St. Elmo, CO
Established in the late 1870s, St. Elmo was once a highfalutin gold mining town and popular whistle -stop on the Pacific Railroad. It boasted 2,000 residents, 130 mines, and enough hotels, brothels, saloons, and dance halls to keep everybody in town happily cutting a rug. When the Alpine Tunnel closed in 1910, however, the piano music stopped.
Today, there’s little left save a cabin where you can stay and a general store (open during the summer) that sells antiques and rents four-wheelers.
