Abandoned Towns
A wide dirt street in Tincup with cabins, a white church with a steeple and a shop, below forested hills

Gold mining town

Tin Cup

A mining camp of 1879 named for a tin cup of gold, known early on for killing its marshals. It never fully emptied: the old town is now mostly summer cabins in a high mountain valley.

38°45′16″N 106°28′42″W · ≈10,170 ft

Photo: David Wilson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Summer community · 2026 video

Tincup is a lived-in community of mostly private summer cabins. The newest dated report, a visit video posted on September 12, 2026, shows the old homes used as summer cabins with signs saying they are privately owned, the cemetery, and Frenchy's Cafe busy with summer visitors. A second video, filmed on July 28, 2026, shows the same cafe and many ATVs in town. Stay on the public streets, and check road conditions with Gunnison County or the Forest Service before you go.

Overview

A tin cup of gold

The Tin Cup Store, 2008
The Tin Cup Store, 2008 · Photo: Plazak, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

In October 1859 a prospector named Jim Taylor panned gold from Willow Creek and carried it back to camp in a tin cup. The valley took the name Tin Cup Gulch. For almost twenty years men came only to work the gravels, and no one stayed the year round.

Lode discoveries in 1878 changed that. Virginia City was laid out in March 1879, and the 1880 census counted 1,495 people. Confusion with Virginia City, Nevada, and Virginia City, Montana, led the town to reincorporate as Tin Cup in 1882. It was a rough place. One marshal died in a gunfight in 1882 and another was shot dead in 1883. The 4x4explore history credits the town around 1882 with 20 saloons, five grocery stores and four hotels.

With no railroad, hauling ore out was costly, and the town was shrinking within a few years. The Gold Cup Mine closed in 1917, the post office in January 1918, and the town held its last election the same year. Cabins along the old streets are now mostly summer homes. South of town, the cemetery is divided among four knolls: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Boot Hill.

Timeline

From Virginia City to Tincup

Tincup on Willow Creek, 1955 USGS sheet
Tincup on Willow Creek, 1955 USGS sheet · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. Prospector Jim Taylor pans gold from Willow Creek and carries it back to camp in a tin cup. The valley becomes Tin Cup Gulch.
  2. Placer mining only, and no one stays the year round.
  3. Lode deposits are found.
  4. Virginia City is laid out. Its post office, called Virginia, opens on July 22.
  5. The census counts 1,495 people. The post office is renamed Tin Cup on February 28, and the town incorporates as Virginia City in August.
  6. Confused with Virginia City, Nevada, and Virginia City, Montana, the town reincorporates as Tin Cup.
  7. Marshal Harry Rivers dies in a gunfight in 1882. Marshal Andy Jameson is shot dead in 1883.
  8. With no railroad in the valley and high hauling costs, the town is already declining, by 4x4explore's history.
  9. The post office name becomes Tincup.
  10. The Gold Cup Mine closes.
  11. The post office closes on January 31, and the last town election is held.

What's left

What you'll see

Tincup's old buildings line a grid of wide dirt streets, and most of them are private cabins. Look from the road. Uncover Colorado, in a page first posted in 2018 with no visit date, says all the historic buildings are privately owned and lists a seasonal general store and a small cafe as the only businesses.

The cemetery lies about half a mile south of town and uphill, by JewishGen's description. A county cemetery survey from 1988 lists four knolls: Protestant to the north, Catholic in the center, plus a Jewish knoll and Boot Hill, whose positions the survey gives two different ways. JewishGen notes wooden footbridges across the forks of a stream between the knolls.

The 1955 USGS sheet in the historic maps below shows the town grid where West Willow Creek meets East Willow Creek, with prospects marked on the hill to the northeast. The 1960 sheet zooms out to Taylor Park Reservoir to the northwest, Mirror Lake and Tincup Pass to the east, and Cumberland Pass to the south.

  • Old storefronts and cabins
  • Tin Cup Store
  • Cemetery on four knolls, including Boot Hill
USGS topographic map of Tincup where Willow Creek, East Willow Creek and Middle Willow Creek meet
USGS The National Map, topo. Tincup sits where East Willow Creek and Middle Willow Creek join Willow Creek. Road 267 heads east and 765 runs north and south.
Aerial view of Tincup's cabins on a street grid in a meadow ringed by forest
Aerial imagery, same area. Cabins line the old street grid in the meadow.

Historic maps

Tin Cup on USGS maps, 1955–1960

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Tin Cup, 1955
Mount Harvard sheet, 1955, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Gunnison is the nearest city. The route runs north on CO 135, up the Taylor River past Taylor Park Reservoir, then south on Cumberland Pass Road to town. From Denver, the summer route crosses Cottonwood Pass from Buena Vista. We haven't driven either.

USGS topographic map of Taylor Park and Tincup with the routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Gunnison40.8 miabout 1 h 30 min
  1. From downtown Gunnison, take Main Street (CO 135) north.10.1 mi
  2. Turn right onto Taylor River Road (CR 742) and follow it up Taylor Canyon.23.0 mi
  3. Turn right onto Cumberland Pass Road (FR 765) and follow it into Tincup.7.7 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Cottonwood Pass closes in winter. Chaffee and Gunnison counties closed it for the 2025–26 winter at 9 a.m. on Monday, November 3, 2025, by Ark Valley Voice's October 29, 2025 report, and county crews planned to reopen it on Thursday, May 21, 2026, weather permitting, by Heart of the Rockies Radio's May 18 report. Check this year's closing date before planning the Denver route.
  • Uncover Colorado says that once the snow comes, "the pass and town are only accessible by snowmobile." The page gives no visit date, and we found no official winter road report for Tincup.
  • Tincup Pass, east of town, is a four-wheel-drive road to St. Elmo, rated moderate by 4x4explore. Its 2021 guide calls July and August the best months and says fall snow may close it in October.
  • Most buildings in Tincup are private cabins. Stay on the streets.

Photos

Tincup in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Tin Cup?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Tin Cup

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Colorado index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Tin Cup": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time).
  2. Wikipedia, "Tincup, Colorado", retrieved October 2026: the 1859 tin cup, Virginia City, post office names and dates, the 1880 census, incorporation and the name change, the marshals, the 1918 closing, coordinates.
  3. 4x4explore, "Tincup Pass", driven July 2021: saloons, stores and hotels around 1882, the decline, the Gold Cup Mine, summer homes, the pass road and its season.
  4. Gunnison County USGenWeb, Tin Cup cemetery, compiled 1988, revised 1992: the four knolls. JewishGen Cemetery Discovery Project, 2005, updated 2019: the cemetery's location and footbridges.
  5. Uncover Colorado, "Tincup", first posted 2018, no visit date: private buildings, seasonal businesses, winter access.
  6. RonBev Retirement Journeys, "Is Tincup, Colorado a ghost town?", YouTube, posted September 12, 2026 (summer visit, filming date not given): the drive in by Taylor River Road and County Road 765, homes used as summer cabins with signs saying they are privately owned, the cemetery knolls, Frenchy's Cafe open and busy, the store and the church. Keith Wiebe, "Tincup Colorado July 28 2026 and Historic Cemetery in the rain-oh and Cottonwood pass", YouTube, posted August 6, 2026: a meal at Frenchy's, many ATVs on the road, parking by the community center and church, the cemetery walk. Both checked against captions and storyboard frames.
  7. Ark Valley Voice, October 29, 2025: the 2025 Cottonwood Pass winter closure. Heart of the Rockies Radio, May 18, 2026: the planned 2026 reopening.
  8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits