Colorado's Abandoned Towns Guston
Date of Site Visit: August 19, 2026
Colorado's Abandoned Towns -- Better Known as Ghost Towns
Today's Town: Guston
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.
Today my husband and I are taking our Jeep
into Red Mountain District to see what's left
and to answer Guston's question:
What happens when the mine--not Main Street--becomes the center of a community?
Traveling south on US Hwy 550 from Montrose, our route takes us through Ouray, born from Colorado's mining era but very much alive today.
Ouray, Colorado
History of the Red Mountain District
As we discussed in last week's post, the district's rich mineral discoveries started around 1882 and created a sudden influx of prospectors and eastern capital, making this district in Colorado one of the richest regions in the state.
During this silver boom, several towns sprang up almost overnight, with settlements such as Red Mountain Town, Ironton, Guston, and Congress taking root in this rugged, high-elevation terrain above 10,000 feet.
What made the Red Mountain District different was not simply that silver was there, but how it was deposited. Instead of long horizontal veins, some of the richest ore occurred in nearly vertical "chimneys" or pipes, often only 30 to 100 feet across. Miners could work through relatively unremarkable rock and suddenly encounter extraordinarily rich ore.
The Town
Guston, Colorado was established among the rich mines of the area shortly after Red Mountain Town in 1883. Like Red Mountain Town, Guston had no single founder and had no planned layout or official business district. It grew around miners, mine owners, and workers at the Guston, Robinson, Yankee Girl, Genessee, and Vanderbilt Properties. Homes and buildings were built randomly on available ground near the mines they served. As a result, Guston became a scattered and disorganized community of about 300 residents. The settlement took it's name from the Guston Mine. In 1882, prospector John Robinson discoverd a massive "pipe" of silver ore and staked the Yankee Girl claim which ultimately, became Guston's great producer.
Why the name Yankee Girl?
The answer: We don't know.
There is no surviving historical document, diary entry, or formal record explaing exactly why John Robinson and his partners chose the memorable name.
Like so many details of mining-camp life, the reason may simply have disappeared with the people who knew it.
While his naming motivation is lost to time, what we do know is that the discovery changed the Red Mountain District.
In August 1882, according to later Colorado historical accounts, John Robinson—reportedly out hunting—noticed unusually promising mineralized rock near the Guston workings. The discovery became the Yankee Girl claim.
After shipping some exceptionally rich silver-lead ore, Robinson and his Guston Mine partners subsequently sold the Yankee Girl for a reported $125,000. The Yankee Girl went on to become one of the district's most celebrated producers.
Yankee Girl headframe
The Silverton Railroad reached Guston in 1889. Otto Mears' famous Rainbow Route came directly into this extraordinary landscape.
1892 appears to have been the community's high point. Which is when the post office is reported to have been established.
In 1891, Congregational Minister William Davis came into the Red Mountain District hoping to establish a church. Red Mountain Town showed little interest, but Guston welcomed him. A mine owner provided land, residents raised money and donated lumber, and Davis, who had once worked as a carpenter, helped build a small church and cabin for his family. His wife and children were among the few residents to establish a traditional family life in the chaotic camp that centered around the mines.
The church opened in 1892 and became the only church established in the Red Mountain Mining District. With no bell available, compressed air from the mining company powered a whistle in the church cupola to call people to worship. Later miners raised money for a real bell.
Even the church depended on the mine.
The mine literally supplied the power that called the community to church.
The town had a newspaper--the memorable Guston Paralyzer. Curious about the name, I found this information: Frontier newspapers in 19th-century Colorado mining camps frequently chose colorful, hyperbolic, or aggressive names intended to sound punchy, formidable, or witty to local prospectors—implying the paper's writing or commentary would "paralyze" its competition or targets.
Red Mountain Overlook Turn-Off's Interpretive Markers
Guston, like Red Mountain town, made a significant economic impact on the surrounding communities. The Red Mountain overlook's interpretive marker credits the Yankee Girl Mine in its sixteen years of operations with nearly twelve million dollars of ore worth over one-hundred million dollars today.
As most of the mines in the area, Guston's future began its declined in 1893, due in part to falling silver prices, an economic downturn, deeper workings, corrosive water, lower grade ore at deeper depths and higher costs forcing the miners and their families to seek work and homes elsewhere.
By 1898, Guston had largely emptied. A few residents remained.
In December 1898, the Ouray Herald reported that George Howard and Frank Hyde, both longtime residents about fifty years old, had been found dead outdoors near Guston after leaving Ironton the previous evening. The call to the newspaper had reported they had "frozen to death," the paper clarified that the bodies themselves were not frozen and concluded that the men were presumed to have died from exposure to the cold.
It's hard to imagine being outdoors at night in such a rugged
place during the severe winter temperatures.
WHAT REMAINS TODAY
As we drove into Guston after leaving Red Mountain Town, the road ran along the slope of one of the large hills stained from minerals that made up the area. Guston's scattered remains finally made its history make sense. There was no broad Main Street waiting for us. The buildings and mines seemed to occupy whatever grounds the mountains allowed--one structure above another, mine workings tucked into slopes, railroad grades crossing terrain that hardly looks capable of carrying a train. Rusted rails that may have served the railroad or the mine workings ended abrubtly at the edge of a hill. The historic shaft house of the Yankee Girl mine still stands.
Standing there, I kept coming back to one question: Where did three hundred people fit?
Guston is high up the mountain. The former Idarado complex and its reclaimed landscape are visible below. Highly traveled US Hwy 550 can be seen and heard in the distance.
Pictures of US Hwy 550 and Idarado
The view of Guston from US Hwy 550 in the distance with Idarado in the foreground
WHAT SURPRISED ME MOST?
What surprised me most was how little level ground there is. Guston seems to spill over the hills rather than occupy them. Standing there, I tried to imagine hundreds of people living among those mines while winter winds swept unobstructed across the slopes.
The Reverend Davis family gives us at least one documented glimpse of traditional family life here. But I found myself wondering about the others.
Were there children playing among these buildings?
Women trying to keep rooms warm and meals prepared?
How many families stayed through an entire winter?
In August, even with comfortable temperatures and blue skies, Guston feels remote.
In January, it must have felt like the edge of the world.
BEFORE YOU GO
Check weather conditions as weather can change quickly at these high elevations.
Hwy 550 is paved. County Road 31 is an unpaved high-country road. Conditions vary considerably with weather, runoff and maintenance. We traveled it comfortably in our Jeep, but I recommend a high-clearance vehicle and checking current Ouray County road conditions before leaving.
Hills were severly sloped but following the road to reach the top of some enabled walking on level to mildly moderately sloped areas. Travelers with respiratory conditions at high altitudes would have difficulty but could see many of the sites from inside the vehicle.
Best time to visit: Generally mid- to late summer into early fall, depending on snow and road conditions.
Map your route before leaving because cell service can be unreliable in the mountains.
Respect all private-property boundaries, posted restrictions and environmental restoration areas.
Do not remove artifacts or objects from historic sites.
For your safety and the preservation of the buildings, do not enter or climb on unstable structures.
Take only photos . Leave only footprints.
THEN & NOW PHOTOGRAPHS
WHAT DID GUSTON LEAVE BEHIND?
Physically, Guston left more clues than I expected.
Rusting rails lying on the hills, tracing impossible-looking paths across the slopes. Collapsed weather beaten structures perched on the hill tops. And above them, the Yankee Girl shaft house still stands--a landmark visible to thousands of travelers on the Million Dollar Highway.
But what I understood from Guston, was how completely a mining camp could depend upon the mines that created it.
There was no Main Street around which the community organized itself.
The buildiings followed the mines.
The railroad followed the mines.
Businesses existed because miners needed them.
Even Reverend Davis' little church initially called worshipers
with a whistle powered by compressed air supplied by the mining company.
The mine wasn't merely Guston's largest employer.
In many ways, the mine was Guston.
Perhaps that answers the question I carried up the mountain.
What happens when the mine--not Main Street--becomes the center of a community?
The community flourishes as long as the mine does. And when the ore can no longer sustain the mine, there seems to be very little independent reason for the town itself to remain.
Standing amoug Guston's scattered remains, that seems to be exactly what happened.
LEARN MORE
PREVIOUS STOP: RED MOUNTAIN TOWN
NEXT STOP: IRONTON
Ironton's Question:
What makes someone remain decades after almost everyone else has left?
Thank you for reading.
May God abundantly bless you and may He always keep you.
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