Ashcroft Ghost Town

in the spring of 1880, prospectors charles b. culver and w. f. coxhead left the boomtown of leadville to search for silver deposits in the castle creek valley. after vigorously promoting their findings back in leadville, coxhead returned to find 23 more prospectors had joined ?crazy culver? in the camp they named castle forks city. they formed a miner's protective association, built a court house, and laid out the streets in only two weeks. each of the association's 97 members paid $5?or one day's work and $1?to draw for building lots. by 1883, the camp, now called ashcroft, was a town with a population of perhaps 2,000 with two newspapers, a school, sawmills, a small smelter, and 20 saloons?bigger than aspen and closer to the railroad in crested butte.