Photograph of Independence — Photograph by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Independence and Independence Mill Site

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

One of 38 National Register listings published here for Pitkin County · listed in 1973 · category: District.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

Address. On CO 82, in White River National Forest, Ghost Town, 81611
When was it listed? April 1973
Category. district
Census division. Aspen
National Register reference number. 73000484 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

7 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Independence and Independence Mill Site between 1995 and 2020, burning about 1 acre in total. 3 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	4
Natural	3

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
15 September 2019	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	White River National Forest	LOST MAN
27 August 2010	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	White River National Forest	LINCOLN CREEK
21 August 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	White River National Forest	WELLER LAKE
16 August 1995	Natural	under an acre	White River National Forest	INDEPENDENCE MTN
10 August 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	White River National Forest	LINCOLN CREEK
1 August 2004	Natural	under an acre	White River National Forest	LOST MAN
21 June 2002	Natural	under an acre	White River National Forest	GRIZZLY RESEVOIR

Every fire recorded in Pitkin County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Independence and Independence Mill Site: 11 past producers, 3 occurrences, 2 producers, 1 prospect. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Lead, Silver, Gold, Gold, Silver, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Lone Star	Gold, Zinc, Lead	Past Producer
Mountain Boy	Barium-Barite	Producer
Stewart Mine	Gold, Zinc, Lead, Silver	Prospect	Altaite, Arsenopyrite, Chalcopyrite, Galena, Gold, Pyrite, Pyrrhotite, Sphalerite
Unknown	Lead, Zinc, Silver	Occurrence
Unknown	Silver, Lead, Zinc	Occurrence
Unknown	Lead, Silver, Zinc	Past Producer
Eureka	Manganese	Past Producer
Saturday Night	Manganese	Past Producer
Independence District	Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead	Producer	1879, 1951
Independence Mine	Gold, Silver, Copper	Past Producer	1879

Every working recorded in Pitkin County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73000484 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Pitkin County	All 38 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.