“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.”
~ Mark Twain
Ghost Town Club of Colorado members believe in staying current with historic news, stories and happenings in our local and state communities and beyond. Below is a collection of stories; some educational, some entertaining, but above all – relevant to our subject matter.
BELOVED DENVER PRESERVATIONIST, DANA CRAWFORD DIES AT 93
January 24, 2025
Dana Crawford, the preservationist responsible for the revitalization of much of Denver, passed away late Thursday, January 23, 2025 at the age of 93.
Read the full story from Colorado Public Radio here.
PBS COLORADO EXPERIENCE: SAVING HARTMAN CASTLE
November 7, 2024
This Rocky Mountain PBS Colorado Experience episode explores the intriguing history of Hartman Castle, located in Gunnison, CO. Constructed in the early 20th century by Alonzo Hartman, this unique structure is a testament to the eclectic and often eccentric architectural movements of the period. The magnificent mansion has also become a local landmark for the town of Gunnison as a passionate group of people work to preserve it.
The Ghost Town Club of Colorado is currently collaborating with the Hartman Castle Preservation group. Visit our Preservation page for more information.
CASTLE IN THE CLOUDS – SAVING THE OLD HUNDRED BOARDING HOUSE
November 3, 2024
The Old Hundred Boarding House and Tram House were on the verge of collapse when the San Juan County Historical Society and the Colorado State Historic Fund stepped in with a joint investment of $172,000 in 1998. Their collaborative effort aimed to rescue these historic buildings from the threat of being lost forever. The video below, produced in 2004 by the San Juan Historical Society, tells the incredible story of the restoration.
WORKING MIRACLES AT THE IDARADO HOUSES
September 10, 2024
In August of 2023, the Ghost Town Club of Colorado proudly spent a day volunteering alongside the Trust for Land Restoration working on the historic Idarado Houses. Work included cleanup of all four buildings, rehabilitation work including repairs to windows, doors, flooring, and wallboard. The work contributed to making the buildings safe for future visitors to enjoy the buildings.
Read the full story by the Trust for Land Restoration here:
DENVER MAN SHARES STORY OF GROWING UP IN MAYFLOWER GULCH CABIN 90 YEARS AGO
May 12, 2024
Marv Colsman’s father moved his family from Denver to the base of the old Boston Gold Mine in the 1930’s. The family helped build the cabins hikers can see on the Mayflower Gulch trail today.
Read the full story, and watch the video by Channel 7’s Danielle Kreutter here:
https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/denver-man-shares-story-of-growing-up-in-mayflower-gulch-cabin-90-years-ago
DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY 2024 ELEANOR GEHRES AWARD
April 9, 2024
In 1999, the Denver Public Library Commission established the Eleanor Gehres Award in recognition of her longtime service and contributions to the Western History and Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library. Gehres’s passion for enlarging library audiences and developing a remarkable and accessible research collection inspired the creation of the Eleanor Gehres Award, first bestowed on her shortly before her death in 2000.
The award honors an individual or an organization that has made a significant contribution to library materials (books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, works of art, or other items), scholarship, life-long service, or bequest, thereby enhancing the Western History Collection and its value to the community.
The 2024 award was given to Ghost Town Club of Colorado member Bob Pulcipher. Read the full story here: https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/western-history/2024-eleanor-gehres-award-honors-robert-s-pulcipher
CONGRATULATIONS BOB!
a man and his castle
December 6, 2023
An interesting and informative article on the history and status of the Hartman Castle, located in Gunnison, CO.
https://www.gunnisontimes.com/articles/a-man-and-his-castle/
GHOST TOWN DISCOVERED ON COLORADO’S WESTERN SLOPE
October 5, 2023
They’re called ghost towns. They’re not haunted, but they’re full of Western history …
Fox 31’s Dan Daru reports:
WILD WEST HISTORY LIVES ON AT CENTRAL CITY CEMETERY
October 27, 2022
Just outside of Central City is the Central City Cemetery where hundreds of gold miners, cowboys and their families are laid to rest.
Fox 31’s Dan Daru reports:
THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF COLORADO’S GHOST TOWNS
April 4, 2022
Several members of the Ghost Town Club of Colorado were recently interviewed by journalist Rylee Dunn of the Colorado Community Media Group, in association with the Arvada Press. Her informative story can be found here:
The Forgotten History of Colorado’s Ghost Towns
From Colorado Public Radio, Colorado Matters by Shanna Lewis with CPR’s Ryan Warner
October 2018
There Are 700 Ghost Towns In Colorado, and Ron Ruhoff Has Visited Many Of Them
John Quincy Adams Rollins
The Ghost Town Club of Colorado once received an inquiry asking if anyone could provide information on John Quincy Adams Rollins. The inquiring person turned out to be a distant relative and came across a reference to Colorado. GTC member, Ed Bathke was not only familiar with J.Q.A. Rollins, but able to provide lots of information and even copied a six page article and sent it to the inquirer.
Why did that bottle turn purple?
(First published in the Ghost Town Club Gazette in September, 1963)
Jerry Coon (GTC’s first President) and I were camped at Monument Valley in Arizona this spring and had gotten up before sunrise to try for a neat picture of the Mitten Buttes and rising sun. Another man and his wife had the same idea, so we struck up a conversation near our readied tripods. They had just hiked the Grand Canyon a few days earlier, as did we. His name was Dr. John Sheldon, a scientist with the Corning Glass Works of New York. He explained that he was doing research on making an optical glass that automatically turns dark when exposed to sunlight in order to design eyeglasses that would also serve as sunglasses as needed. Today we know this as “photo-grey”, “transition”, etc.
I asked him if he could explain why old bottles, which Ghost Town Club people loved to collect, turned purple. “Of Course,” he said, “It’s called solarization. Back in the 1800’s, glass makers came on a popular formula of manganese and iron additives to make a sparkly clear glass. Manganese dioxide, or pyrolucite, has a faint purple color and was added to glass to offset the yellow-greenish cast of the iron compounds. Little did they know, until time passed by, that the ultra-violet rays from the sun would solarize the glass due to electron transfer in the manganese and iron, which have multiple valences. The energy of the absorbed radiation removes an ion from the divalent manganese which is then trapped by a ferric ion. The reaction is written:
Mn(2) + Fe(3) +hv=Mn(3) +Fe(2) and the glass turns purple.”
Dr. Sheldon mailed me this information after he returned to New York. In the 20th century glass makers learned new formulas to make clear glass that would not solarize. Bottles and other glass items that turned purple led to a grand collector sport and included all kinds of historic bottle searching to look for in old town dumps, under outhouses, etc. around ghost towns. Most of us have been familiar with photo-grey glasses for a long time, but back in 1963, it was still a new idea in the laboratory.
~ GTC member Ron Ruhoff
Exploration, enjoyment, and preservation of historic sites
Header Image Credit: “You Need a Biscuit?” by GTC member Jason Messing