Bonanza was a silver boomtown that became a tiny mountain village

In the high country north of Villa Grove, silver ore was found around 1880, and a mining camp called Bonanza grew up in the rush that followed. The name itself was a promise of prosperity. Like many Colorado silver camps, the town shrank as mining faded over the decades, and far fewer people stayed on.

Bonanza is often called a ghost town, but that is not quite right. It is still an incorporated Colorado town, just a very small one, with only a handful of year-round residents among the old mine country. That makes it an unusual stop: a real, lived-in place that wears its boom-and-bust history openly.

The mining left more than scenery. Colorado’s health and environment department lists a Bonanza Mining District restoration project that deals with old mine waste in the area. If you are exploring or buying land in old mining country anywhere in Colorado, that is a useful reminder to ask about historic disturbance before you dig, build, or use surface water.

For the cleanup details, see the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. For the town’s current status and population, see the State Demography Office at the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and the U.S. Census Bureau.