Coolest mining ruins you've ran into?

[Ryan987]

What have been some of the coolest mining structures or landscape you've ran into on your teeners journey?

Disclaimer for readers here - don't enter mining tunnels, they are some of the most dangerous places on earth.

[justiner]

Probably the view between McNamee and Clinton Peak. The mining on Bartlett Mountain is pretty crazy, but the pit just to the SW goes down at least 600 feet. You don't get any sense of that from the road.

Seeing the massive tailing piles left around Alma/Fairplay -- or even off the Blue River bike path near Breckenridge is always wild. Sometimes you see a shaker deck going through them. The old timers used fairly primitive equipment and the price of gold wasn't anywhere what it is now, so it can actually be profitable now to reprocess it to grab the gold they left. Big gamble to do so, though.

Peter showed me the "mine claim" near the East Longs Peak trail -- it's not anything much to look at, but it sure is a curiosity. Mining wasn't very profitable in that area -- one of the reasons why HAVE (for the time being...) a National Park. Enos Mills writes in 1897, ""There are thousands of claims, and like lottery tickets, most of them are not only worthless but expensive. The piles of worthless rock dug out of valueless claims are but monuments of wasted work; while the stakes marking their boundaries are standing like headstones above buried hope . . . What a terrible plague is the gold fever!""

There's a terrible gully on the west side of Ganely Mountain near Grays Peak. You can use it to descend to the summer trailhead, but it's not very fun. Vestiges of mining activity can be seen, including quite the foundation near the base. I'm fairly sure they had a tram going up most of the gully, which is wild to even imagine. The mining works on the other side (east) are pretty substantial. I've passed workers with enormous stock of what amounts to sodium bicarbonate that they lay in the creeks to bring the PH level neutralized. They do something similar up in Summitvillle CO in the San Juans, which was a creep ghost town to pass in the middle of the night on a bike.

Kroger's Canteen (iykyk) was a pass I backpacked up after getting off a 12 hour bus odyssey from Boulder. I summited Sneffels the next morning, and re-ascended the pass, which is when I realized the mine just below Kroger's is VERY much active.

I've slept on more mining waste material than I can remember.

Edit: a word

[Monte Meals]

^ "sodium bicarbonate that they lay in the creeks to bring the PH level down."

Not to be picky - but perhaps to neutralize the acid mine drainage and bring the pH UP

[justiner]

Whoop! Yup -- what I wrote was very confusing -- I'll fix that inline.

[PJ88]

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I don't think this is a mining ruin, but any idea what this is? Found this up by Skeleton Gulch in RMNP a few years back.

[planet54]

I am old enough to have seen the Hilltop Mine on Mt Sherman before the ore loading ramp collapsed. It was probably late 80s . The second photo shows a partial collapse from another angle later on.

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[jibler]

ok now this is my kind of thread!

loves the spooky and forlorn stuff all around.


and i too can vouch for those Mt Sherman stuff - I was up there on amazing full moon hike and was coming back down by those like in pics above - only moonlight shining on them.

was all around pretty freaky actually. but in a cool way.


i will need to circle back. i can't think of more now.

in fact the only thing i can think of is this time in montana - i was driving this friend up to a lookout and we are going by this barite mine.

and i say "That's a barite mine"


and he says "thats' a bear"


and I say "No, barite mine"

and he says "no bear"


and he was right - there was a bear down by the old barite mine.


but it was like an old school who's on first. i still think of that one.

[d_baker]

For me, the "coolest" was my first which was Oil Creek tunnel on Pikes.
Myself and a former caretaker of Barr Camp, Thad, explored it a little by going in a ways. Not really sure how far we went, but we couldn't walk upright and I think I was likely nervous. We could still see daylight so we didn't go too far.
I think the entrance is closed off now.
Remnants of mining equipment on the outside had me thinking how tough those mules and miners were!

[Chicago Transplant]

Working in Architecture, I tend to like the buildings more than the mines or equipment. Recent stand out was the old cabin on the shoulder of Champion:

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My all time favorite is probably Cocomongo Mill in Bonanza (outside Villa Grove) on the way to the 13er Antora. The tower was really cool, these are from 2011 so hopefully its still as impressive all these years later.

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[d_baker]

^ Champion Mine building is cool!

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[d_baker]

I haven't been (over) there....but they sure look cool from a distance....

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[SnowAlien]

Animas Forks! There's a bunch there
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/peakstat ... cnum=25544