A sagging and scenic ghost town high in the mountains above Telluride may be brought back to life by developers hoping a place once populated by miners can become home to workers of another sort.
Silver Mountain Industries has asked Mountain Village to annex the 540 acres the company owns in and around the defunct mining town of Alta so the ghost town can become the centerpiece of an employee housing complex.
Hearty lift operators and snow-loving waitresses could live in cabins once home to gold miners or in new units that would copy the board-and- batten style of the historic cabins with their tin roofs and small front porches.
The proposal also calls for a lodge and the development of 71 homesites on surrounding land that offers stunning views of Mount Wilson.
The developers said they have no intention of scraping away the ghostly remains of the 1870s-era mining town.
The ramshackle leftovers of Alta would be used as a design template for rustic buildings they plan for the area.
They propose restoring some of the structures, including the much-photographed, grayed clapboard that was once was Rosie’s Boarding House, and using them as community buildings.
Also proposed are strict building codes for homeowners that would not allow large houses like the ones lining the lanes of Mountain Village.
“Think ‘Bonanza’ instead of Mountain Village,” said Silver Mountain president Patrick Bienvenue, referring to the set of the old TV western.
Previous development plans for a remote area that is beloved by Telluride residents and visited by tourists from around the world as a hiking, cross-country skiing, mountain biking and photography mecca sparked loud controversy. This time around, there have been few attacks.
“I think people are still in shock. People are still digesting it,” said Jim Russell, who owns the Alta Lakes Observatory, a guest house above Alta, accessible in winter only by snowmobile, snowshoes or helicopter.
Bienvenue said he prefers to think the quiet means that Silver Mountain’s plan is a good one.
Silver Mountain first came forward with development plans for Alta in 1997.
The public outcry and U.S. Forest Service objections sent the developers back to the drawing board. The new plan calls for more density but does not require building a road through the 2-mile swath of Forest Service land that divides Mountain Village from Alta.
The new plan would improve a twisting road that climbs 1,700 feet to Alta, which sits at 10,600 feet, in the 4 miles from Colorado 145.
The plan would maintain two-thirds of the total 850 acres Silver Mountain owns as open space and add badly needing employee housing.
If Mountain Village decides to annex the land proposed for development, the process could take more than a year.
Jim Adler, Mountain Village director of community development, said the review process will probably stretch into late summer, and public meetings even longer.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
