Abandoned Towns
Sunrise in July 1926: rows of company houses along a dirt road below a hillside scarred by mining, with a headframe at right

Other mining and oil town

Sunrise

From 1899 to 1980 Sunrise was a company town of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, digging iron ore for the steel mills of Pueblo. It closed in 1980. The town and mine are now privately owned, and a local preservation society runs tours with the owner's permission.

42°19′55″N 104°42′11″W · ≈4,920 ft

Photo: Burchard, E. F., Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Private: visits by permission or arranged tour

Sunrise is privately owned. In July 2025, Cowboy State Daily wrote that to visit "you will need Voight's permission, or arrange a tour with SHAPPS." SHAPPS, which has the owner's permission to give tours, offers private tours by request at $200 for one to ten people, plus $20 for each extra person, and asks for plenty of notice. Its only regular tour is a yearly one. Call 307-331-8810 or see shapps.org. Don't drive in on your own.

Overview

A model company town for a steel company

A company store at Sunrise, photographed by J. E. Stimson in 1903
A company store at Sunrise, photographed by J. E. Stimson in 1903 · Photo: Stimson, Joseph Elam, 1870-1952, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Sunrise sits in the hills a mile east of Hartville, on Wyoming 318. Copper drew the first miners in the 1880s, but the hill held iron, and in 1898 the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company leased the claims to feed its steel works at Pueblo, Colorado. The railroad arrived in 1900, and CF&I bought the mine outright in 1904. It built a company town to go with it: houses, boarding houses, a depot, a school, churches and shops. The company owned everything, so there was a superintendent instead of a mayor, and no one, not even the superintendent, owned a house.

In 1914 the Ludlow Massacre at CF&I's coal camps in Colorado badly damaged the reputation of the company and of the Rockefeller family, which controlled it. John D. Rockefeller Jr. answered with reforms, and Sunrise got brick houses, a hospital, parks and, in 1917, Wyoming's first YMCA, with a three-lane bowling alley, a basketball court and a theater. In 1928 the mine employed 547 people. The ore came first from an open pit, the Glory Hole, and later from underground, and over the years the mine produced 40 million tons, more than any other CF&I mine.

Falling ore quality and a weak steel market closed the mine and the town in 1980. The buildings were vandalized and the property was sold for back taxes. John Voight, a Wyoming businessman, bought it in 2011 and has been reroofing the brick houses. He gave the YMCA to the Sunrise Historic and Prehistoric Preservation Society, which is turning it into a museum. The hill also holds Powars II, a red ochre mine that Paleoindians worked about 13,000 to 14,000 years ago, according to the reports we read; state reclamation crews nearly destroyed it in 1986.

Timeline

Copper, iron and a closed gate

  1. The Hartville district is a copper camp. SHAPPS says Ichabod Bartlett began mining here in 1881 and later found the Sunrise deposits.
  2. Charles Guernsey takes over the Sunrise mine (1889, per SHAPPS) and founds the Wyoming Railway and Iron Company to mine iron (1890, per Wikipedia).
  3. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) leases the claims and begins mining iron ore in 1899.
  4. The Colorado and Wyoming Railroad reaches Sunrise. Ore goes about 375 miles south to CF&I's steel works in Pueblo, Colorado.
  5. CF&I buys the whole mine and builds a company town: housing, boarding houses, depots, a school, churches and shops.
  6. SHAPPS dates the glory-hole mining of the open pit to these years. Wikipedia says underground block caving began in 1930 and that by World War II all mining was underground.
  7. After the Ludlow Massacre at CF&I's Colorado coal mines in 1914, John D. Rockefeller Jr. pays for better housing, a hospital and Wyoming's first YMCA, which opens on August 18, 1917.
  8. The mine employs 547 people.
  9. CF&I closes the mine and the town. Over its life the mine has produced 40 million tons of iron ore, more than any other CF&I mine. A 2023 report dates the last cleanup crew's final day to 1983.
  10. State reclamation of the site comes within a day or so of bulldozing the Powars II site, a Paleoindian red ochre mine. Archaeologists stop the work in time.
  11. The Sunrise Mine Historic District, 20 buildings, 14 sites and 5 structures, is listed on the National Register (Wikipedia gives December 23; SHAPPS gives July 8).
  12. John Voight buys the town and mine, which had been sold for back taxes.
  13. The Sunrise Historic and Prehistoric Preservation Society (SHAPPS) is founded. Voight gives it the YMCA, which it is turning into a museum.
  14. SHAPPS hosts a free artifact fair at Sunrise on October 3 and offers private tours by arrangement.

What's left

The YMCA, the bosses' houses and the Glory Hole

Sunrise in July 1926, photographed for the U.S. Geological Survey
Sunrise in July 1926, photographed for the U.S. Geological Survey · Photo: Burchard, E. F., Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Cowboy State Daily found many brick buildings still standing in 2023, among them the YMCA and the mine bosses' houses, along with the plant that sorted ore from the mine. The Glory Hole is now a lake, stocked with bass. SHAPPS's mine page shows the boiler house, coal storage building, laboratory, hoist house and the Dry, where miners changed, and a cabin from the Guernsey home that was moved near the entrance. The YMCA has a new roof; its bowling alley still has the old pin-setting gear, and displays include mammoth remains from the Jewett site and a fluorescent rock collection. SHAPPS lists no regular museum hours.

The USGS maps below show the town come and go. The 1896 sheet marks only "Iron Mines" east of Hartville; by 1901 the name Sunrise is on the map. The 1950 sheet shows the town in its working years, with blocks of houses, a water tank, rail sidings and a mine dump to the west, and the pit north of town marked as an inactive mine. On the 1990 sheet only a few buildings remain and a pond is drawn in the pit.

  • YMCA (1917), now a museum in progress
  • Brick houses of the mine bosses
  • Boiler house, coal storage, laboratory
  • Hoist house and the Dry
  • Ore sorting plant
  • Glory Hole, now a lake
  • Powars II ochre mine (archaeological site)
USGS topographic map of Sunrise: roads in a valley below a large water-filled pit, with Sunrise Hill and a smaller pond to the northeast
USGS The National Map, topo. Sunrise sits in the valley just south of the flooded Glory Hole. The road to Hartville leaves to the west; Sunrise Hill is at upper right.
Aerial view of Sunrise: a dark pit lake, red mine dumps and roads to the east, and scattered buildings along the roads below
Aerial imagery, same area. The Glory Hole is the dark lake at top. Red mine ground and dumps spread east of it, and the remaining buildings stand along the roads to the south and west.

Historic maps

Sunrise on USGS maps, 1896–1990

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 Sunrise, 1896
Hartville sheet, 1896, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Guernsey is the nearest town with services, 7.5 miles and about 13 minutes away by US 26, WY 270 and WY 318 through Hartville. From Cheyenne, I-25 north and US 26 east through Guernsey join the same road. The routes end at the townsite, which is private: use them only for a tour arranged with SHAPPS, and ask where to meet. They are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

USGS topographic map between Guernsey, Hartville and Sunrise with the route 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 Guernsey7.5 miabout 13 min
  1. Head east on East Whalen Street (US 26), which becomes Highway 26.1.3 mi
  2. Turn left on State Highway 270 (WY 270) to Hartville.4.5 mi
  3. Turn sharp right on Main Street (WY 318), bear left on Grant Street, then right on the Sunrise Highway (WY 318).1.5 mi
  4. Turn left, then bear left into the townsite. Private: tours by arrangement only.0.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Sunrise is private. The routes show the way to the townsite for an arranged tour; they are not permission to enter.
  • SHAPPS meets tour groups by arrangement; ask where to meet when you book.

Photos

Sunrise in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Sunrise?

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 Sunrise

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Sunrise, Wyoming", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, Guernsey's company in 1890, the 1898 lease and 1904 purchase, the company town, Ludlow and the reforms, 547 employees in 1928, mining methods, the 1980 closing, 40 million tons, the December 23, 2005 listing, WYO 318 and Hartville.
  2. Sunrise Historic and Prehistoric Preservation Society (SHAPPS), read October 20, 2026: key dates from 1881 to 2019 and contact details; tours (private ownership, owner's permission, $200 for 1–10 people, $20 each extra); CF&I mine (Bartlett, Guernsey, the 1900 railroad, Pueblo, the glory hole, surviving mine buildings); YMCA (August 18, 1917, the building, its restoration and displays, the July 8, 2005 listing and district counts); 2026 events.
  3. Tom Lubnau, "Tour Of Sunrise Should Be On Your Bucket List," Cowboy State Daily, July 2, 2025: access by Voight's permission or a SHAPPS tour, the 2011 purchase after a tax sale, the company town, the YMCA, the closing and vandalism, Powars II.
  4. Renée Jean, Cowboy State Daily, July 1, 2023: the remaining brick buildings and ore sorting plant, reroofing, the Glory Hole lake, the superintendent and company housing, the 1983–1984 end of cleanup, Powars II and the 1986 reclamation.
  5. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below each one. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits