Independence Ghost Town

During the winter of 1899, residents of Independence made skis from long wooden planks and left for Aspen. Aspen Historical Society's account describes supply routes cut off by heavy snow and food running out. It records seventy-five pairs of improvised skis and a departure remembered as a race, with a ham sandwich as the entry fee. The episode has become the town's best-known story of survival, belonging near the end of a mining settlement that had already grown small.

The settlement began with a gold discovery around July 4, 1879, the occasion associated with its name. Tents gave way to log cabins and businesses. By 1882, roughly a thousand people worked in mines, the Farwell Gold Mill, transport businesses and shops. The shallow deposits were soon exhausted, and the mines and mill closed that August.