This road leads over Schofield Pass as well as a precipitous section deservedly called the Devil’s Punchbowl where entire families have perished when their vehicles careened over sheer walls. Some GPS navigation units may incorrectly suggest Forest Road 317 as the fastest route from Crested Butte. They use Crystal’s cabins as base camps for touring the spectacular outdoor recreational opportunities of the Elk Range. Today, part-time residents help maintain the mill, a jewel on the National Register of Historic Places. In the late 19th Century the nearby town of Crystal had an average population of 500, but after the Sheep Mountain Mine closed in 1917 the mill fell into disrepair and fewer than 10 people remained. Its waterwheel on the Crystal River generated compressed air that miners used to power silver ore extraction machinery. Also known as the Sheep Mountain Powerhouse or Lost Horse Mill, the photogenic building was constructed in 1893 by promoters of the Sheep Mountain Mining Co. This autumn, explore 11 of the state’s ghost towns that survive today under startlingly scenic canopies of fall foliage, sunflower-filled fields and auras of history as rich as the lucky few who struck the mother lode in the heyday of gold rushes and land grabs.Ī longtime subject of postcards and calendar covers, the Crystal Mill may be the consummate picture of Colorado’s rustic past. Surprisingly, the extreme alpine and prairie environments that had proved to be too arduous for their original residents helped preserve these towns as they waited to be rediscovered, and in some cases renovated, by younger generations returning for their chance at the American dream.
Other towns gave way to the slow decay of time and neglect. Many of these towns brilliantly flashed like meteors in the mountain sky, busting within a few short years of their boom. In the frenzy to colonize a new frontier of opportunity, miners, ranchers and would-be entrepreneurs haphazardly built settlements in some of the state’s most inhospitable locations. September/October 2013 CL issue of Colorado Life Magazine)īETWEEN THE LATE 19th and early 20th centuries, prospectors and pioneer homesteaders flocked to a crossroads called Colorado with dreams of striking it rich in rushes to claim gold, silver, coal and fertile farmland.