Ghost Town, Independence, Colorado, Mining

In the 1800s gold mining gave birth to Independence, Colorado and now, over 100 years later, gold mining is destroying the ghost town of Independence.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Ghost
• town
• Independence
• Colorado
• gold
• mining
• Cripple
• Creek
• Victor
• mines
• old
• homesteads
• cabins
• rustic

[pead]

My great uncle died there circa 1881 in the Grand Union Hotel.

[JeepsterGal]

@pead Wow, thanks for sharing that. Very cool he was there at that time.

[ChomFa]

Heeeeyyy! Jeep! Been a while, so it's great to see your efforts just getting better and better. This is a great video and deserves greater recognition. (How's that Aussie doggie?)

[JeepsterGal]

Hey! Nice to hear from you! Thanks for commenting on this video. If you're referring to the Aussie in this video, I'm sorry to say he passed in January at age 14 (RIP Scooter!). I have a new Aussie pup, Rio, whose videos can be seen here on You Tube at rockymountainrio. Thanks again for watching.

[bigdave46148]

It's a shame that Independence is gone now. Lot of fond memories from when I was a kid growing up in the springs and my dad would take us up to Cripple Creek and Victor. I'm glad that when I was at Ft. Carson I was able to take a day and drive up there and got a good picture of the Independence mine head before this all happened.

[vidiographer4u]

You can't have all the great things in your life, like your camera and computer that made this video, without mining! Get over yourself!

[mstaff657]

if you wanted to save the town, you should have bought the property !

I think your job is destroyed the town - not the gold mine.

I call sour grapes.

[really2ugly]

Oops, sorry. Let me rephrase what I just said. I didn't mean to imply that JeepsterGal or anyone else was confused. Just me. And it got worse when I started investigating the history of Colorado Ghost Towns. BTW, has anyone counted how many streams in Colorado are named "Bear Creek" or "Beaver Creek"?

[really2ugly]

The history of Colorado Ghost Towns is both fascinating and confusing. The Independence Mine was in Vindicator Valley near Cripple Creek, but the remains of Independence, CO are a few random logs up on Independence Pass east of Aspen. There are two Dolores Rivers on the Western slope that flow in opposite directions not far from each other, and geologists think they were one river in ancient times. And I thought I was confused...

[komanoise]

out go the old in come the new... that's life.

[DangerousLabs]

It is sad that the town has to be sacrificed for the new mining operation. However, whatever was there before the ghost town had to be sacrificed for mining, as well. Without mining, we would be living a stone age existence. Gold is very important in aerospace, medicine, and electronics. The computer you are reading this on contains gold. If we don't mine gold in the U.S., we have to get it from China. We currently import twice as much gold as we export. No wonder we have 9% unemployment.

[spankybrandonf]

thats sad that we can lose that much history without blinking a eye