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 list will ever be complete. Ghost towns are predominantly of few reasons: mining towns, abandoned when the mines closed; many due to the devaluation of silver in 1893, mill towns that were abandoned when the mining towns closed, farming towns on the eastern plains deserted due to rural depopulation, coal towns abandoned when the coal, or need for it ran out, stage stops abandoned when the railroad came through, and the rail stops that were deserted when then railroad changed routes or abandoned the spurs. Some were resort towns which never brought in enough tourists. One or two were caused by the creation of reservoirs, or covered in mining tailings, as noted below.

The ghost towns are listed sortable by town or county.

Town County
Animas Forks San Juan
Arapahoe Jefferson
Ashcroft Pitkin
Bakerville Clear Creek
Bassick City, see Querida Custer
Bonanza Saguache
Buckskin Joe (Laurette, Lauret) Park
Calumet Huerfano
Capitol City Hinsdale
Caribou Boulder
Carpenter Mesa
Carrizo City Baca
Carrizo Springs Baca
Chihuahua Summit
Chivington Kiowa
Climax Lake
Coalmont Jackson
Colfax Custer
Copper City Baca
Crystal Gunnison
Dakan Douglas
Dallas Ouray
Decatur Summit
Dearfield Weld
Duncan Saguache
Dyersville Summit
Eastonville Elbert
Eureka San Juan
Fairmount Jefferson
Fondis Elbert
Galena Custer
Geneva City Park
Gilman Eagle
Gothic Gunnison
Hamilton Park
Howardsville (Bullion City) San Juan
Independence Pitkin
Juanita Archuleta
Keota Weld
King's Canyon Jackson
Kokomo Summit
Last Chance Washington
Lenado Pitkin
Liberty Saguache
Ludlow Las Animas
Madrid Las Animas
Manhattan Larimer
McPhee, see McPhee Reservoir Montezuma
Montana City Denver
Montezuma Summit
Nevadaville Gilpin
Oro City Lake
Pearl Jackson
Querida Custer
Robinson Summit
Rosita Custer
Russell Gulch Gilpin
Silver Creek Clear Creek
Silver Dale Clear Creek
Stout, see Horsetooth Reservoir Larimer
St. Elmo Chaffee
Saints John Summit
Swandyke Summit
Tarryall, (founded 1859) Park
Tarryall, (Puma City, founded 1896) Park
Teller City Jackson
Tincup Gunnison
Turret Chaffee
Ula Custer
Uravan Montrose

Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, ghost, towns and/or colorado:

    Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives—from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango—with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to- date scripts for actors on the tourists’ stage.
    Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)

    We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    Unhand me, gentlemen.
    By heaven, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me!
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    What youth or maiden conspires with the wild luxuriant beauty of Nature? She flourishes most alone, far from the towns where they reside.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I am persuaded that the people of the world have no grievances, one against the other. The hopes and desires of a man who tills the soil are about the same whether he lives on the banks of the Colorado or on the banks of the Danube.
    Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)