The Mary Murphy began like many other mines in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. During the early 1870s, scattered gold and silver discoveries on the west side of the Arkansas River valley drew prospectors into the Collegiate Peaks. Such prospectors included John Royal, Abner E. Wright, and a third individual who headed up the Chalk Creek drainage in 1873. There they found a mineralized vein that carried gold, silver, and industrial metals, and the party claimed it as the Mary Murphy.

The Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, along with its successors the Denver, Leadville & Gunnison and the Colorado & Southern, faced heavy operating costs, particularly on the Alpine Tunnel District portion of its route.

The building, with Queen Anne detailing, is a well-preserved and interesting combination of log and frame construction.

The Alpine Tunnel Historic District includes approximately 13 miles of the former Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad railbed across the Continental Divide from Hancock to Quartz, as well as the Alpine Tunnel itself. 

St. Elmo owes its existence to the development of silver mining, which began in the Chalk Creek area in the 1870s.  Originally platted as Forest City, its brief era of prosperity occurred during the 1880s with the coming of the Denver South Park & Pacific and the Denver & Rio Grande railroads.

The Pushor Building on Main Street of the National Historic Register district of St. Elmo is one of the first commercial buildings constructed during St. Elmo’s mining boom days.

Built in 1882, the Cash Criss Building in St. Elmo was home to Reuben Cash, a lawyer from Missouri. 

The American House Hotel was a successful hotel built in 1880 in the mining boom town of St. Elmo. 

Built in 1882, the Cash Criss Building in St. Elmo was home to Reuben Cash, a lawyer from Missouri. He practiced law and lived there until 1886, when he moved to Buena Vista. In 1887, local store owner James Criss purchased the building. As St. Elmo’s mining fortunes began to decline, the Stark family began purchasing buildings around town in order to stave off their abandonment and collapse. Eventually the Cash Criss Building was donated to Historic St. Elmo and Chalk Creek Canyon Inc.

Historic St. Elmo and Chalk Creek Canyon, Inc. will begin the stabilization of the Home Comfort Hotel, which was built between 1882 and 1884. The hotel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building to the St. Elmo Historic District, and is significant for its vernacular style, details from the Italianate style, and its association with the mining industry.