Crystal, CO Photo - Crystal Mill, one of The Most-Photographed (Though Most Difficult to Reach) Historic Sites in Colorado.

Crystal Mill, one of the most-photographed (though most difficult to reach) historic sites in Colorado. It sits in what is now mostly a ghost town, whose few residents leave the area in the brutal winters of the High Rockies. The settlement is reachable by four-wheel-drive vehicle along a narrow, rock-strewn road hugging a precipice. Crystal was incorporated on July 8, 1881 but mined as early as the 1860s. At its peak, Crystal had more than 400 residents, two newspapers, a pool hall, a men's club, a barber shop and two hotels. Miners sought silver, lead, copper, iron, and zinc. Very little gold has been discovered.

Carol M. Highsmith (born 1946) is a photographer, author, and publisher who has photographed all 50 of the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico for 30 years. She specializes in documenting architecture, ranging from the monumental to the everyday and whimsical. Highsmith is donating her life ’s work of more than 100,000 images, copyright-free, to the Library of Congress, which established a rare one-person archive. Out of 14 million images, the Carol M. Highsmith collection is featured in the top six alongside of Mathew Brady and Dorethea Lange. Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.