Tag
mining history
32 Porch Notes tagged “mining history,” from counties across Colorado.
History and culture - San Miguel County
Telluride's old town is a recognized mining-era historic district
Telluride's historic core is recognized as a National Historic Landmark District tied to Colorado's hard-rock mining era, which shapes how the town looks and what owners can change.
Read note ->History and culture - Clear Creek County
The Argo Mill and Tunnel tell Idaho Springs' gold story
The Argo Mill and Tunnel above Idaho Springs is a preserved gold-era landmark that once drained and processed ore from mines across the district.
Read note ->History and culture - Clear Creek County
Georgetown and Silver Plume are a protected piece of mining history
The towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume and the railroad between them form a federally recognized historic district tied to Colorado's silver-mining past.
Read note ->History and culture - Hinsdale County
Lake City exists because of mining on land taken from the Ute people
Lake City grew as a mining supply town in the 1870s on land the Ute people were forced to cede, history worth understanding plainly.
Read note ->History and culture - Lake County
Leadville is home to the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville tells the story of American mining from a former school building in town.
Read note ->History and culture - Gunnison County
Crystal Mill: the wooden powerhouse on the Crystal River
An 1892 wooden powerhouse perched on a rock outcrop above the Crystal River, in the old mining town of Crystal east of Marble, and one of Colorado's most photographed historic structures.
Read note ->History and culture - Mineral County
Creede grew up around a silver rush, and the town still shows it
Creede began as a late-1800s silver boomtown, and that mining past explains the town's setting in a narrow canyon and the old workings in the hills above it.
Read note ->History and culture - La Plata County
Durango exists because of a railroad and the mines it served
The narrow-gauge railroad between Durango and Silverton was built to move ore from the San Juan mines, and it helps explain why Durango sits where it does.
Read note ->History and culture - Boulder County
Boulder County's mountain towns grew up around mining
Many of Boulder County's foothills and mountain communities trace their start to the hard-rock mining era, a story preserved at sites like Nederland and Caribou.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire - Boulder County
Caribou Ranch mixes high meadows, wetlands, and mining traces
Caribou Ranch is a high montane open space above Nederland, mixing forests, meadows, wetlands, streams, abundant wildlife, and old mining traces.
Read note ->History and culture - Gilpin County
Central City and Black Hawk grew out of an 1859 gold strike
Gilpin County's main towns trace back to an 1859 gold discovery in Gregory Gulch, one of the events that pulled prospectors into the Colorado mountains.
Read note ->History and culture - Mineral County
Creede Carved Its Fire Station Into the Canyon Wall
After fire took the town more than once, Creede put its firehouse inside the cliff at the head of Main Street, where trucks wait in rock tunnels.
Read note ->History and culture - Mineral County
Creede's silver boom drew the outlaws, and one of them is buried here
When silver brought 10,000 people to Creede in the early 1890s, it also brought a rogue's gallery of Old West names, including Bob Ford, who was shot dead in a Creede saloon in 1892.
Read note ->History and culture - Custer County
Custer County started with silver and settled into ranching
Silver Cliff and nearby camps grew from an 1870s mining rush, and when the ore played out the Wet Mountain Valley turned to hay and cattle.
Read note ->History and culture - Clear Creek County
The hot springs that put the "Springs" in Idaho Springs
The steaming geothermal water that drew a prospector here in 1859 still feeds a soaking spot you can visit today.
Read note ->History and culture - Ouray County
Why Ouray sits where it does: gold, silver, and the San Juans
Ouray County grew up around late-1800s hardrock mining in the San Juan Mountains, and that history still shapes the towns, roads, and old workings you see today.
Read note ->History and culture - San Juan County
Mayflower Mill: Silverton's ore mill still set up to run
Two miles outside Silverton, the Mayflower Mill keeps its original 1930 ore-processing machinery in place, and the historical society opens it for self-guided summer tours.
Read note ->History and culture - Lake County
Riding the High Line Out of Leadville
A seasonal scenic train climbs an old mining grade out of Leadville for big views of Colorado's two tallest peaks.
Read note ->History and culture - Lake County
The Matchless Mine and the cabin where Baby Doe Tabor held on
A short drive up from downtown Leadville, a guided surface tour of Horace Tabor's silver mine ends at the spare cabin where his widow lived out her last decades.
Read note ->History and culture - Teller County
Victor: the gold district's quieter, lived-in twin
A few miles from Cripple Creek, Victor is a walkable 1890s gold-boom town where brick streets, Lowell Thomas's hometown museum, and an overlook onto old and modern mining still tell the story.
Read note ->History and culture - San Juan County
Why Silverton sits where it does: hard-rock mining in the San Juans
Silverton grew up as a hard-rock mining town in the high San Juan Mountains, and that mining past still shapes the county's roads, sites, and identity.
Read note ->History and culture - Pitkin County
Aspen began as a silver mining camp
Aspen grew out of a 1880s silver boom in the Roaring Fork Valley, and the 1893 silver crash that followed shaped the town long before skiing arrived.
Read note ->History and culture - Gunnison County
Coal, ore, and rail explain the Gunnison Country map
Mining and the railroads that served it help explain why Gunnison, Crested Butte, and the smaller camps sit where they do.
Read note ->History and culture - Park County
Fairplay was born in the gold rush, and Alma grew with the mines that followed
Fairplay began as a gold-rush camp, Alma grew later as a supply and smelting town for nearby mines, and the mining era still shapes the towns, place names, and disturbed ground around South Park.
Read note ->History and culture - Garfield County
New Castle was a coal town, and an old mine fire still smolders underground
New Castle grew as a coal-mining town, and after a deadly 1896 mine explosion, an underground coal-seam fire has burned in nearby Burning Mountain for over a century.
Read note ->History and culture - Dolores County
Rico and the railroad: why a mountain town sits in Dolores County
Rico grew from a silver strike and a narrow-gauge railroad that ran over Lizard Head Pass, which is why a former mining town anchors the county's mountainous east end.
Read note ->History and culture - Park County
South Park City in Fairplay is a town rebuilt from Park County's lost mining camps
South Park City Museum at the west end of Fairplay's Front Street is an open-air museum of historic buildings moved in from the county's vanished mining camps.
Read note ->History and culture - Hinsdale County
The Hinsdale County Museum keeps Lake City's mining-era story
The Hinsdale County Museum in Lake City, run by the county historical society, gathers the area's mining-era history in an 1877 downtown building.
Read note ->History and culture - San Miguel County
The powerhouse above Bridal Veil Falls is a piece of electrical history
The Smuggler-Union (Bridal Veil) hydroelectric powerhouse perched above Telluride's Bridal Veil Falls is tied to the early use of alternating-current power for mining.
Read note ->History and culture - Mineral County
Walk Inside an 1891 Silver Mine on Creede's Amethyst Vein
The Last Chance Mine near Creede lets you walk inside a real 1891 silver mine and see purple amethyst still in the rock wall.
Read note ->History and culture - Park County
Guffey, the Mining Town That Elects a Cat
A former gold camp in Park County's south end keeps a famous, honorary tradition of electing animals as mayor.
Read note ->History and culture - Grand County
Lulu City is a ghost town at the top of the Colorado River
Lulu City was a short-lived silver-mining town near the Colorado River headwaters, and its ruins now sit inside Rocky Mountain National Park.
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