INDEPENDENCE, COLORADO

Perched at 10,830 feet on the Continental Divide between Aspen and Leadville, Independence is an unusual ghost town. It was the first major mining camp in central Colorado west of the divide, yet its boom period lasted less than four years. Most of the surrounding camps that followed produced silver, but Independence was a gold camp. Although the town was generally referred to as Independence, its official names included Chipeta, Sparkill, Farwell, Monmouth (or Mammouth) and Mount Hope.

Gold seekers first scoured the region in 1859, but prospecting truly exploded in the mid-1870s with the discovery of rich silver deposits east