Winfield, Ghost Town in Colorado

Winfield is an abandoned mining settlement in the Sawatch Range where wooden structures from the 1880s silver rush still stand in the thin mountain air. The buildings show how miners and their families lived and worked at this remote elevation.

The settlement emerged in the 1880s during the silver rush when prospectors pushed into the Sawatch Range seeking ore. After silver prices collapsed in 1893, most residents left quickly, and by the 1920s the town was nearly empty.

Winfield carried several names: a newspaper noted that the old town was called Lucknow while the post office was Winfield. The 120-acre townsite was taken up by P. H. Symon, G. L. Brown, J. S. Sharpe, Dr. J. J. Smith, L. W. Clark and Thomas Leasure, and laid out in 50-by-100-foot lots free to anyone who would build. The school now holds school furnishings and displays, and the Ball cabin across the street is a museum of the mining era.

Winfield lies at 3,122 m (10,243 ft) at the junction of the north and south forks of Clear Creek, reached by a rough dirt mountain road. Park and continue on foot along the dirt track past the schoolhouse museum and the Ball cabin across the street. The Clear Creek Historical Society of Chaffee County restored and operates the schoolhouse museum.

The town site covered 120 acres and was laid out in 50-by-100-foot lots that were free to anyone who wanted to build, as a contemporary notice put it: "No soulless corporation about that." The school building now serves as a museum with school furnishings and displays, restored and run by the Clear Creek Historical Society of Chaffee County.