Alta (Spanish for “high”) was a company town for the Gold King Mine, discovered in 1878. Alta had a general store, an assay office, a school, miners’ homes, and company offices. The town also became the upper terminus for a tram that extended almost two miles and dropped more than eighteen hundred feet to Ophir Loop, where a loading bin was located near the Rio Grande Southern depot. (Ophir Loop is located 1.8 miles south of the turnoff to Alta on Colorado Highway 145.)
The Alta-area mines produced into the 1940s under the ownership of the Silver Mountain Mining Company, but a fire in one of the shafts in 1945 effectively ended production.
When I first saw Alta in 1987, it was abandoned and deteriorating. Since then, efforts have begun to preserve and protect the buildings. The Alta I first saw, if left to the elements and vandals, would be in a sorry state today.
When you enter Alta, you will be at the bottom of the townsite, where water tumbles off old waste dumps. Nearby are two crumbling wooden structures and, as you turn toward the upper site, five more miners’ shacks.
You will come to a good place to park next to wooden fences, marked with “no trespassing” signs, that protect a roofless log building that has served as a mine office and company store. Across the way, protected by the same fencing, is an impressive two-story boardinghouse built in 1939. To the west is an astonishing view of Lizard Head Peak, Wilson Peak, and Sunshine Mountain.
Also behind the fence, beyond the office and store, are four residences that housed mining officials. One of those houses has new siding on it and looks quite habitable, a change from my earlier visits. One home, probably the mining superintendent’s, has an attractive bay window that likely has a spectacular view.
Framed by the middle window of the Alta company store and mine office is one of southwestern Colorado’s most recognizable landmarks: Lizard Head Peak.
The weathered miners’ dormitory at Alta once had an outside stairway to the second floor. Only its tilting roof remains.
From the waste dump, you’ll see lots of mining debris: buckets, pipe, slabs of concrete, and a geared wheel. Northeast of the boardinghouse are six wooden foundations and a log cabin. The schoolhouse once stood in this area, according to the 1955 topographic map.
WHEN YOU GO
From Telluride, head west to Colorado Highway 145. Turn south and drive 5.2 miles to the turnoff marked for Alta Lakes. The townsite comes into view in 3.5 miles. (The lakes are 1 mile beyond the Alta townsite.)