From Salida
Turret was a gold camp that was discovered very late—in 1897—and experienced a boom the following spring. It was located on the south side of Nipple Mountain (which is a spur of Turret Mountain) in a valley at the head of Cat Gulch. The Rocky Mountain News for May 14, 1898, carried a long article describing the excitement in “Turret City” and the possibilities of the various lodes.
Houses were going up fast, and lots were in great demand. Stores, an assay office and saloons were doing business, and a hotel was planned. A post office was open, and daily mail was arriving from Salida. The article was exuberant at the gold showing in hematite, jasper and schist and spoke of the Monterrey lode as having great promise.
The town’s population, after the usual boomers and drifters departed, was around three or four hundred. In 1900 the Denver Republican ran an article devoted largely to Turret’s mines and spoke of the mineralization being in the “Salida Copper Belt” and of the Gold Bug mine’s fine shipments of ore. The town was prospering.
By 1907 the population had slipped to two hundred fifty. Still it hung on with a steady flow of gold, gradually lessening to a trickle, until 1939 when there were but twenty-six residents. In 1941 the post office was discontinued, and finally Turret died.
Steve Frazee, prolific Colorado author, two of whose books have become films (Gold of the Seven Saints and Many Rivers to Cross) and whose 1961 offering was More Damn Tourists, has this provocative recollection:
N. W. Meigs, 1902; Virgil Jackson Collection
TURRET FACED THE COLLEGIATE RANGE
The cliffs which gave Turret its name are to the rear of the photographer in both shots. These photos look across the Arkansas Valley to Shavano and Antero Peaks. When the 1902 picture was taken, Turret had a population of one hundred ninety-five and was reached by stage from Salida. Note the residences on the hill at the far end of the main street where the 1960 shot caught a sod roof and amateur chimney.