Chipmunks now run the place in Colorado’s sky-high ghost town

St. Elmo’s still standing after 140 years

Nearly 10,000 feet up in Colorado’s Sawatch Range, a dusty main street lined with 40 wooden buildings from the 1880s sits quiet in the thin mountain air.

St. Elmo draws tens of thousands of visitors a year to its old storefronts and boardwalks, and it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places back in 1979.

You can walk the whole town in minutes. But the history packed into those few blocks, and the wild chipmunks waiting at the general store, will keep you there much longer than you planned.

A gold rush novel gave this town its name

St. Elmo started as Forest City in 1880, until founder Griffith Evans renamed it after a novel he was reading at the time.

Gold and silver pulled nearly 2,000 people into these mountains during the 1890s peak. The town ran five hotels, a telegraph office, a general store, a newspaper, a schoolhouse, saloons and dance halls.

The Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad reached St. Elmo that same founding year, connecting the camp to the outside world.

When the mines dried up and the railroad shut down in 1922, people left. The post office closed for good in 1952.

Buy 50 cents of seeds and chipmunks climb right on you

The general store sells small bags of sunflower seeds for 50 cents, and that’s all it takes. A colony of wild chipmunks lives in town, and they’ve grown so tame that they’ll climb right onto your hands and lap to eat.

Families with kids often spend an hour or more feeding them. They’re still wild animals, so you don’t want to grab or squeeze them.

Just hold out a palm full of seeds, sit still, and let them come to you.

Pat Hurley’s saloon still stands on Main Street

The Miner’s Exchange building went up in 1892 and served time as a bank, a saloon, and eventually a general store. Down the street, Pat Hurley’s Saloon dates to the same year and still holds its ground.

The Home Comfort Hotel goes back to the 1880s and remains one of the most photographed buildings in town.

A fire destroyed the original town hall in 2002, but the community rebuilt it by 2008, and it now serves as a local history museum.

The one-room schoolhouse is the kind of wooden schoolhouse Colorado mining camps put up across the mountains in the 1880s.

Ice cream and antiques at 10,000 feet

The St. Elmo General Store opens its doors from late May through late September, usually 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Inside, you’ll find souvenirs, antiques, snacks, cold drinks, and ice cream.

Sales from the store help fund preservation of the town’s buildings, so every dollar you spend goes back into keeping the place alive. Outside, hummingbird feeders hang from the porch and draw dozens of birds all summer.

The nonprofit Historic St. Elmo and Chalk Creek Canyon also welcomes donations for ongoing restoration.

Dozens of hummingbirds buzz the general store porch

St. Elmo sits at the right mix of high elevation, summer wildflowers and well-stocked feeders to pull hummingbirds in by the dozens.

Broad-tailed hummingbirds are the most common species up in Colorado’s mountains, and you’ll see them darting around feeders placed throughout town all summer long.

The action is heaviest near the general store, where birds zip past your head close enough to feel the air from their wings.

It costs you nothing to watch, and it’s a quiet change of pace from the chipmunk circus down the street.

Any car can handle the 16-mile canyon drive

County Road 162 starts at Nathrop and winds about 15 to 16 miles into the mountains. The first stretch is paved, then it shifts to well-maintained gravel.

Any car can make the trip. Along the way, you’ll pass through groves of aspen that turn gold in autumn, and a wildlife viewing area gives you a shot at spotting elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats and deer.

The scenery gets more dramatic with every mile, with peaks above 14,000 feet rising on both sides of the road.

Tincup Pass tops 12,000 feet on the Continental Divide

Old mining roads around St. Elmo have turned into some of the best off-road trails in the Sawatch Range.

Tincup Pass climbs to 12,154 feet and drops you over the Continental Divide into the small town of Tincup. You can combine it with Hancock Pass and Cumberland Pass for a full-day loop called the Miner’s Loop.

You’ll pass old mine sites, ghost town ruins, and wide-open terrain above the tree line. These passes require high-clearance 4WD, so leave the sedan in town.

Hike the old railroad grade to an 1882 tunnel

The Alpine Tunnel went through the Continental Divide in 1882, the first railroad tunnel to do it in Colorado. It sat at 11,523 feet, the highest railroad tunnel in North America at the time.

You can follow the old railroad grade from near St. Elmo to the collapsed east portal, about nine miles each way.

Interpretive signs along the trail explain the tunnel’s construction and the lives of the workers who built it. The route cuts through high-altitude country with long views of the surrounding peaks.

Cast a line in Chalk Creek or hike to Grizzly Lake

Chalk Creek runs through the St. Elmo area and holds trout, though much of the stretch near town crosses private property.

The nearby Iron City Campground has public access for fishing. If you’d rather hike, the Poplar Gulch Trail starts right from town and gives you a shorter option.

The Grizzly Lake Trail leads to an alpine lake ringed by mountain peaks.

For something flat, the Narrow Gauge Trail in Chalk Creek Canyon follows the old railroad grade for about 2.2 miles.

Fifty residents keep this ghost town alive

Every building and lot in St. Elmo is privately owned.

A handful of people live here year-round, and about 50 to 60 summer residents come back each season. The nonprofit Historic St. Elmo and Chalk Creek Canyon, Inc., handles preservation of the town’s structures and history.

That 2002 fire proved how fast a single blaze can erase over a century of wooden buildings, yet the community rebuilt the town hall within six years.

When you visit, stay on the roads and boardwalks and treat the buildings with care.

Step onto Main Street and walk straight into the 1880s

Few ghost towns anywhere in the country still have this many original buildings in this kind of condition. The chipmunks make it a hit with families, and the mining history gives adults plenty to dig into.

Chalk Creek Canyon and the surrounding mountains pack enough hiking, off-roading, and scenic driving to fill a whole weekend. The fall color drive alone is worth the trip.

St. Elmo costs nothing to visit, and the moment you step onto that quiet main street, the 1880s feel close enough to touch.

Explore St. Elmo Ghost Town in Colorado

You’ll find St. Elmo about 20 miles southwest of Buena Vista in Chaffee County.

Take US 285 south to Nathrop, then head west on County Road 162 for about 15 to 16 miles. Any vehicle can handle the road to town.

The general store operates from early May through late September, typically 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The town itself is free to visit year-round.

Bring sunflower seeds or grab a bag at the store for 50 cents to feed the chipmunks.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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