Crested Butte: From Coal Camp to Ski TownLike many old mountain mining communities, Crested Butte began life in the feverous excitement of a Colorado gold and silver mining camp, only to see the rich discoveries quickly disappear. However, unlike so many communities that became ghost towns, Crested Butte switched to mining the huge local deposits of top quality coal. Through both good times and bad, the coal mining was carried on until the 1950s. Then Crested Butte slid quickly into "ghost