Climax, Colorado
ghost town in Lake County, Colorado, United States
Climax is an extinct mining company town, railroad station, and post office located in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The town site is located at an elevation of 11,341 feet (3,457 m) at Fremont Pass on the Continental Divide of the Americas. Climax's reason for being was its huge deposit of molybdenum ore. The Climax post office operated from 1887 until 1898, and from 1917 until 1974; the town was razed in 1962 to make way for the enlarging Climax mine, owned by Freeport-McMoRan.
From 1940 to 1972 the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) operated a High Altitude Observatory for solar research nearby.
History
The Climax station on the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad was the highest railroad station in North America from its construction in 1884 until 1904 and again from 1928 until it was removed in 1937. The Climax, Colorado, post office operated from April 22, 1887, until April 12, 1898, and then again from December 5, 1917, until January 7, 1974, despite the fact that the town was razed in 1962 to make room for the expansion of the Climax Molybdenum Mine, Climax had the highest elevation post office in the United States from April 1, 1919, until its closure on January 1, 1974.
Climax's reason for being is its huge deposit of molybdenum ore. The Climax mine was the largest molybdenum mine in the world, and for many years it supplied three-fourths of the world's supply of the metal. Over the years it evolved from "at times the largest underground mine in the world" into a pit mine.
“Climax, Colorado” enters the record as ghost town in Lake County, Colorado, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Climax, Colorado and ghost can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Climax, Colorado” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Climax, Colorado and ghost provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q637747. VIAF identifies the subject as 159759185. The Library of Congress control number is no98061452. Authority coordinates are 39.366, -106.186. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1898, 1917 and 1974.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Climax, Colorado”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Climax, Colorado primary sources, Climax, Colorado archive and Climax research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Climax, Colorado”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Climax, Colorado” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.