History and culture - Mountains
The Matchless Mine and the cabin where Baby Doe Tabor held on
A short drive up from downtown Leadville, a guided surface tour of Horace Tabor's silver mine ends at the spare cabin where his widow lived out her last decades.
Published June 10, 2026 - Last verified June 15, 2026
Drive up Seventh Street out of downtown Leadville and the land opens into old mine workings. One of them is the Matchless. Horace Tabor bought the silver claim in 1880 and it made him a fortune; the 1893 silver crash took most of it back. The story most people remember, though, belongs to his second wife, Elizabeth “Baby Doe” Tabor, who stayed on this hillside long after the money was gone.
The National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum runs guided surface tours here in summer. You walk the headframe, the hoist house, and the small cabin where Baby Doe lived for years, trying to hold onto the claim. She was found dead in that cabin in 1935 at age 81. A frozen-on-the-floor legend grew up around her end; the documented record points to heart failure, with her body discovered days later. The cabin’s plain rooms make the boom-and-bust feel like a person, not a date.
It pairs naturally with the Tabor Opera House and the downtown blocks the Tabors helped build. Tours run a seasonal schedule, typically from around Memorial Day through Labor Day, and the site closes for the off-season. Check current days, hours, and combo tickets with the museum before you go: https://www.mininghalloffame.org/matchless-mine