Ward (elevation 9,450 ft / 2880 m) is a town in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The population was 169 at the 2000 census. The town is a former mining settlement founded in 1860 in the wake of the discovery of gold at nearby Gold Hill. Once one of the richest towns in the state during the Colorado Gold Rush, it is located on a mountainside at the top of Left Hand Canyon, near the Peak-to-Peak Highway (Colorado State Highway 72) northwest of Boulder.
The town is well-known in the region for its rustic feel as an anti-establishment counterculture mountain community, with residents forming an enclosed community wary of outsiders. The town is likewise often viewed with suspicion and puzzlement even by many citizens of liberal-leaning Boulder. The town has received both admiration for its acceptance of outcasts and social misfits, as well as criticism as being a lawless haven for drug users, criminals, and the mentally ill. It also boasts the highest concentration of Ph.D. degree holders in the U.S.
Its high elevation renders it snowbound in heavy snows, with snow lingering throughout much of the springtime. Its abundance of dilapidated buildings from the 19th century heyday, including two churches that date from the 1890s, has made it an off-beat tourist attraction in recent decades, and is sometimes erroneously described as a ghost town. In addition to the many decaying buildings, the town is filled with rusted out and broken down cars, giving it the feeling of a large junkyard. Its location at the top of Left Hand Canyon also makes it a frequent destination for recreational bicyclists from nearby Boulder. A persistent popular rumor has circulated for many years that the town is located atop a rich vein of gold, and that it should be evacuated and razed to extract the ore.
The town was named for Calvin Ward, who prospected a claim on the site known as Miser's Dream. The town boomed the following year with the discovery by Byrus W. Deardorff of the Columbia vein. Over the next several decades the population fluctuated, growing from several hundred to several thousand before declining once again. The mines in the area remained profitable for many decades, with one mine eventually producing over 2 million ounces (57 t) of silver. The city was incorporated in June 1896. The railroad reached the area in 1898, arriving over the Whiplash and Switzerland Trail, which climbed over 4,000 feet (1220 m) from Boulder over the course of 26 miles (42 km). In 1901 over 50 buildings were destroyed by a devastating fire, although the profitability of the mines led to the immediate rebuilding of the town. The town was largely deserted by the 1920s, but the construction of the Peak-to-Peak Highway in the 1930s led to a revival of the town.
It is also the reputed final resting place of Ralph Ganger, founder of The Circuit, who died there in 1972.
The town has several businesses along its main street, including a coffee shop and general store.
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