The town of Red Mountain (with three town-sites about one mile apart) originated with silver strikes in the valley below the mountains known by that name—three pyramidal peaks with bright slopes of oxidized iron. The Solid Muldoon reported on March 9, 1883: “Five weeks ago the site where Red Mt. now stands was woodland covered with heavy spruce timber. Today, hotels, printing offices, groceries, meat markets, a telephone office, saloons, and dance houses are up and booming.…” By 1913 the town gave up its ghost—and its post office—but it has been immortalized in David Lavender's historical novel Red Mountain. Following decades of fire and ice, little remains except the dilapi-dated shaft houses of the two largest mines, the National Belle and the Yankee Girl. Along U.S. 550 on the south side of Red Mountain Pass the giant, century-old Idarado Mine, complete with company housing, offices, and loading apparatus, is largely intact, awaiting a revival.