The sign east of Marble indicates four-wheel-drive vehicles only to Crystal. Heed that warning. When I first saw Crystal in 1987, I was on a mountain bike, so I wasn’t too concerned about the road. The next time, in 1997, I was in my truck and glad to have another fellow explorer in a second vehicle as we slipped and slogged our way to Crystal the day after a thunderstorm. Even in dry conditions, the route would have been tricky. In 2008, I took a Jeep tour with a driver who makes the journey all summer long (inquire in Marble). The road was noticeably worse than when I drove in, and I was glad to have an expert at the wheel.
If you are a collector of books on Colorado, you will immediately recognize the first sign of Crystal: the remains of what is called the Crystal Mill, perched dramatically on a rocky crag.
Everyone says this structure is the Crystal Mill, but it really isn’t. When Muriel Sibell Wolle made a drawing of the 1892 Sheep Mountain Tunnel Mill in 1947, her sketch shows a dilapidated mill standing next to this building. Caroline Bancroft has a photo from 1954 with that same mill in ruins. What remains is not the mill itself but the hydroelectric power generator, last used in 1916, for that now-vanished mill. Inside the vertical wooden shaft, which you can still see extending from the powerhouse, was a wooden water wheel that powered an air compressor for the mill.
The town of Crystal is .2 of a mile beyond the “mill.” One look at the clear river water running through the valley and you might surmise how Crystal got its name. But you would be mistaken. It was not named for the water but rather for the silver-bearing quartz shot with crystallite that was found by prospectors in 1880.
Seven working silver mines kept Crystal going, and a road built over Schofield Pass to Gothic and Crested Butte in 1883 helped get supplies in and ore out. A later road went to Carbondale via the route you take into town. By 1886, about four hundred people lived in the town, which had two newspapers (including one using a wonderful pun, the Crystal River Current), two hotels, saloons, a billiard parlor, a barbershop, and the men-only Crystal Club.
The 1893 Silver Crash nearly emptied the town, and by 1915 only eight people lived there. A one-year mining venture brought the population up to seventy-five the next year, but after its failure, the town became deserted.
The sign is getting more and more faded on the men-only Crystal Club, one of several buildings and residences still standing from Crystal’s heyday.
Crystal today contains about a dozen old cabins and the Crystal Club, made of stout logs except for the refinement of a lumber false front.
East of Crystal .3 of a mile, sitting in a ravine to your left, is the old school-house. The road eventually ascends Schofield Pass, which I have not attempted in a motorized vehicle, but I did ride on a mountain bike. On that occasion, the road was closed, and a large snowfield (in mid-July!) caused us to portage our bikes.
WHEN YOU GO
Crystal is 5.9 miles east of downtown Marble on Forest Service Road 314, the only road east from Marble.