Haunted at Timberline Home

Crystal City is famous for its Crystal Mill. The opening photo, video, and virtual tour show the Crystal Mill. Actually, the Crystal Mill isn't a mill at all, but a defunct hydro-electric plant. (Contrast this hydro-electric plant with the somewhat more modern one in Telluride.) Over the years, through some confusion that started long ago, the Crystal hydro-electric plant has come to generally be known as a mill. In its heyday it harvested the power of the Crystal River to drive the bustle of activity in Crystal City and the city's vast mining operations. Some sources say that it was used exclusively as a compressor for powering hard rock drilling in the mines up on Sheep Mountain. Several of the remaining buildings in Crystal City are shown below. Most of Crystal's buildings are occupied during the summer by seasonal locals, including Roger A. Neal, who has spent some fifty summers in Crystal, frightening folks with his Crystal ghost stories that are also captured in his book Creepy Crystal Tales.