Historic Georgetown at the Hamill House

                     PRESERVATION  *  ENRICHMENT  *  CONSERVATION

There's something special about an old house - whether it's a sense of place and time, personal history, or simply the joy of craftsmanship found in old buildings. Historic Georgetown helps protect those places that tell the story of a remarkable little town known as the Silver Queen of the Rockies.

Georgetown-Silver Plume National
Historic Landmark District

In the early 1950s, the first efforts were made to preserve Georgetown's remaining 19th-century buildings as historic resources. The importance of Georgetown's place in history was given national recognition in 1966 by the Department of the Interior. Through the National Park Service, the towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume were recognized as a National Historic Landmark District (NHLD) and protected to help tell the story of the American West.  Historic Georgetown was formed as a private non-profit organization in 1970 to assist in the efforts to preserve and interpret Georgetown's mining past. While federal, state, local government and local organizations work to restore landmark sites, most of Georgetown's 200 19th-century structures are privately owned, protected, and preserved by local citizens. Today, Georgetown is a study in history, architecture, and historic preservation in addition to being a living 21st-century community.  The NHLD encompasses both Georgetown and Silver Plume, the narrow-gauge railroad that straddles the high valley between the two towns, along with some of the mountainsides that surround the high-mountain villages.


Open Lands

The entire Rocky Mountain region is known for its majestic views, and Georgetown is no exception. The town is base camp to some amazing hiking trails, mountain biking terrain, scenic drives, peaceful lakes, and unmatched vistas. Historic Georgetown holds over 2,000 acres of open lands that are maintained for the recreational use of the public. Most of these lands are preserved for non-motorized use, but some, including Saxon Mt. Road, are open to motorized vehicles. The organization prides itself on its partnerships and programs that promote our local trail systems in and around the NHLD. Please enjoy yourself while on our lands, but please remember to pack out whatever you packed in. And equally important, please leave historic artifacts behind for others to enjoy as they belong to all of us.