Caribu Ghost Town Photos

A once prosperous mining town in Boulder county; daily mails and express; money order post-office; daily stages to Central, Nederland and Boulder; Rocky Mountain Telegraph Line.  Population 400.  The principal lodes are the Caribou, No-Name, [Albert Landon] Sherman, Poorman, Idaho, Virginia, Grand View, Morning Star, Wabash, Arapahoe, Homestake, Ten-Forty, Great Republic, Seventy-Thirty, and Norwood.  They produced $50.00 per month.  Principal tunnels are the Caribou, Idaho, Air Line, Summit, Two-Seventeen and Red Cross.

There is little left of Caribou, the town, unless you use your imagination; unless you know the history. About 7 miles, at 10,000 feet, up the a winding road, only wide enough for one car, with a view that goes forever, you first past the Historical Caribou Silver Mine, one of few still in operation.  The rock barracks, or bunkers where the miners lived still stands. Going on, the road is no longer drivable.  Ahead you see main street of Caribou, a dirt road that leads through town. At one time the town buildings, stores and saloons stood to the right of the road, where now only rock foundations lie, and to the left, the houses stood. Only one wooden house remains, with a view of snow glaciers to the north and right at eye level, and to the south, past the bunkers, a view of the valley below.  Passing through a forgotten ghost town, climbing on foot about 1/2 mile, the neglected cemetery is fenced, the aspen trees quake in the wind as though to whisper the secrets of the glories days of Caribou.

What was once the main street of Caribou,  now only a mountain trail. The rock foundation to the right was once the site of the New Jersey Mill, built in 1876	If you see clearly to the valley, you would see Nederland below. The rock formations are all that remain.
Stone foundations are remnants of the Leo Donnelly General Store, rebuilt in 1928 as a rooming and boarding house by the Potosi Mining Company. The other was Sears & Werley Billiard Hall.
Jim Buttler House.  Later, William Smith was born here Aug. 22, 1897.	Different view of Jim Buttler House.