List of ghost towns in Colorado
This is an incomplete list of ghost towns in Colorado, a state of the United States. Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns. Currently only about 640 remain. Due to incomplete records and legends that are now accepted as fact, no exhaustive list can realistically be produced.
Most Colorado ghost towns were abandoned for the following reasons:
- Mining towns were abandoned when the mines closed; many due to the devaluation of silver in 1893.
- Mill towns were abandoned when the mining towns they serviced closed.
- Farming towns on the eastern plains were often deserted due to rural depopulation.
- Coal towns were abandoned when the coal (or the need for it) ran out.
- Stage stops were abandoned when the railroad came through.
- Rail stops were deserted when the railroad changed routes or abandoned the spurs.
Others were abandoned for more unusual reasons. Some were resort towns which never brought in enough tourists. One or two former townsites are now underwater, caused by the creation of reservoirs; a few are covered in mining tailings, as noted below. Of the list below, some involve settlements with visible tangible remains such as structures or cemeteries, while the precise location of others is known only through maps and historic accounts.
The following is a list of the most notable ghost towns, sortable alphabetically or by county:
See also
- Colorado
- Outline of Colorado
- Bibliography of Colorado
- Climate change in Colorado
- Colorado statistical areas
- Geography of Colorado
- Geology of Colorado
- History of Colorado
- List of cities and towns in Colorado
- List of counties in Colorado
- List of forts in Colorado
- List of ghost towns in Colorado
- List of places in Colorado
- Paleontology in Colorado
References
- Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Colorado (1947). Ghost towns of Colorado. Hastings House.
- Bauer, Carolyn (1987). Colorado Ghost Towns: Remnants of the Mining Days. Primer Publishers. ISBN 1-55838-067-1.
- Boyd, Leanne; H. Glenn Carson (1984). Atlas of Colorado Ghost Towns. Carson Enterprises. ISBN 0-941620-19-0.
- Brown, Robert (1972). Colorado Ghost Towns - Past and Present. Caxton Press. ISBN 0-87004-218-1.
- Brown, Robert (2003). Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rockies. Caxton Press. ISBN 0-87004-342-0.
- Brown, Robert (1963). Jeep Trails to Colorado Ghost Towns. Caxton Press. ISBN 0-87004-021-9.
- Dallas, Sandra (1988). Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2084-3.
- Eberhart, Perry (1959). Guide to the Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps.