Ashcroft Ghost Town

An abandoned silver mining town 11 miles south of Aspen at 9,521 feet elevation. In 1883, Ashcroft had 2,000 residents and was actually larger than Aspen. When the silver market crashed, the town was abandoned. Maintained by the Aspen Historical Society with restored buildings and interpretive signage.

Ashcroft Ghost Town sits at the end of Castle Creek Road, eleven miles south of Aspen, in a spectacular alpine meadow at the headwaters of Castle Creek at an elevation of over 9,000 feet. Founded in 1880 after prospectors from the nearby boomtown of Leadville discovered silver deposits in the Castle Creek Valley, Ashcroft quickly became a rival to Aspen itself, growing to a population of 2,000 with two newspapers, a school, a sawmill, and more than twenty saloons. The mines initially produced a staggering 14,000 ounces of silver per ton, but the deposits turned out to be shallow. When the promised rail links to Crested Butte never materialized, investors and miners began abandoning Ashcroft for the larger strikes in Aspen.

By 1885, only about one hundred summer residents remained. The decline was swift and total -- the last permanent resident died in 1939, leaving behind the shells of the hotel, saloon, post office, and several other buildings that still stand today. During World War II, the 10th Mountain Division used the area for ski training, but the town itself was never revived. The Aspen Historical Society now maintains the site and operates it as a historic attraction from June through October, with interpretive signage telling the stories of the former boom town and a docent on site during summer months.

The paranormal activity at Ashcroft centers on the old hotel building, which multiple visitors have identified as the haunted hot spot of the town. The spirits are believed to be those of miners who worked the silver claims during Ashcroft's brief, intense heyday and never left. Visitors have reported seeing the ghosts of old miners walking along the roadways and paths they once traveled, vanishing when approached. Inside the remaining structures, people have described cold spots, the sensation of being watched, and fleeting shadows moving in peripheral vision. The isolation and elevation of the site -- surrounded by towering peaks with no modern development for miles -- create an atmosphere that many visitors describe as eerie even during daylight hours. When the last tour groups leave and the shadows of the peaks begin to cover the valley, the empty buildings of Ashcroft take on a presence that visitors say makes it easy to believe the old miners never left.