Old Mining Days

US 550 between Ouray and Silverton crosses Red Mountain Pass and weaves its way through an area rich in Colorado mining history. Old mines, buildings, tracks and roads cover this region and combine to tell a story of the hard lives that labored to bring out riches from these rugged mountains in the form of gold, sliver, lead, copper and zinc.

Some time in the early 1900’s, an unknown person or persons constructed ten clapboard homes for use in the mining camp at Eureka, located northeast of Silverton along the Animas River. According to an article posted by Kelsey Nistel in April 2023, “when the Sunnyside Mine went bankrupt in 1948, the Idarado Mining Company purchased the homes and moved them to the Red Mountain location. The dwellings were remodeled and used to house Idarado mine employees. From 1948-1978, a total of twelve families lived in the homes. The Idarado Mine provided a station wagon that took the kids who lived at these houses down to school in Ouray each day. Once the mine shut down, families began moving out of the area. As a result, four of the Idarado Houses have been sitting vacant for 40 years, the other eight have since been demolished.” Of those four remaining structures, The “Hammond’s Hotel housed single men, next to it was the Griffith’s – Noel house, then there was the “Newlywed home” and finally the “Bachelor’s House.” The Trust for Land Restoration in partnership with Ouray County and the Ouray County Historical Society have worked to restore and maintain these homes as representative of life in the earlier 20th century mining camps.

We captured this scene on the same snowy day as “Between Seasons,” “Colliding Seasons,” “Solitude” and “Aspens in the Fog,” at the height of fall colors along Red Mountain, Molas and Coal Bank passes -  a nice combination of history and color.