During summer, this ghost town experiences heavy snowfall hence, summer would be the best time to visit. From Colorado your drive will be quite easy and once you arrive, you will have a chance to view some of the old buildings in this former town that has survived several winter seasons.

Apex came into being as a result of the discovery of gold in this area. In his prospecting expeditions, Richard Mackey found a gold outcropping in the 1870s but he had no money to work on the claim. Luckily enough, Mackey found a partner who helped him raise the funds that were required.

They went on to mine about $30,000 of gold and in what was a rather unfortunate incident, Mackey discovered his new found partner gone the next morning when he rose up taking with him the fortune they had worked on together. Mackey had nothing left to do other than to work tirelessly to find the vein but before he could realize success, he ran out of cash.

He had only two sticks of dynamite left and in this desperation, he planted the dynamite to close up the gaping hole. The next day as he was preparing to leave, Mackey thought of checking on what had become of the dynamite and surprisingly, the debris from the explosion was actually ore worth $1,800 per ton.

The aftermath was the establishment of a mill and the town of Apex with the main street of the latter having hotels, saloons and stores as is the case of other mining towns. Perhaps one of the most significant buildings is the old false-front building and it is amazing how it has survived many winter seasons without crushing down.

In addition to the existence of gold in the area, another factor that led to the rise of the town of Apex was the need to have a satellite town in the area and it specifically came into existence in 1891, which was exactly three decades after Nevadaville, Central City and Black Hawk. The town’s newspaper was called the Apex Pine Cone and by 1896, this town had reached its peak population.

A palace Dance Hall, the Apex School, a Miners Hall and at some point some churches were some of the building facilities that existed in the hay days of this city whose papers boasted of the town’s main street having 100 businesses. The Mackey was the name given to one of the mines in the city of Apex and it had been named after the original owner before it was leased out.

When the gold ore that had been sought for a long time was finally discovered after the consignment of $30,000 worth of gold was stolen, 1,000 sacks were orders from Denver on credit in addition to a wagon from a Central City livery stable. This marked the discovery of a great fortune and that being the case; all the bills owed including what was ordered on credit were paid off as the business thrived. Though only a few buildings remain, Apex town has a rich history that comes alive when one pays this ghost town a visit.