GHOSTS OF TELLER COUNTY

Sneak preview: Independence

PREVIOUS PAGE · INTERACTIVE MAP

This site was first platted in 1895 on the Hull City Placer ground, and it was known as Hull City.  Soon a post office was obtained under the name of Macon. Later the land was purchased by the Independence Town and Mining Co., and the name was changed again.

The town promoters advertised Independence as "The youngest and the most promising town in the great gold camp. In twelve months it will be the commercial center of the great Cripple Creek District."  But these great expectations never came to pass.

Still, the 1900 population reached over 1,500 people. Two railroads came, and some of the liveliest saloons in the state prospered. Independence eventually grew together with Goldfield as the former spilled down Montgomery Gulch.

Independence declined due to water and deadly labor strife.

Several people still lived in Independence as late as the 1950s, but today it is deserted. Many of the old mine buildings and houses remain.

Read more – including the lethal skullduggery of Harry Orchard – in Ghosts of Teller County, one of a series of concise books on the ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado.

16 sites are included in Ghosts of Teller County:

Altman	Anaconda	Arequa
Barry	Cameron	Cripple Creek
Eclipse	Elkton	Gillett
Goldfield	Independence	Lawrence
Midway	Mound City	Stratton
Victor

We Accept

Click Here for Our Shopping Cart

or

Click Here for a Printable Order Form