Throughout Teller County, history lovers can find abandoned towns and forgotten main streets that once bustled with life and commerce. Even before Teller was carved from surrounding counties, the scenic mountains and lucrative mines of the gold rush era brought thousands of settlers and attracted resort owners and tycoons eager to exploit the rich setting. Seemingly overnight, towns in the Cripple Creek District and other places popped up, flush with gold and people looking for opportunity. As the ore disappeared, the miners moved on in search of the next big lode. One by one, the towns were all but forgotten. Join Jan MacKell Collins and discover the booming history, lost towns and hardy settlers of Teller County. Throughout Teller County, history lovers can find abandoned towns and forgotten main streets that once bustled with life and commerce. Even before Teller was carved from surrounding counties, the scenic mountains and lucrative mines of the Gold Rush era brought thousands of settlers and attracted resort owners and tycoons eager to exploit the rich setting. --Pikes Peak Bulletin Jan MacKell Collins is a historian whose work focuses on the more interesting aspects of the West. Author of several books and over two thousand articles, her writing has appeared in such magazines as Colorado Central, Kiva, Frontier Gazette, True West and others. In 2010 and 2011 she was a nominee for the WILLA award by Women Writing the West for her 2009 book Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains, and as a contributor for the 2010 anthology Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West.