View allAll Photos Tagged miningtown
Cripple Creek is an historic mining town located high up in the Colorado Rockies. Founded in 1890 during the Colorado Gold Rush, ten years later it had a population of over 50,000. Today it is a popular tourist town, with casinos taking over most of the downtown buildings.
The Mountain View Hotel was built in 1895. President Herbert Hoover spent the night here in 1930.
The silver mining town of Pioche reached it's peak in the 1870's, when it had a population of about 6,000. Today around 1000 people live in town. It is a wonderful and historic frontier town to explore.
Mogollon 'ghost' town, located in the wild mountains of southwest New Mexico, visited September 8, 2014. Much to my disappointment, it was much more 'town' than 'ghost', with only a handful of abandoned buildings but several houses and a few businesses, lots of people about getting things fixed up and prepared for the winter. The drive up this location was more interesting than the town itself, one-lane hairpin curves carved out of the hillside. Mogollon boasted a population of several thousand in the late nineteenth century and produced many millions of dollars in gold and silver, but as with all these mining towns, eventually fell victim to played out mines and changing economic fortunes, as well as multiple fires and floods (a creek runs through the middle of the main street).
Stitched together from 37 photos. Coober Pedy is a town in the arid interior of South Australia. It has developed a unique culture and appearance. Dominated by the earthworks of opal mining, many homes and businesses are underground to escape the extreme heat. The town is fiiled with unusual collections of mining history, junk, and props and sets from old movies.
Title: Bird's-Eye View of English Camp, Central Part.
Creator: Bulmore, Robert R.; Winn, S.W.
Date: ca. 1885-1895
Part Of: Views of New Almaden
Place: New Almaden, Santa Clara County, California
Physical Description: 1 photographic print part of 1 volume (44 photoengravings and 1 photomechanical print); 15 x 19 cm on 24 x 32 cm
File: ag1997_1144_18_opt.jpg
Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.
For more information and to view the image in high resolution, see: digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/wes/...
Pioche Fire House (1865)
The silver mining town of Pioche reached it's peak in the 1870's, when it had a population of about 6,000. Today around 1000 people live in town. It is a wonderful and historic frontier town to explore.
Inside the Goldberg / McGovern Store
Virginia City was founded in 1863 when gold was discovered in Alder Gulch. By 1864 there were 10,000 people mining in the area. After the gold rush, the town quickly declined. Today, Virginia City is mostly a tourist town, with a year round population of around 200.
Title: Garden, Manager's Residence.
Creator: Bulmore, Robert R.; Winn, S.W.
Date: ca. 1885-1895
Part Of: Views of New Almaden
Place: New Almaden, Santa Clara County, California
Physical Description: 1 photographic print: part of 1 volume (44 photoengravings and 1 photomechanical print); 15 x 19 cm on 24 x 32 cm
File: ag1997_1144_04_opt.jpg
Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.
For more information and to view the image in high resolution, see: digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/wes/id/2595/rec/1
I know it's a cheesy title, but the old ghost town of Bodie is definitely worth a trip. The former mining town, located at an elevation of over 8,000 feet is now a California Historic Park.
More of my pictures from the Eastern Sierra Mountains can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157606897213537/...
Mogollon 'ghost' town, located in the wild mountains of southwest New Mexico, visited September 8, 2014. Much to my disappointment, it was much more 'town' than 'ghost', with only a handful of abandoned buildings but several houses and a few businesses, lots of people about getting things fixed up and prepared for the winter. The drive up this location was more interesting than the town itself, one-lane hairpin curves carved out of the hillside. Mogollon boasted a population of several thousand in the late nineteenth century and produced many millions of dollars in gold and silver, but as with all these mining towns, eventually fell victim to played out mines and changing economic fortunes, as well as multiple fires and floods (a creek runs through the middle of the main street).
The Pioche Aerial Tramway operated in the 1920's and 1930's carrying ore from the mines on Treasure Hill to Godbe Mill.
The silver mining town of Pioche reached it's peak in the 1870's, when it had a population of about 6,000. Today around 1000 people live in town. It is a wonderful and historic frontier town to explore.
Located along busy Interstate 70 in the Colorado Rockies foothils west of Denver, Idaho Springs was founded in 1859 during the Colorado Gold Rush.
Gilman, Colorado. An abandoned mining town. If you've ever seen the movie Silent Hill...which I wish I had not....this town made me think of that movie. Pretty eerie.
Here's a little info I borrowed from Wikipedia:
Several mining operations had sprouted along Battle Mountain by 1879, the first year of the Colorado Silver Boom. The town of Gilman and nearby mining operations were developed in the 1880s by John Clinton, a prospector, judge, and speculator from nearby Redclliff. In 1887, gold and silver were discovered in two vertical chimneys at the Ground Hog Mine, which continued to produced gold and silver ore until the 1920s.
The town population was a few hundred in the 1960s. At one time, the town had an infirmary, grocery store, and bowling alley. The town experienced labor strife several time in the 1950s, partly inflamed by the out-of-state corporate ownership. By 1970, total production at the mines was 10 million tons of ore; 393,000 troy ounces (12,200 kg) of gold; 66,000,000 troy ounces (2,100,000 kg) of silver; 105,000 tons of copper; 148,000 tons of lead; and 858,000 tons of zinc.
After the closure of the mine and the abandonment of the town, a 235-acre (0.95 km2) area, which included 8 million tons of mine waste, were designated a Superfund site by the EPA and placed on the National Priorities List in 1986. According to the EPA, the mining operations left large amounts of arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc in the soil, and led to large fish kills in the Eagle River and threatened drinking water in the town of Minturn downstream on the Eagle River. The clean-up plan, implemented beginning in 1988 included plugging and flooding the Eagle Mine, collecting and treating mine and ground water in a new treatment plant, as well as removing, treating and capping the mine waste products. A report by the EPA in 2000 concluded that clean-up operations had substantially reduced public health risks and improved the water quality in the Eagle River. The State of Colorado also has pursued separate parallel efforts at cleanup and has reached agreements with Viacom regarding treatment of the site.
Inside the Goldberg / McGovern Store
Virginia City was founded in 1863 when gold was discovered in Alder Gulch. By 1864 there were 10,000 people mining in the area. After the gold rush, the town quickly declined. Today, Virginia City is mostly a tourist town, with a year round population of around 200.
ghost town of Bodie, CA
view on black at fluidr
Victor is an old mining town, situated in the heart of the Colorado Rockies, at an elevation of 9,700 feet. Founded in 1891, the Victor area was once the largest gold producing region in the United States.
Scandalous, I know! I hope I do not offend anyone with the subject of this photo but history is history, and here's my take on it. Here we reach one of the most "colorful" and interesting buildings in Giltedge. When I found out what this was I looked around and wondered...has any church survived? No. Businesses? Not really. And the other homes are in poor condition, and not very accessible.
But of course, fully accessible standing right beside the main road, is the brothel. It has very much survived, still standing tall although the church and town businesses have fallen. The very realization of this made me laugh. Such is life. It reminded me of something mom and I would talk about. I would always ask why such good things happened to mean people, and she would away say "well the wicked always seem to prosper! I don't understand why that is Arielle." The brothel is actually a very beautiful old house, look at that porch! I didn't go inside but according to this website: www.montanahikes.com/Judith_mountains.php (which calls this place the "home for the ladies who kept the miners comfortable at night" quite polite!) the interior is very complex, with many rooms. It also says there is an open well behind the house, probably awaiting nosy photographers like me! Out of respect to the property owners I didn't go inside, but next time (there will be a next time) I think I will. I couldn't help but wonder how many beautiful furnishings this place had, and beautiful costumes and outfits for the girls. Not a wonderful way of life, but interesting none the less! History is alive and well at this house.
"During 1900-1901 Gilt Edge was considered one of the best towns in the country. Gilt Edge reached its peak between 1908 and 1909. Calamity Jane, calling it her favorite, frequented Gilt Edge. On several occasions she spent time in their jail." -centralmt.com
For more information on this old mining town check out these very helpful links:
When he died in Colorado at the age of 46, Thomas Vivian was a long way from his home in Cornwall, England which begs the question: how did a Cornish man come to his end in Colorado in the year 1885?
I'll come back to Thomas Vivian but first a little history starting with the Bronze Age. No groaning!
For you history buffs, the Bronze age began 2150 BC. The first question on a history test about the Bronze age is simply "what is bronze?" Anyone? Okay…I see that hand waving in the air. Correct. It is an alloy of tin and copper. Here's another question, that might, at first blush, seem unrelated but it is relevant. What brought the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans to England? What keen powers of deduction. Yes, they came for tin, copper and silver, and, in fact, England was referred to as the Tin Islands by the Romans which they actively mined until the 7th century AD. In the Middle Ages, mining flourished and Legislations and Courts were established solely for the purpose of protecting the interest of Cornwall and Devon miners which speaks to the importance of the mining industry to the economy of England. This growth continued until the mid-19th century when, due to foreign competition, mining went into a rapid decline and many Cornish miners immigrated to other parts of the world, including American. In the year 1870, 10,000 Cornish miners immigrated although miners had began leaving as early as the 1850's. Some of them went to Michigan, some to Bisbee, Arizona and some went to work the silver mines of Colorado.
Which brings us back to Colorado where I discovered this gravestone while visiting the Central City Cemetery during my recent trip to see Deb. A few hours after finding Tom Vivian's resting place, we continued our exploration of Colorado by taking a tour of the Ledbetter mine where the presence of Cornish miners was affirmed. In the enclosed set, you'll see a young woman holding a lunch pail and demonstrating how the lid comes off, revealing two compartments and the Cornwall connection. The top compartment was for a Cornish Pasty and beneath it, a space for tea. The pail would be hung over a candle so the tea would be warm when the miners took their meal. If you're not familiar with a Cornish Pasty, it is meat-filled half-moon shaped pie, sort of like a Calzone, with crimped edges which the miners used as a handle to grasp the pie. It would have been a daily taste of home.
Having just been in Cornwall and having just had a Cornish Pasty, I found this gravesite and the story of the miner's life very poignant. There are many things one can put on a gravestone. His family wanted his Cornish roots immortalized and having been there, I can see why.
An outhouse in Oatman, Arizona, U.S.A. (Apr. 5, 2020)
Photo © 2020 Marcie Heacox, all rights reserved. For use by permission only. Contact mheacox87 [at] hotmail.com .
Iron Rod Post Office (1869)
Nevada City was founded in 1863 when gold was discovered in Alder Gulch. By 1864 there were 10,000 people mining in the area. After the gold rush, the town quickly declined. Today Nevada City is mostly an open air museum with over 100 historic buildings. Some are original Nevada City structures, others have been brought here from other areas of Montana.
This home is probably the most fascinating thus far as they literally just left everything just about. This closet was full of clothes (and neckties).
Taken in 2004.
Bisbee is a former mining -- and boom -- town which is tucked away in the Mule Mountains of southeastern Arizona, 90 miles from Tucson and about ten from the Mexican border. Once a copper-mining town it has since become an artists' colony and tourist attraction. In the background is Chihuahua Hill.
Title: Store, Hacienda.
Creator: Bulmore, Robert R.; Winn, S.W.
Date: ca. 1885-1895
Part Of: Views of New Almaden
Place: New Almaden, Santa Clara County, California
Physical Description: 1 photographic print: part of 1 volume (44 photoengravings and 1 photomechanical print); 15 x 19 cm on 24 x 32 cm
File: ag1997_1144_06_opt.jpg
Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.
For more information and to view the image in high resolution, see: digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/wes/id/2596/rec/1
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An old poster of Johnny Owen, taken through the railings (prison bars?) of Merthyr's now boarded-up and derelict [coal] Miner's Hall.
Johnny Owen was a boxer from the Gellideg Council Estate in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, and in 1980 he held the Welsh, British, European and Commonwealth bantamweight titles.
He was nicknamed "The Matchstick Man", because of his extraordinarily skeletal physique, that completely belied his astonishing stamina and aggression.
He was one of a number of World Championship boxers the Steel & Coal town of Merthyr Tydfil has produced over the years.
He tragically died that year, after fighting for the World Title against Lupe Pinor of Mexico on September 19th 1980, in one of the most courageous displays of bantamweight boxing ever witnessed.
Owen, then way-ahead on points, was knocked out in the twelfth round of an epic bout. He never regained consciousness and died in hospital 46 days later, on November 4th 1980, aged just 24 years.
24 courageous and so-battling Welsh athlete years.
I remember virtually my whole home-town being reduced to tears then, at the sudden loss of this quite exceptionally brave and dedicated young son of theirs.
The coal mining industry itself in Wales, and most of the rest of Britain, was also killed-off not long afterwards, by the Tory Government of Margaret Thatcher - though not in a violent yet noble sporting tragedy - but by pre-meditated and even more violent and inhuman murder --- murder of entire and wholesome, close-knit and loving Welsh Valleys communities.
That's the very valleys that harboured the "enemies within" --- the courageous miners --- according to her disastrously malformed and human-compassion devoid, fucked-up Tory mentality. Community-Murder in the name of vicious, greedy, greasy and spite-filled right-wing Tory nastiness, and flagrant class vengeance, against coal miners everywhere, whom the likes of Margaret Thatcher wasn't worthy to lick the so-hard-won stinking coal-miner muck off their boots.
Some of the above is paraphrased from Jeff Murphy's marvellous book about the boxer titled simply 'Johnny Owen'
You can obtain a copy here:
SPORTS FOCUS
Blue Heron Network Ltd,
PO Box 235,
East Molesey,
Surrey KT8 1WE
United Kingdom
Tel: 020 8783 1024
And you can read more of Johnny Owen's tragically short life, rare sporting talent, and sheer, indomitable courage here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Owen
Taken with a 1960's Pentax Spotmatic SP, Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 lens, and a roll of long-expired Fuji 400 colour print film, converted to b&w in iPhoto.
Turner House
The Ghost Town of Bannack is located in the mountains of Southwest Montana. The town began in 1862 when gold was discovered along Grasshopper Creek. It quickly flourished into a boom town of over 4000 people and was briefly the Territorial Capital of Montana. As with most mining towns, the boom turned to bust, and the town was down to one resident by the 1950's. Today it is a Montana State Park and is one of the best preserved ghost towns in the American West.
Cassilis was named after a small township in Scotland. In the 1800s at the peak of the gold boom, it was once a thriving mining centre home to more than 500 people.
By the first world war, most of the available gold was depleted, and both mines closed down. The town rapidly declined and by 1933 there were only 34 inhabitants. The 1939 bushfires destroyed part of the town, and other buildings were taken away. Now Cassilis lies as a ghost town, with no commercial buildings in operation. Set in the 3600 hectare Cassilis Historical Area, the mines are well worth a visit, with many relics from the gold mining past.
Scandalous, I know! I hope I do not offend anyone with the subject of this photo but history is history, and here's my take on it. Here we reach one of the most "colorful" and interesting buildings in Giltedge. When I found out what this was I looked around and wondered...has any church survived? No. Businesses? Not really. And the other homes are in poor condition, and not very accessible.
But of course, fully accessible standing right beside the main road, is the brothel. It has very much survived, still standing tall although the church and town businesses have fallen. The very realization of this made me laugh. Such is life. It reminded me of something mom and I would talk about. I would always ask why such good things happened to mean people, and she would away say "well the wicked always seem to prosper! I don't understand why that is Arielle." The brothel is actually a very beautiful old house, look at that porch! I didn't go inside but according to this website: www.montanahikes.com/Judith_mountains.php (which calls this place the "home for the ladies who kept the miners comfortable at night" quite polite!) the interior is very complex, with many rooms. It also says there is an open well behind the house, probably awaiting nosy photographers like me! Out of respect to the property owners I didn't go inside, but next time (there will be a next time) I think I will. I couldn't help but wonder how many beautiful furnishings this place had, and beautiful costumes and outfits for the girls. Not a wonderful way of life, but interesting none the less! History is alive and well at this house.
"During 1900-1901 Gilt Edge was considered one of the best towns in the country. Gilt Edge reached its peak between 1908 and 1909. Calamity Jane, calling it her favorite, frequented Gilt Edge. On several occasions she spent time in their jail." -centralmt.com
For more information on this old mining town check out these very helpful links:
Jerome is a unique place. I remember back when there were a just a few open artisan shops in an abandoned mining town. These days the streets are crowded and the dining is good.
Title: M. E. Church, Hill.
Creator: Bulmore, Robert R.; Winn, S.W.
Date: ca. 1885-1895
Part Of: Views of New Almaden
Place: New Almaden, Santa Clara County, California
Physical Description: 1 photographic print part of 1 volume (44 photoengravings and 1 photomechanical print); 15 x 19 cm on 24 x 32 cm
File: ag1997_1144_24_opt.jpg
Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.
For more information and to view the image in high resolution, see: digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/wes/...
Mogollon 'ghost' town, located in the wild mountains of southwest New Mexico, visited September 8, 2014. Much to my disappointment, it was much more 'town' than 'ghost', with only a handful of abandoned buildings but several houses and a few businesses, lots of people about getting things fixed up and prepared for the winter. The drive up this location was more interesting than the town itself, one-lane hairpin curves carved out of the hillside. Mogollon boasted a population of several thousand in the late nineteenth century and produced many millions of dollars in gold and silver, but as with all these mining towns, eventually fell victim to played out mines and changing economic fortunes, as well as multiple fires and floods (a creek runs through the middle of the main street).
Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railroad Train Depot
Located at an elevation of 10,152 feet, Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States. Founded in 1877 as a silver mining town, Leadville was at one time the second largest city in Colorado, after Denver. Many of the historic mining era building still exist today.
Cripple Creek is an historic mining town located high up in the Colorado Rockies. Founded in 1890 during the Colorado Gold Rush, ten years later it had a population of over 50,000. Today it is a popular tourist town, with casinos taking over most of the downtown buildings.
Cones used in the movie 'Pitch Black'. Coober Pedy is a town in the arid interior of South Australia. It has developed a unique culture and appearance. Dominated by the earthworks of opal mining, many homes and businesses are underground to escape the extreme heat. The town is fiiled with unusual collections of mining history, junk, and props and sets from old movies.