Great post!
I was in silverton about 20 years ago, it was one of the coolest places I’d been. The town was almost completely deserted, the streets were all dirt/mud and every building along the Main Street drag had a raised wooden porch just like in a western. The bar/saloon was all original too.
Went back 6 or so years later and the streets were paved and the town was overrun by tourists on 4 wheelers and giant 4x4s.
The road out behind silverton that goes up to the old mines is really cool. Everything is stained red from the iron in the soil. Lots of old mining carts, tracks, tools and construction up that way too, just left to rot wherever it was the day the mine closed.