I guess I am in a ghost mood. Last Saturday I visited Nevadaville, a
ghost town near Central City and today I would like to talk about two
ghost towns located (or better to say hidden) near Buena Vista. To get
there you need to leave a paved road
near Granite (small and almost ghost town itself :) ) and use dirty
County Road 390...
12 miles on this dusty road brings you to
Winfield,
the town where about 1500 miners were living and working around 1880th.
There were 3 saloons, 3 stores, 2 hotels, a boarding house, a post
office, a church, school, mill, smelter and concentrator in the area. Mining came to
an end in Clear Creek Canyon in the early 1900s and the town soon was abandoned...
Small school building with only room was
good enough for 8-15 kids, not too many for such a big town. But the life here wasn't easy and not many miners had a family with the kids.
The
small typical cabin brings you back to the past and you can see how the
miners lived in this town, working hard and surviving long and snowy
winters at an elevation almost 10,000 feet...
I am not sure if any of us agree to live in such conditions today...
But the surroundings are very picturesque (at least now) so when you are
here you can enjoy not only historic sites but also a nice valley and
gorgeous mountain slopes...
4 miles back on the same sandy road brings you to Vicksburg, another mining town. Now it's a museum.
Vicksburg
was founded in 1867 after prospectors from Leadville, Colorado camping
out in the Clear Creek Canyon lost their burros. The burros had wandered
down the creek and when the miners found their pack animals, they
discovered gold in the creek bed as well. In its heyday, Vicksburg had a
post office, school, blacksmith, two hotels, two billiard halls,
several saloons, a general store, an assay office, and a livery stable. It also was smaller than Winfield - only about 600 people called it home.
Now both of these small towns are nice gems of Colorado history and a
good example to understand about miner's living in Colorado during gold rush time.
Pictures were taken on September 04, 2016.
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