Ashcroft is an extinct mining town located in

Pitkin County Pitkin County is a county in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 17,358. The county seat and largest city is Aspen, Colorado, Aspen. The county is named for Colorado Governor Frederi ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States. The

silver mining Silver mining is the extraction of silver by mining. Silver is a precious metal and holds high economic value. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires the use of complex technologies. In ...

camp was founded as Castle Forks City in the spring of 1880. A post office named Ashcroft operated at the site from August 12, 1880, until August 5, 1881, when the name was changed to Chloride. The Chloride post office operated until January 3, 1882 when the name was changed back to Ashcroft. The renamed Ashcroft post office finally closed on November 30, 1912. On May 12, 1975, Ashcroft was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The townsite is located south of

Aspen, Colorado Aspen is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population ...

, at an elevation of . A few buildings remain standing as a testament to the town's past.

History

Early years

In the spring of 1880 two prospectors, Charles B. Culver and W.F. Coxhead left the mining boomtown of

Leadville Leadville ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory city, statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only List of municipalities in Colorado, incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, Lak ...

in search of silver deposits in the Castle Creek Valley. Silver was found and Coxhead promoted their discovery with zeal back in Leadville. When he returned to "Castle Forks City", as it had been dubbed, he found that 23 other prospectors had joined "Crazy Culver." Together the men formed a Miners' Protective Association, built a courthouse and laid out the streets in Ashcroft in just two weeks. Each of their association's members paid $5, or one day's work, and $1, to draw for building lots. In all, there were 97 members in the Ashcroft Miners' Protective Association.Ashcroft Ghost Town
, Aspen Historical Society. The Ashcroft, Colorado, post office opened on August 12, 1880, but was renamed Chloride on August 5, 1881. The name of the Chloride, Colorado, post office was changed back to Ashcroft on January 3, 1882, after a rich ore strike was uncovered in Montezuma and Tam O'Shanter Mines. The mines were partially owned by H.A.W. Tabor of Leadville mining fame. Reportedly, Tabor and his second wife visited Ashcroft in 1883 and hosted a grand ball and banquet. Tabor also reportedly bought rounds of drinks for everyone in each of the town's 13 saloons.American Memory Collection
Ashcroft, Colorado. Library of Congress The same year that Tabor visited Ashcroft the town population had risen to around 2,000. Ashcroft was also home to two newspapers, a school,

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s, a small

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zin ...

and 20 saloons. At this point in its history the town was larger than

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus. Species These species are called aspens: * ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'') * ''Populus da ...

and closer to the railroad in

Crested Butte Crested Butte is a prominent mountain summit in the Elk Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The peak is in Gunnison National Forest, northeast by east ( bearing 59°) of the Town of Crested Butte in Gunnison County, C ...

. By 1885 the town was home to between 2,000 and 3,500 people, had six hotels and 20 saloons. As quickly as the town went boom it went bust.

Decline

The silver deposits that Culver and Coxhead initially discovered produced 14,000 ounces (400 kg) of silver to the ton (44% silver by weight) at their onset. This production, however, was short-lived as the deposits were shallow. Though there were promises of a rail line to Crested Butte the promises never materialized and investors and workers were lured away to places such as Aspen. In 1884 another rich strike was discovered; this one, however, was in Aspen. This led to the end of the prosperity in Ashcroft, as people began moving to Aspen. By 1885 there were only 100 summer residents and $5.6 in the town coffers. By the turn of the 20th century, only a handful of aging, single men lived in Ashcroft. Though they all owned mining claims they spent most of their time fishing and hunting or reading and drinking in a local bar. The men traded stories for drinks and served as an informal employment agency, matching up men with the sporadic remaining work at the mines. Every four years the remaining citizens would hold municipal elections and choose officers from amongst themselves. The Ashcroft, Colorado, post office closed on November 20, 1912. The town's last resident, Jack Leahy, died in 1939, making Ashcroft an official ghost town.

Renewed interest

The 1930s saw a new flurry of interest in the village, with the burgeoning winter Olympics and winter sports that drew attention to Ashcroft. International sportsman Ted Ryan and his partner

Billy Fiske William Meade Lindsley Fiske III (4 June 1911 – 17 August 1940) was an American combat fighter pilot and Olympic bobsledder. At the 1928 Winter Olympics, 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics, Fiske won gold as driver for the US Bobsleigh at the Win ...

, captain of America's gold medal Olympic

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobs ...

team, built the Highland-Bavarian Lodge north of Ashcroft. They planned to build a European style ski resort complete with an aerial tramway leading up to Hayden Peak.

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

put an end to their plans as Fiske was killed in combat and Ryan ended up leasing Ashcroft to the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

for $1 a year. During

, the Army's

10th Mountain Division The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) is a light infantry division (military), division in the United States Army based at Fort Drum, New York. Formerly designated as a mountain warfare unit, the division was the only one of its size in ...

used Ashcroft for mountaineering training, mostly during the summer of 1942. Following the war, most of the area's ski development occurred in Aspen and Ryan later deeded the site to the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's ...

. In 1948, World War II veteran Stuart Mace, also a well known dog sledder, brought his family and

dog sled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow, a practice known as mushing. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for Sled dog racing, dog sl ...

operation to Ashcroft. In 1955, Mace and his Toklat huskies were featured in the

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

'' Sgt. Preston of the Yukon'', and the ghost town was fitted with false fronts to imitate a Canadian set for the filming of the series through

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

. Mace was given the use of of land in exchange for caretaking what remaining holdings Highland-Bavarian had in the Ashcroft area. He devoted the remainder of his life to protecting the area from development and restoring the ecology. He was joined in that effort in 1974 by the Aspen Historical Society, which helped Ashcroft make it to the

in 1975.

References

External links