Written by Jon T. Coleman, as part of the Roaring Fork Research Scholarship for the Aspen Historical Society in 1997, the paper provides insights into the history of Ashcroft.

Introduction:

During the nineteenth century, mining rushes in the mountains of Colorado led to the rapid creation and~then the swift abandonment of hundreds of towns and camps. Founded in the spring of 1880, Ashcroft, a silver mining town twenty miles southwest of Aspen, boomed for three years. Never more than a mediocre mining town, Ashcroft faded
fast. By 1887, half its population had left. By 1913, when the town’s post office closed, only twenty-five people resided in Ashcroft. From an economic stand point, Ashcroft’s history holds few surprises. Ashcroft followed the boom and bust trajectory of a thousand similar mining towns in the American West. From a cultural perspective, however, Ashcroft’s story gathers intensity when its economy “died.” A ghost town positioned on the social and economic fringe, Ashcroft became a place where people crafted central aspects of their identities.