Caribou

The Ghost Town of Caribou... Known as "The Place were winds were born". On this particular day... you'll get no argument from me. The wind was absolutely howling... and cold. For many of the shots couldn't hold my camera still enough in the wind to get a clean shot. Tripod you might think? Yeah, forget that. Caribou is located at 9800 feet. Sam Conger was the discoverer of the Caribou mine. He found out from the Araphahoe indians about their "Treasure Mountain". In August, 1869 Sam along with 5 partners staked the Caribou and Conger mines. The town itself was established in the early 1870s for workers of Caribou silver mine. In fact, the Caribou mine produced an est. $8 million before closing in 1884. When the silver mine was doing well about 3,000 people lived in town. There was a church, three saloons, a brewery, and a town newspaper, the Caribou Post. The Caribou silver mine was sold for $3 million to Dutch Investors in 1871. It was resold in 1876 to local entrepreneurs, Jerome Chaffee and David Moffat, who incorporated the mine and sold shares in New York. A fire took the town in 1879. By the 1920s, Caribou was home to fewer than 50 people.