What historic sites can you visit around Aspen?

Aspen was a silver town for eleven years before the price collapsed, and then it was almost nothing at all for fifty. The skiing came later. Nearly everything old you can still stand in front of here belongs to that first, short, frantic chapter.. and a surprising amount of it survived. All ten of these are pinned on our map. Tap the 🏛️ History trunk and they'll be the only thing showing. IN TOWN Wheeler/Stallard Museum A red brick Queen Anne built in 1888 by Jerome Wheeler for his wife, who never lived in it. It's now the Aspen Historical Society's house museum, with exhibits that rotate through the odder corners of the town's past. An hour is about right, and the docents are the reason to go, several of them have lived here longer than the ski resort has existed. Holden/Marolt Mining & Ranching Museum On the site of what was once the largest industrial complex in Pitkin County.. an ore-processing works that used an experimental refining method, one of only a handful of plants in the world built for it. Now a trail-side museum at the west edge of town, reachable on foot or by bike from the Marolt path. Free parking, and quieter than it deserves to be. Wheeler Opera House Peachblow sandstone, opened 1889, electric lights when that still meant something. It burned twice in 1912, spent much of the twentieth century in decline, and reopened after restoration in 1984. It is still a working theatre, so the best way to see it is to buy a ticket to whatever's on. Hotel Jerome Also 1889, also Jerome Wheeler, and still the room where the town's business gets done. The J-Bar is where you order an Aspen Crud.. a milkshake with bourbon in it, which 10th Mountain Division soldiers training here during the war were technically not allowed to have. You don't need to be a guest to sit in the lobby. Smuggler Mine A working silver mine you can walk into, with a hard hat and a guide. This is where the largest silver nugget ever mined in the United States came out in 1894.. it had to be cut into three pieces to get it up the shaft. Tours are by reservation and they do sell out. Bring a jacket; it is cold in there in July. Ute Cemetery Aspen's oldest burial ground, from the 1880s camp. Small, quiet, walkable from town, and free. The dates on the stones tell you more about what mining did to people than any exhibit will. UP THE VALLEYS Ashcroft Ghost Town Eleven miles up Castle Creek Road, in a meadow that will stop you talking. Ashcroft was founded on an 1880 silver strike and for a moment rivaled Aspen itself, then emptied almost entirely within a decade. Several buildings still stand, including a post office on its original ground. Open year-round for self-guided wandering, with docents in summer. Independence Ghost Town Right off Highway 82 on the way up the pass. Founded 1879, and at its peak it had something like ninety buildings and a few thousand people at 10,900 feet, which is a difficult thing to imagine in February. Restored cabins, interpretive signs, and a short flat trail through the site. Summer and fall only, the pass closes with the snow and doesn't open again until late May. WORTH THE DRIVE Redstone Castle About an hour down valley. A coal baron's manor, finished 1902, built at the same time as the model village he made for the men who worked his coke ovens. Guided tours, and it operates as an inn.. you can sleep in it, which is a strange and wonderful thing to be able to say. Crystal Mill The most photographed ruin in Colorado, built in 1893 on a ledge above the Crystal River. Getting there means high-clearance four-wheel drive on a rough road from Marble, or a serious hike. Do not attempt it in a rental sedan; people try every summer and it goes badly. BEFORE YOU GO Hours move with the season here more than almost anywhere. The museums keep different hours in summer and winter, the ghost towns depend on the road, and the pass is simply shut for half the year. Every one of these has a link on our map.. check the day you're going, not the week before. And if history is the reason you came: the Aspen Historical Society runs walking tours, an electric History Coach around the downtown core, and a Victorian West End tour past the houses the silver barons built. Those are the best few hours you can spend here if you want to understand why the town looks the way it does. — Written in Aspen by Chloe, with supervision from Birdie & Goose 🐩🐩