Thanks for joining us today and welcome! today's video is going to be a little
bit different this is because I like many am in lockdown due to COVID-19
and I'm unable to get out and explore as regularly as I would like to. So I'll be
diving into a back catalog of footage that I've either not yet edited or I'm
just now completing research on. Some of this yes is stuff from the cutting room
floor. So it may be a little bit more shaky, but nonetheless I'm excited to
revisit Ouray Colorado with you today well or at least visit it in spirit. More
specifically I'd like to visit a ghost town that's about 10 miles away, Ironton
Colorado. I've gotten a lot of really good questions and comments about
Ironton. Majority of the questions revolve around the town's final resident
Milton Larson. Milton or Milt as he was known to his friends was best known for
his appearance on the show I've got a secret in 1961. Where his secret was he
was the entire population of the town Ironton Colorado. One question I found
particularly interesting came from a viewer who no longer lives in Colorado
however on their visits out here they have unsuccessfully tried to find
Milton's home. several times. This is because they're actually descendants of
Milton Larson.
Now, in 2019 I recorded nearly every square inch of this town in an effort to
preserve it for historical record. And it's something I've been meaning to do
for a very long time, is to look through my footage and try to help this family
find the location of Milton's home. A lot of people point to the picture shown on
I've got a secret as being Milton Larson's home and possibly being off of
US Highway 550 or the million-dollar. Highway and a lot of people confuse the
picture shown in the television show with this property. Which is off of the
million-dollar highway and was in the Larson family however this is not their
home the property is a very big part of Ironton's history and continues to be
an evolving part of US history. This property changed hands a lot before it
ended up in the Larson's lap. It was first owned in 1888 when W.C. Davis and G.C.
Magee purchased the Ida L and dauntless mining claims by 1893. David sold his
interest in these and other claims to W.F. Abrams of San Diego California.
McGee kept his interests until selling to A.G. burner in 1910. Beginning in 1917
burner fell behind on his tax payments. Eventually in 1933 Charles L Larsen of
Denver purchased the Ida L and dauntless mines for only $200. And even back then
that was a very good deal. That year Charles moved with his two sons Henry
and Milton to the town of Ironton. They were some of the last few prospectors in
the town this it became evident to the Larson's when in 1920; only three years
after purchasing the mine, the Ironton post office closed. The next year the
railway stopped all services to Ironton. Tthis wasn't the best of fates for a mind
that's trying to get itself off the ground and ship large quantities of ore
out of it. However trucking had come a long way since the original creation of
the town Ironton. And they could rely on trucks to get some ore out of here.
Despite the closure of the post office, lack of rail service, and dwindling
population Charles and his sons continued to build on their property for
over four years. During this time they constructed a small flotation mill, a
bunkhouse, a blacksmith shop, and a snow shed over the mine adit (or mine opening).
Many people believe that this building is the Larsen family home and people did
stay here. However it was not their home this was the bunkhouse. Where anybody who
was leasing space within their mine or a mining lessee would have stayed. Or
anybody who was directly employed by the Larsen family. It had a secondary purpose
as the office. So if you wanted to sign up for service, this is where you would
do it. Let me see on the floor here where it's been patched up that's because it
burned. There was a wrought iron stove there at one point in time. You can see
the chimney that would have been above it here. And sometimes you have to
replace the wood because it does begin to burn over time. And this window has a
gorgeous view out of it. Let me adjust the iris a little for you to see can you.
Imagine that being your view and I don't believe it's a window actually looking
here it looks to have been a loading bay door at some time. So it's
may have had a third purpose as a Depot. Or at least it had the capability to
pull a truck up to it. It had a really nice wood ceiling at one point in time.
However, I don't see any sort of opening cut to get into it or ladder to get up
to it. It seems like they didn't make much use of the attic space which seems like
a waste considering that this was a bunkhouse.
Perhaps the wood on the ceiling comes from a project that happened in 2005
When great outdoors Colorado put a new roof on the property. However I doubt
this if you compare the wood on the floor and the walls here. It
looks just as old as the wood on the ceiling. I think they just never used the
Attic and really seems like an oversight to me.
I'd like to take a second to say don't do this absolutely nobody gives a [BLEEP] that
Hannah Allen was here in 2019. With that out of the way back to the search for
the Larsen family home. The mine eventually had a hundred and eighty foot
tunnel and a two compartmented shaft. In 1937 the Larson's shipped out 25 tons of
concentrated ore at a rate of $100 per ton. This $2,500 doesn't sound like a lot
of money in today's currency. but with inflation it would have felt like they
had forty-four-thousand-dollars. The very same year that the mine began to turn a
profit, Charles Larsen passed away leaving
behind his two sons Milton and Harry to run the mine. During that time they
became locally known as the Larson brothers. What we're looking at here is
actually an Environmental Protection Agency monitoring station and what
they're monitoring is this mine adit (or mine opening). If you look at the
water trickling out you can see it's got this kind of greenish-red hue to it and
that's because it's full of things that really do belong underground. Things like
mercury, lead, arsenic, or cadium. These are poisonous heavy metals. And there's also
other things in here like zinc or iron. And that's what's making this red
discoloration that we see in the ground however this has nothing to do with the
fact we're on red mountain it's actually pollution. This is an unfortunate legacy
of this mine and many others. However if we were to follow the contaminated water
across the million dollar highway we will begin to see a little bit more of
the Larson property that's overgrown. And so to reiterate just be very careful
around this water. Don't let your dogs drink it because you
don't know what's in it at the end of the day. But with that out of the way
this piece of the property is butting up against what's called the Colorado boy
trail and it looks like it was some sort of a auto garage or maybe a blacksmith.
it could have actually been both. At one point in time it could have been the
blacksmith and then repurposed into a auto garage. Unfortunately, I lost most of
the footage of that building. But, let's dive a little bit deeper into the heart
of Ironton and talk a little bit more about the story of the Larsen Brothers.
You see even though their father left with a profitable mine, the Larsen
brothers were not rich men. They were in debt which limited any further
development on their property. They struggled to get their mine off the
ground for years. Until a man named Kenneth Gerard offered to buy out their
partner, in 1940. This opened up a world of possibility for the brothers by 1951
Girard started a diamond drilling program he wanted to use the floatation
mine once more however this never came to be. in fact very few people worked the
mine. Nobody wanted to lease it and this
continued this way until the mid-60s. Despite the fact that the mine was just
limping along, it was enough to get both families on a stable footing. So much so
that in the late 1950s the nearby beaver and Belfast mines owed back taxes and
mr. Girard and the Larsen brothers took the opportunity to buy the mines. In an
effort to expand their operation, but this never came to be. Milton and Harry
Larson operated their original mine for an additional nine years. People who
visited the brothers said no one left without sharing a bowl of soup or chili.
They were said to have only mined enough minerals to get what they needed they
traded their findings in town for basic supplies. And would trundle back up the
mountain once a month. The pair shared this humble existence until Henry's
death in 1959. Milton continued to live in Ironton alone. A fact that he is most
well known for. In 1964 he was interviewed by local newspapers about
this fact and eventually given an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City
where he appeared on the game show, I mentioned earlier "I've have a secret"
Fortunately, this footage has been preserved and I was able to use this to
find what I believe is the location of Milton Larson's home. So I'm really happy
not only to share this with you just for fun but also the family members that are
interested in seeing this. And I have shared within the GPS location so
if they ever feel like taking a bit of a hike they can visit it themselves. Before
we get to the house and why I feel it's the house let's take a quick look at a
segment from the show: Tell me, living all alone in Ironton as the only citizen in
the town what do you do for food and supplies. I have to I have to send her
the nearest town. uh-huh do you drive or write. drive.
I see tell me, when Ironton was up a whole place what was its industry?
Mining. I have a picture here of Ironton and in 1890 when the population was 1800
people. And here is a picture of it today, when its population is one people. And
this is the house with mr. Larson's house right there. Now, the photo is
grainy; yes, but we can still get a lot of information from it. For instance the
mountain peaks; those are stagnant, they haven't gone anywhere for some time, and
I don't think they intend to. And so we can use those to understand what the
orientation of the camera was. We can also see that the house has one
broadside with no windows. Which of the houses that still stand in Ironton this
is unique. One of the most helpful features of this photograph were these
three trees. Because even with overgrowth these three trees orientation to the
mountain peaks will remain the same. Based on these facts we can comfortably
say that the camera was facing north. We can also comfortably say that the
property we looked at early in this video is not the Larson home. The biggest
indicator of all is the Colorado boy trail. You see this trail wasn't always a
trail. It was once the main road in and out of Ironton. It was a long road and it
had a decent amount of outskirts on it. Such as this home which I believed to be
the home of Milton and Harry Larson. The reason the Colorado boy is one of the
biggest indicators that this is the house is because the photograph shows an
unpaved road and that photograph was taken between 1961 and 1964 and if you
consider that the million-dollar-highway was paved completely by 1935
we can say with certainty that this house or Milton's house was not on the
million dollar highway. Furthermore this house has two broad sides with no
windows as we saw depicted in the picture. Leading me to believe that we
have the house. But to be certain I found a photo that I had taken from a very
similar position and orientation as the old photo from the game show. In this
photo we can see that the mountain peaks line up nearly identically but again the
most telling thing for me is these three trees their orientation to the house and
to the peaks is nearly the same. And I do plan to revisit so we can get a perfect
before and after shot to really drive this point home. But I'm firmly convinced
that this is where milton Larson spent the last of his days as the final
citizen of Ironton Colorado. And the honorary mayor. This may have seemed as
if it was alone the existence and I'm sure at times it was. However he was
reported to have been in good spirits and of sound mind all the way untill his
death. He was known for his detailed and entertaining stories. In fact he would
entertain the occasional tourists with his own version of Ironton history and
folklore. Comments on my original video about the history of Ironton talk about
how kind he was to small children who came to visit. In fact one such comment
references him allowing children to go into his mine to pick a little bit of
Galena ore as a memento. Given what we've learned about the contents of his mine
this probably wasn't the best of ideas, but times were different Milton was able
to live out the rest of his days as a local celebrity of sorts and had fun
talking to people who came through. So maybe it wasn't all bad for Mr. Larson
but this is how he spent out the rest of his days. with Milton gone the property
ownership and mining claim went to the Gerard family. The property remained in
the family for 41 years. And like the rest of Ironton it fell into abandonment
and ruin. Thankfully in 2005 Ouray County purchased the mining claim from
the Gerard family with a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado. Today the Larson
brothers mine and its claim are an important historic site and are listed
as a Ouray County Historic Landmark. Charles Milt and Harry Larson lived and
died on this land it was an important part of their lives. and it was almost
lost a time. Thanks to the money generated by Great Outdoors Colorado
will be able to experience their home for years to come. If you would like to
have a look at the episode of "I have a secret" that features Milton Larson
please take a look at the description below. Also if you want to have a look at
the original Ironton video; where I dive into the history of Ironton Colorado a
little bit more, the link can also be found in the description otherwise
please do like comment and subscribe