« Butter vs Margarine | Home | Those Tasty Salmonella Tomatoes »
Colorado Ghost Towns
By PK | June 9, 2008
Colorado has many Ghost Towns, as do many western states. Though they may not actually have ghosts, they are abandoned. Many were mining towns, gold mining that is. While hiking on Saturday, I
found a quartz rock with gold flecks. Now, before you get your panties in a wad…it’s probably fool’s
gold. Nothing for me to worry breaking a nail trying to get the flecks off. But I did bring it home, just
for a souvenir.
The old, worn-down buildings are interesting. Their roofs caving in, windows with permanent air-conditioning, and doors hanging loosely on their hinges. One such ghost town we passed several times in our adventures here in Colorado. The town unnamed as I was unable to find any information online about it.
Some towns are privately owned, such as this one. Though I was tempted to jump the fence for a closer look, I allowed my camera to do all the closeups.
I would have loved to peeked inside some of these dwellings. Didn’t you ever wonder what it was like to live 100 years ago? To pan for gold? Scrub your clothes with an old washboard? Well…okay, maybe not that drastic. But I bet the air was cleaner, filling your nose with the wonderful smells of nature.
Some of the popular ghost towns in Colorado are: St. Elmo, one of Colorado’s most accessible ghost towns and one of the most preserved; Independence is also very accessible…that is in the summer months. It’s elevation is about 11,000 feet and the Independence Pass is closed nine months of the year. Tincup was one of the most rowdiest, sheriffs not lasting long and Pitkin was an established mining camp in the 1870s. It has the largest collection of still-standing buildings in Colorado. But be careful, before you go exploring these places, make sure they are not privately-owned. And if you visit any of these places and come across a real ghost, tell them hello for me.
216.237.246.94
38.103.63.61
Stumble it!
Topics: "Post Cards From the West", Colorado |
