Great Weekend Getaways - Mountain Magic

St. Elmo Ghost Town

By Eric Lindberg

Far up a dirt road, deep in the Sawatch Range of Chaffee County, lies the ghost of St. Elmo. It remains one of many ghost towns scattered across Colorado's mountains. These phantoms from the past endure as weather-beaten remnants of mining camps and boom settlements that sprung up almost overnight around gold and silver strikes. Thriving until the mines were exhausted, they emptied almost as fast as they appeared.

While many of these deserted settlements vanished, lost to time, weather and development, dozens remain, tucked away in lonely places across the Rockies. One of the best-preserved is St. Elmo. Just southwest of Buena Vista, the graded road follows Chalk Creek into a high mountain valley of spruce and aspen. The road bends and opens onto a floodplain, where two dozen structures ranging from rickety shacks to a two-story hotel come into view.

Walking the creaking wooden sidewalks of St. Elmo feels like strolling the abandoned set of an old Western movie. Splintered wood buildings with false fronts line the main street. Private houses sit back in the trees, tilted and blistered from decades of sun, wind and snow.

Built in 1878, the town began as an upstanding community supplying numerous area mines. As more gold and silver was discovered and the mostly male population approached 2,000 souls, St. Elmo became a "Saturday night town" with saloons, bawdy houses, dance halls and fist fights. During its heyday, five hotels, a schoolhouse and a general store served residents. The train came to town, moving people and freight throughout the area.

When the mines played out, work dried up and people moved on. The clatter of miners, horses and machines died away long ago, and today the jabbering of jays and frantic scurrying of chipmunks are the central commotion around St. Elmo.

Sit quietly in the fading afternoon light and imagine a frontier village aglow with the fever of gold. It all happened here, a mere century ago.

Information: www.ghosttowns.com; www.ghosttowngallery.com.

Please note: This article is from our archives and some facts may have changed. Please contact your nearest AAA office and ask to speak to a travel counselor to update you on the latest travel information.

Eric Lindberg is a Lakewood-based travel writer and photographer who has written for EnCompass on numerous occasions.