St. Elmo: a Colorado Ghost Town

Kerry Hammond is here today to tell us about a ghost town in Colorado that is said to be haunted.

I realize that ghost towns didn’t get their names because they’re haunted. But you have to admit that there is a certain creepy feel to the concept of an abandoned town that used to be a booming metropolis for so many people. The silver and gold rushes of the late 1800s brought people to states like Colorado to find their fortune and stake their claim to land so they could mine for gold and silver.

One ghost town with rumors of a haunted resident is St. Elmo, a town located about 2 ½ hours west of Denver. St. Elmo sits at an elevation of 9,961 feet, and was founded in 1880, with almost 2,000 residents in its heyday. The town contained a general store, telegraph office, dance hall, five hotels, and several saloons.

In the early 1900s, when the mining industry began to decline, the railroad discontinued service to St. Elmo. This was the beginning of the end. People started to move on and the town fell into disrepair. It stands today as Colorado’s best preserved ghost town, and many of the original buildings are still standing. Although St. Elmo is a ghost town, there are people who live there, and a hotel is open for business as well.

St. Elmo has had several ghostly sightings. Annabelle Stark was a young woman who was ruthlessly ruled by her mother, who owned and ran the Home Comfort Hotel. She grew up sad and lonely and was rarely allowed to leave home. When her mother died in 1934, she lived with her brother in the crumbling building without electricity or running water.  Their decline became so great that they were sent to a mental institution, but were later released when it was determined that their eccentricities weren’t a threat to anyone. After Annabelle died, the sightings started. Most came in the form of slamming hotel doors and sudden and extreme drops in temperature of a room. But at least one skier claimed to have spotted her in the window of the hotel when it was closed for business in the owner’s absence. 

Have you ever visited a haunted location?