BONANZA

NAME: Bonanza
COUNTY: Saguache
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 5
CLIMATE: Cold winter with snow, cool summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT:
Summer
COMMENTS: Near Saguache.
REMAINS: A few original buildings.
Perhaps the only writer/author to have called Bonanza home is one Anne Ellis. Author of "The Life of an Ordinary Woman," she wrote of her life in Bonanza from age 6 to 16. She spoke of having lived in a one-room shanty, as did many other residents of the town. Then came a two-room cabin with a canvas ceiling that was also home for pack rats. She wrote of mule teams coming down from the mines and going back up loaded with supplies. She described the deep snow, the mud, the saloons, the "fast" women and most everything else that infested gold mining towns in the 80s. Some of the better mines of the day were Rawley, Bonanza and the Empress Josephine that yielded $7,000,000. Anne Ellis died in Denver. She was returned to Bonanza where she now rests among the aspen trees in the small cemetery. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.
Bonanza circa 1900
Courtesy Colorado State Historical Society

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