Tarryall, Colorado (ghost town)

"This article is about the ghost town of Tarryall. For the current town of Tarryall, see Tarryall, Colorado."

Tarryall is a ghost town in northwest Park County, Colorado, United States. The town was located on upper Tarryall Creek northwest of Como, Colorado. It is completely deserted.

The town was founded in 1859 during the Colorado Gold Rush after the discovery of placer gold in Tarryall Creek. The "Tarryall diggings", as well as other discoveries, prompted a flood of prospectors into South Park via Ute Pass and Kenosha Pass. Most newly arriving miners found that all available land for mining along the Tarryall Creek had been completely claimed by earlier arrivals, and much resentment ensued. It was thought that the earlier miners had claimed much more land than a man could reasonably work, and latecomers called Tarryall "Grab-all". Another mining town, founded not far away on the Middle Fork of the South Platte River, was named Fairplay as a dig at Tarryall.

The town was located near the junction of North and Middle Tarryall creeks. [Ben H. Parker Jr., "Gold Placers of Colorado", Quarterly of the Colorado School of Mines, v.69, n.3, July 1974, p.186.] At its height, Tarryall had a population of several thousand. A marker along U.S. Highway 285 near Como where it crosses Tarryall Creek commemorates the Tarryall diggings and the former town. Decades later a new town named Tarryall was founded 29 miles southeast of the original, and deserted, ghost town of Tarryall.

ee also

List of ghost towns in Colorado

References