Hancock Colorado Townsite – Ghost town
Photos courtesy of Mike Sinnwell August 2008
Look close and look long. Only remaining building is the Salon and it consists of only a few logs from the foundation. Scattered around are some foundations, the remains of some dumps, the usual tin cans and debris. You have to look for them as the area is overgrown, if your lucky you can find the support beams of the old water tower. This is a town that started as a mining camp and ended up as a supply camp for the construction of the Alpine Tunnel. You can take a short hike to reach the tunnel on a well marked trail. The tunnel was the first tunnel constructed through (under) the Continental Divide in North America. it was completed in 1881 and is 1,800 feet in length.
Hancock is around 11,000 feet in elevation. The town did not start growing until the railroad moved in with a section house and other buildings to support the railroad. At one time it had numerous buildings, about 200 people, a coal bin and a water tower for the trains that began running through the tunnel in 1882. It also had the usual assortment of salons, a hotel etc.