Seemingly just like every abandoned place in the USA, St. Elmo was a gold and silver mining town. Back in 1880, the town was named "Forest City", but since every other town was named the same way, it was changed to St. Elmo by one of the founding fathers, Griffith Evans, who was reading a novel with the same title. The town was at its peak in 1890 but the mining industry started to decline in the early 1920s. In 1922, the railroad discontinued service and once the mining industry was shut down, the town population started to decrease dramatically. Nowadays, St. Elmo is considered a ghost town (although the town is still inhabited) and is mostly a tourist destination. St. Elmo is also considered to be one of Colorado's best-preserved ghost towns.