Parkville (also known as Park City)
[ is a ]ghost town
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
located in, and the original county seat of, Summit County, Colorado, United States. Parkville was a gold mining camp that flourished from 1860 to 1866 near the confluence of the middle and south forks of the Swan River.
History
Parkville was established around 1860 in Georgia Gulch near Swan River, with cabins by 1861. The population of the site soon rose to around 1,800.Territory of Colorado
The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the 38th State of Colorado.
The territory was organized i ...
created its 17 original counties on November 1, 1861, Parkville was designated the Summit County seat
A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation.
Types of seat
The ...
. At its creation, Summit County covered roughly the entire northwest portion of the Colorado Territory. Parkville was the site of among the earliest Freemason
Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
lodges in Colorado, with Summit Lodge No.2 among the lodges established with the formation of the Grand Lodge of Colorado. The earliest minutes from the Summit County commissioners shows that they rented the Masonic hall
A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting.
Development and history
I ...
for meetings and county and district court.
The region's gold rush drove much of Parkville's 1861 growth, with its discoveries among the most valuable in Colorado history; up to $800 () of gold was mined daily.[ This saw the production of territorial gold token mintage at Parkville during the summer of 1861. These tokens–valued at $2.50, $5, and $10–were coined by J.J. Conway & Co. out of gold dust. These tokens did not look like standard U.S. coinage and were of varying ]fineness
The fineness of a precious metal object (coin, bar, jewelry, etc.) represents the weight of ''fine metal'' therein, in proportion to the total weight which includes alloying base metals and any impurities. Alloy metals are added to increase hard ...
and weight, thus losing the confidence of the townsfolk.
Parkville, then the largest town in the region, was "the logical choice" to become the Summit County seat.[ Parkville lost a 1861 vote to become the territorial capital by eleven votes; after the county seat was moved to Breckenridge due to Parkville's lack of facilities, Parkville would become a ]ghost town
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
by 1882.hydraulic mining
Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.Paul W. Thrush, ''A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'', US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560. In the placer mining of ...
had buried much of the former townsite in waste rock and the Masonic cemetery is among the few remaining visible relics.
See also
*Bibliography of Colorado
This is a bibliography of the U.S. State of Colorado.
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General history
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*Sibley, George. ''Water Wranglers - The 75-Year History of the Colorado River District: A Story About the Embattled Co ...
*Geography of Colorado
The geography of the U.S. State of Colorado is diverse, encompassing rugged mountainous terrain, vast plains, desert lands, desert canyons, and mesas. Colorado is a landlocked U.S. state. In 1861, the United States Congress defined the boun ...
*History of Colorado
The region that is today the U.S. state of Colorado has been inhabited by Native Americans and their Paleoamerican ancestors for at least 13,500 years and possibly more than 37,000 years. The eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major mi ...
*Index of Colorado-related articles
This is an alphabetical list of articles related to the U.S. State of Colorado.
0–9
* .co.us – Internet second-level domain for the State of Colorado
* 4 Corners
** 4 Corners Monument
* 6th Principal Meridian
* 10-mile Range
* 10 ...
*List of Colorado-related lists
The following two master lists include links to lists related to the United States, U.S. Colorado, State of Colorado.
#Colorado-related lists by topic
#Alphabetical list of Colorado-related lists
Colorado-related lists by topic General lists
*Bib ...
**List of county seats in Colorado
This is a list of the county seats of the U.S. State of Colorado and its two predecessors: the extralegal Territory of Jefferson and the official Territory of Colorado.
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Territory of Jefferson
On August 24, 1859, voters of the Pike' ...
**List of ghost towns in Colorado
This is a list of some notable ghost towns in the U.S. State of Colorado. A ghost town is a former community that now has no year-round residents or less than 1% of its peak population. Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns, although visible remai ...
**List of post offices in Colorado
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*Outline of Colorado
The following Outline (list), outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the U.S. state of Colorado:
Colorado – List of U.S. states and territories by population#State and territory rankings, 22nd most populous, the Lis ...
Notes
References
External links
{{authority control
1861 establishments in Colorado Territory
County seats in Colorado
Former populated places in Summit County, Colorado
Geography of Summit County, Colorado
Ghost towns in Colorado
Gold mining in Colorado