Colorado's Once-Bustling Mine Town Is Now An Abandoned Village Tucked Into A Scenic Creek Canyon

In the shadow of towering Colorado mountains, hidden between the pines, you'll find a small village. The houses look like quaint Lincoln Log cabins, divided by rough hewn fences. Wooden porches, picnic tables, and old carts are waiting for their owners to step out of the woods and use them again. Once, it was the thriving mining community of Vicksburg, created in 1867 for the workers of the nearby mine and their families. At its peak, more than 600 people were living and working here. Then it was abandoned.

Long ago, there were many, many active mines and mining communities throughout the United States. At each location, workers would descend into the darkness to bring gold, coal, copper, and other minerals, like molybdenum, up from the earth. Typically, once the resources that the mining companies had been seeking were depleted, they and all the workers left, leaving the mining tunnels, structures, and even whole towns behind. For the most part, all that remains today are ruins.

For instance, Utah's once-booming mining town of Frisco is famous for its beehive kilns, but the majority of its buildings are ruins. There's even less of Pennsylvania's notorious "Burning Ghost Town," Centralia. Vicksburg is different. While the miners packed up and moved away by 1885 when the molybdenum was gone, a few of the buildings in this town were preserved instead of being allowed to deteriorate and rot back into the landscape of Clear Creek Canyon.

At one time, there were dozens of buildings in Vicksburg, including cabins, shops, hotels, billiard halls, and saloons. Today, there are only a few cabins left, but they provide an incredible glimpse into the past. As you walk through what was once the Main Street of Vicksburg, with tall poplar trees growing on either side, you can see the original cabins around you, restored and maintained to look as they did when the community was at its height. It's easy to imagine a stagecoach coming into town, people carrying their provisions back from the general store, and children rushing to see their fathers returning from a day at the mine.

Most of these cabins are currently owned by individuals. Some families refused to leave their homes here, and others have returned to these cabins throughout the years, keeping this ghost town alive (though without running water or other modern amenities). So while you can't go inside most of them, there's one that's open to the public in the summer months. This interesting little cabin is a museum, and it's the best place to learn about what life was actually like in Vicksburg back during the mining boom. If you're willing to lace up your hiking boots or bring an off-roading vehicle, explore the nearby Missouri Gulch route. You may see a few gravestones from Vicksburg along the trail.

Nestled between Gunnison National Forest and White River National Forest, Vicksburg was extremely convenient to the molybdenum mine. But today, the remains of this community are fairly far from civilization. It's closest to the unique Colorado town of Buena Vista, and you'll just need to drive up Highway 24 to County Road 390 to find Vicksburg. However, this unique site might be best enjoyed as a day trip from the luxe alpine playground of Aspen, Colorado. The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport (ASE) is probably the best way to reach the area, and from there, you're less than two hours from Vicksburg. This community was built right around the time the very first cars were being produced, so you won't be able to just drive down Main Street and choose a parking spot like you would in a modern town, but you can park by the Missouri Gulch Trailhead.

While you're around Vicksburg, consider exploring the rest of Clear Creek Canyon and seeking out the other forgotten mining towns: Rockdale, Beaver City, and Winfield. If you drive along County Road 390, you should be able to find them all. While Vicksburg is the best preserved, all of them have a few original buildings for you to photograph.

As for lodging, you can definitely spend the night in Buena Vista, but if you want to get closer to Vicksburg, consider camping along County Road 390, too. There are a few free-to-use dispersed camping sites managed by the U.S. Forest Service here that are perfect for setting up a tent and spending the night in the woods before heading out to explore Vicksburg in the morning.