 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
| Phantom Canyon | |
|---|---|
 "The Chief" rock formation in Phantom Canyon | |
| Geography | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Colorado |
| Counties | Fremont County and Teller County |
Phantom Canyon [1] is a canyon in Colorado, in the Western United States. The canyon is formed by Eight Mile Creek. The Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad developed it as a route to take gold and supplies in and out of the Cripple Creek and Victor gold mining district.
Colorado is a state of the Western United States encompassing most of the southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. It is the 8th most extensive and 21st most populous U.S. state. The estimated population of Colorado was 5,695,564 on July 1, 2018, an increase of 13.25% since the 2010 United States Census.
The Western United States is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As European settlement in the U.S. expanded westward through the centuries, the meaning of the term the West changed. Before about 1800, the crest of the Appalachian Mountains was seen as the western frontier. The frontier moved westward and eventually the lands west of the Mississippi River were considered the West.
The Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad (F&CC) was a 3 ft narrow-gauge railroad running northward from junctions with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad at the mill towns of Florence and later moved to Cañon City, Colorado, on the banks of the Arkansas River, up steep and narrow Phantom Canyon to the Cripple Creek Mining District, west of Pikes Peak. It was founded in 1893 and went out of business in 1915
Phantom Canyon Road, a portion of the Gold Belt Byway that runs through the canyon, is an unpaved road connecting Cañon City and Victor. The road is popularly used for mountain biking and off-roading.
The Gold Belt Byway is a National Scenic Byway and Bureau of Land Management Back Country Byway located entirely within the US state of Colorado. The byway received its name because it runs through Colorado's gold country. It connects the gold mining districts to each other and to the Arkansas Valley.
Cañon City is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Fremont County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 16,400 at the 2010 United States Census. Cañon City straddles the easterly flowing Arkansas River and is a popular tourist destination for sightseeing, whitewater rafting, and rock climbing. The city is known for its many public parks, fossil discoveries, Skyline Drive, The Royal Gorge railroad, the Royal Gorge, extensive natural hiking paths, and the tropical-like weather year-round."
Victor is a statutory city in Teller County, Colorado, United States. Gold was discovered in Victor in the late 19th century, an omen of the future of the town. With Cripple Creek, the mining district became the second largest gold mining district in the country and realized approximately $10 billion of mined gold in 2010 dollars. It reached its peak around the turn of the century when there were about 18,000 residents in the town. Depleted ore in mines, labor strife and the exodus of miners during World War I caused a steep decline in the city's economy, from which it has never recovered. The population was 397 at the 2010 census. There is a resumed mining effort on Battle Mountain.
Since 1996, Phantom Canyon has been designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Information on camping in the canyon's undeveloped campsites and other recreational activities is available from the BLM Field Office in Cañon City
Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), which established the first conservation ecology mandate for the BLM. The FLPMA mandate directs the BLM to protect important riparian corridors, threatened and endangered species habitats, cultural and archeological resources and unique scenic landscapes that the agency assesses as in need of special management attention.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior that administers more than 247.3 million acres (1,001,000 km2) of public lands in the United States which constitutes one eighth of the landmass of the country. President Harry S. Truman created the BLM in 1946 by combining two existing agencies: the General Land Office and the Grazing Service. The agency manages the federal government's nearly 700 million acres (2,800,000 km2) of subsurface mineral estate located beneath federal, state and private lands severed from their surface rights by the Homestead Act of 1862. Most BLM public lands are located in these 12 western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
