Summitville still hums with activity. However, it is not mining causing all the action; it is the removal of mining’s detritus. Summitville is one of Colorado’s several environmental Superfund sites, and the cleanup operation has been immense. When I first visited the site in 1997, the renovation was in full swing, with huge trucks hauling contaminated waste from the site. In 2008, the cleanup seemed to be in the late stages.
The ghost town of Summitville, fortunately, was not part of the decontamination area, and there remains much to see. Summitville is, however, a very vulnerable site, especially—at an elevation of 11,300 feet—to the elements, and it is a natural candidate for another kind of “superfund”: preservation money from Colorado’s gaming dollars.
In 1870, rancher James Esmund and a companion rode their horses into a high, parklike area in search of two runaway girls. They found the girls, and Esmund found something else: free gold in the rocks all around. He returned several times to remove high-grade ore, but he neglected to file claims.
In June 1870, a party of prospectors, including James and William Wightman, staked claims along the creek, now named for the brothers. Winter drove them out, but the next spring brought hundreds of argonauts. In 1872, hundreds more arrived, so when James Esmund returned once again, he discovered people swarming over the area, including on his find, by then known as the Little Annie. He nevertheless staked claims for the Esmund (later the Aztec) and the Major mines.
Summitville received its post office in 1876. By 1883, the town was Colorado’s biggest gold producer, occupying several hundred miners and mill workers for hugely successful mines, such as the Little Annie and the Bonanza. By 1889, however, the boom was over and only a few diehards remained.
Summitville’s main pump house is, unfortunately, sagging toward the horizontal. The building is well worth resurrecting because of the unusual “chimney,” which was actually a passageway to enter the pump house when snow covered the normal entrance.
A short-lived rebirth came in the late 1890s with the reopening of the Bonanza, but the mine’s production fizzled by 1900. Miners tried again for two years beginning in 1911, for five years starting in 1926, and for about fifteen years commencing in the 1930s.
Another attempt was beginning after World War II, when Muriel Sibell Wolle visited Summitville. She was expecting a deserted ghost town but found instead a lively company town of tarpaper-covered shacks and a large community hall flying an American flag.
Further attempts were made in the 1970s, but not even the discovery of a boulder containing $350,000 in gold lying near a road could revitalize the town.
WALKING AROUND SUMMITVILLE
If you follow my road directions, below, you’ll enter Summitville from the south. The first building will be on your right, along Wightman Creek. It is the sagging main pump house, architecturally interesting because it has a “chimney” passage so that it could be entered from above when winter snow covered the normal entrance. Above the pump house stands a two-story wood-frame structure that looks like a dormitory.
The only site you can explore without violating “no trespassing” signs is also the best of the townsite, but you’ll need to hike up to it. North of the road, opposite the pump house and up on a hill to the east, stand almost twenty buildings: cabins, pump houses, and outhouses. About a half dozen are partially or completely collapsed, but most are under roof.
Beyond these buildings .3 of a mile, on the south side of the road, is a cluster of about a dozen residences and outbuildings on a small hill. At this writing, the wood-frame structures are under roof, partially covered with tarpaper, and posted against trespassing. From there, the road winds down for 27 miles to Del Norte, but that road is not as smooth or wide as the route you took up. For that road, I’d recommend a truck.
Several dozen buildings, most of them miners’ cabins, stand at Summitville today. The main boom only lasted from 1870 until 1889, but gold was still being extracted from its mines into the 1970s.
WHEN YOU GO
You can reach Summitville from either South Fork or Del Norte. The easier route by far is from South Fork (21 miles southeast of Creede) because the ascent to Summitville follows a haul road wide enough and level enough for huge trucks. From South Fork, head 7.1 miles southwest on U.S. Highway 160. Turn left onto Park Creek Road and follow it for 14.6 miles, where a left turn onto Forest Service Road 380 takes you in 2.2 miles to Summitville. In good weather, a passenger car should have no difficulty reaching the townsite.