, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters
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Day #18- Granite, Colorado

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Granite, Colorado is located at the confluence of Cache Creek and the Arkansas River in  a sandy, boulder filled, canyon.  Placer gold was discovered in 1860 at Cache Creek, and in 1861 in the sandbars of the Arkansas River.  A pair of camps named sprang up a short distance apart from each other- Georgia Bar (named after the Georgia-born prospectors who worked the claim) and Cache Creek camp. By 1862 over 3000 people lived in the camps and the numerous other craggy gulches that radiate in all directions from the spot. The scattered camps soon grew together, and the town of Granite was born.

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In 1867 gold-bearing quartz was discovered, and placer mining gave way to hard rock mining and a number of shafts were dropped and mills were built at the site.  For a few years in the 1860s and 1870s Granite was the county seat. Violence was no stranger to Granite, as returning soldiers from the Civil War often mixed it up based on their wartime allegiances, then in 1875, a vigilante group shot probate Judge Elias Dyer in his own Courtroom. Judge Dyer was the son of the famous intinerant preacher Father John Dyer, a Colorado legend.

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Today Granite is a quiet spot along the Arkansas River popular with fly fisherman. Many of the old log cabins and buildings are still used seasonally, and a few year-rounders are present. There are also a number of abandoned buildings, and mining remnants in all directions. A good 4×4 is required to explore the trails around Granite.

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A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Day #16- Goldfield, Colorado

Posted: April 16, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, Mining Camps, old west, Road Trips
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Day #16 features Goldfield, Colorado and the surrounding historic sites of Bull Hill, Independence, and the Vindicator Mine complex.

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Goldfield was part of the sprawling Cripple Creek Mining District which boomed in the 1890s, and has continued until this day. In 1900, at the peak of Goldfield’s boom, the town had a population of 3,500. Most of the residents worked at the Portland Mine. Goldfield was the thrid largest town in the district behind Cripple Creek and Victor- All three towns were situated around mountain which was a virtual “dome” of gold, having once been a gigantic volcanic bubble filled with the precious metal.

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There were other satellite towns and camps in the immediate vicinity of Cripple Creek-Victor-Goldfield, and those nearest to Goldfield were the town of Independence (called Hull City originally) Bull Hill, and Hollywood. Ruins of all of these towns, camps, and settlements still abound today, and one can spend hours taking it all in through a series of interpretive trails in the area.  Among the most impressive relics in the district are the remains of the Vindicator Mining complex.

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Poweder bunker at the Independence site, across the road from Goldfield near the Vindicator

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The Vindicator Mill

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Another part of the Vindicator complex

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A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Animas Forks, Colorado

Posted: April 10, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, Mining Camps
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Day #10 features Animas Forks, Colorado

Located at 11,200 feet elevation Animas Forks, Colorado once boasted the title for being the highest incorporated city in the United States, but since it is now abandoned that title belongs to Alma, Colorado at 10,578 feet.

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Lonely Cabin High on the Hillside

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Old suspension bridge over the Las Animas River

Animas Forks was built around rich silver veins first discovered in 1873. The initial camp was built where a number of high mountain streams converged to create the Las Animas River, and the town was first called “Three Forks of the Animas” but was shortened to “Animas Forks” in 1875. In the summers of the 1880s the town had nearly 500 residents, many of whom would retreat to lower elevations in the winter months. However, a few did remain year-round at Animas Forks, and over 30 homes, a jail, several saloons, a newspaper office, drug store, general store, and Post Office were established permanently. One foul winter storm circled above Animas Forks for 23 days in 1884. When the squall finally let up, 25 feet had accumulated and tunnels had to be dug to connect the residents of the town! Animas Forks faded follwoing the silver crash of 1893, and today around a dozen buildings, numerous foundations, and mining debris remain at the site.

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Cabin at Animas Forks

The highlight of Animas Forks is the often-photographed Duncan House (usually mislabled “The Walsh House”) woth its bay window that overlooks the mining operations and the valley below. In recent years the Forest Service has preserved the house by shoring up the foundation and structural beams, adding plexiglass windows to keep the rain and snow out, and applying a thick coat of Forest Service brown paint to the structure. Although it looked better in older photographs in its natural stay of decay, the Forest Service brown will protect the structure for future visitors to enjoy.

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The Duncan House

 

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A Ghost Town a Day For Days- Day #6- Bluebird, Colorado

Posted: April 6, 2020 in Colorado History, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, Mining Camps, old west
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Day # 6 of A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days features Bluebird, a picturesque mining camp in Boulder County Colorado. Bluebrid requires a round-trip hike of 3 1/2 miles to reach, but the trek is well worth it.

Bluebird dates to the early 1870s when a rich silver vein rumored to assay at $6,000 per ton was discovered. Bluebird was an up-and-down mining camp until as recently as the 1950s when the veins finally played out. Parts of the 1966 film “Stagecoach”  starring Ann Margaret and Bing Crosby was filmed at Bluebird.

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The centerpiece of Bluebrid is the 2-story bunkhouse

Today there is plenty to be seen at Bluebird- The mine workings, the stunning bunkhouse with its wooden porch, the toppled log remains of the earlier 1870s era bunkhouse, the stone and brick mine manager’s home, and most unusual for a 10,000 foot elevation setting- A stone-lined swimming pool with centrally located firepit used to heat the waters!  The rushing waters of Boulder Creek and stunning views in every direction are the icing on the cake at Bluebird.

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Backside of the bunkhouse

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The small, arched window was used by the camp bookkeeper distribute pay to the miners

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Front door to the bunkhouse

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Front porch/boardwalk of the bunkhouse

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The collapsed remnants of the earlier-1870s era bunkhouse

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A view south looking over the Bluebird camp

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The mine manager’s house

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Staircase leading into the seemingly out-of-place swimming pool

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Swimming pool right outside the front door of the mine manager’s home

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Central firepit inside the swimming pool used to heat the waters

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Animal pens used for livestock kept at the Bluebird camp

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Building near the entrance to the mine

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Shed at the mine

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A chipmunk waves “hello” from the boardwalk at Bluebird

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A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days- Day #4- Muddy Pass, Colorado

Posted: April 4, 2020 in Colorado History, Colorado Road Trips, Ghost Towns, Mines, Mills and Smelters, Mining Camps, old west, Road Trips
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Day #4 of A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days takes us to a little known ghost town on the southern slope of Muddy Pass along Highway 40 in Colorado north of Kremmling. I have only found one reference to this place in my research, and it was identified as the Smole Lumber Camp which operated in the early decades of the 20th Century which faded into oblivion sometime around 1950. I wish I knew more, but there is no “more” to be found on the camp. If anyone knows the full story I’d love to hear it.

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Smole Camp sits on the southern slope of Muddy Pass along Highway 40 north of Kremmling on private property, but it can be easily viewed and photographed from the shoulder of the road

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There are two rows of buildings along a central “street” at the camp, a few other buildings lay on the outskirts of the main cluster at the site

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These buildings are located on the southern side of the road dividing the camp

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Buildings along the north end of the camp

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A weather beaten chair stubbornly refuses to submit to time and the elements

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A barn and what could be called the “fancy” house sit a few hundred yards south of the main camp, and likely belonged to the owner or site manager of the lumber company

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Another view of the same structures

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Barn building

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