Crystal Mill, Colorado

This 130-year-old historic American mill may be one of Colorado’s most-photographed ghost town locations. Here in the wild Rocky Mountains expanse near the town of Marble, there has never been and most probably never will be any electricity.

But just above the swift-running Crystal River, innovative miners and prospectors harnessed the river’s incredible power, creating a system that supplied compressed air to run mining equipment.

Even though the site is called Crystal Mill, this old building was only used to house an air compressor, which was extremely helpful during 19th-century mining operations. The old mining town of Crystal is just a quarter mile beyond the mill.

Sheep Mountain mine and its silver ore helped keep the area alive for more than 35 years.

Reaching Crystal to see this historic American mill, once home to 400 hardy miners and shopkeepers is achieved either from Marble, more than six miles of rough four-wheel-drive roads, or by County Road 317 from Crested Butte.

It is by no means a Sunday afternoon drive. But if you manage to get here, the view is well worth it!