Ashcroft

Ashcroft began in 1880 as a silver camp eleven miles up the Castle Creek valley from Aspen, and briefly rivaled its now-famous neighbor with more than 2,000 residents at its peak. The ore ran shallow and no railroad ever reached the valley; by 1912 fewer than 50 people remained, and the last resident, Jack Leahy, died in 1939. Nine buildings survive today, cared for and interpreted by the Aspen Historical Society as a living-history site with walking trails, open to the public in summer. Visitors describe a persistent, unplaced sense of being watched around the old buildings, especially the two-story hotel, and local telling attributes it to the miners who worked and sometimes died here — though no specific death or name has ever been attached to the claim.