St. Elmo no longer remains as an actual
town, but many people believe that the ghosts of former residents
haunt this little ghost town in Colorado. St. Elmo was located near
where 285 runs today, right at the base of Chalk Creek.
In 1878 the small town was formed as
Forrest City. Before long the name was changed to St. Elmo, but this
little town still perseveres. Stepping into the town today, you get
the feeling that time has stood still. While other similar towns have
disappeared over the years, this one is still in fantastic condition.
Some people believe this is because the town's founders and residents
still keep an eye on things.
The town already had a fairly large
population when a man named Anton Stark arrived there in 1881. Stark
and his wife Anna immediately set to work making themselves known in
St. Elmo. Anna maintained the local general store, as well as a small
hotel that served the nearby railroad.
Anna was known for being cold and
ignoring the locals. The family had some money, and she seemed to
believe that made them better than the others in town. She even
prohibited her children from spending time with local children.
Despite that she also held high hopes for the town. When the local
mines closed and people began moving away, Anna firmly believed that
things would change and even bought up local properties for extremely
small prices. By the 1920's though the town of St. Elmo was all but
dead.
The Stark family held on for a number
of years, but finally it became clear that things were not going to
change. Finally Anna allowed her daughter Annabelle to work in a
nearby town, though she wasn't happy at the decision.
Not long after moving to the new town
Annabelle met a young man and the two decided to get married. Ward
was a fairly good man, but for some reason the marriage never
materialized. Annabelle eventually moved back to St. Elmo where she
would stay this time. After her mother and older brother died in
1934, Annabelle and her brother Tony were the last two people
remaining in the little ghost town of St. Elmo.
The conditions the two of them lived in
were deplorable, and many people thought the two were suffering from
mental problems as well. There was no running water, and no
electricity in the hotel where the two lived. The two would wear the
same clothing for days or weeks at a time, and took to hoarding
everything they could find. Annabelle even took to carrying her gun
with her at all times, for protection.
Finally friends of the family had the
two admitted to a mental institution. Though the two probably should
have spent more time there, they were released after less than three
weeks. After her brother's death, Annabelle went to a nursing home
where she eventually passed away. The buildings they owned in St.
Elmo, which amounted to nearly everything, was left to a friend.
That friend was the first to notice
something strange about St. Elmo. While visiting the hotel, she was
stunned to see the doors shut on their own, and the room turn icy
cold. The woman brought along her grandchildren, and they refused to
ever step inside the hotel again.
Another of the grandchildren set about
cleaning up the hotel with some friends. No matter where they left
things the night before, they would always return the next morning to
find them stacked in the middle of the room. This happened every
morning without fail. Some people would have stopped all together,
but the girl didn't seem to mind. She, and her friends, began to
think that it was Anna, trying to offer a helping hand, even in
death.
After several years people began
noticing a young woman in one of the windows along the second floor
of the hotel. Several people have spotted her there over the years,
and many are convinced this is the ghost of Annabelle.
Today there are a handful of people who
still live in St. Elmo a few months out of the year, though there
seem to be far more ghosts than there are actual residents.
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