Cabin in Crystal, Colorado, a virtual ghost town in a valley on the upper Crystal River in Gunnison County, on a precipitous, four-wheel-drive-only road between Marble and Crested Butte. Many buildings still stand in Crystal, but its few residents live there only in the summer. Crystal was incorporated in 1881 but mined as early as the 1860s. At its peak, Crystal had more than 400 residents in town and the surrounding mining claims, two newspapers, a pool hall, a men's club, a barber shop, and two hotels. By 1915, only eight people had lived there after the silver, lead, copper, iron, and zinc mines had played out. Tourists and photographers often take Jeep tours up to Crystal from Marble to see the quaint Crystal Mill, which is actually an early, crude compressor site that used the rushing Crystal River to power various mining machinery in the high valley. Photo by Carol Highsmith.