Welcome, ghost town fans! For this week’s ThrowBack Thursday, we visit Silver Creek, Colorado. Silver Creek was a short-lived mining camp near Georgetown, and it’s definitely one of Colorado’s lesser known ghost towns. In researching for today’s post, I consulted the two Colorado ghost town books that have guided me to many a ghost town around the state; neither of them list Silver Creek. So, I checked http://www.ghosttowns.com/ – this excellent site doesn’t list Silver Creek, either. I looked at Google Maps, and found the 4X4 road that I had hiked to reach the town site. Interestingly, Google Maps shows the road’s name as Silver City Road but shows the stream’s name as Silver Creek. Finally, I checked Wikipedia for the town of Silver Creek. YAY! Wikipedia has an entry confirming that the town of Silver Creek really did exist, and thus confirming that I was not smoking crack when I found the place. NOTE: Silver Creek is easily confused with the more well-known (and still inhabited) Silver Plume, which is on the other side of Georgetown. I visited Silver Creek twice; the first of these visits was in September 2011. Here’s what I found on that day…
Cool rock formation near the trailheadThese mines operated til the 1920s, as evidenced by this portable generator.Old mine entranceWhat’s left of the ore cart rails coming out of the old mineAnother old portable generatorCan you spot the squirrel?Tailings from silver mines on the Silver Creek side of the valleyTailings from silver mines on the other side of the valleyThe Empire Valley, with the tiny town of Empire, Colorado near the center.Old mine-related structureTrash can / stoveTrash can / stoveOld mine-related structure. I’d bet these walls have fallen by now.Old mine-related structureInside of old mine-related structureInside of old mine-related structureI can’t believe how well this door held up, compared to the rest of the place.Another mine entrance; this one looks surprisingly new.Yet another old mine entranceNot entirely sure what this was, but it has held up well.
I returned to Silver Creek in July 2012. This time I went a bit further up the mountain. I saw this stuff…
Tailings from an ore mill, and a friend’s dogWhen does litter go from unsightly garbage, to historic artifact?A bunch of non-historic garbage at what looks like an old mine entranceClose-up of the mine entranceThis appears to have been the lower end of the mill.Mill remnantsI’m guessing these pipes in the old mill were for steam……because they’re right next to what looks like a foundation for a boiler.Looking down at the town site from the upper end of the mill siteMANY tailing piles above the towns of Downieville and DumontUnusual lichenThe mining at Silver Creek was much more extensive than I had expected.Silver Creek was short-lived enough that it was mostly a tent city. This was the only structure I found in the town. A fruit cellar, perhaps? Or maybe a gunpowder / dynamite magazine?
And so we conclude another ThrowBack Thursday. It looks like next week I’ll be taking y’all south to the Cripple Creek area. Until then…don’t eat any wooden nickels!
Voyages with Parkinson's 