Train at Malta

Abstract

Photograph showing a Denver and Rio Grande train consisting of two locomotives and an ore car. This train was either at the town of Malta or at the D.&R.G. Malta substation. Both locations are southwest of Leadville, Colorado and near the Arkansas River. Malta, which was also known as Swilltown, was established in 1875 to process ores from the region and had the first smelter in the Leadville area. At its height, Malta had a population of between 300 and 400. By the early 1880s, Malta had already begun to decline because larger and more modern smelters had been built in and around Leadville.