Caribou wood wagon tracks in the winter

Abstract

Photograph showing the tracks of the wood wagon on a snow-covered street in Caribou, Boulder County, Colorado. Caribou was located at an elevation of 9,905 feet. During the winter of 1869-1870, silver ore was discovered at the site of the Caribou Mine. By springtime, there were over a hundred prospectors camped on Caribou Hill and other silver mines were quickly discovered. By 1871 Caribou had a population of almost 1,000 and by 1876 there were over a hundred buildings in the town. However, by the late 1870s silver production began to decline. Many of the mines and mills near Caribou closed during the 1880s. The crash of the silver market in 1893 dealt the community a blow from which it never recovered, and after a large fire in 1899 the town was not rebuilt. By 1900 the population of Caribou had dropped to about forty, and another fire in 1905 destroyed most of the remaining buildings. The post office closed in 1917, and by the late 1920s the town had been mostly abandoned ...