Review by Ed Quillen
Ghost Towns – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ghost Towns, Colorado Style – Volume One, Northern Region
by Kenneth Jessen
Published in 1998 by J.V. Publications
ISBN 0961166282
ONE MIGHT THINK that everything that can be said about Colorado’s mountain ghost towns has already been said. After all, St. Elmo was there, and Abbeyville was long gone, when Muriel Sibell Wolle published Stampede to Timberline in 1949, and the same was true when Perry Eberhart published Guide to the Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps a decade later.
But our state is a dynamic, changing place (often too much so for my taste), and so every generation of Coloradans needs its own comprehensive guide.
Some places that were nearly abandoned when Wolle or Eberhart visited, like Frisco and Nederland, are today thriving communities. Others have become even more ghostly with the continuing ravages of mountain winters, spring run-off, and summer souvenir collectors.
So an occasional update is in order, and author Kenneth Jessen has found so much material that he will publish three volumes: northern, central, and southern.
Jessen covers only mining towns in the mountains — he doesn’t deal with dry-farming remnants like Keota, or one-time ranch-country general stores and post offices like Troublesome. But within those limits, he does not confine himself only to the hard-rock camps — he includes coal camps and quarry towns.
This northern guide is the first of his planned series, and it essentially covers everything north of Interstate 70, with minor jogs south to catch all of Summit and Clear Creek counties.
It is further divided into areas, based on county lines, and each area’s towns are covered in alphabetic order, with maps and pictures (both historic and current) appearing as appropriate.
Right at the start of each town’s entry, Jessen gives its general location, site accessibility and ownership status, and a very brief summary.
Then he delves into its history, providing a page or two rich with anecdotes based on well-documented research, and brings us up to the present status: What the visitor sees, and how much of that is historic and how much is modern or remodeled.
In short, it’s a fairly comprehensive reference, and also good reading, especially for us history buffs.
He concedes that his list is not exhaustive, although I could think of only one ghost town in northern Colorado — Teller City on the south edge of North Park — that wasn’t included.
Jessen’s writing is a delight, and even though I grew up in that area, I found much that was new to me. For instance, I had always thought that Masonville above Loveland had been a quarry town, not an aspiring gold camp:
“… Loveland had an assay office opened by George Clarke,” who “would frequently leave his office, head west to the mines, poke around, and drum up business. He was always optimistic about how much gold was contained in the Masonville ore. The assays, incidentally, were based on a very small amount of ore selected directly from a promising vein. When the results of an assay were converted to dollars per ton, the mine in question would appear to hold untold riches. Cal Carter, for example, hit a pocket of good ore which assayed at an astonishing $50,000 per ton. To reap the rewards of his hard labor, Cal optimistically shipped a load of his ore to a Denver smelter. It yielded only $12 per ton…”
Not all the lore concerns mining, of course. During an effort to purify Eldora (west of Boulder), the town marshal caught three men with prostitutes.
“The next day, in front of the local judge, the men pleaded guilty while the females denied any guilt. The judge then questioned each girl asking her occupation. The first two responded `dressmaker,’ while the third said she was a `chippie.’ Not knowing just what a chippie was, the judge asked her, `… how’s business?’
“Quick of wit, the girl replied, `Poor, your honor, very poor. There’s too damn many dressmakers in this town.'”
Ghost towns have always fascinated me, and given the popularity of books about them, I’m far from alone in this interest.
When I see some old buildings or foundations, I always wonder who lived there and what they did. Books like this answer those questions, and Jessen does a far better job than most. And as nature and development continue their relentless course, a solid and engaging book like this is a fine way, perhaps the only way, to honor that heritage.
— Ed Quillen
