Nestled high in the Colorado Rockies, Leadville is a town that feels like a step back in time. At 10,200 feet above sea level, it is the highest incorporated city in North America, a place where the past and present collide in a landscape that seems to hum with silence. This silver-rush-era town, located on a lonely mountain plain in Colorado ski country, holds secrets as deep as its tunnels and old mine workings. It is a place where history is etched into the very rocks, and where the spirit of the Wild West still lingers in the air.

A Journey Through Time

The road to Leadville is as captivating as the destination itself. US Route 24 climbs through aspen forests glinting gold in the sun, rising through zigzag gullies, escarpments, and precipices onto a high mountain plain. Snowdrifts huddle at the road's edges, and the air grows thinner as you ascend. This is a journey through a landscape that feels untouched by time, a place where the silence is almost palpable.

Leadville's reputation is often tied to its elevation, but its true allure lies in its history. The town's story is one of boom and bust, shaped by the gold and silver rushes that defined Colorado's early years. "So many people, Americans included, are so unfamiliar with our story," says Katie Hild, manager of Leadville's Tourism and Visitor Center. "This is a town that's been shaped by bust and boom—so much has happened here."

The Silver Rush and the Birth of Leadville

The first mineral deposits were discovered in the area's California Gulch in 1860, and within a year, around 10,000 prospectors had flooded the high plain. By 1880, Leadville was served by three railroads, and between 1878 and 1884, the town had freighted 54 million ounces of silver. Rich seams of zinc, iron, gold, and lead were quarried, making Leadville one of the wealthiest towns in the region.

"Mining is our root, and some of the largest pockets of precious ores on the continent have been found here," says Hild. At its peak, Leadville was home to 30,000 people, but by 1893, silver prices had plummeted, and the glory days were over almost as quickly as they had begun.

Exploring Leadville's Mining Heritage

Today, exploring Leadville is like embarking on a treasure hunt. Much of the town's deep history can be absorbed in the Mining District outside town, in the foothills below Mount Sherman. The Route of the Silver Kings, once the backdrop for one of the richest mining camps in the US, reveals 14 original structures and 20 sites from the era that visitors can explore on a signposted gravel road.

Incredibly, the US Bureau of Mines estimates there are 1,329 shafts, 1,628 prospect holes, and over 200 miles of workings hidden beneath the surface. For many, the 21-mile circuit represents more than just a charming collection of mineshafts. The ghost towns, buckled headframes, and mining camp hoists embody an idealization of the American dream. Names like Silver Spoon, Diamond Dolly, Upper Oro, and Hopemore hint at the riches once sought here.

A Living Relic of the Wild West

Leadville's name evokes tin-hatted miners picking through ore, but the town is equally infused with the spirit of a Wild West film set. Around a dozen beautiful buildings sag characterfully, bringing to mind the rootin' tootin' cowboy country of Buffalo Bill and Doc Holliday, both of whom visited during their late-19th-century heyday.

Walk south down Harrison Avenue from the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, and on the left is the Delaware Hotel, once a premier lodging for mining magnates. A few blocks away, you'll find the Tabor Opera House, constructed by silver baron Horace Tabor in 1879, where miners and madams once mingled. Locals might tell you that Oscar Wilde once performed there, while an additional door was built to get circus elephants into the opera house. One night, illusionist Harry Houdini is said to have disappeared through the stage's trap door.

Perhaps the most engrossing example of the street's preserved architecture is the Silver Dollar Saloon, a timber-clad landmark across the road. Here, tipplers can still order a whiskey under the diamond-dust mirrors at the original wooden bar from 1879. "Walk into the Silver Dollar Saloon, and you're not just stepping into a bar—it's an immersion into a living relic of this time," says Adam Ducharme, Lake County's tourism and economic development director.

Ski Cooper: A Legacy of Ski Culture

But wherever you go in Colorado in winter these days, the subject everyone is obsessed with is not silver dollars, but snowfall. Eleven miles farther along US Route 24, the next chapter in Leadville's untold history is slowly revealed.

Ski Cooper isn't Colorado's most celebrated mountain resort, but it retains the authenticity of a mountain as it used to be. Non-profit and municipality-owned, it looks out to Mount Elbert, the state's highest mountain at 14,433 feet. More than that, the landscape has the emptiness that purists seek away from the surrounding busier towns.

"Cooper is not a resort, but a place to come skiing," says head of operations Patrick Torsell. "We only have three lifts—nothing compared to the mega-resorts—but Leadville locals have a strong relationship with us and our history. It's a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches in the parking lot kind of place."

This is a mountain that covers its tracks well. For this is where Colorado's ski culture began. The story starts with the first mountain unit in US military history, the 10th Mountain Division of World War Two. In summer 1941, its soldiers received extensive training in winter warfare on Cooper Hill, constructing what was then the world's longest draglift. Then, in the winter of 1944-1945, three of its regiments marshaled a series of surprise attacks during an offensive in Italy's Apennine Mountains. It was a melancholy tale: around 1,000 soldiers were killed, and 4,000 were injured. Yet, their actions were instrumental in Germany's later surrender.

What many don't know is that following their return to the Rockies, the 10th's veterans shaped the American ski industry. More than 66 ski resorts were managed or founded by former military personnel, including Aspen, Vail, and Arapahoe Basin. This taps into a broader strain of patriotism among locals today.

The Legacy of Camp Hale

Six miles from Leadville in the Pando Valley, the 10th Mountain Division trained at Camp Hale. Sitting between sheer-sided rocky spurs and snow-daubed mountains, with the Eagle River winding nearby, it was once a sprawling encampment of 14,000 soldiers, 226 barracks, 100 mess halls, three theaters, a chapel, horse and mule barns, and a hospital. Little remains nowadays, but a 10-stop self-guided tour of relics snakes past ammunition bunkers, a guard shack, and a field house.

The best story at Camp Hale concerns the CIA, which took over the base in the 1950s to train secretive special ops teams. At one time, 170 Tibetans were drafted in for secret operations against the Communist government in China. The unexpected coda is that locals were told it was a test site for bombs. Nowadays, with snowshoe, hiking, biking, and horse-riding trails, it is a simpler world away from the currents of history.

A Town That Time Forgot

In few places in Colorado are the ghosts of the past so alive as on US Route 24. Leadville, this Wild West city in the clouds, is faithful to this picture. It is a place where the past and present collide, where the spirit of the Wild West still lingers in the air. From its silver-rush-era mines to its preserved architecture, Leadville offers a glimpse into a bygone era.

As you head out on the road out of town, leaving the Old West and silver-rush-era mines behind in the rearview, you return to the 21st century of haulage trucks, roadside fast food stops, and gas stations framed by the Rockies, in all their glory. It is a journey that reminds us that history is never truly behind us—it lives on in the places we visit and the stories we tell.

Leadville is more than just a destination; it is a living testament to the resilience of a town shaped by boom and bust, by miners and soldiers, and by the enduring spirit of the American West. It is a place where the past is always present, and where every corner holds a story waiting to be discovered.