Posts Tagged ‘Abandoned Western Colorado Jeff D. Eberle’

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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Colorado Ghost Town Guide Book- The Foothills Region

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Colorado Ghost Town Guide- The High Rockies

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Day #2 of A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days is Wall Street which is located in Boulder County and easily accessible in the warmer months by following the signs in Four Mile Canyon.

Wall Street began its life around 1895 as a mining camp called “Delphi.” From 1895 to 1898 Delphi grew in size and numerous gold claims were staked in Schoolhouse, Melvina, and Emerson Gulches which surrounded the camp. For a little over two years a Post Office operated under the Delphi name.

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One of the older shacks at Wall Street

In 1898 Charles Caryl, a wealthy industrialist from New York arrived and bought up nearly all of the claims in Delphi. Caryl renamed the camp “Wall Street” in homage of his home in New York City.

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The boom days at Wall Street

Charles Caryl funded the construction of a gold mill, built atop a towering stone foundation, that used a cutting-edge (at the time) chlorination process to extract gold from the host rock being processed. Today the mill buildings are long gone, but the enormous stone foundation still dominates the old Wall Street site.

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The Wall Street chlorination mill in its prime.

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The towering foundation of the mill today.

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Some more of the stone foundation works that can be found around the mill site today.

Wall Street had a Post Office from 1898 to 1921 when the mining operations subsided and the population moved on.  Wall Street today has a small year-round population, as well as a number of summer residents. The town site today is a mixture of old and new, occupied, and vacant- The old schoolhouse has been converted into a residence, and the Assayer’s Office is now a museum open to the public in summer months.

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Wall Street school house, converted into a residence in recent years.

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The James F. Bailey Assayer’s Office- Now a museum in the summer months

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A view down main street shows the chlorination mill and the Assayer’s Office sometime in the glory days of Wall Street, the town boomed between 1989 and 1921.

 

Wall Street suffered some damage in the floods of 2013, and a large two-story house at the mouth of the canyon was damaged so severely it has since been torn down.

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Sadly, this old Victorian house was damaged in the flood of 2013 and has been torn down since this photo was taken. Note: Front lower wall is bulging outwards due to flood damage.

 

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COLORADO GHOST TOWN GUIDE BOOK- THE FOOTHILLS REGION- CLICK HERE!

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GHOST TOWN GUIDE BOOK- THE HIGH ROCKIES- CLICK HERE TO ORDER!

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Rexford, Colorado is the first featured spot in “A Ghost Town a Day For 30 Days” which will last the month of April.

Rexford was the small settlement that sprang up around the Rexford Mining Corporations claims on the high upper reaches of the Swan River near Breckenridge, Colorado. Rexford dates to 1881, following the discovery of gold veins at the site by Daniel Patrick in 1880.  Rexford faded into oblivion sometime around 1900.

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One of the first cabins you will encounter as you approach Rexford, this cabin sits on a hillside about a few hundred yards from the main part of the Rexford mining camp

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Another view of the same cabin on the outskirts of Rexford

Rexford consisted of the mines, a general store, an assayer’s office, a large log bunkhouse, a number of small personal cabins, and a saloon. Today the remnants of all of the buildings and the giant cast iron bioler from the mine workings remain in a beautiful meadow at the edge of timberline along a rugged 4×4 trail.

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According to an description of the town this tiny log foundation was once the Assayer’s Office

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One of the small personal cabins remaining at Rexford

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Rexford dwelling

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These are the ruins of the giant log bunkhouse at Rexford

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A pine tree now calls this miner’s cabin home

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This is the collapsed facade of the Rexford General Store

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A view from the collapsed General Store looking across the 4×4 trail through town, the logs in the distance mark the spot of the boarding house at Rexford.

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Another cabin nearly lost to time and nature

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Remains of the Assayer’s Office and Saloon at Rexford

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Wildflowers at Rexford

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Mine wrokings and the old cast iron boiler at Rexford

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Ghost Town Guide Book: Colorado Foothills Region Click Here to Order!

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Ghost Town Guide Book: Colorado High Rockies Region Click Here to Order!

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Haswell, Colorado was founded in the early 1900s, some accounts say 1905, others say 1908. Haswell sprang up along the line of Missouri Pacific railroad and once had a population of around 200 in its peak days.

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Buildings along the main street in Haswell.

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A vacant home along Highway 96 in the center of Haswell

Today Haswell, like most of the other small towns in Kiowa County struggles to hang on. Today only around 60 residents remain in and around Haswell. The highlights of Haswell are the old Texaco gas station which you can’t miss along Highway 96, and the tiny jail, which the residents boast is the smallest in the United States. Unfortunately when I visited town, the view of the jail was obscured by vehicles so I couldn’t get a photo.

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The Old Texaco gas station- A new tin roof will ensure it is around for a few more years.

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One of the many empty houses in the residential section of Haswell

Haswell is a combination of abandoned or empty storefronts, grain elevators, service stations and residential dwellings. When I passed through around half of the buildings in town were vacant.  Someone was barbequing and the smell drifted through the tiny town. At a small part on the western edge of the community two boys played baseball and stopped to wave as I passed by.

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This old building with its aerial tower out back had the looks of an old radio station.

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A row of forlorn shops on the west end of Haswell.

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Another vacant house in town

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Abandoned Western Colorado- Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of the Rockies

 

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Remote and virtually unknown, Galatea, Colorado is a tiny ghost town, or more accurately, cluster of abandoned buildings left marking the townsite in Kiowa County.

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Very little historic information exists about Galatea. It appears to have been founded in the 1880s, and had a Post Office from 1887 to 1948.  One account says Galatea was a trading center along the route of the Pueblo and State Line railroad. Today the dirt berm of the railroad can still be seen, but the iron rails are long gone.

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When I visited one adobe house, one milled lumber house, some antique farm implements buried in the sand, and a couple of sheds remained at the town site. A short distance away, across the old railroad bed to the south was an old farm house set deep in some trees with a windmill.

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Abandoned Western Colorado- Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of the Rockies

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Just in time for the holidays is my latest photo book featuring 96 pages and 140 color photos-

Abandoned Western Colorado- Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of the Rockies

Over the past year I have teamed up with Fonthill Press and Arcadia Publishing to create three books for the Abandoned Union/America Through Time Series. This is the first of my three books in the series, featuring ghost towns and mining camps of the Colorado foothills and high Rockies. My two contributions to the series will feature Southern Colorado and the San Luis Valley,  followed by the Great Plains of Northeastern Colorado.

I hope you enjoy what I’ve put together for the series and Thank You!  ~Jeff Eberle

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Available December 9, 2019 at leading bookstores and online at:

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