Cottonwood Pass and Tincup, July 12
This is my third entry as I try to catch you up with my travels, as I temporarily can indulge in available Wifi at the coffee shop here in Leadville. This entry details our comings and goings of July 12, when we crossed yet another Pass, Cottonwood, whose altitude was slightly higher than Independence Pass's. Cottonwood is 12,125 ft. high as opposed to Independence, which is 12,095 ft. high. The Colorado Trail, which Ann has hiked, also passes through Cottonwood Pass. After we dropped back down into a valley surrounded by the Saguache Mountains, we saw a ranger station which had aided in serving as shelter to two different rescues of skiers from Aspen who had gotten lost in the area and barely survived to tell the tale.
From there we drove to Tincup, a small town with seasonal residents. It enjoyed the dubious distinction of being one of Colorado's three roughest towns. It is situated in the NE of Gunnison and was a silver mining camp, although considerable gold was found in the area as well. Peak population was about 600, all engaged in mining either directly or indirectly. It became one of the richest camps in western Colorado.
In its heyday, there were 12 stores and shops of all kinds. It had several hotels, 25 saloons, and a lot of billiard parlors. By the spring of 1882, the Denver and South Park hoped to reach Tincup with railroad service, but it failed. In August of 1906 the town was razed by fire, and when the ore played out, so did Tincup. However, it is now a tourist town replete with ATVers, which drove me nuts and almost destroyed the ambience of the place. We had lunch at Frenchy's, named for a 300-pound French-Canadian man who ran this most notorious saloon in Tincup. Local gamblers made large profits there off newcomers hoping to get rich from gold mines. Marshals were hired so that the town seemed safe, but they were told to see and hear nothing.
At Frenchy's, I had a bowl of chili (good choice), and we watched children fishing the lake in front of us. Afterwards we went to the Tincup Cemetery, which contained Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish sections as well as a section called Boot Hill, where men were buried who died with their boots on from gunshot wounds. One of the grave markers read: "He drew five aces." Although I looked everywhere for that grave, I didn't find it, mainly because most of the grave markers, wooden, had split in half and weathered, and simply were not legible.
After about 1 1/2 hours at the cemetery, we drove back up Cottonwood Pass and from there to Buena Vista, where we stopped at an ice cream emporium for a root beer float (my order) and a hot fudge sundae (Ann). We made it back to Leadville at about 7:00, watched "Poldark" on Masterpiece Theatre, and then called it a day. Another ghost town under my belt--that makes six in Colorado, all told. A great tally so far! SV
From there we drove to Tincup, a small town with seasonal residents. It enjoyed the dubious distinction of being one of Colorado's three roughest towns. It is situated in the NE of Gunnison and was a silver mining camp, although considerable gold was found in the area as well. Peak population was about 600, all engaged in mining either directly or indirectly. It became one of the richest camps in western Colorado.
In its heyday, there were 12 stores and shops of all kinds. It had several hotels, 25 saloons, and a lot of billiard parlors. By the spring of 1882, the Denver and South Park hoped to reach Tincup with railroad service, but it failed. In August of 1906 the town was razed by fire, and when the ore played out, so did Tincup. However, it is now a tourist town replete with ATVers, which drove me nuts and almost destroyed the ambience of the place. We had lunch at Frenchy's, named for a 300-pound French-Canadian man who ran this most notorious saloon in Tincup. Local gamblers made large profits there off newcomers hoping to get rich from gold mines. Marshals were hired so that the town seemed safe, but they were told to see and hear nothing.
At Frenchy's, I had a bowl of chili (good choice), and we watched children fishing the lake in front of us. Afterwards we went to the Tincup Cemetery, which contained Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish sections as well as a section called Boot Hill, where men were buried who died with their boots on from gunshot wounds. One of the grave markers read: "He drew five aces." Although I looked everywhere for that grave, I didn't find it, mainly because most of the grave markers, wooden, had split in half and weathered, and simply were not legible.
After about 1 1/2 hours at the cemetery, we drove back up Cottonwood Pass and from there to Buena Vista, where we stopped at an ice cream emporium for a root beer float (my order) and a hot fudge sundae (Ann). We made it back to Leadville at about 7:00, watched "Poldark" on Masterpiece Theatre, and then called it a day. Another ghost town under my belt--that makes six in Colorado, all told. A great tally so far! SV
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