Marble Co Historicsl

Duane vandenbusche and rex myers authors of the book marble colorado.

Marble co historicsl.

I had not been to marble colorado in over 20 years and it has grown up quite a bit as have other towns in colorado. The crystal mill is located 6 miles east of marble just before the ghost town of crystal. The town of marble would be settled in the valley below the marble deposit but not until many years later. A brief history of marble be it the stone or the town marble colorado is a sleepy little town tucked away in the rocky mountains.

It is reachable only in the summer and fall months by a rough one lane 4 wheel drive road. Marble history a world class deposit of marble was discovered in a remote section of colorado wilderness in 1873. City of stone donated their royalties on the book to the society and this has amounted to about 400 each year since. Today it has a population of about 100 people but in the early part of the 20th century with a population in the thousands it played a major role in.

Marble remains a statutory town of the state of colorado today. But colorado stone quarries an italian based company found a new and rich vein and as of 2015 is producing distributing and exporting high quality white marble colorado s state stone once. I had forgotten this over the years and it was a welcome memory. The town is the location of a historic yule marble quarry along the mountains that began operations in the late 19th century and from which the town draws its name.

In the heyday during the early 1900 s marble colorado was a thriving mining town that was known worldwide for supplying beautiful white marble for the construction of monuments and buildings across the united states including the lincoln memorial and the tomb of the unknown soldier in washington d c. It has been used for the tomb of the unknowns as well as for parts of the lincoln memorial in. All these were later microfilmed by the colorado and kansas historical societys for preservation. While there pick up a self guided tour map of historic downtown.

The marble marble sculpting symposium is held every summer. The town of marble was first incorporated in 1899. Itʼs just over a mountain but a world away from aspen. The marble historical society museum housed in the community s 1910 schoolhouse preserves the unique silver gold and of course marble history of the town.

Marked sites include the former crystal mill location where you can hike around the oddly fascinating marble rejects. The discovery was made at what would become known as the crystal river valley one of colorado s most spectacular locations. If you are not interested in driving or your vehicle does not have generous ground clearance the trip to crystal and the mill can be reached by foot mountain. The historic mill site is still used today to transport its exceptional marble stone throughout the world.