Livin' the life in a GHOST TOWN

Our long time friends, Brian and Peggy O'Rourke, live in a ghost town. and its only a 20 minute drive from our camp at BASE CAMP, on rte 46. And they live right on what has been called for 150 years the 'Oh My Gawd Highway'. They drove us on this often daily commute down to Idaho Springs, where they shop and attend church. And they own two gold mines.

Meet the O'Rourke's,

And OP, their 3 year old sheepadoodle.

 They built their dream home at over 9,000 feet in the Rockies themselves, taking over 10 years in the process.  But when asked how long it took they only say the project is ongoing. 

PS: They are completely off the electric grid.  The two large solar panels to the right of the house meet all their needs, and a new wind tower, going up soon, will supply more so they can build planned additions on two sides of the home.

On their acreage above the house are two 1800's gold mines.  Yes, they own their own gold mines.  They even have a neighbor who has opened one up on his land and is taking small amounts of gold out of it annually.

 Will Brian and Peggy begin to dig?  Maybe.  But their IT kitchen cabinet installation software company keeps them far too busy.  And that requires mostly tapping keys on a computer.  They save their sweat equity for sanding every nook and cranny of the exterior of their home and resealing it, about one side a year.  Oh, and gardening in their desert home north of Phoenix, Arizona when the snow and cold drives them south each winter.

The views are spectacular from any side of their multiple decks but its the town they live in and above that haunts me most.  Russell Gulch, part of the huge Central City gold region, first opened up in 1859. This ghost town has a few lively residents yet.

 Meet Forrest...

Forrest is owner of WABI pottery and has lived in Russell Gulch with his few neighbors since 1973.  He has seen the valley go from almost completely empty to its current attraction for off-the-gridders like the O'Rourkes, horse riding stables and historians, like him.

 Forrest has a wide angle 1900 era photo taken of the gulch after it's heyday; after the US went to the gold standard and the silver mines of Colorado and elsewhere went pretty much bust. Peggy is pointing to the area of town their home sits on. Now people like Forrest and the O'Rourkes carry on the Russel Gulch legacy. I wonder where it will lead?

 These hearty folk live right on what is called on maps the Virginia Valley Road.  Locally Virginia Valley is called The Gut, since it's a placered (water cannoned) out 75 degree angle gulch with a rocky road straight up to the top. That road has killed more RV's relying on their less than reliable GPS's than the residents want to think on.  Instead folk usually take the more placid and better maintained mostly dirt and chasm edged road called the Oh My Gawd Highway.

Replaced a couple of decades ago by the Central City Parkway to bring gamblers more easily up from Denver to the casinos in Black Hawk and Central City, it is still the road of choice in all seasons for locals.

  It sits in the sun all year long so snow rarely lays long on it; water was drained away from it by the wise engineers of the 1800's so their precious wagons of gold could make it down to Idaho Springs so it does not wash out, and their are few rock cliffs to drop boulders on unsuspecting travelers as they drive an average of 25 mph up or down. Down slope drivers have the right of way when the space between cliff and chasm becomes too tight.

 Mona caught a black fox on the prowl with her camera as we drove along. Not as rare as you might think, these cousins of the more common red or gray fox are just as sly.  Watch your chickens farmer MacDonald!

 The Oh My Gawd Highway connects up-country Central City, through Russell Gulch, with Idaho Springs, down in the Clear Creek Valley and the route I-70 takes west of Denver. It is in this town that the O'Rourkes were married and still attend the lovely little Lutheran Church of about 30 attenders.  Yes, they are about the youngest. Note the practical bell tower.  We've seen steeples like these on many a mining town church.

When in Phoenix, however, they attend a church of about 200 or more and Brian plays guitar in the praise band.  We'll have to get him to play and sing for us next time we visit these wonderful people.

A final pic from the O M G H. In addition to this being our son's home, and the wonderful people, and their full lives of work and play, this photo may describe why we, and so many others, love to come to the mountains of Colorado best.

It is just beautiful.  Even the eco-disaster sites of the gold era, once denuded of forest to build towns like Russell Gulch, are now filled with glorious fast growing aspens which turn a fantastic cold color in fall, perhaps hinting at what still lies beneath them, for a new generation of more eco-friendly miners, to find.

We're proud to be Coloradans this summer.  After all, we have the privilege now to say, no matter where we are with the coach...

'If we lived here, we'd be home now'.  And we are.

-Ken