Keystone, CO – A Colorado land developer has arranged a deal with the U.S. Forest Service to swap a Summit County ghost town for prime real estate abutting Keystone Resort’s River Run gondola.

Following 13 years of negotiations, Keystone local Gary Miller has consummated a deal to exchange the soon-to-be-abandoned town of Chihuahua along Peru Creek for the 21 acres of valuable slopeside real estate at the popular Colorado ski resort. Twenty-four residences are planned for the property, to be built by Crestwood Homes at a rate of three or four per year, depending on market demand.

Developers expect to break ground on the first home within the next 30 to 60 days. The new neighborhood will be named Dercum’s Dash, in honor of the route that Keystone founders Max and Edna Dercum followed to return to their home after a day of skiing. That route runs right through the development parcel.

Chihuahua was founded as a mining town in the late 1880s, but was abandoned several years later after a fire swept through the area and no one has lived there for decades. It is located several miles east of Keystone, just east of the tiny hamlet of Montezuma.

Miller purchased the property in the late 1990s to save it from development as a proposed campground. Development rights still existed in the town for up to 500 residential units, but the state has now initiated proceedings to officially abandon the town and integration into the National Forest will protect the land from any future development.