When prospectors came to the early South Park diggings at Tarryall, a now-vanished mining camp, they found miners there in no mood to share and so nicknamed the place Grab-all. When they moved on and found placer gold in the South Platte River, the men wanted a counter to the name Grab-all for their new diggings and decided upon Fair Play in rebuke. The post office opened in that name in the summer of 1861.
In 1869, Fair Play became South Park City, but the name lasted only five years, when it reverted to its earlier name. Fair Play became a supply and social center for area mines after placer diggings gave out, and in the 1890s, dredging of the South Platte led to a resurgence of activity that lasted well into the twentieth century. The U.S. Post Office shortened the town’s name to one word in 1924. When noted ghost town author Muriel Sibell Wolle visited Fairplay in 1942, a dredge was busy two miles away. She remarked that, despite its distance from town, she could hear it “shrieking and clanging.” Those dredging operations left behind extensive gravel piles along the river. They are particularly visible from the north end of town.
On the southwest end of South Park City stand (from right to left) the office of the South Park Sentinel, Simkins General Store, the Bank of Alma, and the J. A. Merriam Drug Store. All were brought from other towns to this location.
This schoolhouse, built in 1879, stood at Garo, now mostly a place name southeast of Fairplay on the road to Hartsel.
Fairplay’s earlier name of South Park City was resurrected when a pioneer museum of that name was opened to the public in 1959, the centennial of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. One of the West’s best outdoor, living-history pioneer villages, South Park City features a remarkable collection of thirty-four buildings, seven at their original locations and the remainder moved from nearby communities. The price of admission is very reasonable.
WALKING AROUND SOUTH PARK CITY
South Park City’s street scene is attractive enough, but the adventure really begins when you enter the wonderful buildings. Ghost town enthusiasts dream of finding an empty town filled with artifacts that long-ago citizens left behind. South Park City is the incarnation of that dream. Some sixty thousand items pertinent to the buildings are on display. An 1879 one-room schoolhouse, with its belfry-capped vestibule, features a complete classroom. The 1880 Bank of Alma retains its teller cages and safe. J. A. Merriam Drug Store has an astonishing array of patent remedies still in their wrappers. Rache’s Place displays gambling equipment similar to what was used when it operated in nearby Alma. The 1914 Baldwin locomotive is reminiscent of the type used on the Denver, South Park & Pacific narrow gauge railroad that once served Fairplay.
WHEN YOU GO
From Silver Plume, drive west 23 miles on Interstate 70 to Frisco. Head south on Colorado Highway 9 for 10 miles to the attractive former mining town of Breckenridge.
Fairplay’s South Park City is 24 miles south of Breckenridge on Highway 9.
Built in 1862, the log Park County Courthouse was originally located in the now-vanished town of Buckskin Joe. It was moved to Fairplay in 1867 when that town was granted the county seat, an honor it still holds.
Moved from Alma, Rache’s Place has authentic saloon furnishings and gambling equipment from the late 1800s. Note the conveniently located potbellied stove.