GHOSTS OF BOULDER COUNTY

Sneak preview: Ward

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Ward was one of the richest mining districts in Colorado, and the town itself rests atop a large gold mine. Silver, lead, and other minerals were also found here.

In Spring 1860, Calvin M. Ward located the first claim in the area, the Miser's Dream. The following year, Byrus W. Deardorff discovered the Columbia, which had free gold in it, and the boom was on!

H.A.W. Tabor tried to make a comeback in Ward after he lost his Leadville fortune. He borrowed $15,000 from W.S. Stratton of Cripple Creek and started working the Eclipse Mine. He and Baby Doe couldn't make the mine pay, and they moved to Denver in January of 1898 when he was appointed postmaster.

The area flourished throughout the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s, and the city of Ward was incorporated in June of 1896.

Ward was deserted in the 1920s. The construction of the Peak-to-Peak Highway in the late 1930s saved the town, and Ward is now populated again. The two churches still standing date to the 1890s: The Catholic Church, now used by the County of Boulder for storing road equipment, and The Community Church, still in use.

Read more – including the tale of the cat’s funeral – in Ghosts of Boulder County, one in a series of concise books on the ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado.

39 sites are discussed in Ghosts of Boulder County:

Altona	Balarat	Camp Albion
Camp Francis	Camp Providence	Camp Tolcott
Cardinal	Caribou	Copper Rock
Crisman	Eldora	Fourth of July Mine
Gold Hill	Gold Hill Station	Gold Lake
Grand Island	Gresham	Hessie
Jamestown	Lakewood	Magnolia
Mary City	Mount Alto	Nederland
Orodelfan	Puzzler	Quigleyville
Salina	Springdale	Sugarloaf
Sulphide Flats	Summerville	Sunset
Sunshine	Switzerland Park	Tungsten
Wall Street	Ward	Williamsburg

 

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