Guston is a

silver mining Silver mining is the extraction of silver by mining. Silver is a precious metal and holds high economic value. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires the use of complex technologies. In ...

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Ouray County Ouray County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 4,874. The county seat is Ouray. Because of its rugged mountain topography, Ouray County is also known as the "Switzerland of America" ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States, south of Ouray following the "

Million Dollar Highway U.S. Route 550 (US 550) is a spur of U.S. Highway 50 that runs from Bernalillo, New Mexico to Montrose, Colorado in the western United States. The section from Silverton to Ouray is frequently called the Million Dollar Highway.

" (

U.S. Route 550 U.S. Route 550 (US 550) is a spur of U.S. Highway 50 that runs from Bernalillo, New Mexico to Montrose, Colorado in the western United States. The section from Silverton, Colorado, Silverton to Ouray, Colorado, Ouray is frequently called ...

). Nestled in Champion Gulch, it is located near Red Mountain and the remnants of Red Mountain Town and Ironton. The

Silverton Railroad The Silverton Railroad, now defunct, was an American Narrow gauge railways, narrow gauge railroad constructed between Silverton, Colorado, Silverton, Colorado and mining districts near Red Mountain Pass (San Juan Mountains), Red Mountain Pass ...

ran from Guston in the Red Mountain Pass to Silverton in San Juan County. The silver mining camp was established in 1883. The Guston post office operated from January 26, 1892, until November 16, 1898.

Description

While there was initially talk of naming the settlement "Missouri City," the name of the first mine in the area was instead selected. The town was never formally instituted and construction of commercial and residential structures occurred in an ad hoc fashion. By July 2000, the remains of Guston were composed of several mining structures and a bridge that carried the Silverton Railroad through town. One entrance to the

Idarado Mine The Idarado Mine was a mining operation in the San Juan Mountains of Ouray County, Colorado near the now-ghost town of Guston, Colorado, Guston, producing primarily lead, zinc and silver along with small amounts of gold and copper. The mine ...

, Treasury Tunnel, is still visible. The church and many other buildings had partially or fully collapsed by the mid-1940s. Parts of the ghost town are open to the public and have signage describing the town's history. By 2012, the railroad

depot Depot may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Glacier (disambiguation) * Depot Island (disambiguation) * Depot Nunatak * Depot Peak Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in Chicago, United States * Of ...

had been rendered largely unrecognizable by falling trees and wind.

History

Guston was founded in 1883 as a mining community, supporting the miners at the Guston-Robinson, the Yankee Girl, and the Genessee-Vanderbilt mines. In 1888, the noted railroad and later

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...

financier

Otto Mears Otto Mears (May 3, 1840 – June 24, 1931) was a Colorado railroad builder and entrepreneur who played a major role in the early development of southwestern Colorado. Mears was known as the "Pathfinder of the San Juans" because of his roa ...

established the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Silverton Railroad to connect the Red Mountain Mining District with the larger settlement of Silverton. The railroad reached Guston in 1889 and by 1892 the town sported a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and a

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

, the ''Guston Paralyzer''. While mining operations in the area started slowly, the August 1884 arrival of new management under mining engineer T. E. Schwarts saw a dramatic increase in all facets of the mines, including profit. During his five years as superintendent, Yankee Girl went from a depth of to with a hoist system that, as of 2014, was still standing. Total profits of that mine grew to $1,000,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

($28,300,000 in 2021), while other mines also substantially increased their profits under Schwarts's tenure. Roughly 10 tons of ore left for Silverton each day. At its peak, the town was home to roughly 300 people.

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

congregationalist

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who Open-air preaching, preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach com ...

Rev. William Davis found some success evangelizing the miners and their families after establishing a church in Guston in 1892, the only one in the Red Mountain Mining District. The church had not only a bell but also a

steam whistle A steam whistle is a device used to produce sound in the form of a whistle using live steam, which creates, projects, and amplifies its sound by acting as a vibrating system. Operation The whistle consists of the following main parts, as s ...

to announce when services were commencing. Davis had earlier tried unsuccessfully to establish a church in Red Mountain Town. The day after the Guston church opened, the commercial district of Red Mountain Town was destroyed in a fire, with some local residents suggesting it was the result of "divine intervention". Between 1941 and 1945, the by-then abandoned Guston church had begun to tilt heavily, eventually collapsing. The

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...

and the related cratering of

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

's value saw the abandonment of most of Guston's mines by 1898, though the Idarado Mine continued producing

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

into the 1960s. The Silverton Railroad closed in its entirety in 1926. In 2014, the Ridgway Railroad Museum in

Ridgway, Colorado The Town of Ridgway is a home rule municipality that is the most populous municipality in Ouray County, Colorado, United States. The town is a former railroad stop on the Uncompahgre River in the northern San Juan Mountains. The town populatio ...

, sponsored the reconstruction of the Guston railroad depot.

References

External links

State of Colorado

History Colorado
{{authority control 1883 establishments in Colorado Former populated places in Ouray County, Colorado Geography of Ouray County, Colorado Ghost towns in Colorado History of Colorado Mining communities in Colorado Populated places established in 1883

Description

History

See also

References

External links