| From a recreated town to a real one. |
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| Heading into the gap between Mt. Antero, just out of the shot on the left, and Mt. Princeton straight ahead. |
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| Chalk Creek was rushing with what I assume is snow melt. |
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| After passing lots of vacation homes, this dirt road eventually leads to... |
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| St. Elmo just beats out Fairplay at 9,961 ft. I must have been getting used to the elevation at that point. |
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| St. Elmo is a ghost town, even though there are still some inhabitants. They probably keep the place from falling apart. The Ostreman cabin now functions as a visitor center. It was closed when I was there though. |
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| A blacksmith shop and livery. |
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| I was unable to find out how old this building is, but it is a guest house. |
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| The general store on the right was open. I did not go in. |
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| St. Elmo Mercantile. |
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| Now we get into the more ghost town-y end of town. |
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| The town hall burned down in 2002, so this is a rebuilt one. |
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| A young lawyer from Missouri called
Reuben Cash lived and worked in the building on the left until 1886,
after which a fellow called James Criss owned it. On the right is Stark Store and Home Comfort Hotel behind it. The store and hotel were owned for many years by the Stark family, early merchants and the last original residents of the town. It served as a mercantile, hotel, restaurant and post office with telephone and telegraph services. |
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| The sign above the door says American House Hotel Parlor c. 1882. |
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| But I wanted something substantially more modern, so I stayed the night at the Alpine Inn in Gunnison, elevation 7,703. |
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| The room had a ceiling fan. You don't see that too often. |
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| Dinner was at the Ol' Miner Steakhouse. I had the prospector burger, with Swiss, pepper jack, cheddar, sweet BBQ sauce, fried jalapeno and onion strips. One of those good but messy burgers. |
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| There were some old buildings around town, so I tried to find some. This was the Johnson Building. It has been a lot of things since it was built in 1881. It was a restaurant from 1901 to 1985. It is now the Gunnison Gallery, where many antiques are on display. |
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| The Smith Opera House was constructed in 1882. It didn't last as such though, as it was later converted to a rooming house and apartments. It is now office space. |
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