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There’s a considerable coal mining culture here in the old coal regions of the Appalachian Mountains……notably in West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky……and in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana in the Rockies. Ironically, the private company which accidentally blew out the old plug at the Gold King Mine and turned the Animas River yellow had been contracted for mine waste remediation by the US Environmental Protection Agency.Īlan….I enjoyed your description of experiences in the coal mining region. After a few seconds, pictures come up on their website: You can probably book your Silverton accommodations from the UK….LOL. “Grand Imperial Hotel….Your Basecamp For Adventure since 1883” : The new old place looks pretty nice inside though. Since the place was recently purchased and refurbished by the people who own and operate the Durango to Silverton scenic railroad, the new owners are surely more interested in attracting tourists than in authentic restoration. ? The place fit in better in the old days. Mauve just doesn’t work in the old west I’d say. Tris……Yes, it occurred to me that the old hotel in Silverton looks a little garish. He is doing his best.'”Īn account of Wilde’s visit to Leadville on his famous American tour. Over the piano was printed a notice – ‘Please do not shoot the pianist. Wilde later recounted a visit to a local saloon, “where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Dougan invited Wilde to tour the Matchless Mine and name its new lode “The Oscar”. In 1882, Oscar Wilde gave a lecture at the Tabor opera House (still in operation.) They became wealthy from Little Jonny gold mine……long before her passage on the Titanic and life as a Denver socialite. The Unsinkable Molly Brown was in Leadville as the teenage wife of a mining engineer named James J. Doc Holiday went to Leadville to deal cards after the gunfight at the OK Corral, and killed a guy in a gunfight. It has a colorful old west history with gun slingers, saloons, and brothels. Leadville is a larger place (2010 population, 2602) which was once in the running with Denver as the Colorado state capital. In 2015, workers for an environmental restoration company caused the release of toxic waste water from the Gold King Mine into the Animas River. Remediation of the toxic waste from the old abandoned mines is a business in Silverton. There are hotel accommodations in small town Silverton (637 people in 2010) at the Grand Imperial Hotel (from 1883), newly refurbished by the people who own the Durango-Silverton railroad. Interesting places!įor some Silverton and Leadville history……. PS: I looked up Leadhill and Wanlockhead. It occurred to me that I was 1,000 ft higher than the altitude at which WWII pilots in unpressurized airplanes used oxygen. I walked briskly, slightly uphill across the parking area and realized I was gasping for breath. At the West Portal of the tunnel, I drove off and parked at an observation point to take pictures. The high speed four-lane tunnel is at 11,000 ft, (cutting 1,000 ft off the route of an old two-lane highway over Loveland pass at 12,000 ft,) and is the highest point of the entire US Interstate highway system. Denver is called the “Mile High City,” and has a bronze plaque in a concrete riser on the steps of the Colorado state capitol with an inscribed line marked “5,280 ft.” I can breathe in Denver OK, but when I first drove over the high ridge of the Rockies west of the city, I drove through the Eisenhower Tunnel on US Interstate Highway 70. Otherwise, I suppose people prefer to live at lower altitudes that have better access to transportation and supplies and social amenities, and (in the case of the high altitude Colorado Rockies,) more air to breathe. The towns are now national historic sites and mostly live on tourism and skiing. During WWII, molybdenum mining at Leadville became important and is still going on. It was large deposits of lead that caused a rush to the region and led to the founding of the town in 1877. Gold mining was started at Leadville in 1859, and silver was mined too. Placer gold was first discovered in the Animas River outside Silverton as early as 1860, and deep rock deposits of silver were discovered in 1873, with deep rock gold in the 1880’s. Lots of gold and silver and other metals came out of the high Colorado Rockies in the 19th century, and well into the 20th century.
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Alan….That’s very interesting history! It does seem that high altitude settlements often begin as mining camps.