Maysville, CO, was a town on the D&RG(W)'s Monarch Branch.

In 1879, Nicholas Creede discovered silver deposits in Limestone Mountain (today known as Monarch Mountain). This set off a small mining boom along the South Arkansas River drainage leading towards modern day Monarch Pass. At the confluence of the North and South Forks of the South Arkansas River - near the western end of the valley where the land really began to climb towards the Continental Divide - twin mining camps of Maysville and Crazy Camp were built. Maysville became the eastern toll gate for the toll road leading towards the minds of Monarch Pass.

Never a company to miss building a line to a mining camp, the Denver & Rio Grande installed a narrow gauge branch - then called the Maysville Branch - into town in 1881 as a spur from the Marshall Pass line at Poncha Junction. With rail transportation, Maysville was the town that got the smelter and thus, eventually subsumed its smaller twin in 1893.

The Silver Panic of 1893? essentially ended any precious metal mining around the Maysville area, but a steady flow of flux rock for CF&I from the Monarch quarry kept the rails through town busy until 1982. By 1984, the branch was abandoned and the rails removed.

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Categories: Locations