Marked by the cliffs atop Fremont Pass, and located between the ski and mining villages of Copper Mountain and Leadville, today’s Climax Colorado is considered a ghost town.
However, the history of the old Climax mine is fascinating, and boom-days tidbits, such as the fact that Climax holds the record for the nation's highest post office and railroad station, continue to capture the attention of visitors.
Climax's claim to fame was its rich deposits of a mineral called molybdenum. At its height in the early 1900s, the Climax Molybdenum Company was the largest molybdenum mine in the world, supplying three-fourths of the total world supply.
Mining the molybdenum, used in the manufacturing of auto and plane parts, chemical compounds, dyes and in the hardening of steel, brought an estimated 1,000 workers to the area. Today some of the old employee houses are in a new location at the west end of Leadville. Many houses were simply picked up from their original locations, put on flatbed trucks and moved to new sites.
Besides historical signs and leftover mining scraps, little remains to mark the bygone era, but the rich history and stunning views atop the 11,000-foot pass remain as remarkable as ever. |
