GHOSTS OF THE EASTERN SAN JUANS

Sneak Preview: Bachelor, Mineral County

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Ore was found in this area in the mid-1880s, but Bachelor didn't flourish until the Creede boom occurred in the early 1890s. A burro is credited with one of the first discoveries. Apparently the animal strayed away one night, and was located on Bachelor Mountain the next day. He refused to move, so his owner picked up a rock to throw at him. Sure enough, it was ore.

The first buildings in Bachelor were a home and a boarding house erected near two springs on September 6, 1891. Shortly thereafter, the Last Chance Mine struck paydirt.

A town was laid out, and prospectors swarmed over the area. Claims were even staked on the planned sites for the schoolhouse and other public buildings. The governor personally came to the townsite, and restored order to the chaos that existed. His visit brought new interest and more miners to the mountain.

By 1893, Bachelor was the largest town in the area aside from Creede. Fires were common, but Bachelor had a well-organized volunteer fire department, so the town never suffered total destruction.

Bachelor requested a post office in 1892, but the government refused to give them their desired name because of possible confusion with a California town of the same name. Instead, the post office name was given as Teller, for Colorado's popular governor. The residents, however, continued using the name Bachelor, except on their mail.

The Silver Crash caused Bachelor to decline, and it never recovered. A few people lingered on into the early 1900s, but eventually everyone moved down to Creede or left altogether. Only a few ruins remain at the site of Bachelor. One lonely cabin still stands in the trees on the west side of the meadow.

Read more – including the tale of three bodies in a single grave – in Ghosts of the Eastern San Juans, one in a series of concise books on the ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado.

 29 sites are included in Ghosts of the Eastern San Juans:

Antelope Springs	Bachelor	Biedell
Carnero	Chance	Cochitopa
Creede	Del Norte	Dubois
Embargo	Iris	Jasper
Jimtown	Loma	North Creede
Platoro	Powderhorn	San Juan City
Sapinero	Sky City	Spar City
Spencer	Stunner	Summitville
Sunnyside	Vulcan	Wagon Wheel Gap
Wasson	Weaver

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