August 10-12, 1996: Colorado Mountain Weekend, Sweet Home Mine

One of many trip reports under the SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie Grow.
Email me at ajs@frii.com.
Last update: May 31, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1996_0719_SeeingSpace.htm)

A friend made the mistake of asking me, so I wrote the following, and just for fun I'll share it with you too...

No real hiking. Took my daughter (Megan Silverstein) out to camp, learn at Dinosaur Ridge, visit an annual rock show (in Buena Vista), play with ham radios, tour an underground mine (Sweet Home Mine near Alma), and sail on two different lakes! (Antero Reservoir and Lake Dillon.)

Saturday, Aug 10: We left home this morning at about 9 am with sailboat on car roof. Breakfast halfway to Denver, McD's. We spent ~2.5 hours walking ~2 miles out and back on the Dinosaur Ridge road west of Denver near Morrison -- road was closed once a month [now always], geologists and paleontologists on site at the interpretive signs to give talks and answer questions. Dinosaur footprints and bones visible in the hillside; quite fascinating.

Onward around 1:30 via Fairplay to Buena Vista in the Arkansas Valley heart of the Sawatch Range, 4 pm, for the annual Contin-tail rock swap at the fairground -- huge grassy flats at the base of Mount Princeton outside of town. About 100 RV-based booths selling rocks, jewelry, etc. Met friends there. Fun! Dinner in town, camped by car in tent near edge of fairground. Beautiful sky, some city lights, a few meteors. Nice sunrise on the mountains.

Sunday, Aug 11: More rock "hunting", total "damage" about $40, we had a good time. About 11:30 we met other ham radio operators to assist in coordinating the annual Gold Rush Days burro race: 19 contestants ran about 12 miles up and back on a rocky hillside trail alongside their balky burros. ("This is a great race. The only way they could improve it is by getting rid of the burros." :-)

We drove up to an old railroad grade above town with a great view, to count people and assist with communications. Lots of ham radio fun. Megan walked down the trail ~2 miles back to town (radios are great!) i met her there down there at about 5:30 after the last racer came through. (Winner's time was ~1:24, but the last straggler took ~4:30.)

Onward to Antero Reservoir in the boonies of South Park, surrounded by mountains. We sailed in brisk winds ~1.5 hours, ~2 miles across the lake, returned after sunset, and put up the tent. Vast open space, very dark, full of stars. Campfire, good sleep.

Monday, Aug 12: I got up at 3:30 to lay half out for 20 minutes and count 20 Perseid meteors, some of them spectacular. It was right near the peak of the shower, great location, probably the best meteor shower I'd ever seen (which wasn't saying much).

We drove home, but first nearly an hour through Fairplay and Alma to the Sweet Home Mine at 9 am to meet the Fort Collins Rockhounds Club for a private tour. (See below for details.) This was the site of the finding of the Alma King, the world's largest rhodochrosite crystal (deep red, ~1' across, fairly soft) on display at the Denver Museum. Slow start, but we got a half hour tour of the mine; mucky, muddy, dripping, dark, noisy, fascinating! And hunted on the tailing piles for pyrite and fluorite.

We drove up two more miles to Kite Lake... Rough road, gorgeous tundra scenery. Down to Breckenridge about 1:45 for late lunch. Then to Dillon Reservoir, ~8000', and we sailed for ~2:20 several miles down a valley to the main lake and back in strong, challenging winds. Pretty! From there at just past 6 pm, a 2.5 hour drive home over Loveland Pass, on the continental divide! I hope the picture of Megan in her swimsuit, with the boat on the roof, with the mountains below us in the distance, comes out well.

Sweet Home Mine tour:

Thanks to Kevin Boulter, the Fort Collins (Colorado) rockhounds club had a chance to tour the Sweet Home Mine! It was originally a silver prospect, now a source of rhodochrosite (manganese carbonate), including the world's largest specimen: The Alma King crystal, discovered in 1993(?), on display in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The mine was located about four miles west of Alma, which was six miles north of Fairplay on the road north over Hoosier Pass to Breckenridge.

About 15 people met at the mine Monday morning at 9 am. By the time we all had on our gear (hardhats, lamps, raincoats, boots) and the staff geologist(!) happened to come out of the mine, find us waiting, and give us a lecture about the local geology, we didn't enter the mine until 11 am.

The tour went in about 800' and lasted about 1/2 hour. We got to see the active face, with rhodochrosite and other crystals still in matrix, as well as numerous stopes, drifts, raises, and equipment. We passed by a cavity with massive fluorite exposed and were invited to pick up some. Before and after the tour there was also lots of time to hunt on the tailing piles for fluorite and pyrite, and to buy various specimens directly from the people running the mine at their shop outside the entrance.

Some random impressions:

• The mine used to go back nearly a mile on the main tunnel, with lots of side branches (drifts), but the entrance and the tunnels were still rather small and tight, mostly just wide enough to walk single file. It was dark, wet, muddy, dripping, and noisy in there (from the ventilation and drills). The hip boots, raincoats, and hardhats were necessities.

• The mine was no longer allowed to dump any new tailings outside, no matter what mitigative measures would be used. (This really surprised me.) Therefore all the rubble and muck was being packed into older parts of the mine, slowly making it smaller since the "swell" factor was about 2:1 for waste rock. They prioritized their digging against the need to fill in the tunnels! The Alma King crystal was found down a drift just before it was to be blocked off, and that entire drift was now full of muck. When the mine was full -- it closed.

  (Meanwhile, outside, the existing tailing pile continued to sit above and run off into the creek draining off Kite Lake... Go figure.)

• The staff at the mine was pretty small: 3-4 miners, a geologist, and a guy who did equipment maintenance, mostly outside, who used to be a miner but who had carpal tunnel surgery. It cost them ~$500K/year to operate the mine. It was leased by the operator from the owner.

All in all it was a fun and educational time. I was pleased and impressed by the owner's attitude (as conveyed by the workers), that mining should be fun as well as productive, that it was worth having a geologist on staff, that the employees could keep some lesser specimens for personal use or to sell for "beer money", and that people should be allowed to tour the site free of charge. (They had visitors 1-2 days/week.) It was quite low-key and homey.

(Next trip report: 1996_1208_PingreeTornado.htm)