Ames Colorado Townsite – Ghost town
Photos courtesy of Mike Sinnwell July 2010
I always wanted to find this place as it is the first place AC electricity was generated for use extensively in mining. This happened in 1890 and the mine was the Gold King Mine. Eventually the power lines were strung to support mines scattered throughout the region. Places like Camp Bird and Tomboy. The original wooden building that housed the water wheel and generator are long gone but was replaced with this stone structure.
Good story about how a guy named Lucien L. Nunn made it happen. He went from eating oatmeal and sleeping in a tent to a very wealth man. That is until the dam he built broke and caused financial ruins for him.
The town actually got it start in 1880 when Otto Mears constructed a toll road to connect Telluride and Ouray. He used this location as a stage stop and a post office. Today little remains of the town as the location was not near a railroad and most of the better mines were too far away.