An aerial view of the Ghost Town of Animas Forks, not far from Silverton, CO. This is one of Colorado's best-preserved ghost towns. The winters in the area are beyond fierce - so much so that as of the turn of the century, even the cities such as Ouray and Silverton were often completely isolated and inacccessible, and were thus dependent on hunters and local Indians (The Utes under Chief Ouray) for food. As one might imagine, wooden structures do not last well under such conditions, and many of the ghost towns, sadly, are no more, or very little remains. I want to see them all before they crumble inexorably into the earth. We took this shot leaving Animas Forks to drive the Alpine Loop - there is a steep and pretty difficult ascent just past the town.. (Maybe difficult is the wrong word. So let me try to describe the experience a little more. It's a dirt road carved into the side of a 2000-foot cliff somewhere around 1880. Not maintained since the last stagecoach and donkey caravan used it. Maybe about a foot wider than a jeep. Steep. Very rocky, enough so that you have to pilot carefully to keep from getting stuck on one of the bigger rocks. Not really so challenging if one is careful, knows how to plant the tires on the high spots, and pays attention. But roads like this can be a tad hair-raising, especially if one is the passenger and is sitting on the side closest to the edge. Ruthie was a real trooper, though - she was talking to me again within 3-4 days!) During the white-knuckle part of the drive we saw a tribe of marmots humphling along to get out of our way. If I could have taken a hand off the steering wheel we would have taken soom cool pictures of them. :)

This is an old shot of what I mean... a road very near the one we were on, above Ouray, CO. Literally all of the mining equipment and supplies needed to build the mining towns (including even the timbers for buildings) were hauled by donkey trains up trails very much like this one - and yes, they did sometimes go over the side.

Animas Forks, by the way, is named after the Animas River, the full name of which is El Rio De Animas Perdidas - The River of Lost Souls, so named because early explorers and miners often tried to ford it and were swept away and drowned. The town once boasted that it was the "largest city in the world", with small print saying "at this altitude". :) Founded in 1877. Ore extracted was galena (an ore of lead) and silver-bearing gray copper. There were 5-7 mines surrounding the town, several of which can still be seen. At its peak Animas had several stores, a hotel, saloons, two assay offices, shops and many other buildings, as well as one (1) two-hole indoor privy in a private house. (There may have been others, but I am not privy to that information.) As you can infer from the topmost photo, avalanches were common, and frequently destroyed buildings and stopped incoming travelers and supplies from reaching Animas Forks. During the winter of 1884, the city of Silverton, which is now just a few minutes away by car, was completely cut off and did not receive food or supplies for 2 1/2 months because of snow. And Animas Forks was not even accessible from Silverton, much less the rest of the world.

Ironton, Colorado, est. 1883... just a few minutes off the famous Million Dollar Highway from Silverton to Ouray built by Otto Mears, a little Jewish guy from Russia.. I had looked for this ghost town on several previous trips without success - it is dense woods now, so you can walk just a few hundred feet away from it and not see it, but finally found it this time, after falling into a stream that consisted of runoff from freshly melted snow, and almost freezing both my tuchis and the camera. :)

Howardsville, another mining town between Silverton and Animas Forks, not far from the Old Hundred. I have a number of rock specimens from this area - rhodochrosite and quartz, mostly - that I will post picture of soon. Just a few minutes from here was/is the American Tunnel Mine, which for many years was the largest producer of gold in the US. I have made pilgrimages to it 3-4 times, and try to bring a few rocks back whenever I go.

...and today. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. And even Tuesdi. (Seriously - you can see that a few more winters and this beautiful landmark will be gone forever.)

The general store in Elizabethtown - a similar shot appears in several Ghost Town books, but I got it with sheep :) There is an aging hippy guy that stil lives there, and will be happy to bend your ear for a while if you visit. At one time Elizabethtown boasted 7,000 residents, seven saloons, three dance halls, five stores, a school, and two churches. Now it is just 4-5 buildings slowly rotting in the sun...

Main Street, Guston, CO, which had between 500 and 1000 residents at its peak. There are many older buildings and mine remains across the highway.

Now this is an interesting piece of history.. it's called a Galloping Goose, and only four were ever made - part school bus, part locomotive, and part truck. They were made and used as service trains and economical ways to carry mail, supplies, etc. on the Narrow Gauge Railroad (narrow gauge because the railroad ran on very narrow ledges carved into the side of mountains!). Parts of this railway are still in operation, and you can see many awesome photos at http://www.narrowgauge.org/ or order tickets at http://www.durangotrain.com/ . Anyway, of the four Galloping Geese that were made, I have found and photographed two... one apparently no longer exists, but someday I will find the other remaining one! Obviously the top one in my photo has been a modified a bit... The bottom one is currently in Delores, CO. I don't even remember where the other shot was taken, but it was somewhere about a zillion and a half miles from nowhere. Note the cool decaying false-front ghost building to the right. :)