Mining
Mining and speculation have been a constant in the Gunnison Country since Capt. John Gunnison visited the area in 1853. Silver, Gold, Coal and recently Molybdenum have been the source of great excitement and ultimately disappointment as the fluctuating market values of each caused boom and then bust.
Although many smaller mines dotted the Gunnison Country, the main activity can be narrowed down to a few places and times. The Gunnison Gold Belt is located in the southern part of the county bordered by the Gunnison and Tomichi Rivers, the Lake Fork and Cochetopa Creek.
The towns of Iris, Vulcan, Golddale, Midway and Spencer stood testament to the thousands of miners that flocked to the area with the hopes of getting rich.
The south central mountains of Colorado is well known for the short lived and often exciting history that surrounds the silver fever that enveloped the area. In the Gunnison Country, the Silver Boom was largely concentrated in the north end of the valley in and around Crested Butte. The Elk Mountains were home to mining camps such as Gothic, Ruby-Irwin, Oh-Be-Joyful, Washington Gulch, Poverty Gulch, Pittsburg and Elkton.
Crested Butte served as a staging and supply town for the mining camps but was not itself part of the somewhat romantic silver and gold rush. Crested Butte endured because its mines produced coal of very high quality. In addition, the other successful coal mining towns were located up Ohio Creek and included Kubler, Castleton and Baldwin.
The Big Mine, in Crested Butte, closed in 1952. The Keystone mine hung on from the mid 50’s to the mid 60’s and was a versatile operation producing good quantities of lead, zinc, copper and silver. Its closure was the end of mining in the Gunnison Country and soon skiing and tourism would become the hard rock currency of Gunnison County.
Today the possibilities of a molybdenum mine are quite real above Crested Butte on Mt. Emmons (aka the Red Lady) Over the last 15 years locals have fought in legal battles to prevent mining from returning to the upper Gunnison River Valley. On the other side of Kebler Pass in the town of Sommerset coal mining still reigns king in this geographically remote part of Gunnison County.
