| Difficulty: | Number: | Miles: | Altitude: | Obstacles: | Time: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy 2 | FR 597 | 1.00 | 10,880 ft. | Brush | 1 hour |
Dillon Ranger District
Silverthorne, CO 80498
Closure:
July - Best
August - Best
September - Best
October - Early snows possible
Accessed:
From Breckenridge, CO head south on S Main Street to the Boreas Pass Road. Turn left onto Boreas Pass Road and go 1.2 miles. Turn right onto Illinois Gulch Road and go 0.5 miles. Illinois Gulch Road turns slightly left and becomes County Rd 518, go 0.2 miles. Turn left onto Illinois Gulch Road and go 341 feet. Turn right onto Boreas Pass Road and go 0.3 miles. Take a slight right to stay on Boreas Pass Road and go 5.3 miles. Turn right off the curve onto the Indiana Creek 4WD road and head down the hill. In about a half mile turn left onto the Dyersville 4WD road. Boreas Pass Rd
In 1880 Father Dyer was living in Breckenridge and took in two young prospectors as boarders. He decided to join them on a prospecting trip that spring north of Breckenridge up Indiana Creek. They found promising ore and all but Thompson headed back to Breakenridge. Thompson kept looking and eventually staked a claim that Dyer suspected was on or near one he had staked earlier. The two merged their holdings and decided to look for a buyer. Thompson was offered $250 but Dyer told him to hold out for $1000. They did get an offer for that amount and sold the claims.
The resulting mine was the Warrior's Mark Mine which opened in the summer of 1881 and employed 50 men. In just six months over $75,000 of silver ore was removed from the mine. The Warrior's Mark Mine did operate until the 1900's, but the ore did finally run out and the mine was abandonded.
Father Dyer ended up founding a small town below the mine along the upper part of Indiana Creek. He built a 17 foot by 17 foot story and a half cabin in what was to become Dyersville, to get away from the gambling, prostitution and lawlessness in Breckenridge. A store opened in Dyersville as well, the Adamson's Blue Front Store, and a school was built, and naturally a saloon, the Angele's Rest, was started. With the closing of the Warrior's Mark Mine in the early 1900's the town was shortly abandoned as well.
Jessen, Kenneth Ghost Towns Colorado Style, Volumn 1, 1st ed. Loveland, Colorado: J.V. Publications, 1998. Print.
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Town of Dyersville photo by: Adam Mehlberg |
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Their is one large cabin still standing with no roof and the remains of another.
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Town of Dyersville photo by: Adam Mehlberg |
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To the east and southwest are mines. The one to the east is just across the creek from the town site and up a steep hill. The mine up the road to the southwest is the Warrior's Mark Mine.