Colorado Ghost Towns: St. Elmo, Colorado

St. Elmo truly lives up to its reputation as being one of Colorado's best preserved ghost towns.The town of St. Elmo is located in Chaffee County Colorado, about 20 miles southwest of Buena Vista. It sits at an elevation of over 10,000 feet. The original name of the town was Forest City, but was later changed to St. Elmo, because so many other towns had that very same name. Griffith Edwards, who was one of the town's founding father's, chose the name St. Elmo after reading a book that contained a character with the name 'St. Elmo'. The town was founded in 1880 and boasted nearly 2,000 residents when silver and gold were discovered there. It is reported that there were as many as 150 patented mine claims within this tiny area alone.

Mining was the main industry in the town, and many people were employed by either the Mary Murphy, The Molly, Theresa C., or the Pioneer Mine. The Mary Murphy Mine was the largest and most successful mine out of the four, and was reported to have produced over 60 million dollars in gold. During the early 1920's the mining industry started to decline, as a result rail service was discontinued in St. Elmo. This also resulted in a drastic reduction of the population of the town. Few people remained as residents, and finally in 1952 the only post office shut down when the Postmaster died. The Stark family were the last to leave in 1958. They were the owners of the telegraph office, general store, and the Home Comfort Hotel.

Today St. Elmo is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. As an authentic ghost town St. Elmo does not disappoint. It looks like a town right out of an old cowboy movie. You get that eerie feeling that time has truly stood still here. There are 24 buildings still standing including many private residences, a courthouse, church, school, and a mercantile store. Sadly in 2002 fire broke out and some of the buildings were destroyed including the town hall, and the Stark family home.

Many of the buildings are unstable and unsafe to enter and taking anything from the property is strictly prohibited, but you can take as many pictures as you would like. There is a general store that is open to the public from May- October. There are also many other activities offered in the area such as site seeing, fishing, and camping. The old mining trails are now used as jeep and ATV trails.