| Discover More About BRECKENRIDGE! | ||||
| BRECKENRIDGE! offers a lively
look backward at early day area mine settle- ments and railway
towns.
Peruse its pages for detailed histories of its old-time gold and silver camps.
An accurate guide: Topo maps plus careful driving directions for each mine tour get you to your destination.
Savor the story with rich histories for each stop on your ghost town tour.
Historic photos and illustrations take you back to yesteryears.
Learn how to pan for gold along still-rich French Creek!
Take the book's walking tour of buildings in the Breckenridge Historic District
Visit historic mines along the tour routes.
Jeep to remote ghost towns or drive the family car to ruins of close-in 1800's camps.
This book, just $4.95 retail, makes a great gift for conference attendees or meeting group members. Ask for our volume discount. 1-800-579-1179 (order information only, 9-5 MST). |
The Rocky Mountain News Summit Sentinel
Publisher Comments Fifteen ghost towns and sites, twelve major mines, two gold dredges and forty-three historic structures highlight ten intriguing self-guided tours. Breckenridge! is a handy guide, accurate and up-to-date, a great companion to the author's lively SUMMIT, A Gold Rush History of Summit County, Colorado and The New Summit Hiker.
About the Author Here's A Sample Chapter from BRECKENRIDGE!
DISCOVER THE GHOST TOWNS Note: You will find a few historical "nuggets" in the Drive
section but please turn to History for the full story on each town.
Ghost Town Tour Boreas Pass Road follows the old narrow-gauge route of the pioneering Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad. Get ready for show-stopper views as well as historic mine relics.. You'll climb rich Barney Ford Hill where the Juniata, Dunkin, Maxwell and Gold Dust led two dozen flourishing mines. Then you follow the rail route across Illinois Gulch where ore cars loaded gold and silver at the Mayo and at the Washington Mine spurs. Passing numerous mines, the railroad stopped for Sam Congers' 1880s silver camp; Farnham's mine town and pleasure resort; Preacher John L Dyer's tranquil retreat, Dyersville; and finally, the Boreas Station straddling the windswept Continental Divide at 11,488 feet. Drive Hwy. 9 south from Breckenridge's Bell Tower Mall 0.2 miles to Co.Rd. 10, Boreas Pass Road. On Little Mountain (right) the Germania sometimes yielded $10,000 from contents of a single ore car. At 0.8 miles, pass through the Wakefield mining area. Nearby, the old Puzzle and Ouray veins, rich in silver, lead and gold, intersect-a fact that caused heated dispute by owners. The Gold Dust Mine also operated here. At 1.4 miles, pass Illinois Gulch (Rd. 518) where late 1800s mines like the Washington, Mountain Pride and Laurium yielded millions of dollars in silver and gold. Note the view of Breckenridge's ski mountains, Peaks 8,9 and 10 at 1.5 miles. A pull-off area at 1.8 miles allows a photo stop. You will pass the Baldy Road, No. 520 at 2 miles and note at 2.6 miles the massive tailings at the Mayo Spur (left). At 2.9 miles a narrow gulch indicates hydraulic mining with its washed out cliffs. Paved road ends at the Boreas Pass ski touring trailhead (3.6 miles). Squeeze through the railroad cut at Rocky Point (honk your horn) at 3.9 miles. This dramatic viewpoint served as Breckenridge's favorite picnic spot in the 1890s. Note the panorama along there to Goose Pasture Tarn below and dramatic peaks (left to right) Mt. Helen, Pacific Peak, Crystal Peak and Peak 10. Between 4.5 and 5.3 miles, enjoy the view of the Spruce Valley ranch residential area in Indiana Creek's drainage below... An ore tram that served the 7:40 Mine marches up Bald Mountain to the mine tunnels at 11,960 and 12,280 feet above. A huge tram base structure, recently collapsed, is just below the sign at 8.4 miles. At 8.5 miles lie many foundations from the early-day mountain resort built here by W. H. Farnham. Continue to historic Boreas Station at the summit 10.0 miles. History: Conger's Camp, launched by Colonel Sam S. P. Conger, discoverer of Nederland's famous Caribou mine, spread across a meadow in Indiana Gulch. The 1880 town, served by the Spottswood & McClellan Stagecoach Line, lay a short distance downhill from the Boreas rail route. When the D.S. P. & P arrived in 1882, the town changed its name to Argentine and shipped its Diantha Lode silver ore via the rail stop above town. A postoffice, sawmill, ore mill, stores and 30-40 cabins made Conger's Camp a vital but short-lived town. Its postoffice closed in 1883. Only a few ruins, just below the rail stop remain. Dyersville: After Methodist minister John L. Dyer discovered his rich Warriors Mark silver mine (ore averaged a rich $100 per ton) he dreamed of a quiet hideaway from bawdy Breckenridge amid the cool evergreens of Indiana Gulch. No sooner did he build his 17 x 17 foot dream cabin when reveler Jerry Krigbaum put up a saloon, the Angel's Rest, nearby. Despite the preacher's chagrin, Dyersville grew to have its own school. businesses and a branch of a Breckenridge clothing store. Buildings still remain for hikers who wish to walk down the steep trail to Dyersville. (Use the signed route to Indiana Creek from the Boreas road or see Mary Ellen Gilliland's guidebook, The New Summit Hiker.) Just 0.3 miles above Dyersville lie extensive remains of the Warriors Mark Mine, with a massive mill structure, tailings from open pit mining, shaft holes and scattered equipment. The trail between the two once served as part of a stage route on an 1861-built toll road to Breckenridge. Stages stopped six times weekly at Dyersville... Boreas bragged about having the nation's highest U. S. postoffice, the only U. S. postoffice to straddle the Continental Divide, established in 1896. The station included a five-room, one and one half story section house (recently restored for use as a ski hut); a storage cabin (still standing); an 1884 stone engine house with turntable (in ruins beside the road) which also housed a rail company office and two-room telegraph office; a 9,156-gallon above-ground water tank; a huge coal bin; a 600-foot long snowshed; and lots of snow fence (ruins visible). Ancient god of the north wind, Boreas, kept things lively at the summit where blasts could pile up huge drifts as soon as workers finished shoveling track. When the Leslie rotary snowplow came into use, four engines pushed the hefty plow up Boreas Pass. Often summit snow was so deep that when the plow roared over the top, the force of snow thrown to the sides blew open the depot door and filled the room with snow. Though he was continually surprised by this event, the Boreas rail agent was no dummy. When snows reached rooftop level, the agent dug tunnels to the various buildings nearby. After that, let it snow! No more shoveling was necessary. Things didn't settle down in summer. Storytellers say that when the P.T. Barnum circus came to Breckenridge, the heavily-laden circus train failed to make it up to the pass. With the lions roaring from hunger and schedules unmet, officials unloaded the train's bulkiest passengers to assist. And so, the elephants pushed the train to the Boreas summit. I Want More Information on Ordering This Book |
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