History and culture - Mountains
Ashcroft is a preserved ghost town up Castle Creek
Ashcroft was an 1880s silver camp in the Castle Creek valley that briefly rivaled Aspen, and its remaining buildings are now a cared-for historic site.
Published June 10, 2026 - Last verified June 11, 2026
About eleven miles up Castle Creek Road from Aspen sit the weathered log buildings of Ashcroft. It began as a silver camp after prospectors found ore in the upper Castle Creek valley in 1880. For a short time the camp grew fast and, in its earliest years, was busy enough to feel like a rival to young Aspen down the valley.
The boom did not last. The ore near the surface ran thin, and the railroads that reached Aspen never extended a line up Castle Creek. People drifted away, sometimes hauling their cabins with them to Aspen. Over the following decades Ashcroft faded into a ghost town.
What stands today is cared for, not abandoned. The townsite is on land within the White River National Forest, and the Aspen Historical Society manages it under a permit from the Forest Service. The remaining structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with interpretive signs and seasonal guides during the open season.
If you visit, treat the buildings gently. They survive because people chose to protect them rather than let them collapse or be carried off. Stay on marked paths and leave the timbers and artifacts where they are.
For history, hours, and how the site is managed, see the Aspen Historical Society’s Ashcroft pages and History Colorado’s listing.