Swandyke Colorado Ghost Town
Sure glad I don't have to wear that boot. You can find Swandyke high in the mountains, about 11,000 ft, up a rough 4X4 trail close to the continental divide. Follow the road and it joins Deer Creek with gorgeous 360 degree views.
Sometimes there is a place you read about and just have to see. This was one of those for me. I finally made it in September of 2004. I first read about Swandyke in 1998. The town was founded by a boy from Ohio and was late in the gold rush era. Some people say it was around 1897. Hard to believe, after walking around the area, that at one time there was a hotel here that would accommodate about 75 people. Claims are that the gold at about 13,000 ft was surface gold. The gold was found in veins of quartz. Guess I better go back next summer and look a little closer than I did.
A viewer writes - Saturday, November 01, 2014 5:51 PM – I am a mining historian at Breckenridge, Colorado. I have been investigating mining sites, ghost towns and the like around Breckenridge since 1989. I conduct some tours and hold Powerpoint presentations on Breckenridge history in the summers in Breckenridge and nearby Frisco. I was awarded the Theobald Award this past summer by the Breckenridge Heritage Alliance for my contribution to the preservation of Breckenridge's history.
I was just given your web site and found the stories fascinating on the Town of Tiger. I have co-authored three books on Breckenridge mining history in the past three years. Currently we are working on a book on Swandyke, Colorado, another ghost town that was inhabited by hippies in the 1970s.
Our next book will be on the history of the Royal Tiger Mines Company and the company that followed it, the B&B Mines Company. I have all the minutes from the B&B Mines Company Board of Director's meetings from the 1940s to about 2008 when it was dissolved. It includes a lot of information on the Town of Tiger.
I would like to collect as much information as I can from people that lived in the Town of Tiger or have stories about it. I plan to use some of these in our book on the Royal Tiger Mines Company.
I would also like to get as many photos similar to the ones you have posted on your web site of Tiger. I currently have over 100 photos of the Town of Tiger and the Royal Tiger mine and mill. I would be willing to share some of those to be posted to your web site.
I would also like any photos your readers have of Swandyke, Breckenridge, Preston, or any other photos of the Breckenridge area including any of the mines from say the 1980s and before.
You could list my email address (bigobill@aol.com), be sure any email to me has "Town of Tiger" or something I will recognize as I do not open any email I don't recognize.
Bill Fountain