Mesa County COGenWeb
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Can you believe it? Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns, although visible remains of only about 640 still exist.
Please note: I m starting this page September 2022. Will be updated as I do more research. Most of the previous links are no longer good. So, having to do a lot of research and starting from scratch.
What info do you have? Let me know, and I will be glad to update this page.
Ghost Towns
A ghost town is any city, town, or village that has been deserted and is no longer occupied. (My note: does this mean just a house or entire town....)
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. A key feature of a ghost town is that the structures and buildings of the town remain intact to be seen by visitors.
Why is it Called a Ghost Town?
A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it (usually industrial or agricultural) has failed or ended for any reason (e.g. a host ore deposit exhausted by metal mining).
Cameo
Cameo is an extinct town in Mesa County, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The GNIS classifies it as a populated place. A post office called Cameo was established in 1907, and remained in operation until 1969. The community was named for a cameo-like formation near the original town site.
Carpenter
- Founded by William Thomas Carpenter in 1890 as a place for coal miners to live.
- The Little Book Cliff Mines connected the town of Carpenter to 1st Street in Grand Junction. Parts of the railroad were still in place during the 1970's
- Carpenter was also known as Poland, Polen or Pollen Springs between 1892 and 1897.
- Bottled water from a nearby spring was also produced at the the town.
Read more at:
Nice 28 minute video on Ghost Towns in Mesa County on the Steamboat Library page.
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