Philip Varney - Ghost Towns of the Mountain West: Your Guide to the Hidden History and Old West Haunts of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada

Your Guide to the Hidden History
and Old West Haunts of Colorado, Wyoming,
Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada

Text and Photography by Philip Varney

First published in 2010 by Voyageur Press, an imprint of MBI Publishing Company, 400 First Avenue North, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

Copyright 2010 by Philip Varney

All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for the purposes of review, no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the Publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the author or Publisher, who also disclaims any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specific details.

We recognize, further, that some words, model names, and designations mentioned herein are the property of the trademark holder. We use them for identification purposes only. This is not an official publication.

Voyageur Press titles are also available at discounts in bulk quantity for industrial or sales-promotional use. For details write to Special Sales Manager at MBI Publishing Company, 400 First Avenue North, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA.

To find out more about our books, visit us online at www.voyageurpress.com .

ISBN 978-0-7603-3358-7

Digital edition: 978-1-61060-090-3

Softcover edition: 978-0-7603-3358-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Varney, Philip.
Ghost towns of the mountain West : your guide to the hidden history and Old West haunts of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada /
Philip Varney.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7603-3358-7 (softback : alk. paper)
1. Ghost townsWest (U.S.)Guidebooks. 2. West (U.S.)Guidebooks. 3. West (U.S.)History, Local. I. Title.
F590.7.V37 2010
978dc27
2009018622

Edited by Danielle Ibister
Designed by Pauline Molinari
Design Manager: LeAnn Kuhlmann
Cartographer: Patti Isaacs, Parrot Graphics

Front cover main: The Elkhorn Barber Shop, Sullivans Saddlery, and the jail in Nevada City, Montana.
Front cover bottom left: The one-room schoolhouse in Nevada City, Montana.
Front cover bottom right: A gravestone in Utahs Frisco Cemetery.
Back cover top: The Carissa Saloon, South Pass City, Wyoming.
Back cover bottom left: The Commodore Mine Operation on the Bachelor Historic Loop, Colorado.
Back cover bottom right: Silvertons Hillside Cemetery, Colorado.
Page : The once-bustling business district of Nevadas Belmont.
Page : Idahos Bayhorse Hotel.
Page : The parlor of Silver Citys Idaho Hotel. The poker table dates from 1878 and has a lock box underneath the tabletop.
Opposite: Brothers Roy and Tony Stark, along with their sister, Annabelle, kept this store open into the 1950s as the last business in St. Elmo, Colorado.

Printed in China

FOR MY SISTER, MARY LEVINE.

1 COLORADO
GHOSTS OF THE FIRST BONANZAS

2 COLORADO
PIKES PEAK OR BUST

3 COLORADO
GHOSTS OF THE SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS

4 WYOMING
FOLLOWING THE GHOST TRAILS

5 IDAHO
GHOSTS OF THE GEM STATE

6 MONTANA
GHOSTS OF BIG SKY COUNTRY

7 UTAH
GHOSTS OF ZION

8 NEVADA
GHOSTS OF THE SILVER STATE

A very restorable Chevrolet pickup rests in the weeds in one of Nevadas best ghost towns, Belmont.

In the summer of 1955, I sat in the back seat of a brand-new Buick as I accompanied my best friend on his familys vacation. I was eleven at the time, and this young Illinois boy had never seen a mountain. I watched in disbelief as the plains of eastern Colorado began to display an astonishing western horizon.

We stayed for a week at a dude ranch somewhere near Idaho Springs. We took a Jeep trip to an old mine. We visited Central City, with its crumbling, empty buildingsonly a few open for the occasional curious tourist. I had seen my first ghost town.

I have never been quite the same since. My family moved three years later to Arizona, and I couldnt wait to see places like the ghost town of Jerome. Twenty-one years after that, I found myself teaching high school English in Tucson and writing a book about Arizona ghost towns. Its opening entry: Jerome.

I wrote that first ghost town book, Arizonas Best Ghost Towns, in response to my frustration with the way other such books are generally organized: Most of them had the ghost towns listed alphabetically, not organized geographically, which seemed far more logical to me. Some books had their maps buried in the back, instead of up with the ghost towns themselves. I wanted a completely practical, informative guide that would give me everything I needed next to me on the seat of my truck. That first books success led to six more.

My previous books did not attempt the scope that this book does. Four covered one state only (Arizona [twice], New Mexico, and Colorado); two books were necessary for one state (Southern and Northern California); and my most recent book covered two states and part of a province (Washington, Oregon, and southern British Columbia).

The book you have in your hands is similar to those earlier books in that it arranges towns geographically, so you can visit places in logical groups. Each chapter features a map of the area, a history of each town, a description of what remains at the site when I visited, and specific directions to each site. But it is vastly different from my other books because it, of necessity, has to be exclusive. It could not possibly contain all of the ghost town sites in all six states it covers. If you want to find more sites than I have featured here, there are many books that cover one state only. All the books I recommend are listed in the bibliography at the end of this book.

.

At the other end of the spectrum are former ghost town sites that have been thrust into the twenty-first century, having rebounded into modernity. Aspen, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, and Telluride all were once nearly abandoned, as hard as that may be to believe, and all were included in my book Ghost Towns of Colorado but are not in this volume. I did, however, include several communities that have that elusive ghost town feeling, places that retain considerable charm despite their modern touches. Examples are Colorados Leadville, Lake City, and Silverton; Idahos Idaho City; Utahs Spring City; and Montanas and Nevadas towns both named Virginia City.