Ghost. Town.

Last Saturday we took the kids out to Ashcroft, CO, a little ghost town about 10 miles outside of Aspen. Since Colin is a bit obsessed with ghosts at the moment, it was the perfect little excursion.

Ashcroft was founded in 1880 as a silver mining town and went bust in 1893 when the mine closed following the decline in the value of silver. At its heyday it was home to more than 2,000 people—more than three-quarters of them men. I read that it had more than 25 salons! One of them is still hanging on today, but we could only peek in the window.

This being the off-season in the Aspen area, we had to give ourselves the tour of what remains: about 15 buildings in total. Still, the boys were in heaven. They raced ahead at every turn, and more than once I had to dash after them before they climbed up some rotten stairs or went fishing in a trash pile for a piece of broken glass or rusted metal to add to the collection visitors have placed in windowsills to keep the ghosts at bay. It's a good thing I got our Tetanus boosters just before we left!