Kokomo is a

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

- and

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

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), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...

in Summit County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, 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 wes ...

. Before being depopulated in the 1960s, Kokomo was at its height home to over 10,000 people.

History

The community took its name from nearby Kokomo Gulch which was named after Kokomo, Indiana. Some placer

was discovered in the 1860s, but intensive mining did not begin until after the sharp increase of mining at

Leadville The City of Leadville is a statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,602 at the 2010 census and an estimated ...

in 1877. A post office called Kokomo was established in 1879, and remained in operation until 1965. A neighboring community, Recen, was heavily intertwined with Kokomo. The original town constructed of wood burned in 1879. The town burned again in 1881, marking the beginning of decline and resulting in a merger with the community of Recen. Also in 1881, the first

Free Mason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

meeting was held, and a

lodge Lodge is originally a term for a relatively small building, often associated with a larger one. Lodge or The Lodge may refer to: Buildings and structures Specific * The Lodge (Australia), the official Canberra residence of the Prime Ministe ...

was opened in 1882. A historical marker near the old townsite recognizes the lodge, which was existent until 1966. In the 1890s, Kokomo was at the highest elevation (10,618 feet) of any incorporated town in the state. The town reached zero population in the 1960s when the land was bought by Climax Molybdenum Company to use as a

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overli ...

dump.

References

Ghost towns in Colorado Former populated places in Summit County, Colorado Geography of Summit County, Colorado {{Colorado-geo-stub