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

Chaffee County, Colorado Chaffee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,476. The county seat is Salida. History Chaffee County has a confusing origin. Between February 8 and February 10, 1879, Carbonate ...

, United States. Founded in 1880, St. Elmo lies in the heart of the

Sawatch Range The Sawatch Range or Saguache RangeThe place name "Saguache” is pronounced “Sawatch” . This name derives from the Ute language noun "''sawup''" meaning "sand dunes" and is spelled using the Spanish language version of this name "Saguac ...

, southwest of

Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada *Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan *Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...

and sits at an elevation of . Nearly 2,000 people settled in this town when mining for

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 ...

and

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 ...

started. The mining industry started to decline in the early 1920s, and in 1922 the railroad discontinued service. The community is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as the St. Elmo Historic District. It is one of

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 ...

's best preserved

ghost towns 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 Alle ...

History

St. Elmo was originally named ''Forest City'' but was later changed because of the multitude of towns with the same name. The name ''St. Elmo'' was chosen by Griffith Evans, one of the founding fathers, who was reading a novel with the same title. The town was at its peak in the 1890s, when it included a

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

office, general store, town hall, five hotels,

saloons Saloon may refer to: Buildings and businesses * One of the bars in a traditional British pub * An alternative name for a bar (establishment) * Western saloon, a historical style of American bar * The Saloon, a bar and music venue in San Francisc ...

, dancing halls, a newspaper office, and a school house. The town's first and longest running newspaper, the ''St. Elmo Mountaineer'', began reporting on the town's mining activities in August 1880 and ran until 1895. The

Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad The Denver, South Park, and Pacific Railroad (later called the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway) was a historic narrow gauge railroad that operated in Colorado in the western United States in the late 19th century. The railroad opened up the ...

line ran through St. Elmo. There were 150 patented mine claims within the area. The majority of the people who lived in St. Elmo worked at the Mary Murphy, Teresa C., The Molly or the Pioneer Mines. The

Mary Murphy Mine The Mary Murphy Mine was the principal gold mine of the Chalk Creek mining district of Chaffee County, Colorado, United States, near St. Elmo, Colorado. The Mary Murphy Mine operated continuously from 1870 to 1925, and produced 220 thousand oun ...

was the largest and most successful mine in the area. The

recovered over $60,000,000 worth of gold while it was in operation. While the other mines eventually shut down, the

continued to operate until the railroad was abandoned in 1922.St. Elmo, Colorado - A Photo Gallery
/ref> Once the mining industry shut down, St. Elmo drastically declined in population. Miners searched elsewhere for

and

and the business district in St. Elmo closed down as well. Few people continued to live in the town. Postal service was discontinued in 1952 after the death of St. Elmo's postmaster.

St. Elmo today

St. Elmo is considered a ghost town, though it is still inhabited. Many tourists visit St. Elmo, and the former mining roads are now used as off-road vehicle trails. There are places to fish along

Chalk Creek Chalk Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed March 31, 2011 river flowing east from the Collegiate Peaks mountain range in Chaffee County, Colorado. Mount Antero bo ...

, which runs through St. Elmo. The general store is open during the summer, when tourists can rent off-road vehicles or buy items. Many buildings are extant, though the town hall and a few other buildings were destroyed by fire in 2002. Buena Vista Heritage is rebuilding the town hall to its original state.

Gallery

File:St. Elmo ghost town.jpg, File:St. Elmo ghost town - the town hall and jail.jpg, The town hall and jail File:St. Elmo ghost town gasoline filling station.jpg, Gasoline filling station File:St. Elmo ghost town general store.jpg, General store File:House with bay window, Main Street, St. Elmo, Colorado.jpg, House with bay window

References

{{authority control Ghost towns in Colorado Former populated places in Chaffee County, Colorado Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Tourist attractions in Chaffee County, Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Chaffee County, Colorado Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado

History

St. Elmo today

Gallery

See also

References