At a Glance
- Closest Ghost Town: Ironton (7 mi S)
- Most Famous: Animas Forks
- Peak Red Mountain Pop.: ~1,500 (1882)
- Access: 4WD Jeep required for most
- Season: July–September best
- Elevation Range: 9,500–11,500 ft
Why Ghost Towns Are So Numerous Near Ouray
The San Juan Mountains produced more ghost towns per square mile than almost any other region in the American West — and not because the mines were disappointing, but because they were so dependent on a single commodity: silver. When the silver price collapsed in 1893, the economic foundation of every silver-dependent camp vanished overnight. Towns that had been thriving communities of hundreds or thousands of residents became empty within months as miners and merchants moved on to other districts or gave up mining entirely. The physical structures — boardinghouses, saloons, hotels, false-fronted commercial buildings, mine facilities — remained, slowly deteriorating under the assault of altitude, snow load, and the occasional avalanche.
The survival of so many San Juan ghost town structures is partly a product of their remoteness. At elevations above 10,000 feet, accessible only by Jeep roads in summer and snowmobile or skis in winter, the abandoned buildings were spared the salvage and demolition that cleared most lowland ghost towns. The dry mountain air slowed decay; the short construction seasons had produced buildings of solid timber and stone rather than the flimsy balloon-frame construction common in lowland boom towns. Today, dozens of substantially intact ghost town sites lie within an hour's drive of Ouray, offering a direct and often unmediated encounter with the remains of the silver era.
Ironton and the Red Mountain Mining District
The Red Mountain mining district, located seven miles south of Ouray on the Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550), was one of the richest silver districts in the San Juans. The Yankee Girl, Guston, National Belle, and other mines produced extraordinary quantities of silver and lead-silver ore from the early 1880s through the silver crash. Three separate townsite developed in the Red Mountain basin: Red Mountain Town (also called Red Mountain City or Congress), Ironton, and Guston. At their combined peak in the late 1880s, these communities housed over 1,500 residents and supported multiple saloons, hotels, newspapers, and assay offices.
Ironton, the southernmost of the three Red Mountain communities, is today the most accessible ghost town near Ouray — the remains of several buildings are visible from Highway 550, and a short unpaved road leads to the site. The town's cemetery, partially preserved, is a haunting reminder of the families who lived and died here at 9,800 feet. Red Mountain Town itself, at 11,300 feet, is accessible by Jeep road from the highway; the red-stained tailings and rusted mine equipment at the site give the Red Mountain basin its distinctive, otherworldly coloration that photographs have made famous.
Engineer Mountain and the Alpine Loop Ghost Towns
The Alpine Loop Backcountry Byway — a 65-mile Jeep route connecting Ouray, Lake City, and Silverton via Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass — passes through or near several significant ghost town sites. Capitol City, on the Lake City side of Engineer Pass, was briefly the dream of a man named George Lee who believed the silver deposits in the Henson Creek drainage would make the area the state capital of Colorado. He built a stone mansion, a smelter, and a townsite — then the silver crashed, and Capitol City never achieved even the size of a modest village. The stone walls of Lee's mansion survive at the site, accessible by Jeep from Lake City.
The Engineer Mountain route also passes the sites of Rose's Cabin and Mineral Point, both short-lived camps that served the high-country miners working the upper Engineer drainage. These sites have fewer surviving structures than the larger ghost towns, but their high-altitude settings — above 12,000 feet, surrounded by peaks of the Continental Divide — provide an extraordinary landscape for exploring the physical reality of nineteenth-century mining at altitude.
Ghost Town Exploration from The Lumberyard Condos
Ouray is the premier ghost town base camp in the San Juan Mountains: the town itself anchors the north end of the Million Dollar Highway, which passes through the Red Mountain district and into Silverton's ghost town country; the Alpine Loop departs from Ouray toward Engineer Mountain and the Lake City ghost towns; and the road to Animas Forks and Engineer Pass begins just south of town on County Road 2. Every significant ghost town in the northern San Juans can be reached as a day trip from Ouray, with time to linger over the ruins and history before returning to a comfortable bed and a hot spring soak.
The Lumberyard Condos at 55 4th Avenue offers five dog-friendly units sleeping up to ten guests. The central Main Street location means no long drive before the morning adventure begins — the jeep road south starts just blocks from the front door. Book your ghost town base camp stay directly at ouraycondos.com.