Wordless Wednesday: Train Ride

Our ride on the Georgetown Loop Railroad last Sunday:

Across the Continental Divide, and the Silver Plume Mine

We have crossed the eastern Continental Divide many times, as it crosses over the eastern part of West Virginia, but I never really expected to stand on the western divide!

On our way to the railroad and silver mine on Sunday, we took a route that led us right over the divide. (Interstate 70 goes under the mountain here instead of over it, through a very long tunnel.)

Incredible views up here! And one beautiful granddaughter too. 😉

Bad Sarah! 

We took the train ride first, then it was into the mine!

Our tour guide, Brent, did an excellent, thorough job of explaining both the history and the hardships of the early silver-mining days. Larry was completely into this, as so many aspects of silver mining were exactly like coal mining. He grew up in a coal camp so he knew a lot about it, and he and Brent had some good conversations.  At the end Brent gave him a beautiful arrowhead, which he had found in the creek that ran through the mine site.

Looking inside the mine, where the roof was shored up with large timbers, then pieces of railroad track iron rails were hammered above the top beam to provide solid support. Every few feet of tunnel took months to complete, as of course all the work was done with hand tools and muscle.

Hardhat Larry!

An area called a drift, where miners followed a vein.

A system of cables, pulleys, and a big bucket called a kibble (a Cornish term) were used to lower miners into the deeper tunnels. Men hung on the bucket by putting one leg inside and one outside the bucket, so 4 could fit, tightly into the space--- with all their tools too. Sometimes a miner would lose his hold and fall of, or lose a leg or other body part on the way down. 

At this point, we were several hundred feet underground, and Interstate 70 was right over top of us! 

Can you imagine crawling back into this deep hole? 

Brent explaining the mine workings, and telling us about tommyknockers. Most of the early gold and silver miners in the US at this time were from Cornwall in England, and brought that superstition with them. (We heard tommyknocker stories when we were in Cornwall. The mines there were silver, tin, and coal mines, so the men knew the work.)

When this drill was introduced,  it sped up the drilling process significantly,  but produced a lot of dust.  Men who worked in the mine at that time had an average life expectancy of about 35 years. So sad! And all for a few other men to get very rich. Millions of dollars worth of silver came out of this mine, and would have been worth billions today. But the men who mined it were paid very little, and these mine companies paid in scrip, which had to be spent at the company's store. Goods were way overpriced, so miners were constantly in debt. No way out with a system like that!

This slimy substance on the rock below was called dragon snot by the Cornish miners, and it actually had some good health uses, such as curing dtomach aches. I am not sure what it actually is. There were, however, stalactites formed from the dripping water, so my guess is that it contained calcium, just like antacids like Tums. These miners called the mist that often came out of the mouth odmf the mine "dragon breath", and the walls of the mine were called dragon ribs. Makes sense, since dragons are common in Cornish and Welsh folklore.

It was good to get back outside!

We panned for gold at the end of the tour, but not in a creek.  All it was was some large animal feed troughs with water and sand in them. You scooped up the sand, then swished the sand out of one rubber pan into another, until all that was left was the gold bits. The gold was actual Colorado gold, and every person ended up with at least $10-12 worth of gold in the end, according to the guides. Here's Larry holding his tiny vial of water and gold kernels. The whole thing was rushed, but it was fun, especially when you saw the gold start to appear in your pan.

We didn't keep our gold--we gave it to Sarah's boyfriend's daughter, who was completely thrilled with the whole mine experience. 

We ended the day in a German restaurant, eating some amazing sausages--some made from wild boar meat, some from venison, some with Guinness beer, and the house recipe. These were accompanied by potato salad, pickled red cabbage, and sauerkraut, along with some really good mustard.

And then it was home to bed and a very good night's sleep.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Lakeside and Ghosts

48°f/9.8°C, light clouds. A few showers yesterday, but it was another nice day overall, while at home it's already 77°, but low humidity, which I am sure is much appreciated.

There is a large lake just a short walk from Sarah's house, which provides water for Boulder and other cities and towns. This year, because og the lack of snow last winter, the water level is 60 feet below normal. 

It is Sarah's big German Shepherd Glen's favorite place i think. He loves tge water, and actually had 2 walks to the lake Saturday to take a dip! Can you see the happy boy?

Because of the low water level, we found all sorts of odd men's. The town of Dillon used to be here, but that entire town was moved when the dam was constructed to create this lake. The town moved once before, in the late 1800's,  when the railroads were being built, because at their former location they would not have had rail service!

This shows the impact of the low water--- the resurfacing of an old roadside, and a long, long expanse of gravel.

The clouds were gorgeous,  signaling incoming rain.

Later in the day, we went into town to visit a rock shop. What a place! Larry had fun with a dinosaur outside.

 

Then on to this replica dredge boat for dinner. This boat is built on top of an original dredge boat that sank here. These boats were used to dredge the river for gold, and millions of dollars worth was pulled from the river and its banks back in tge mining heyday. While we were eating, it poured rain on one side of the boat, but the sun was shining on the other side! Crazy.

Our tour guide, Gail Westwood, awaited us after dinner. She told three stories right on this spot, of violent deaths that occurred around the boat. Those were not easy days for miners.

A stop at a former brothel, where two of the girls formed a suicide pact and took poison. One survived, and her ghost lingers, filled with guilt that her friend died and she didn't. 

Our group of 22 had a long walk, and I was so glad that Sarah's boyfriend Andy went to get the truck at the end so we didnt have to walk the mile and a half back. There were stops at a haunted store, a doctor's  office, a restaurant (where Andy once worked and experienced the ghost himself),

and last, the very haunted Brown Hotel. Appropriately, lightning kept flashing behind the house as we stood there hearing tales of the dark deeds that went on in this place, and that continue to occur. The Ghostbusters TV crew was here once, but i could find no episode filmed by them.. 

I tried to get a couple photos of the inside.

Outside the hotel, this big guy looked pretty fearsome. 

The hotel is now an Airbnb,  and can be rented for $3000 a night. There are beds for 14, so maybe it would ve worth it for a group of ghost hunters? Bit out of my budget.

You can read a good article about the tour and Gail Westwood here.

Then it was home, and another early bedtime as we were all pretty tired, but what a nice day it was.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.