Caribou is an extinct silver mining town located near Nederland in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. It was named after the Caribou silver mine nearby. The Caribou post office operated from January 31, 1871, until March 31, 1917. [1] The Caribou Ranch recording studio was located several miles away, on the road from Nederland up to Caribou.
A prospector named Conger discovered placer gold downstream from Caribou in 1861. He eventually followed the gold up Coon Trail Creek, and discovered the first silver vein in what later became the Caribou district. [2]
Caribou was established about 1870 to house miners from the Caribou silver mine. [3] : 51 The town had one church, three saloons, a brewery, and its own newspaper, the Caribou Post. The Caribou mine was sold for $3 million in 1871 to Dutch investors, but the new owners found that the best ore had already been removed. The mine struggled until 1876, when controversial Colorado entrepreneurs Jerome B. Chaffee and David Moffat bought the mine, incorporated it, and sold shares in New York. [4] A fire burned down the town in 1879. By the 1920s, Caribou was home to fewer than 50 people. At its peak in 1875, Caribou's population was estimated to be about 3,000 people. [5]
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880 | 549 | — | |
| 1890 | 169 | −69.2% | |
| 1900 | 44 | −74.0% | |
| 1910 | 51 | 15.9% |
Caribou and its silver mines were completely deserted by the time 19-year-old geology student Tom Hendricks saw it in 1970, but Hendricks became convinced that the silver mines at Caribou could make a profit, and has made the mines his life work. [6] After he got his geology degree, he acquired the old Cross mine in 1973, and began shipping silver concentrate in 1977. He acquired the famous Caribou mine in 1980. He has struggled to keep the Cross and Caribou mines operating through low silver prices. [7] Hendricks, through Calais Resources, started exploring for gold instead of silver, but business conflicts resulting in lawsuits, specifically with former Colorado senator Tom Wiens have delayed attempts at gold mining. [8]
The Caribou townsite is located at 39°58′51″N105°34′43″W / 39.9808°N 105.5786°W at an elevation of 9,971 feet (3,039 m). [9]
William Henry Jackson took a picture of the town in 1877, and well-known Colorado photographer John Fielder took another photograph of the same view in 1998. Only two stone ruins, and one collapsed wooden cabin remain of the town.
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history.
Eldora, previously known as "Eldorado" then "El-Dora", then Eldora or Camp Eldorado, and still called Happy Valley, is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Eldora CDP was 140 at the United States Census 2020. The Nederland post office serves the area.
Nederland is a statutory town located near Barker Meadow Reservoir in the foothills of southwest Boulder County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census it had a population of 1,471.
Ward is a home rule municipality in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The population was 150 at the 2010 census. The town is a former mining settlement founded in 1860 in the wake of the discovery of gold at nearby Gold Hill. Once one of the richest towns in the state during the Colorado Gold Rush, it is located on a mountainside at the top of Left Hand Canyon, near the Peak to Peak Highway northwest of Boulder at an elevation of 9,450 feet (2,880 m) above sea level.
Silver Plume is a Statutory Town located in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. Silver Plume is a former silver mining camp along Clear Creek in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The federally designated Georgetown-Silver Plume Historic District comprises Silver Plume, the neighboring town of Georgetown, and the Georgetown Loop Historic Mining & Railroad Park between the two towns.
The Town of Montezuma is a statutory town located in eastern Summit County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 74 at 2020 United States Census. The town is a former mining camp that sits at an elevation of 10,200 feet (3,110 m), just west of the Continental Divide, nestled among mountains that reach an elevation of 12,000-13,000 feet around it. It is situated in the upper valley of the Snake River above the ski resort of Keystone in the Rocky Mountains.
Rollinsville is a census-designated place (CDP) and post office in and governed by Gilpin County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Rollinsville post office has the ZIP Code 80474. At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Rollinsville CDP was 194.
Buffalo Creek is an unincorporated community and U.S. Post Office in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The ZIP Code of the Buffalo Creek Post Office is 80425.
Ohio City is an unincorporated community and a U.S. Post Office in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. The Ohio City Post Office has the ZIP Code 81237.
Dakan was a short-lived mining town, now a ghost town, in western Douglas County, Colorado, United States, in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Dakan post office operated from December 30, 1896, until August 2, 1898.
Eureka is an extinct mining town in San Juan County, Colorado, United States, along the Animas River, between Silverton and Animas Forks. The town derives its name from the Greek interjection Eureka! The Eureka post office operated from August 9, 1875, until April 30, 1942.
Uranium mining in Colorado, United States, goes back to 1872, when pitchblende ore was taken from gold mines near Central City, Colorado. The Colorado uranium industry has seen booms and busts, but continues to this day. Not counting byproduct uranium from phosphate, Colorado is considered to have the third largest uranium reserves of any US state, behind Wyoming and New Mexico.
Oro City is a ghost town in Lake County, Colorado, United States
Dyersville was a mining town — now a ghost town — in Summit County, Colorado, United States. It was named after Methodist minister John Lewis Dyer. Nothing remains of the town except the roofless walls of a couple of log cabins.
Tarryall is a ghost town in northwest Park County, Colorado, United States. It is on upper Tarryall Creek northwest of Como, Colorado. It was once the county seat of Park County, but is now completely deserted.
The Switzerland Trail is the site of a historic 3 ft narrow gauge railroad line that was operated at different times by the Greeley, Salt Lake and Pacific Railway, the Colorado and Northwestern Railroad, and the Denver, Boulder, and Western Railroad around the turn of the 20th century in the Colorado front range mining area near Nederland, Gold Hill, and Ward. The west end of the trail is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the "Denver, Boulder and Western Railway Historic District".
Saints John, originally called Coleyville and later Saint John, is a former silver-mining town in Summit County, Colorado. About a mile from the town of Montezuma, Saints John was the site of one of the first silver discoveries in Colorado. Although no longer a town, it still has several inhabitants.
Crisman is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Crisman CDP was 179 at the United States Census 2020. The Boulder post office serves the area.
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Travel information from WikivoyageMunicipalities and communities of Boulder County, Colorado, United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cities |  | |
| Towns | ||
| CDPs | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Ghost town | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
