1880 Sawatch Mining Town, Preserved at 9,961 Feet
County Road 162 (Chalk Creek Canyon), Nathrop, CO 81236
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit the town's public streets. The Town Hall Store and a few private businesses operate seasonally.
Access
Limited Access
Dirt main street, raised boardwalks, mountain dirt roads to reach the site
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1880 · National Register Historic District · Colorado Mining-Era Town · Sawatch Range Heritage
St. Elmo was founded in 1880 at 9,961 feet on the upper Chalk Creek drainage in the heart of the Sawatch Range, twenty miles southwest of Buena Vista. The town served as the supply and shipping center for the surrounding silver and gold mines, particularly the Mary Murphy, the most productive mine in the district.
At its 1890s peak the town held nearly 2,000 residents. The main street included a telegraph office, general store, town hall, five hotels, several saloons, dancing halls, a newspaper office, and a school. The Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad reached the town in 1881, providing both ore transport and passenger service through Chalk Creek Canyon.
Mining declined sharply in the early 1920s. The railroad discontinued service in 1922. By the 1930s only a handful of residents remained, the most notable being the Stark family — Anton and Anna Stark, who ran the Home Comfort Hotel and the general store, and their three children Tony, Roy, and Annabelle. Roy died in 1934 and Anna died shortly after, leaving Annabelle and Tony as essentially the sole permanent residents of the upper Chalk Creek Canyon.
The Stark siblings continued running the store and hotel into the 1950s without electricity or indoor plumbing. Annabelle, who became known locally as "Dirty Annie," died in 1960 and is the source of the town's central ghost lore. Tony preceded her in death.
The surviving structures — the Town Hall Store, the Home Comfort Hotel, a row of weather-bleached storefronts, the schoolhouse, and several cabins — are now privately owned. The town has a small year-round population and seasonal businesses. The St. Elmo Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Sources
The Stark family's prolonged isolation in St. Elmo from the 1920s through the 1960s produced the town's central body of folklore. Annabelle Stark grew up in the family hotel and store, took over the businesses after her parents and brother Roy died in the 1930s, and lived in the dying town with only her brother Tony for company for the next three decades.
Reports of an apparition on the balcony of the Home Comfort Hotel — a figure in a long dress, sometimes described with an angry posture — circulate widely in Colorado paranormal and ghost-town literature. Locals and seasonal residents attribute the figure to Annabelle. The lore characterizes her as protective of the property rather than malevolent: visitors who behave respectfully are said to feel watched but unbothered, while those who attempt vandalism are said to experience equipment failures and an oppressive presence.
Reports of phantom railroad sounds — distant whistles and the rumble of a train climbing the canyon — circulate in town despite the Denver South Park and Pacific having been gone for more than a century. These accounts cluster in the late evening on still summer nights and likely reflect the unusual acoustic environment of the deep canyon.
The town's authentic preservation, high altitude, and continuing residential use make it one of the most atmospheric stops on the Colorado mining-history circuit.
Notable Entities
Walk the preserved main street of one of Colorado's best-surviving 19th-century mining towns. Wooden storefronts, the Home Comfort Hotel, and several private cabins remain. The town is privately owned and occupied seasonally; respect posted signage and keep to the main street and roads.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Nathrop, CO
Duplicate of the 'st-elmo' record. Both entries describe the same preserved 1880 Sawatch Range mining town in Chaffee County, Colorado. Flagged for human review and merge.
McCarthy, AK
Kennecott is a preserved copper-mining ghost town in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. The mines operated from 1911 to 1938, producing 4.6 million tons of ore and 1.183 billion pounds of copper. The site is a National Historic Landmark and is administered by the National Park Service.
Goldfield, NV
Goldfield is a former gold-mining boomtown in Esmeralda County, Nevada, established in 1902 and briefly the largest city in the state, with a peak population of about 20,000 in 1906. Mining declined sharply after 1910; a 1913 flash flood and a 1923 fire destroyed much of the town. Fewer than 300 residents remain, making Goldfield one of the most-visited still-occupied ghost towns in the American West.