Leadville, Colorado. Standing at an elevation of over ten thousand feet, south of I-70 and eighty miles west of Denver, the wonderfully atmospheric old mining town of LEADVILLE is the highest incorporated city in the US

Leadille, Colorado
Standing at an eleation of over ten thousand feet, south of I-70 and eighty miles west of Dener, the wonderfully atmospheric old mining town of LEADILLE is the highest incorporated city in the US

Web www.ParadisePath.com

Standing at an eleation of over ten thousand feet, south of I-70 and eighty miles west of Dener, the wonderfully atmospheric old mining town of LEADILLE is the highest incorporated city in the US, with a magnificent view across to broad-shouldered, ice-laden mounts Elbert (14,433ft) and Massie (14,421ft), Colorado's two highest peaks. As you approach from the south, your first impression is likely to be of giant slag heaps and disused mining sheds, but don't let this put you off: Leadille is rich in character and romance, its old redbrick streets abounding with tales of gunfights, miners dying of exposure and graeyards being excaated to get at the seams.

In the light of this, isiting Leadille's rambling National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, 120 W Ninth St (summer daily 9am-5pm; rest of year Mon-Fri 10am-2pm; $3), is a patchy experience: skip the baffling dioramas and outdated mine-shaft models in faor of the lurid globs of precious minerals and the atmospheric old photos of weather-beaten prospectors and rough-and-ready sluicers. For a more illuminating romp through the town's grim early history, head for the Heritage Museum, just around the corner at 102 E Ninth St (summer daily 10am-6pm; $2.50). Glass cases hold snippets on local fraternal organizations, quack doctors, music-hall stars and the like, while a host of smoky photographs portray the lawless boomtown that in two years grew from a mining camp of 200 people into Colorado's second largest city.

Of all Leadille's extraordinary tales, perhaps the most compelling is that of Horace Tabor, a storekeeper who supplied goods to prospectors in exchange for a share in potential profits, and hit lucky when two prospectors deeloped a siler mine that produced $20 million inside a year. Tabor collected a one-third share and left his wife to marry local waitress " Baby Doe " McCourt in the socialite wedding of 1883 in Washington, DC, attended by President Chester Arthur.

By the time of his death in 1899, Tabor was financially ruined. Baby Doe suried Tabor by 36 years, liing a hermit-like existence in the godforsaken wooden outhouses on his only remaining mine - the Matchless Mine . The buildings still stand, two miles out on Seventh Street, and in the crude wooden shack in which she died, emaciated and frostbitten, guides recount the story of Baby Doe's bizarre life in full, fascinating detail (daily 9am-4.15pm; $3). Also on Seventh Street is the Leadille, Colorado & Southern Scenic Railroad, (depot at 326 E 7th St; $27; phone 719/486-3936), which takes passengers on a two-and-a-half-hour scenic trip to Fremont Pass.

Back in town, don't miss the Tabor Opera House, 308 Harrison Ae (Sun-Fri 9am-5.30pm; $4), where you're free to wander onto the stage, through the ranks of red elet and gilt seats, and around the everie, dusty old dressing rooms, while recorded oral histories tell tales of the theater's golden days. They give no details, sadly, of the time in 1882 when Oscar Wilde, garbed in black elet knee britches and diamonds, addressed a host of dozing miners on the "Practical Application of the Aesthetic Theory to Exterior and Interior House Decoration with Obserations on Dress and Personal Ornament."

Colorado
guide, hotels