St. Elmo, Colorado
St. Elmo still has a few residents, but its Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is considered to be a ghost town, with some believing that along with the residents and cabin renters there are real ghosts about the place. It is about twenty miles from Buena Vista and regarded as one of the most well preserved ghost towns in the state. The town was named for one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century, St. Elmo, written by Augusta Jane Evans in 1866, which sold over one million copies in its first four months of publication. The novel’s popularity led to several towns, steamboats, ships, hotels, and even a popular brand of cigars acquiring its name.
The town was founded in 1878 as Forest City, and incorporated in 1880 by founder Griffith Evans, who was reading the novel at the time. It grew rapidly as the nearby mines boomed and by the following year it boasted a railroad stop on the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad. Its population was more than 2,000 and being a mostly single male population – or married men without their wives – it soon featured several saloons and taverns, houses of ill repute, and a rough and tumble regard for such law as there was in the town.
It wasn’t only gold which was brought out of the mines, rich veins of silver and copper were extracted from the Sawatch Mountains as well, from several mines, and during its heyday there were over 100 mining claims in the area. The Mary Murphy Mine was the most successful, often shipping up to 75 tons of ore in one day to be smelted. The Mary Murphy outlived the other mines in the area, continuing to operate until 1922. It produced more than $60 million in gold during its four decades of operation.
Mines began to close during the early 1900s and the railroad connection through the always troublesome Alpine Tunnel was lost in 1910. As with most mining towns, once the mines shut down and the miners left in pursuit of greener pastures, so to speak, the supporting businesses of the town soon followed. Efforts were made by the town’s leaders to attract investors to reopen some of the mines, pointing to the still productive Mary Murphy as an example, but they were unsuccessful. In 1922 the railroad left St. Elmo, leading to the closure of the Mary Murphy, and the down became nearly abandoned. By 1934 there were two residents in St. Elmo.
St. Elmo managed to retain its post office until 1952. Although the historic district is a ghost town, the properties of the historic district are privately owned. A preserved general store still operates during the warmer months. There are again a few residents of St. Elmo, and the area is rich with hiking and ATV trails, making it a popular tourist destination. There are local tales of the ghosts of former residents of the town being seen in various places, useful to attract those who believe in such things, and a source of entertainment for others.