Tent City

Tent City. Surviving in Independence. Early mining camps were typically temporary until the mining industry of the area proved successful. Material evidence from the archaeological survey indicates Independence was a classic example of such camps, with a large tent population rather than more permanent log structures. The residential tent platforms were set up "outside” of what became the official town plat, east of the main business district, to reduce the cost to miners., As the camp progressed, lots were sold by the developing town company to prospective residents as well as retail and service businesses. False fronts were added to businesses to portray a more prosperous community and tent platforms would have been replaced with a log cabin or stone structure for permanence., Towns were small, primitive and fairly quiet until a need for more services created greater demand. Like Independence, these camps became the center for commerce and communication for more solitary miners in the surrounding remote mountains. Most miners staked their claims outside of the town itself and came in periodically for supplies, news and entertainment with fellow prospectors., Naturalist Note: , With the retreat of the last glaciers 8,000 years ago, the valley and mountains became habitable for the black bear population. Bears winter in natural caverns on high slopes, insulated by thick fur and life-sustaining fat., Captions: , Left: Temporary tented buildings formed this community just outside of Aspen in the 1890s. , Right: An example of a fully timbered building next to a tented building in the late 1890s.