Discover Uravan, Colorado, a once-thriving uranium mining town erased by environmental cleanup. Explore its history, surviving landmark, and legacy.

Explore the Ute-Ulay Mine near Lake City, Colorado—the historic silver and lead mine that fueled a mining boom, built Henson, and shaped the region.

Come explore Capitol City, Colorado. One of the many abandoned mining towns that are now considered ghost towns.

Come explore Animas Forks, the Colorado abandoned town at 11,000 feet where visitors are still making memories.

Eureka. The name itself means, “I found it.” And in 1860, that is exactly what prospectors did here. They found gold.

Site Visit Date: September 4, 2026 Colorado's Abandoned Towns -- Better Known as Ghost Towns. Today's Town: Howardsville Howardsville, Colorado Photo Courtesy: westernmininghistory.com Howardsville is a mining settlement about four miles northeast of Silverton in the beautiful Animas River Valley. At first glance, it looks far too modest to have once mattered politically to a large portion of southwestern Colorado. T

Site Visit Date: August 27, 2026 Colorado's Abandoned Towns -- Better Known as Ghost Towns. Today's Town: Sneffels Sneffels Mining Town - Porter's Post office/Store 1885 At roughly 10,620 feet on the south face of Mount Sneffels, a mining town once clung to this rugged corner of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. Originally known as Porters, Sneffels grew from a remote silver-mining settlement into a bustling industrial community often reported to have housed as many as 2,000 peo

Camp Bird Mine, Colorado: A Company Mining Camp Above Ouray What happens when a mining company doesn't just build the mine--but builds the community around it?

Unlike the mining camps perched higher on Red Mountain, Ironton sat on relatively flat ground about 1,500 feet lower below Guston and Red Mountain Town. Its location made it an ideal supply, staging, and transportation center for the sounding mines. Ironton was becoming more than a mining camp. It was becoming a town.

More than a century ago, several hundred people made homes more than 10,000 feet above sea level in Colorado's San Juan Mountains. But Guston was different from the mining towns we're accustomed to imagining. There was no neat Main Street lined with stores and homes. The mines came first, and the community simply grew around them.

More than a century ago, hundreds of people climbed into Colorado's San Juan Mountains and tried to build a town at nearly 11,000 feet. Today my husband and I are taking our Jeep up the mountain to see what they left behind--and to answer the question I can't stop asking: Why would anyone choose to make a home here?

The idea that an existing town could be deliberately abandoned—not because its residents wanted to leave, but because the Gunnison River would be dammed downstream, flooding the valley and turning their homes and land into the bottom of a reservoir seemed unbelievable.