This Sacred Ancestral Colorado Land was Contaminated + Abandoned
Colorado has a lot of history, and not all of it is sunshine and rainbows. A site in Colorado that you may have never heard of is a bleak reminder of multiple unfortunate events that Coloradans would undoubtedly like to forget.
Keep scrolling to learn about, and take a virtual tour of a place shrouded in tragedy, Colorado's Valmont Butte.
History of Colorado's Valmont Butte
Valmont Butte was once a beautiful, natural wonder just outside of Boulder, Colorado. Long ago, it served as sacred land to the Arapahoe Tribe that inhabited the area and was home to an ancestral burial ground.
However, in the mid-1800s, Colorado's mining boom saw the area divided and much of it was converted into mining operations and a large mill. This also meant that the Native Americans were forced to abandon their sacred ground and relocate to places like Fort Laramie in Wyoming.
The mill began as a thriving operation, mining things like gold and fluorspar, but the area eventually became severely polluted and even radioactive. In fact, it became so bad that the drinking water of nearby Boulder became contaminated to the point that it was unsafe to drink and consequently the entire area and all of the operations were again abandoned.
What's Colorado's Valmont Butte Like Today?
Today, Valmont Butte is a sad shell of its former self. Sure, the butte itself is still beautiful, but the buildings and equipment that made up the mill have been left to rot.
Even worse, the ancestral burial ground once revered by the Arapahoe people is now nothing more than a desolate cemetery that is off-limits to the public and, according to some, haunted.
Keep scrolling to see what Colorado's Valmont Butte looks like today:
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