Here was a town that should have succeeded but didn't. The site was in the heart of rich farming land, it was situated on two railroads, nearby mountains abounded in wild game for the hunter, and it was close to other towns. Colfax never really blossomed but it did stay alive for about twenty-five years from 1908 to 1933.

The Great Depression of 1929 sealed its fate when gasoline prices forced people to give up driving. Most moved to one of nearby larger towns such as Dawson, Raton, Springer, and Cimarron which offered greater advantages. Still, the town offers today a forlorn and uniquely picturesque cluster of buildings of considerable interest.

Reported Phenomena

The Weeping Lady of Colfax is the apparition of a woman who appears in the back row of the combination church and schoolhouse here. Her spirit still grieves for her young son, who died of an unknown illness in the late 1800's.

Inconsolable grief killed the mother within a few months of her son's death. Reported phenomena include sounds of sobbing, the cries of a young boy and unseen footsteps are heard in the church/schoolhouse. On occasion, the mother appears as a ball of light that floats and wanders through the abandoned town.

The apparition of the same woman has also been spotted around the ruins of the town and seen by motorists walking north along the freeway. A smell that is "similar to roses" and feelings of profound sadness are often associated with the ghost. She is described as haggard in appearance wearing a long grey dress. She appears solid and is often mistaken as a hitchhiker by passing motorists. When the curious pull over to offer assistance, she has already vanished.

There are also two reports of "glowing balls of light" that have been seen moving about the ruins when the moon is full.

This picture on the left was taken of the schoolhouse in 1995. The amount of deterioration is very visible when compared to the other picture above it. Some of the damage appears to have been caused by vandalism.

The schoolhouse collapsed in 1999 and this investigation's purpose was to see if the collapse of the building has had any impact on the paranormal activity of the area.

Other sections of the ghost town have weathered badly as well.

The Investigation

The remains of the schoolhouse

We arrived at Colfax at 10:00pm and performed a general EM sweep of the area. there was little to no traffic on Highway 64 giving us a good opportunity to investigate any mysterious lights should they appear.

During the EM sweep we picked up odd fluctuations on the Trifield meter, a magnetic field that bounced up and down between 6 and 9 microtesla. Initially we thought that the readings may be caused by fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field at this site or by space weather abnormalities.

On our second pass through, the readings were not present and research done after the hunt reveled that the space weather was unsettled but no electromagnetic storms had occurred.

We also registered some odd readings in the microwave range near one of the old train cars that is on the site.

Initial Conclusions