Eagle County, Colorado - COGenWeb Project

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Ghost Towns in Eagle County

Camp Hale & Pando

Believe it or not, Camp Hale is also a ghost town. There are remnants of the base (the bunkers housing explosives.), but once was a thriving town. In fact my parents met there, and I am thankful that they did. Dad was an Army Scout, and my Mom was teaching those guys how to ride mules. Joke is that my dad was the only one who did NOT fall off of the mule, and the rest was history.....

Pando was a small camp where the construction workers that built Camp Hale lived. Camp Hale was a huge facility that was home to the 10th mountain division during WWII. Troops were trained here in all forms of high country warfare. Troops trained here fought in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. Constructed in 1942 , it contained over 1000 temporary structures and housed approximately 2500 men. It was dismantled in 1965.

For more about Camp Hale

Gilman

Gilman CO ghost town Gilman, CO ghost town sits atop an astounding, 600-foot cliff above the Eagle River, located on the side of Battle Mountain. It's easily seen off Highway 24, on the road from Vail to Leadville.

This ghost town is off-limits and is located on private property. There are a couple scenic spots to pull your car over and check it out. Authorities have been known to prosecute trespassers.

It's a former mining town that had been in use for nearly 100 years, until 1984 when it was forced to be closed.

Founded in 1886 during the Colorado silver boom, Gilman quickly became very successful in Eagle County. Mining in the area began around 1879, and Gilman was developed during the 1880s by John Clinton, a prospector and judge from nearby Red Cliff.

Clinton built the town of Gilman as a company town to keep miners on site. In 1882, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad reached the mining camp of Belden at the base of the cliff. By 1899, there were 300 people in town, as even a newspaper, the Gilman Enterprise.

The area was mined until 1984 when the EPA demanded it be closed due to toxic conditions. It was designated a Superfund site in 1986, and was concluded in 2000 to had been substantially cleaned up.

Getting There

Take Highway 24 west of Vail. Follow for about 7 miles until you reach Gilman. You cannot physically access the site, but there are a couple places you can pull off to view the ghosts from afar.

Source: https://www.uncovercolorado.com/ghost-towns/gilman/

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What is a
Ghost Town?

A ghost town is any city, town, or village that has been deserted and is no longer occupied.

Towns may become ghost towns after the industries that once supported the population dries up or slowly dies away.

Some ghost towns are created after natural or man-made disasters like floods, fires, or government intervention (especially in towns with uncontrolled lawlessness!).

A key feature of a ghost town is that the structures and buildings of the town remain intact to be seen by visitors.

Some mining towns, like Boulder, Denver, Aspen, Durango, and Telluride, become bigger cities even after the mining boom has passed.

But others, like Cripple Creek, couldn�t sustain their populations when the prospecting failed, or the nation�s economy moved on to other industries.

And so Colorado is left with the dwindling remains of a wild west heritage that ended more than a lifetime ago.