Crystal Tale Books

(The publishing company is based out of Elkhart, IN but book sale transactions are often made in Crystal, CO).
Perhaps the best decision I ever made was to add the hike from Marble, Colorado to the Old Crystal Mill and the ghost town of Crystal, Colorado on my vacation agenda when I went to The Rockies. The hike in to Crystal took about 1 ½ — 2 hours and it was difficult to locate the trail head in Marble. Actually had to ask a local and she pointed me in the right direction. She directed me to head up «butt buster hill», and boy, she was right! Fortunately for me, the next couple of hours awarded me beautiful views as I walked along the side of the mountain looking down into the valley. The pinnacle of my trip being the Old Crystal Mill; a turn-​of-​the-​19^th-​century water turbine mill, just outside of the ghost town miner’s camp of Crystal.
About that «ghost town»… I was shocked to see that it did have some inhabitants, one of which being Roger Neal, author of a series of books named «Creepy Crystal Tales» he was peddling (Crystal Tale Books). Being a huge supporter of local everything, I had to pick up a few books while there. I was always a big fan of the «Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark» books when I was a kid, and was hopeful these stories would be just as creepy. They were pretty good, a little on the erie side, but not great. One particular story about a wolverine meticulously and viciously attacking a hunter wasn’t too bad.
More shocking then seeing a business with open doors in a ghost town, one of which was located in an area inaccessibly except by 4×4, ATV, horseback or foot, and still only passable during the snowless summer months, was that Neal took credit cards! The shop was literally in the middle of nowhere and you could buy ghost stories with plastic. Unreal.