GHOSTS OF EAGLE and GRAND COUNTIES

Sneak Preview: Holy Cross City, Eagle County

 

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The "Cross of Snow" was a legend for a long time, related by Indians and mountain men.

When F.V. Hayden set out to chart the area in 1873, one of his goals was to find the Mountain of the Holy Cross. The Utes led Hayden to the mountain. His photographer, Jackson, took a picture that was publicized widely. The cross is formed by snow and ice in intersecting crevasses that are 1,400 feet vertical by 450 feet horizontal.

Holy Cross City grew up along with Gold Park. An old Frenchman, who lived at the site, told about finding gold float, and the rush was on! Three hundred people lived in Holy Cross City. Holy Cross City faded quickly, and was deserted by 1883.

“When I was last at the site in the late 1980s, it required driving (or walking) over a rough road and crossing a terrible bog. A Denver area jeep club has reportedly drained the bog, but I doubt that much could be done to improve the road. There are still ruins of the town itself, and several foundations can be seen. The town was located above the mine. At the mine there is quite a bit of interesting machinery lying around.” – John Aldrich

Read more – including Longfellow’s poem – in Ghosts of Northern Colorado, one in a series of concise books on the ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado.

30 sites are discussed in Ghosts of Northern Colorado:

Arrow	Astor City	Belden	Camp Hale	Clark	Dutchtown
Fulford	Gaskil	Gilman	Gold Park	Grand Lake	Hahn's Peak
Hitchen's Camp	Holy Cross City	Lulu City	Manhattan	Mill Pond	Mitchell
Monarch	Pearl	Redcliff	Royal Flush	Shipler's Cabins	Slate Mountain
Slavonia	Teller City	Tracy's Hideout	Virginia Dale	Whiskey Park	Wolcott

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