The Ghosts of San Telmo, Colorado

In 1881, Anton Stark, a rancher, became so infatuated with the town of St. Elmo that he and his family quickly settled in. Anton became section chief of one of the local mines and his wife, Anna, ran a general store and the Home Comfort Hotel, which later became home to the post and telegraph office.

Anton and Anna raised three children in St. Elmo, Tony, Roy, and Annabelle, who worked in the hotel and store. The hotel was said to be the cleanest in town, the meals the best, and the supplies in the store more plentiful than in the other establishments.

The Stark family was part of the elite of St. Elmo. Anna was said to be a humorless woman who severely controlled the children, believing them to be better than the other townspeople: miners, railwaymen, prostitutes, and tough women. The children were rarely allowed to leave the house, forbidden to attend local dances or social activities, and had only one another for company.

The failure of numerous mines and the closure of the Alpine Tunnel in 1910 began the decline of San Telmo. But the Stark family stayed, believing that St. Elmo would prosper again, buying properties in the tax sales.

For many years, Roy and Tony Stark tried to influence the developers to reopen the mines, but when they were unsuccessful, they turned to tourism, renting out the empty cabins to vacationers, and continuing to run the general store.

After Anton Stark’s death, Anna realized that the tourist trade in St. Elmo was not supporting the family and sent Annabelle to work at the telegraph office in Salida, 20 miles south of St. Elmo. .

Before long, Annabelle met a young man named Ward and in 1922 they were married. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t work out and just two short years later she returned to St. Elmo, where she spent the rest of her life.

The three eccentric Stark children, along with their mother, continued to run the general store and rent cabins to tourists, though the general condition of the town deteriorated. By 1930, the population of St. Elmo had been reduced to just seven.

In 1934, Roy Stark passed away and his mother, Anna, died a short time later. The only residents left were Annabelle and Tony, who lived in the dead town with no plumbing or electricity. The store, which is said to have had a “sour smell,” contained discolored cans of expired food and stale tobacco.

Although Annabell was always said to be kind and generous to the few who still frequented the store, the locals began calling her “Dirty Annie” because of her dirty clothes and tangled hair. She was also known to roam the old town, rifle in hand, to protect her property.

Eventually Tony and Annabelle were sent to a mental institution. However, after a few weeks, a sympathetic friend convinced the authorities that no one was being harmed, and they were released.

Tony died a short time later, and Annabelle was sent to a nursing home in 1958, where she died in 1960. Their property was left in the hands of the understanding friend who had helped them.

Shortly after Annabelle’s death, the friend’s grandchildren were said to be playing in a hotel room, when suddenly all the doors in the room slammed shut and the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees. The terrified children refused to play in the hotel again.

Another of the grandchildren, a young woman in her twenties, decided to take on the hotel as a project, cleaning the rooms, doing minor repairs, and washing the walls and floors. After cleaning for the day, she and her friends would put away their tools and cleaning supplies, only to find them in the middle of the floor when they returned the next day. After this continued to happen, they started putting the items in a locked cabinet, but it would still be in the middle of the floor when they got back.