Visited Ghost Towns

We visited a number of "Ghost Towns" at the same time as the below cemeteries, here are a few comments on them.

Overall, many of the so called Ghost Towns that are located near towns do have a significant amount of history, but are lacking in what we feel is a true Ghost Town. Our definition of a Ghost Town is a site that has been abandoned for many decades and still has the original buildings in their original shape - not refurbished.

Don't get us wrong, we very much appreciate and honor those who have taken the time to restore the old buildings and document the history of a town or area, such as Como, but they are not in our true definition of a Ghost Town.

Como: Ricky and others are doing an excellent job of restoring the old buildings, including the roundhouse. There are many original buildings, some still in rough shape - but what they are doing in Como is restoring the old buildings and really acknowledging the history of the area.

Boreas Pass: At the top of Boreas Pass are some refurbished buildings and also an old train car. The original purpose of the road to the pass was a railroad, so there are some artifacts still remaining at the pass. We recommend when first passing through Como to visit the Mountain Man Gallery and pick up a Boreas Pass brochure, which will give insight into the wagon wheel numbers along the side of the road up to the pass.

Park City: Some older buildings exist, but have been restored. When coming into town, take a look to the right, nestled back on the hill is what appears to be an old mine - we did not venture to the building, looked like private property from the road to the building.

Alma Junction: Some old row houses along County Road 12 about a mile off Highway 9 - interesting, but nothing much more to say about them.

Redstone: Has been completely restored and it looked to us to be a vacation spot for wealthy Denver suburbanites. Definitely a lot of history in the town, but not much in terms of our definition of a Ghost Town, except.... The most obvious feature of the Redstone area is the remains of the Coal Kilns on the side of the road before you turn off 133 to go into Redstone. There appear to be a lot of original looks to the kilns, but at the same time, some of the kilns are closed off with cement cinder blocks - not sure those were around in the late 1800's... Also, look at the kilns on the side of the driveway back to the stables - looks as though a number of them were destroyed when putting in the driveway. One last word, the front kilns are roped off, so you cannot get close, but there are kilns behind those and you might get a better look at those.

Redstone Pictures

Marble: Although this too is not much of a Ghost Town, a VERY interesting place to visit. Just to look at all of the marble in the river is amazing. It looks as though they are again mining marble from the quarry. We got to Marble late in the day and the road to the quarry was blocked, so we could not visit that nor could we go to the museum to talk to anyone about the area. One cool thing was a marble symposium going on near the river (about a mile in from the town limits) - a number of artists from around the world (saw one lady from London, England) were sculpting in, what else, marble. The area looks to be a permanent location for this type of thing, electrical and air connections were permanent in the ground. So if you visit the area, look for that location, there may be some sculpting going on.

Marble Pictures

Crystal: When you continue through Marble you can go to Crystal, which from all accounts, looked to be a true Ghost Town. One minor problem - there is a sign on the road that says 4 wheel drive vehicles only - heed that sign... We did not have a 4x4 and made it about a mile in and thought better of it... We did find a marble shop in Marble that appears to do jeep tours into Crystal, but alas, because it was late in the day, the shop was closed.

Independence: This is a true Ghost Town despite being restored by, I believe, the Aspen Historical Society. Pictures and a separate blog post will follow on this...

Independence Pictures