Carpenter, Colorado
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Carpenter is a
ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
in Mesa County,
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
,
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, twelve miles northeast of Grand Junction at the end of an extension to 27¼ Road. The settlement was established by William Thomas Carpenter early in 1890 to provide the miners who worked in his two Book Cliff mines with a place to live. He began building shacks to house his single miners and later erected small houses for the employees with families. As a result of the town's rapid growth, a request to the U.S. post office to establish a branch there in June 1890 was quickly obliged and the community was officially dubbed Carpenter. However, the town never attained a population of over 50, and the post office closed after one year. After the closure of its post office, Carpenter built a company store and a combination boarding house/restaurant. Book Cliff company stone cutters and masons constructed several buildings and many foundations at Carpenter, using stone from the company quarry near the cliffs. One of the finest examples of a building made of Book Cliff sandstone is the
Fruita, Colorado The City of Fruita is a home rule municipality located in western Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 13,395 at the 2020 United States Census. Fruita is a part of the Grand Junction, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area a ...
Catholic church. Several years of prosperity followed the arrival of the Little Book Cliff Railway at the townsite in 1892. Carpenter began to formulate big plans for his village. He envisioned it as a tourist resort complete with hotel, dance pavilion, picnic areas, and even a lake that was to be fed by a spring located near his Book Cliff mines. Carpenter renamed the camp ''
Poland Spring Poland Spring is a brand of bottled water, produced in Poland, Maine. It is named after the original natural spring in the town of Poland, Maine it was drawn from. Today it is a subsidiary of BlueTriton Brands, formerly Nestlé Waters North Ameri ...
'' after a noted resort of that name in Maine. It was variously referred to as Polen, Pollen, and Polan Springs, although Carpenter’s intended name was evidenced by his having it emblazoned on the side of one of his railroad excursion cars. The resort plans were never completed because Carpenter went broke shortly after the
Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...
. Isaac Chauncey Wyman, a wealthy Massachusetts investor, became the next owner of the Book Cliff company. The town continued to enjoy an active existence because he did much to improve the mines and thus created a need for additional employees. The old eating house, referred to as the ''Hotel de Carpenter'' on occasion, was converted into a school and church for the camp’s inhabitants, and many company structures were rebuilt and improved during Wyman’s tenure as owner. The new name ''Book Cliff'' was applied to the town but did not adhere any better than did Poland Springs. Usually, people referred to the place as the “Book Cliff Mines.” The town reached its zenith and then began a gradual decline following Wyman’s death in 1910. In his will, Wyman left the town, railroad, and mines to
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. Princeton managed everything for 15 years then decided to abandon it all in 1925. By the end of that summer nearly everything had been sold, dismantled, and hauled away.


References

Lyndon J. Lampert and Robert W. McLeod: '' Little Book Cliff Railway: The Life and Times of a Colorado
Narrow Gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
''. Boulder Colo.: Pruett Publishing Co., 1984, https://books.google.com/books?id=yNFdAAAAIAAJ, last accessed 22 Nov 2018. Kathy Jordan: ''Carpenter'', http://www.historic7thstreet.org/remembering/pdfs3/carpenter.pdf, ca. 2010 {{authority control Ghost towns in Colorado Mining communities in Colorado Former populated places in Mesa County, Colorado Princeton University