Customer Reviews

Colorado Ghost Towns: Past and Present

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Colorado Ghost Towns Past and Present had been sitting on my bookshelf for years. It looked interesting when I first picked it up at a book sale, but I never found the time to really look at it until recently. I was very pleased to find that I owned such a wonderful book.

The book includes information on the following ghost towns (although some, like Breckenridge, aren't what I would consider ghost towns):

Ames, Arbourville, Argentine, Arloa, Arrow, Ashcroft, Baldwin, Balfour, Berwind, Black Hawk, Breckenridge, Cache Creek, Cameo, Camp Talcott, Cardinal, Central City, Creede, Eastonville, Elko, Empire, Garland City, Gilman, Granite, Hahns Peak, Haywood Hot Springs, Hessie, Idaho Springs, Ilse, Independence, Iris, Jamestown, Lincoln City, London Junction, Ludlow, Manhattan, Masontown, Monarch, Morley, Ohio City, Pearl, Pictou, Placerville, Primero, Red Cliff, Rexford, Robinson, Rouse, Russell, Segundo, Shavano, Silver Creek, Silver Dale, Springdale, Sunset, Swandyke, Tabasco, Tercio, Tiger, Vulcan, Ward, Webster, Westcliffe, Whitehorn, Winfield, and Yankee Hill. Phew! 65 towns in all.

Each town has it's own chapter chock full of historical information about the town's founding and it's demise. However, the historical information isn't why I enjoy this book; I absolutely love the photographs. Author Robert L. Brown has done a wonderful job of collecting photos from almost every one of the towns during their high points. Below each picture of the past is a picture of the present (1970s due to the age of the book) taken from the same location and angle as the old photograph. The pictures are absolutely amazing to look at, compare, and contrast.

While I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Colorado's ghost towns, if you are thinking about buying this book you may want to consider Robert Brown's more recent book, Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rockies : Compare the Past and Present.

The book is an archive of photographs taken before vandals, fire, floods, and housing developments and teasure hunters took their toll. While it is a decent book to browse (much like Jeep Trails of Colorado), don't go looking for any of it as whatever ruins there were in 1972 have since been obliterated.

Add to the fact that many mining communities of Colorado were based on sulphide ore, which, when opened up and developed, allowed groundwater and snowmelt to create sulphuric acid, which vigorously attacks wood and iron.

Robert Brown's books on Colorado history are dated, but still worth reading. Anyone interested in the history of the western U.S. will enjoy them. Great historical ancedotes.