Wander the West

Redstone, Colorado

	The Crystal River at Redstone

2006

Redstone, Colorado is a town of just about a hundred people on highway 133 in western Colorado. The town is mostly situated on a single road that parallels the highway and the Crystal River. Redstone is a quaint and beautiful town, and has always been one of my favorite stops in Colorado. The historic Redstone Inn anchors the town on the south side, and many galleries, shops and restaurants line the road, many of them right on the river.

Redstone was originally a coal mining town, evident from the coke ovens directly across the highway. From an interpretive sign on highway 133:

Redstone may just have been a company town, but what a company town - the "Ruby of the Rockies," as one newspaper called it. Founded by Charles Osgood in 1901, Redstone embodied Osgood's grand vision: a model working class town, scientifically engineered to promote contentment and well-being among laboring folk and their families. Its several hundred worker-residents had access to a range of edifying assets, including a bandstand, theater, dairy, schoolhouse, communal garden, and chaste social club. They lived in tidy cottages and called their company store "The Palace" - symbolizing their stake in Osgood's great fortune. But when his fortunes turned for the worse, so did Redstone's. By 1911 the town had been abandoned. It remained largely empty until the 1980's, when a developer reopened the Redstone Inn as a tourist resort. It didn't turn out the way Osgood planned it, but Redstone remains a sparkling mountain gem.

The town of Marble is just five miles up the Crystal River Valley from Redstone, and both can be enjoyed in a single day of travel.

Click here to view the Redstone Colorado photo gallery

- Aaron Walton